Description
Author: Mike Caveney
Mike Caveney Wonders
9 by 11.5 inches
456 pages printed in full color on heavy art matte paper
570 photographs
Foreword by Mac King
Printed end-sheets with a tipped-in color frontis-piece
3-color foil stamping on the cover
The Conference Illusions
9 by 11.5 inches
256 pages printed in full color on heavy art matte paper
330 photographs
Foreword by Jim Steinmeyer
Printed end- sheets
2-color foil stamping on the cover
Both books are housed in a matching slipcase with foil stamped side
Books and slipcase arrive in a custom printed cardboard shipping box
Sold only as a set
Published in 2013
For the past five years Mike Caveney has been working on a set of books that document basically everything he has performed during his career. When he started he had no idea that the finished product would fill 700 pages over two volumes. As a long time collector of books and because this will be Caveney’s legacy, he decided to make the finished product as nice as he possibly could. And now that they are finished and they are everything he had hoped for.
Caveney knew that he could write up the methods, theories, history and funny stories about each routine but he also knew that illustrating them would be a problem. That’s when his long time friend and Hollywood special effects man, Bill Taylor, came to the rescue. Bill turned Caveney’s basement into a photo studio and for fourteen months they shot pictures. Many hundreds of them made it into the finished books and they are the clearest explanatory photos he has ever seen in a magic book. Because both of these books are printed in full color, each tiny detail is visible.
Volume I is called Mike Caveney Wonders and it contains all of the routines that he has performed going back to his days as a teenage magician in the Long Beach Mystics right up to his current act that includes Magic Paper, The Bow & Arrow and Scissors, Coat, Silverware & Chicken. More than just a How-To book, Caveney describes the creative process behind each routine. In the case of Magic Paper (the torn, restored and animated toilet paper) he explains all five methods that he has used and why each one was discarded in favor of a new version and why he stuck with method five for nearly thirty years. The goal is to teach and encourage the readers how to create their own original routines. A peek at the table of contents reveals the variety of material.
Contents
Foreword 11
Introduction 15
Preface 19
The Long Beach Mystics 23
Giant Thimble Production 23
The Substitution Barrel 35
Trade Show Act 43
Amazing Mechanical Merlin 44
Split Deck 49
Crystal Card Catch 50
Anverdi Key Chest 53
Jumping Straw 57
The Nailed Card 61
The Benson Plunger 67
Two, One, None 83
Coin Vanish 89
Our Own Worst Enemy 94
Money Machine 99
Impromptu Linking Coat Hangers 109
Linking Coat Hangers 117
Lubor Die 127
Lie Detector 135
Halloween Card Stab 141
The Phome Book 151
Idiot Rings 159
The Powers of Darkness 171
Impromptu Powers of Darkness 187
Serious Laughter 195
Chinese Pipes 201
Nind Reading 209
Ten Dollar Bill Trick 219
Bill in Cigar 239
3-Arm Juggling 269
Coffee Juggling 281
Magic Paper 297
Bow & Arrow 345
Scissors, Coat, Silverware & Chicken 373
Billy’s Chicken Trick 417
The Chicken Chronicles 423
Mastering the Ceremonies 439
Volume II is called The Conference Illusions and it is a completely different type of book. During the past twenty-two years Mike Caveney has recreated a number of long-forgotten tricks and illusions for the Los Angeles Conference on Magic History and each one posed its own unique challenges. In some instances he had the original apparatus that once belonged to Howard Thurston or Charles Carter and other times the equipment had to be built from scratch. The book chronicles the research into the history of the illusion, the original routines, how he attempted to improve the mechanics of the apparatus, re- think the presentation and design a routine that was suitable for a modern audience. After their debut performance at the History Conference a number of these effects were presented dozens of times for lay audiences at the Magic Castle and were found to be highly effective a hundred or more years after their creation. Each chapter includes vintage photographs and posters from the files of the Egyptian Hall Museum as well as behind-the-scenes and action photos or the performances. Few readers will add any of these mysteries to their acts but there is much to be learned from studying ideas that were created by the greatest minds from magic’s Golden Age.
Contents
Foreword 9
Introduction 13
Magic’s Golden Age 15
1993 Dante’s Sawing a Lady in Half 27
1999 Selbit’s Bricks 43
1999 Through the Eye of a Needle 55
2001 The Million Dollar Mystery 69
2003 OH! Chair 101
2005 Del Adelphia Egg Bag 123
2007 The Astral Hand 165
2009 The Drum That Can’t Be Beaten 181
2009 Well I’m! 193
2011 The Orson Welles Act 221
2013 The Spirit Cabinet 247
“This is the finest set of books I have ever owned. This is the finest thing in magic that I have ever owned. An absolute bargain and a must read.”
– Steve Bryant Little Egypt
“Your books arrived today and I’ve not been able to put them down! The only way i can describe your books is pure beauty.”
– Al Rudge
“As a fellow bibliophile I love books that show how much the publisher cares about the material. Your books set a new standard.”
– Samuel Lamerson
“[Your books] are a magnificent
