Michael Close's September 2019 newsletter

A quick reminder that Michael will open the Toronto Magic Club's season as the first lecturer on September 30th. 

Just finished reading the September newsletter (vol 2; issue 9) from Michael Close.  You may be interested in:

• Michael Close has a podcast for subscribers, titled "Conversations with Close."   This month's guest is David Regal. 
• Some insights into Michael's new ebook "The T.O.M. Epiphany: Fourth Dimensional Strategies for Turning Magic Tricks into Miracles.”
• A review of David Regal's "Interpreting Magic."
• An effect by David Regal.
• All about Avner Eisenberg.
• A playing card patent article by Lee Asher.
• The Art of Conjuring by Mick Ayres.
• Technically Speaking by by Bruce Kalver.
• and many other newsworthy tidbits from the magic community!

Sign-up at MichaelClose.com to receive Michael's newsletters. 

Rounding the Central rings in September 2019

Confirm details about dates and locations by visiting each club's website.

Montreal, QC	Ring 62 (20th Century Ring)	- N/A.
Hamilton, ON	Ring 49 (The Doug Henning Magic Wand Club)	- N/A.
London, ON	Ring 265 (London Magician's Guild)	- N/A.
Kitchener, ON	Ring 235 (The Caesar Hat & Wand Magic Circle)	- Elections and meeting.
Ottawa, ON	Ring 151 (Ottawa Society of Magicians)	- N/A.
Ottawa, ON	Ottawa / Gatineau magicians	- N/A
Toronto, ON	Toronto Magic Club (Ring 17 (Sid Lorraine Hat and Rabbit Club))	- Michael Close lecture.

Please leave a comment or email me about corrections or omissions.

Michael Close's August 2019 newsletter

Just finished reading the August newsletter from Michael Close.  You may be interested in:

• Michael Close has a podcast for subscribers, titled "Conversations with Close."   This month's guest is Paul Vigil. 
• Introduction to "Targeted Training with Michael Close.”
• An effect by Paul Vigil, from his performing repertoire!
• A playing card patent article by Lee Asher.
• The Art of Conjuring by Mick Ayres.
• Technically Speaking by by Bruce Kalver.
• and many other newsworthy tidbits from the magic community!

Sign-up at MichaelClose.com to receive Michael's newsletters. 

Michael Close: The Truth About Lying Webinar

From Michael Close:

The Truth About Lying Webinar
Sunday, July 21, 2019 - 4:00pm (EDT)

Magic depends on disseminating misinformation – in other words, lying. Learn to use this important tool with rapier-like precision in this informative and fun webinar.

What You'll Learn:

• ​​​​​​​The whole truth and nothing but the truth
• Conditional (transitional) truth
• Verbal vs. non-verbal lies
• Sleight of hand as a non-verbal lie
• Sustaining a non-verbal lie Lies of omission
• ​​​​​​​Lying to distort memory Strategic placement of big lies

                               ​​​​​​​...AND MUCH MORE

This webinar is for card magicians of all skill levels. It will save you hours of time by guiding you in the right direction..

Read more and register.

Michael Close: Three-Trick Set Webinar

From Michael Close:

How to Design a Three-Trick Set - Live Webinar
Sunday, July 14, 2019 at 4:00pm (Eastern Daylight Time)

After studying magic for a few years, most enthusiasts acquire some repertoire – effects they can perform competently. While we spend a great deal of effort learning new tricks, we rarely take the time to organize our tricks into an effective act or “set.”

This webinar covers:

• Several strategies that will start you on the path to developing a strong, effective, three-trick set. Using material from Michael's own repertoire​​​​​​​
• Michael will explain his thought process in assembling several different acts designed for various venues ​​​
• Suggestions for further study and analysis​​​​​​​

Webinar is designed for magicians of all skill levels.


Read more and register.

