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Were you salivating over the lovely two-volume set of The Magic of Johnny Thompson? Did you miss out on the limited number of available copies? You’re in luck. Magicana has announced a second printing of the pair.

Other than confirmation that a second run is happening, details are still scarce. Magicana said that it doesn’t have an official publish date yet because the man himself, Johnny Thompson, will be signing each copy as he did with the initial printing. According to the blog post, Magicana is targeting delivery in July, but that’s just the provisional goal.

Pre-orders are available for this run, so you’d best move faster than Shin Lim palming a pen if you want to secure a copy. Head over to Magicana to put in an advance order of The Magic of Johnny Thompson.

In the meantime, feast your eyes on the unboxing video of the original books shared by The Magic Word.

“The oldest trick in the book” might be just a familiar turn of phrase to laypeople, but to a magician, the words most likely brings to mind the cups and balls. This old chestnut really is old, and magic teacher and historian Jamy Ian Swiss has delved into the beloved routine in his latest blog post for Magicana.

Swiss knows a little something about this routine. He co-wrote the The Magic of Johnny Thompson with the man himself (also known as The Great Tomsoni), which has several sections on the routine’s variants. He recently released his own instructional video on the bit. And by his own accounting, six of his past Take Two essays have included video of the cups and balls. If you want expertise on the cups and balls, he’s your guy.

The essay includes some of the history and legend surrounding the cups and balls. He’s also dug up several videos of the greats from Paul Daniels to Johnny Thompson putting their spin on the classic. If you have any interest in magic history, or just in finessing your own presentation of the act, this is a must-read.