BOOK REVIEW BY DAVID SUTHERLAND THEATRICAL CLOSE-UP BY PETER SAMELSON

A consistent lesson gleaned from almost every lecture I attend is: READ YOUR BOOKS.

I’ll return from these lectures, immediately begin searching through my library and invariably discover much of this great material was already in my possession!

We all know there’s good stuff hidden throughout the works of Hilliard, Stanyon and Tarbell. I thought it would be interesting to take a look at some titles that aren’t always top of mind and have been sitting on my shelves for years without even a glance - to my disadvantage. Hopefully, we can all learn from my mistakes…

THEATRICAL CLOSE-UP BY PETER SAMELSON

BOOK DETAILS: 89 pages (Paperback), Publisher: Magical Publications, Published in 1984. Illustrated by Joseph Wierzbicki. Out of print.

The Introduction is by Jamy Ian Swiss and it (as you might imagine) runs longer than most introductions, but isn’t that what we’ve come to expect and enjoy? Jamy describes his feelings regarding the first time he ever saw Peter perform, “I was instantly awestruck by what the man had achieved…he had made the magic matter to me. Not to me as a magician, but to me as a human being, to my life, my experience, my emotions and my intellect. These are the goals which Peter tries to achieve in all his effects. In his hands, magic is art.”

The Foreward is by Peter himself. In it, he explains his early inspirations…a magician performing the Lota Vase and Serpent Silk…watching Don Alan on The Magic Ranch and Karrell Fox doing Twin Pines Magic. He also talks about why he left magic for five years and then finally returned to it…determined to pursue it with his own questions and requirements.

Early in his career, Peter was the resident magician at New York’s Magic Towne House and performed twice at Tannen’s Jubilee. He performed all over the United States and Canada at college campuses and theatres. In fact, I saw him perform a show called The Theatre of Illusion at the University of Waterloo in 1985. In my opinion, it should be mandatory for everyone in magic to see Peter do his presentation of Snowstorm.* He has performed numerous times at The Magic Castle and has toured all over the world. He is currently a performer at Monday Night Magic in New York City.

The first item in the book is called In The Hand-Off in which a borrowed ring is threaded onto a shoelace and placed into the spectator’s hand where it comes off while held. A very strong effect because the ring is unmistakably threaded on the lace up to the last moment as their fingers close around it. According to Peter, “some spectators claim they actually feel the ring melt through the shoelace.” In my review of Top Secret Stuff, I describe the trick Swinger by Bret Young. Swinger adds an extra detail to Peter’s In The Hand-Off. Whatever you do, do not overlook how powerful this effect is.

Cigarette and Thimble was Peter’s signature routine in the Eighties serving as the opening to his professional close-up show and one that Jamy describes as a “visual mind twister”. When I received this book as an eleven-year old, I didn’t have the wherewithal to try and obtain the required cigarettes so sadly I never tried this routine. Hopefully you will.

Sponge Ball Snacks are a few ideas from Peter that I did use quite often and performed them at the I.B.M. Close-Up competition in Boston in 1988. Samelson’s Sensational Sponge Ball Surprise, the production of a sponge ball using a piece of flash paper, was a favourite of mine.

Mimetic-Slo-Mo Show’n Vanish is a great piece to perform when someone finds out you are a magician and asks you to show them something. If you have a copy of either Coinmagic or The Collected Works of Derek Dingle, you will find valuable information in each to assist you with this routine.

Ring of Truth is a Ring on Rope routine that flows. After learning this, it is something that I, as Peter suggests, always carry with me as it uses ordinary props and can be done under almost any conditions.

New York Transpo is a killer transposition of not only cards but signatures. As Peter writes, “I never had any idea that it would become the strongest single piece of magic I could do in any close-up performance…” This trick was inspired by Wes James’s Forgery, Frank Everhart’s Chicago Opener and a classic transposition effect of John Scarne’s.

The Invasion of the Body Snatchers shows Peter’s marriage of the Wild Card effect to a storyline tied to the classic movie of the same name and highlights his ability to add theatricality and elevate the entire piece. He has continued to evolve this piece and a recent incarnation of it  can be seen on Penn & Teller’s Fool Us.** In the Introduction, Jamy mentions that he considers this presentation, “the finest theatrical presentation of Peter Kane’s classic Wild Card extant.”

In addition to the above mentioned tricks, Peter offers two essays which he calls “Peter’s Parables”. One is a comment on how artists view the world and the other is a comical anecdote.

Theatrical Close-Up is small but mighty. Think quality, not quantity. Read and re-read the Foreward and the Introduction, then examine each of Peter’s performance pieces and ask yourself why he presents them as he does. This book offers a wealth of wisdom if you read between the lines.

Until next time… read your books.

*Watch it on YouTube. Search “Peter Samelson snowfall from The Art of Magic”

**Watch it on YouTube. Search “Peter Samelson Penn & Teller’s Fool Us”