It's Monday and you know what that means... Monday Mail Call!

Each Monday (give or take), I use this feature to highlight a few of the things that have made their way in over the past week or so. Packages, purchases, and emails -- oh my!

This week's lot is a few books I happened to pick up from eBay! None of these were on my wish list, in fact, I hadn't heard of them until I saw the auction listings. I did a little research on them and thought that, for the right price, they'd be good additions to my collection. What do you think?

• Al Baker's Pet Secrets by Al Baker
• Paul Curry Presents by Paul Curry
• The New York Magic Symposium - Collection Three by Adam Fleischer & Steven Minch
• The New York Magic Symposium - Collection Four by Steven Minch

Each book shows signs of being used and, in the case of Paul Curry Presents, abused. Though, for its age (printed in 1974) it's in really good shape.

I think -- I'm not sure, so it's more of a guess - that only Paul Curry Presents is strictly card magic. The others have card routines and other things as well. Al Baker's book definitely has others, it says so right in the table of contents. With the Symposium books, just flipping through the pages show illustrations with coins and other objects, so I am pretty sure they're full of tricks across the spectrum.

Similar to not knowing about these books prior to bidding on them, I have also never heard of The New York Magic Symposium. I have done zero research on the topic yet (other than looking up brief info about the books), but when I get time to sit down to read them, I'll be doing some historical searching on whatever this big annual event was and how it was able to yield full books afterwards -- and, whatever happened to it.

Well that's it for today. Brief and to the point, just highlighting what I got in. I haven't read any of these books yet and likely won't get to them for another week or two. Hopefully my media-posting schedule will level out and I'll be able to do give a lot more details about them soon though!

Stay tuned for the next iteration of Monday Mail Call, there's a lot more to come!

Oh also, if you'd like to offer suggestions for books, tricks, decks or if you have questions about magic (performing, routines, sleights, etc.), just reach out here.

It's Monday and you know what that means... Monday Mail Call!

Each Monday (give or take), I use this feature to highlight a few of the things that have made their way in over the past week or so. Packages, purchases, and emails -- oh my!

That said, it's actually been a little while since my previous one. About a month, in fact. Why so long of a delay? Well, I got a new job and a puppy! I guess the puppy could be considered a delivery... or a handful. Either one =P

Unseen Force Pro, a trick / gimmick from TCC via a Kickstarter campaign, got delivered recently. I remembered the name of it ever since the campaign ran, but I completely forgot what the actual device itself was or was used for. When I opened it, whoa was I surprised! I had a general idea of how to use it by looking at it, but that was thrown out of the window once I started watching the tutorial. I haven't done anything with it yet and it may be a bit of time before I do (mostly because I don't wear many collared shirts), but I do want to practice with it because there looks to be some pretty cool effects that can be done with it!

The Frame, also from that same Kickstarter campaign by TCC, arrived. I haven't opened it yet or read (or watched) any instructions, but I do remember distinctly that it's a pendant on a necklace that can be used to impossibly connect a ring to it. I want to prefix this with the fact that I don't perform any ring magic. However, a month or two ago I bought Laced Up (by Donnovan Mount) and Nest of Wallets (by Nick Einhorn & Alan Wong) -- both with the purpose of expanding beyond card magic and into something that could be done casually in any environment. Rings happen to exist just about everywhere, ergo the different tricks. I like the idea of impossibly attaching a ring to my necklace -- or shoe laces -- and then it vanishes, only to be found buried within a few nested wallets! Quick, easy, multiple effects -- what's not to like?

A few books also made their way onto my desk this past week. I say desk and not shelf (or shelves) because those are all filled up and small piles of books have started accumulating... so that's fun.

Here are the books that have arrived:

• Karl Norman - 40 Years at the Forks by Anthony Brahams and Mike Porstmann
• Secrets Draun from Underground by Richard Kaufman
• The Chronicles by Karl Fulves
• Seven Thoughts by Sungwon Kim

I'll be going through each in time, but for now they're still just sitting here. If you have any recommendations on which to dive into first though, I'm all ears =]

Two new tricks and a handful of books that each teach sleights and tricks to keep me busy for quite a while! What a time to be alive (^_^)

Stay tuned for the next iteration of Monday Mail Call, there's a lot more to come!

Oh also, if you'd like to offer suggestions for books, tricks, decks or if you have questions about magic (performing, routines, sleights, etc.), just reach out here.

So, I got a puppy on Friday!

She's an Australian Labradoodle and was a total surprise for my kids -- they thought we'd never get a dog, but the wife and I decided it was finally time. Speaking of time, did you know that a puppy requires more of your attention than a baby? Go figure!

It's currently Sunday night, about 8pm, and this is the first chance I've had to sit at the computer. They get better, right?!

