Magic: The Complete Course by Joshua Jay

Magic is everywhere, from the big spectacle celebrity of David Copperfield and Siegfried and Roy to the quirky Penn and Teller to the spooky David Blaine and Criss Angel to the endless material on YouTube. But until now, learning it has never been easy—that's all about to change with "Magic: The Complete Course", a book that does for close-up magic what How to Grill does for barbecue. Written by charismatic young magician Joshua Jay, Magic combines expertise, photographs, step-by-step directions showing how to perform 100 tricks, and a DVD that demonstrates 35 of them.

Joshua Jay took home the top prize at the World Magic Seminar (the Olympics of magic) when he was just 16 years old. Ten years later, he continues to perform magic, write about magic, eat, sleep, and breathe magic. Here, he brings all his passion and knowledge to teaching magic. Each trick is broken down into the Effect, the Secret, the Set-up, and, most important, the Performance, with lessons on what to say, how to direct the audience's attention, where to keep your hands, and so on. (In other words, how to be smart about the things your audience is surprisingly clueless about.)

Here are the Ten Greatest Card Tricks; tricks to dazzle a dinner date; tricks to perform for the boss (poke a hole through his shirt, then magically mend it); tricks especially for kids; and even tricks for an audience in another state—with "Australian Self-Help," you can find a participant's chosen card over the phone. It's the Aha! book for a subject whose time has come.

Joshua will be on NBC's the Today Show on Wednesday, December 17th during the 10 o'clock hour.

Joshua Jay is one of America's finest young magicians. He is a past Tannen's Magic Camper. He's performed and lectured in over 50 countries, is a headliner at the Magic Castle in Hollywood, and writes a monthly column in MAGIC, the leading magazine for magicians. He lives in New York City.

Order Magic: The Complete Course by Joshua Jay, 288 pages, Paperback here from Tannen's Magic Store Online.


Magic by Joshua Jay, Book Trailer

Doug McKenzie Rolls on the "Fringe"

Tannen's Magic friend and NYC magician Doug McKenzie's stellar coin skills can be seen on the new television show the "Fringe". In the shows first season, the tenth episode titled "Safe", McKenzie's hands are shown rolling and vanishing a coin.

McKenzie is an internationally recognized magician, magic consultant, and magic television producer based in New York City. His innovative style of magic often merges classical sleight of hand techniques with new technologies. He specializes in both close-up magic and pickpocketing.

The "Fringe" from J.J. Abrams ("Lost"), Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, the team behind "Star Trek," "Mission: Impossible III" and "Alias," comes a new series that will thrill, terrify and explore the blurring line between the possible and the impossible. Fringe follows the exploits of FBI Special Agent Olivia Dunham, scientist Walter Bishop, and his son Peter as they investigate aspects of fringe science (telepathy, levitation, invisibility, reanimation, genetic mutation, etc). All over the world, a series of apparent experiments collectively referred to as "the Pattern" (e.g., a newborn baby who rapidly ages and dies within a few hours, a bus full of passengers trapped in a strange substance like mosquitoes in amber) are occurring for reasons unknown. Olivia, Peter (Joshua Jackson), and Walter are in charge of investigating these strange events to determine their source. Connected to the Pattern is a company called Massive Dynamic, which is a leading global research company that holds the patents for a number of new and important technologies.

After a number of years of close-guarding his secrets, Doug released two of his pet effects for the magic world to learn:

Phoneomenon: A prediction appears on a stranger's cell phone in a number of ways. Featured both in Marco Tempest and David Blaine's television specials and most recently a Nokia mobile phone commercial.

The Juan Hundred Dollar Bill Switch: A $1 bill visibly transforms into a $100 bill.


Doug McKenzie performing coin rolls and a vanish for Joshua Jackson