Memdeck - The Next Step Webinar with Michael Close

From Michael Close:

Sunday, June 23, 2019
10:00 am (EDT)  &  4:00 pm (EDT)

Memdeck - The Next Step Webinar
You’ve put in the hours, memorized a stack, and can now perform a few basic effects with it. What’s the next step? What skills do you need to acquire on the road to memdeck mastery? You’ll find out in our new webinar, “Memdeck, the Next Step.” You can ask questions during the live broadcast of the webinar; if you can’t join live, you’ll have unlimited access to the replay. The webinar will run about ninety minutes.

We’ll discuss:

• A review of basic memdeck skills
• A review of basic memdeck effects
• The challenges of “the next step”
• Estimation
• Culling
• False shuffles
• Thinking on your feet
• Other useful tools
• Explanations of many useful effects

The information in this webinar is “stack independent” – it will apply regardless of which stack you have learned.

This webinar is geared to those who have memorized a stack and have some confidence with it. It is not geared to memdeck neophytes. (If you have not yet memorized a stack, you should wait for another presentation of our “Demystifying the Memorized Deck” webinar.

Read more.

Michael Close webinars

In addition to Friday night's Palming with Confidence* webinar, Michael has two more webinars scheduled this month.

From Michael Close's webiste:

MAY 3, 2109 -  PALMING WITH CONFIDENCE*  

This sixty-minute webinar will provide strategies that will help you overcome your fear of palming.

Palming is one of the cornerstones of card magic. But many magicians, even experienced practitioners, shy away from tricks that require palming.  As part of this training, you’ll learn FOUR commercial routines you can immediately add to your repertoire.

We will also discuss important techniques that are applicable to any type of “holding out,” including coins, balls, or any small object.

We feel this information will be useful to magicians of all skill levels, so we are offering it at a very low price. Our webinars require no special software; you participate through your browser, and you can ask questions during the presentation. Registrants will be able to replay this webinar as often as they want.

Please Note: This is not a webinar on how to correctly palm cards.

MAY 5, 2019 - DEMYSTIFYING THE MEMORIZED DECK 

Memorized deck work continues to be a hot topic. However, with the growing number of stacks available and the staggering amount of bad information available on the Internet, it can be challenging for a memdeck newbie to even know how to begin.

On Sunday May 5, 2019 at 4pm, I will present a new webinar, “Demystifying the Memorized Deck,” in which I will offer clear, no-nonsense information on how to add this powerful tool to your performing repertoire.

MAY 12, 2019 - HOW TO DESIGN A THREE-TRICK SET

After studying magic for a few years, most enthusiasts acquire some repertoire – effects they can perform competently. While we spend a great deal of effort learning new tricks, we rarely take the time to organize our tricks into an effective act or “set.”

In this webinar, Michael Close will suggest several strategies that will start you on the path to developing a strong, effective, three-trick set. Using material from his own repertoire, Michael will explain his thought process in assembling several different acts designed for various venues. He will also offer suggestions for further study and analysis.

This webinar is designed for magicians of all skill levels; everyone can benefit from this information.

* A special note about Friday night's Palming with Confidence webinar:

(Note: If you attended the Palming with Confidence Webinar on March 10, 2019 you are invited to join us on this webinar for free. Just email Lisa at lisa AT michaelclose DOT com for your personal registration link.)

Michael Close webinar: Palming Cards with Confidence

From Webinar Jam:

Sunday, March 10, 2019

This sixty-minute webinar, with Michael Close, will provide strategies that will help you overcome your fear of palming.

​​​​​​​Palming is one of the cornerstones of card magic. But many magicians, even experienced practitioners, shy away from tricks that require palming.  As part of this training, you’ll learn FOUR commercial routines you can immediately add to your repertoire. And much, much, more!

This information will be useful to magicians of all skill levels, so we are offering it at a very low price. Our webinars require no special software; you participate through your browser, and you can ask questions during the presentation. Registrants will be able to replay this webinar as often as they want.

Read more and register.

Michael Close Webinar: The Truth about Lying (take 2)

From Michael Close's Facebook post:

Lisa and I have received a lot of emails from people who arrived too late for the party that was the Truth about Lying webinar. So we're going to present it again. This is not a rebroadcast; it will be a live presentation, which means you'll be able to ask questions as we go along. The response of the first webinar was overwhelmingly positive.