Either way, the way my kids' faces lit up was beyond priceless. It was magical in every way possible (^_^)

Back in March, 2022 -- and during Spring Break of 2022 (April) -- I was reading through The Memory Arts, a book that teaches a sort of "memory palace" technique to help with memorizing just about anything, including the order of a deck of cards. Immediately prior to the Spring Break trip, I "memorized" the 26 visual locations that were taught in the book, and the memory clues for card values and suits. I even knocked out the exercises pretty well and kept them up during my trip. And then, I returned home.

So, it's April 2023 -- a full year later -- and in the time between last Spring Break and this exact weekend, I haven't touched the book. I didn't practice it at all. In fact, I still haven't fully memorized a memdeck stack (Aronson, Mnemonica, etc.). But, when I took a look at the book just yesterday, I realized that I still fully remembered all 26 visual locations, in order. I could recall each one forwards, backwards, and even randomly.

I didn't remember all of the card visuals, but they came back rather quickly with an "oh yeah, I remember that" kind of reaction. Yesterday and bits of today, I've been memorizing 10 cards at a time from a randomly shuffled deck and it's been going really well. The last time I did it, I went through 10 cards in about 45 seconds or so, and then I was interrupted with something that needed my full attention (puppy training stuff), and about 15 minutes later, I fully recalled the 10 cards without hesitation! I know it may be hard to take it at face value, but I also didn't recite or practice the cards during that 15 minute interlude either -- it was legitimate recall!

I'm going to try, though I remember saying this last year too, but I'm going to try to use this method to memorize a stack in its entirety. I've decided on Mnemonica to start with. Once I have that down, I'll down Aronson, and then Redford's. They each have built-in features that are nice to work with, and since I show most of my tricks to the same group of people it would be nice to "prove" a deck is shuffled but still be able to pull off similar tricks ;)

I'll... keep you updated =P

I just realized earlier today that new episodes of Fool Us have been airing for a few weeks. I'm 3 or 4 episodes behind now it seems, and that's a heck of a lot of reviews to get to!

Whelp, looks like I know what I'll be binge watching =]

I learned something about myself recently and it's that I order a crapload of stuff that I might not actually need. /me looks shadily towards my closet full of decks

Sitting next to my desk, for instance, are 23 unopened boxes. What's in those boxes? Well, here's a quick breakdown of what I remember:

• at least 10 Kings Wild Project decks (some of the 9 boxes have 2 decks in them...)
• a Kings Wild Project giveaway prize! <-- you'll love seeing this one
• a Tannen's Magic Mystery Box that I ordered back in March, 2021 (yes, still 100% unopened)
• Kickstarter rewards from TCC
• Scribe from Ellusionist
• an unopened (like, the actual shipping box unopened) Piracy Card Box Set from Pete's Pirate Life
• decks from Momentum Playing Cards
• several complete bricks of playing cards (misc)

I plan on recording unboxing videos and/or video reviews of them all. But, how much time needs to pass before we reach that proverbial "the ship's sailed" situation?

Several years ago, when I got back into card magic, I wanted an advanced card magic book. A quick search on Google led me to The Card Classics of Ken Krenzel, by Harry Lorayne, and I happened to easily find a used copy.

Well, the book arrived and I dove right in. Page after page, I attempted to practice each sleight and routine. I wasn't able to do most of the tricks in the book -- they were just too difficult for me at the time and, though I wanted something "advanced", I was also hoping that it wouldn't be too hard to do. Go figure =P

Back then, the book was easily my hands-down favorite book on card magic. This might sound odd given that I couldn't do any of the tricks in it, but it was aspirational. I really enjoyed the writing style of Harry Lorayne -- straight to the point and rather blunt with "you'll need a lot of practice" call-outs. I also really liked the vast number of references throughout the book. As someone just getting into magic, that was really helpful.

Fast forward to today when I was finally comfortable enough to read the book all the way back through and whoa! I am finally able to perform many of the tricks (some are still out of reach, but only a few). I have a new respect for certain types of handlings -- i.e., anything with a faro shuffle -- and I have enough knowledge to know what'll work for me to make the trick work. Specifically, I can't do a pressure fan to save my life... but a tight thumb fan, let's go!

If you like Ken Krenzel's material (or would like to know more about it), check out my full review here:

Today's post is going to be a short one, and a heads up that this whole week will be light on content as I'm taking off for Spring Break.

By "taking off", I mean from work, blogging, and even social media. I'm going to use the week to recharge and reconnect with the world outside of the internet!

On Friday, I posted a book review of one of my favorite books on card magic: The Card Classics of Ken Krenzel. If you're interested, check it out:

For my trip, I'll obviously bring a deck or two. I'm actually bringing regular novels to read (if I ever have down-time) instead of magic books though. You have to make sure to remember the real world too =]

Well, that's all for today folks. Hopefully the humidity in the area I'm traveling to won't hurt my decks too bad. But hey, if it does, I think I have a few extras =P