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Vanishing Inc. loves its deep discount events, and this week it’s taking up to 55% off a bunch of great tricks, trinkets, instructional videos and more. 

While you won’t get over half-off the price of the newly-released Magic On Tap DVD set, you can pick up the four-DVD box set of Dani DaOrtiz’s Reloaded lecture series for $67.50 (normally $150!). Or snag the Oil Over Troubled Water DVD and gimmick set for $18 (normally $40). Or pick up any one of over 30 varieties of playing card decks – like the limited edition Templar deck for $9 (normally $20).

There are 48 pages of items on sale, so there’s sure to be something for every kind of conjuror in there. Visit here for the full sale, and act fast, as you’ve only got a week to get what you want before it ends! 

Vanishing Inc has a new DVD available that sounds as refreshing as a pint of hefeweizen on a spring evening. It’s a four-part collection called Magic on Tap from German magician Denis Behr. Magic on Tap focuses on tricks with playing cards, and you can pre-order the set for DVD or download for $75. It will ship on March 26.

Magic on Tap offers full instruction for 17 routines that Behr uses, including new material that you won’t find in his Handcrafted Card Magic books. The set also includes Behr’s full stage show that he performs at the Krist and Münch Theatre in Munich so you can see the tricks in action.

We’ll drink to that.

At Magi-Fest 2018, Eli Bosnick hosted a discussion called Magic & the Marketplace, which offered an opportunity to listen to five of some of the biggest names in the magic retail biz to talk shop.

The gathered panelists included Vanishing Inc. founders Andi Gladwin and Joshua Jay; Paul Richards, the founder of Elmwood Magic who is currently embarking on a new venture selling tricks that are only available at conventions; Acar Altinsel, co-founder of Penguin Magic; and Christian Schenk, creator of the Phoenix Deck.

First, they talked about “bad magic”. With the proliferation of the internet and online magic shops, how do you filter out the good magic from the bad? For Christian, it’s about giving advice to new performers, recommending specific books or decks to start with. Acar believes that there’s never been a better time to find great tricks, there’s just a lot more out there now, which can mean more crap as well. To him, the trouble is when you’re trying to stay on the cutting edge. Paul agreed with Acar, but also mentioned that because the barrier to entry is lower, anyone can make tricks now, which can be both good and bad. What’s new to him is seeing so many young people just starting out saying they want to make and release a new trick—that never happened ten or 20 years ago. Joshua believes in Sturgeon’s Law: that 90% of everything, including magic tricks, are crap. Really good magic is like finding a gem, and you have to learn how to curate what you find. Andi says that the difficulty of the magic market specifically is that so much of it is tied to its secretive nature. As one of the heads of Vanishing Inc., he sees ten-15 trick submissions a day, and rejects most of them.

Next, Eli asked if the internet was good or bad for magic. Paul sees the internet as neutral, like a tool. It’s an ocean, but magic certainly isn’t. He gave an example: the upcoming Blackpool Magic Convention is the largest gathering of magicians in the world, and attendance caps at around 4,000 people. Meanwhile, San Diego Comic-Con regularly sees over 100,000. It’s important to keep that perspective.

YouTube is also a hot-button issue in the community these days, especially since so many kids use it to learn magic. Josh says it’s just a part of the ecosystem now, which is something magicians will have to live with whether they like it or not. The important thing is that, while kids aren’t getting direct access with magic over the internet, there are live lectures and Skype sessions available that can offer similar hands-on experiences. Kids are also learning about all of the convention opportunities available thanks to the internet, and those who go get a level of access they’d never get on the internet—but without the internet, they would never have known the convention even existed.

Last, Eli asked the panel about what magicians, and retailers and trick creators specifically, can do to make magic more welcoming to women. Paul noted that a lot of tricks assume  the performer has a back pocket, or wallet, or some other piece of clothing that a man would typically wear—it’s important to tailor tricks so anyone can perform them. Andi believes that we should be encouraging and promoting the women who already do magic, making them more invisible to inspire other women to begin practicing. Lastly, Acar believes that male-centric presentation and marketing is taking a back seat—these days retailers are focusing less on using tricks to “get dates” or impress women than about simple surprise or wonder.

Stay tuned to GeniiOnline for more reports from the heart of Magi-Fest 2018.  

Memorized deck tricks are absolutely impressive to pull off once you’ve got it worked out, but the amount of effort to learn even one memorization feels Herculean. At a Magi-Fest 2018 talk, David and Sarah Trustman unveiled their secret behind rapidly memorizing multiple decks of cards: the magic of psychology, mnemonics, and comics.

Before explaining their method, they brought their son out on stage and asked for a random number from a member of the audience. “37”, they shouted, and their son went to work writing down letters and numbers on a whiteboard. Meanwhile, they opened four decks of differently prepared cards, pulled out the 37th card from each deck, and their son was able to name each card from each deck with 100% accuracy.

They then explained how they were able to teach four different decks to their son in under an hour. Normally, magicians use a version of the mnemonic peg system to memorize decks. The brain, however, does its best memorization when it associates objects with images. And so, the two of them combined their knowledge of magic, mnemonics, and their work as comic book artists to craft a series of graphic novels that teach deck order through pictures.