The date for this is Thursday, January 31, at 9:00 p.m. EST. You can register at the link below. Please feel free to share this post. The webinar is for magicians of all interests and skill levels. Thanks. 

Read more and register.

Some thoughts on the webinar from our readers ...

Hey, everyone, @MikeCloseMagic gave a great webinar explaining the truth about lying. Unless the whole thing was a lie, and we didn’t catch on. :) The webinar was super affordable, too… and that’s no lie!

— Doug C. (@magicinfo_ca) January 27, 2019

Michael Close Webinar: The Truth about Lying

From Michael Close:

Magic depends on disseminating misinformation – in other words, lying. Learn to use this important tool with rapier-like precision in this informative and fun webinar.

Michael's live webinar will run 60-90 minutes long, you will be able to ask questions, geared for all skill levels, and you can add some tricks to your repertoire right away!

What you will learn:

• The whole truth and nothing but the truth
• Conditional (transitional) truth
• Verbal vs. non-verbal lies
• Sleight of hand as a non-verbal lie
• Sustaining a non-verbal lie
• Lies of omission
• Lying to distort memory
• Strategic placement of big lies

Read more and register.

Sign-up at MichaelClose.com to receive Michael's newsletters.  I've got it on good authority that there's an interview with Matt DiSero in the January newsletter!

Michael Close on the Palming Series

From the November 2nd article "The Story Behind the Palming Series" at Michael Close's website:

Looking back on the skill sets I’ve used to make a living during my life (magic, jazz piano, writing/editing), I realize that most of what I know about those subjects I figured out by myself, without any formal training. I did have an excellent high school English teacher my senior year; I received degrees in music theory and composition; and my time spent with Harry Riser was invaluable. But I grew up isolated in a farming community in the middle of Indiana; books were my mentors, and I studied everything I could get my hands on. As I absorbed that information, I was also unconsciously absorbing the process of learning how to teach myselfthe information.

My father provided inspiration as I did this. He came from industry, and for twenty-two years he taught in the mechanical engineering technology department at the Purdue campus in Indianapolis. His great gift was as a teacher; he understood how to break down information and impart it effectively. I learned from his example.

Read more.

The "FOOL US" Experience - TAKE TWO!

From Michael Close:

The response to the first Fool Us webinar was overwhelmingly enthusiastic. We’ve received many emails from people who missed it asking how they can view it. So...we’re going to hold the live webinar again on Wednesday, November 28, 2018, at 9 p.m. EST. This is not a rebroadcast. This will be a new, live program. I will cover the material from the first webinar and will include questions I did not get to the first time.

Read more and register.

"FOOL US" Experience Webinar

From Michael Close:

On Wednesday, November 14, 2018, at 9 p.m. EST, I will host an hour-long webinar to discuss Penn & Teller: Fool Us. This webinar will be of particular interest to those of you who are considering auditioning for season six (which will tape the last week of February and the first week of March).

Webinar only $5.00 USD

What we’ll cover...
I will give you some background on the show, explain what has to be accomplished during your time in Vegas (an amazing amount has to get done during a brief period of time), analyze some of the restrictions imposed by the medium of television and the venue, and discuss strategies to maximize your chance of being selected.   

In addition, attendees will have the opportunity to submit questions. I will get to as many of these as time allows. The information you will receive at this webinar will save you time and money, and it will provide you with helpful advice and will clarify for you exactly what the Fool Us experience is all about.

Read more and register.

Sweden: The Close Up Show

The 32nd Magic Weekend runs from October 5th to the 7th.  Catch Michael Close in the "Close Up Show."


From the Magic Weekend:

The Close Up Show is performed six times for six different groups. Early registrants will se the show under 'Close Up Conditions'

Read more and register.

