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Magic Shows: 30 Years of Programmes from
Daniels to Derren
by Ian Keable
Limited to 500 copies, hard back,
192 pages, over 130 illustrations, full colour throughout.
Reviewed by Elliott Hodges
Let
me start by saying that I don’t know Ian particularly well. I’ve met the man
twice and exchanged the odd bit of email communication with him but I don’t know
him all that well.
So it wasn’t because of my knowledge of Ian that I decided to buy this book. I
have to say that even before I got it, I knew it was going to be the sort of
book I love. I’m not much of a reader outside of Christian literature (i’m a
church goer). Even magic books I don’t always find easy to read and thus I love
the sort of book you can dip in and out of. Hence my excitement over this title.
Ian has listed no less than 57 shows that he has seen live and has essentially
given us the “set-list” from them all. It’s not a review of each show as he
hasn’t given his opinions on everything but rather a paragraph or so describing
each of the tricks. A preview page can be downloaded for free from Ian’s
website. It’s worth doing so you can see the format that the book is laid in.
I’ve really enjoyed looking through it. Looking at shows of personal favourite
performers, discovering new names and at last I know what happened in the first
ten minutes of a show I arrived late for (but I’m not saying who or what show!!)
I wholeheartedly recommend this book. It’s limited to 500 copies and so I
believe that £20 is a VERY good price for it. Due to the fact that it’s a magic
book that doesn’t teach tricks I imagine that it won’t “date” or “drop out of
magical fashion” anytime soon. Therefore I truly believe that this book will one
day be considered important magical history.
Brilliantly written, fascinating to anyone interested in magic and at a very
good price.
How could you not buy it?
Available from : Ian’s website www.iankeable.co.uk
© Elliott Hodges, November 2010