Current highlights
There are some interesting work currently available at WARG. Lots of Tom Stone magic is revealed here. So a quick inventory of what we have in our shop might be in order!
First out we have 2 ebooks by Tommy Wonder. One of them, “Building an Act“, have contents that can’t be found elsewhere, as it was written after his two big books. As a bonus, that ebook also contains Tom Stone’s writings on how to create a whole full-evening show! This ebook is essential to anyone who want to produce their own show.
In 1979, Sixten Beme surprised the world with his take on Paul Harris’s “Linking Card” plot, with the spectacular quirk of being able to give away the cards while being linked. The big TV stars performed Sixten’s piece; Paul Daniels, Doug Henning… The ebook The Replete Card Link collect all of Sixten Beme’s work on the plot, from his original Complete Card Link, via his One Card Link, to his own favourite unpublished handling.
The two ebooks Scribbles 2009 and Stonebound 2011 are collections of Tom Stone’s Genii articles, and contain the most exact and accurate work on misdirection you can find anywhere.
For anyone considering to work with the Multiplying Bottles, the ebook Moonshine Monologues is a must! Most of this content was reprinted in Tom’s 2011 book “Maelstrom”, but since that book have been long out of print, the original ebook have been re-released.
Runes of Tomorrow is Tom’s very latest ebook. Contains intriguing items for close-up and parlor; a highly innovative routine with two “Ball and Vase” sets, a completely new method for the Invisible Palm, and much more.
For those interested in making their own books or lecture notes, we have Stephen Minch’s Hermetic Press Stylebook and Tom Stone’s Self-publishing, both essential collections of advice on how to write, and how to illustrate. Both are “name your own price”, so if you want to pay $50 then pay $50, and if you can’t afford anything, then pay nothing.
There are other ebooks, not mentioned here, in our shop so feel free to browse around! But there’s one item that merits extra mention…
Max Milton’s Direct Steal, which is a sort of a Side Steal alternative that is very direct and smooth. This is also Warg’s very first video production, and a ‘proof of concept’ of Tom’s thoughts on magic video instructions.
Most video instructions follow the lecture style format and are usually in this order (with decreasing production value):
- Title sequence. High production value, cool edits. Quite long. Cool at first viewing, tedious at the 10’th viewing.
- Performance.
- Explanation.
- Credits & inspirations. Often just a still frame.
Tom says “Even though I love magic; I find most magic videos boring, and I often find myself fastforwarding. On the other hand, I can become absolutely hypnotized by TV documentaries about subjects I’m not even remotely interested in; like the eating habits of the polar rabbit. Why is that? What is the difference? Can’t be the topics themselves, so it must be the format!”
So Tom pondered over this, and began hypothesizing that the documentary format might be more suitable for learning than the lecture format. And that maybe the simplest way to accomplish that would be to completely reverse the standard order of things into:
- Inspirations.
- Credits
- Explanation.
- Performance.
- Simple end logo
And for a ‘proof of concept’, Tom picked an underground move from the Swedish legend Max Milton, and even though the video is short and quickly made, the difference is stark – it is a lot more interesting and compelling than if it had been filmed in the standard order. Worth checking out, both for the move itself, and for the teaching format.