Michael Close's September 2018 newsletter

Just finished reading the May newsletter from Michael Close.  You may be interested in:

• Michael's thoughts on ethics and the performing of someone else's work.
• "Plausible Props" by Mick Ayres.
• "Can I be Frank?" by Tom Frank.
• The U.S. Postal Service's new magic kit  (The Art of Magic Kit) and stamp set (The Art of Magic  Forever®  Stamps). 
• Entering the September Caption Contest!
• "One Last Yelp" by Norman Beck.
• A list of recommended podcasts.  (Can you guess which Canadian podcast is listed?)
• Product review of Juan Tamariz's "Magic from My Heart."
• "Must-have show apps for your iPad" by Bruce Kalver.
• And more!

Sign-up at MichaelClose.com to receive Michael's newsletters.

Michael Close's "The Road to Riffsville"

Go to MichaelClose.com to purchase your copy of  "The Road to Riffsville."


From the Facebook page of Michael Close:

Steve Bedwell has this to say about The Road to Riffsville: "Can't put The Road to Riffsville down and focus on anything else. (Especially frustrating because I'm at MAGIC Live!) Fascinating analysis of some of the issues I've personally experienced with the estimation aspects of memdeck work, with robust solutions. An outstanding contribution!"

Richmond Hill: Michael Close workshop

From Michael Close:

Penn & Teller: Fool Us season 6 audition time is quickly approaching.
Workshop your routine at this intensive full-day session. 

Where: Richmond Hill, ON
When: July 21, 2018

During these sessions I will offer the same services I do in my role as one of the two magic consultants on Fool Us: addressing technical problems, punching up scripts, examining blocking and staging concerns, strengthening the clarity of the effect, and much, much more. You will get thousands of dollars worth of help and advice.

Whether or not you plan on auditioning for Fool Us, this is your opportunity to take your existing material to the next level.

**Please Note: Attendance will be limited to ensure personalized attention.

Read more and register.

DeMystifying Miracles: The Landmark CC Living Room Lecture

From the Conjuror Community:

May 23

This is your invitation to a rare, Live Online Lecture—where Michael Close joins Aaron and the CC Team for an intimate evening filled with astonishing miracles—and insights you can only get from a real invitation to the home of a master magician. 

Michael is one of the smartest, most astonishing magicians alive—and he’s put together a special evening just for CC Members—designed to demystify some of magic’s thorniest problems.

At this once-in-a-lifetime event, you’ll be surprised and thrilled by what you discover, such as...

• Fool Us Demystified
• Memorized Decks Demystified
• How to Choose Your Stack
• Strategies for Memorizing a Deck
• Secret Practice Drills
• Michael will also perform and reveal amazing professional routines you can use to thrill and astonish,

Read more and join the Conjuror Comunity.

Michael Close's May newsletter

Just finished reading the May newsletter from Michael Close.  You may be interested in:

• Micheal's thoughts on Browser's Bash 2018.
• A tribute to Harry Anderson. 
• Review of the Paradigm Shift ebooks.
• An announcement about an upcoming online lecture by Michael.
• Information about the Magical Arts Intellectual Property Coalition.
• Pit Hartling interview. 
• Meeting Marlo.
• Tips on performing restaurant magic.
• And more!

Sign-up at MichaelClose.com to receive Michael's newsletters.

Publication round up - April 2018

Michael Close's April newsletter:

• Interesting insights into all the behind the scenes work that goes into Penn and Teller's Fool Us, among other interesting articles and interviews.
• Sign-up to receive Michael's newsletters at  MichaelClose.com

Northern Peeks:

• Articles both by and about Ryan Joyce 
• CAMaraderie reminder
• Feature on Jean-Eugene Robert-Houdin as well as Houdini's Water Torture Cell
• Articles by Murray Hatfield, Bill Abbott, Phil Matlin, Gerry Frenette, Jason Verners, and Ryan Pilling.
• Renew your membership or become a member at CAMmagic.org

Vanish magazine:

• Articles by Jeff Christensen, Paul Romhany, Hal Meyers (Anthony Street feature), Jeff Hobson (interviews Jonhathan Goodwin), Joshua Endress, Jim Sisti, Tim Ellis, Alex Zander, and Louie Foxx!
• Product highlights: Bill Abbot's 5 card box, Victor Voitko's Snowstorming Fan
• Read and subscribe at VanishMagic.com