Our contributor this month is Dr. Larry Hass, Dean of the Magic & Mystery School. Larry shares some exciting news with us about an opportunity that you will want to take advantage of immediately!
I am delighted to announce something of extraordinary interest to the Magic & Mystery School community. On October 31, 2023, Theory and Art of Magic Press will release a third posthumous book: Eugene Burger: The Workshop Transcripts.
No one is more surprised by this book than I. It certainly wasn’t in Eugene’s and my plans for the posthumous project. When I finished Final Secrets in 2021, I felt I had kept my pledge to Eugene and had shared everything. However, the release of Final Secrets brought explosive, world-wide interest in Eugene’s distinctive approach to Equivoque and Dai Vernon’s “The Trick that Cannot Be Explained.” I received countless emails from readers who loved the book but wanted more information, more details – indeed, every last nugget of his work on psychological card magic.
One of those readers was Jamy Ian Swiss – a close friend of Eugene – who had attended one of Eugene’s workshops in the mid-1980s where he first taught these materials. A long, productive email conversation with Jamy helped me realize I still had something in my archive that every fan and friend of Eugene’s Equivoque material would want: audio recordings of some workshops, which had been instrumental in my composing Final Secrets.
It wasn’t an option to share these recordings – the audio quality is mixed and it’s frequently impossible to understand what’s going on from the words. But one day, I realized I could create fully developed transcripts of these recordings, in which I could fill in the blanks.
This became my secret task during 2022: creating clear, readable, annotated transcripts for the three early workshops I had audio recordings of. I also transcribed part of a late workshop where Eugene delivered his first-rate teaching unit, “Favorite Card Forces.” These transcripts are the new book’s four chapters. Then, in a three-part appendix, I share Eugene’s long-lost script for his no gimmick version of Max Maven’s “B’wave,” Eugene’s work for Bryce Kuhlman’s wonderful Equivoque routine “Accentuate the Positive,” and corrections for a few errata in From Beyond and Final Secrets.
There are so many things about The Workshop Transcripts that readers will enjoy. For one, you will get to travel back in time to experience these legendary workshops as though you were sitting there. Also, you will read exactly what Eugene did with these psychological tools, and what he said about using them. (Moving forward, there won’t be any need to rely on rumor and misinformation from the magic underground.) And yes, you will hear Eugene’s voice, because the book provides access to three audio excerpts, as well as six videos that will show you how to do what’s being discussed.
There is one more important thing about this new book: every penny of profit will be donated by Theory and Art of Magic Press to McBride’s Magic & Mystery School Scholarship Fund. To maximize the donation, Eugene Burger: The Workshop Transcripts will only be available from www.TheoryandArtofMagic.com. The book will only ever exist in a limited edition of 850 copies, each one numbered and signed by me.
The cost of The Workshop Transcripts is $80.00, which includes free Media Mail shipping in the USA. (Other shipping options are available for an additional charge.) We started accepting pre-orders for the book a couple of weeks ago, and we still have many copies available. Yet, if this book calls to you please don’t delay in purchasing one; the demand will vastly outweigh the supply.
Thank you for receiving this commercial message as my “muse” for you this time. I simply don’t want anyone in our community to miss out on this book because they hadn’t heard about it in time. Please remember all the profits from your purchase will go to the School’s Scholarship Fund, which provides need-based financial aid for people who need a hand getting their magic education with us at the School.
From my perspective, The Workshop Transcripts project is a Win-Win-Win, all the way around!