Each page contains drawings of animals, buildings, or other objects, specifically arranged on the page in such a way to denote card order as well as type, and as you read through the story, you will also learn a full memorized deck order from front to back. The idea is that they wanted a book that could teach mnemonics so easily that even a six-year-old could memorize not just one deck, but multiple decks of cards. 

Their project is called The Memory Arts, and while you can download a few of their graphic novels in ebook form through Vanishing Inc., they are also working on a physical hardcover compiling a few of their mnemonic comics into a single edition for $50. 

While the book won’t be available on Vanishing Inc. for another few months, the duo had a few books available to sell at the convention. Considering how many people immediately rushed the stage as soon as their presentation was over to grab a copy, I imagine it’s going to be a pretty hot commodity once it’s officially out on physical and digital magic store shelves.

Stay tuned to GeniiOnline for more reports from the heart of Magi-Fest 2018.

Did you get to go to The Session in London earlier this month? If you did, I’m very jealous. If you didn’t, you can start living it vicariously. We’re starting to see some videos from attendees of the event, put on by Vanishing Inc., posted to YouTube.

One such showreel comes from Arnulfur Hakonarson, a magician out of Iceland. He recorded a lovely video of his time in the UK. That clip at the top features the card tricks of Karan Singh.

James Grossman Magic has a longer video up with some highlights from his time at the convention. Sadly the video description doesn’t have the names of all performers, but fortunately many of them are wearing prominent name badges if you want to further investigate the practitioners of your favorite bits.

And remember, this weekend has two other magic conventions for you stateside readers. Vanishing Inc is getting right back in the saddle with MagiFest, happening in Columbus from January 25-27. (GeniiOnline will be there, come give us a shout!) Or if you’re more coastal, drop by the shows happening as part of the Fog City Magic Fest in San Francisco.

Vanishing Inc is one of the top purveyors of magic gear and tools. The business’ head honchos, Joshua Jay and Andi Gladwin, have penned an open letter to their customers and supporters that summarizes the key events of the recently ended year, as well as sharing some of the goodies they have cooking for 2018.

Their insights about the hit products is useful (expect to see many acts riffing on those in the near future), but the really exciting bit is the laundry list of cool stuff on the horizon this year. Instructional DVDs from Denis Behr, deck switching with Ben Earl, and a five-part masterclass by Roberto Giobbi are just a taste of what’s in store. Plus there’s the early excitement for their two live events (The Magi-Fest and The Session) and the wonderful work done by their ShareMagic charity.

You can read the whole letter here for a deeper dive into the inner workings of Vanishing Inc.

There are so many different tricks out there to learn, so many YouTube channels, books, and tutorial DVDs teaching a near limitless amount of methods. It can be overwhelming, not just to novices, but to seasons performers looking to expand their repertoire. A book by Pete McCabe called Scripting Magic posits that the true path toward successful magic isn’t to learn more tricks; it’s to tell better stories with the ones you already know. 

McCabe is a Hollywood screenwriter, and he’s taken his expertise in crafting stories for film and translated them for the magic realm. The first volume of Scripting Magic has been in and out of print for a while now, but it’s officially back in stock, along with a brand-new second volume full of exercises, script examples, interviews, and more. Both books combine to form one powerful tome full of answers to that burning question so many magicians have: how do I improve the tricks I already know?

Both volumes are available now through Vanishing Inc. You can buy volume one and volume two individually for $50 apiece, or pick them up together in a limited edition for $150, which includes a slip case and worksheets.

Black Friday means huge discounts, and Vanishing Inc. is putting on one of the biggest sales events it’s ever had. Not only is most of the online store’s inventory on sale for 15% off, the more you spend, the more free stuff you’ll get.

For simply ordering from Vanishing Inc. between November 20 and November 28, you’ll get $50 of free downloads. There’s no minimum purchase amount for these freebies:

• Obliviate
• Simplex Reverse Matrix
• LexiCON
• One for the Bar
• Card Ninja

You’ll also get to pick from a list of additional gifts for every $50 you spend during the sale, up to $700. For a full list of discounted items, plus information on the free stuff you can snag, head on over to Vanshing Inc.’s Black Friday page.

Sometimes it’s tough to find the motivation to follow through with things, even when you enjoy them. You don’t email your college roommate enough, you haven’t been to the park in who knows how long, and the closest you’ve come to traveling is watching Game of Thrones. Hidden Agenda won’t help you with any of that, but it perhaps may help you keep up with your magical studies. Each page has a date on it; some days you’ll get a trick, other days you’ll get something to ponder, like what is “magic,” anyway? The orderly nature helps you stay motivated to keep learning, every day.

Buy Hidden Agenda from Vanishing Inc.

  • Category: Book 
  • Price $55.00 
  • Format: Physical 

Sometimes it’s tough to find the motivation to follow through with things, even when you enjoy them. You don’t email your college roommate enough, you haven’t been to the park in who knows how long, and the closest you’ve come to traveling is watching Game of Thrones. Hidden Agenda won’t help you with any of that, but it perhaps may help you keep up with your magical studies. Each page has a date on it; some days you’ll get a trick, other days you’ll get something to ponder, like what is “magic,” anyway? The orderly nature helps you stay motivated to keep learning, every day.

Buy Hidden Agenda from Vanishing Inc.

  • Category: Book 
  • Price $55.00 
  • Format: Physical