[MyMagic] Parallax

Meir’s Muses
MyMagic eNewsletter #1,121
July 19, 2023

I met Max Maven at the first magic convention I ever attended. He was performing as Phil Goldstein and was in the close-up show. I was a kid back then and we didn’t become friends until a few years later.

We all knew him as an exceptionally smart, knowledgeable, and creative person but to me he was also very supportive, encouraging, and had a very good sense of humor. When I pointed out that his B’Wave is even better as a stand-up trick, he let me purchase the rights to his most popular creation in the larger than Poker size versions.

Over the years he also advised and helped on other projects and even pushed to have me appear on one of his Japanese TV specials… which turned out to be the last recorded right-handed performance of my finger act. After my accident he went out of his way to get me the footage of all camera angles that were shot that day. Will try to digitize the stuff and share it with you soon.

I just received copies of his newest book which is a collection of his inspiring essays on magic that ran in MAGIC magazine. I read them when they were first published and am enjoying revisiting them now.

►Parallax:

“You have found magic. Now, what are you going to do with it?” So, muses Max Maven in the pages of Parallax, a collection of 61 influential, thought-provoking, and oftentimes controversial essays he contributed to MAGIC magazine from September 1991 to August 1996.

Rich with commentary, observations, and caustic editorializing, all composed in in a tone both rich and distinct, these essays have finally been collected in a single volume.

There are very few collections of essays in the world of magic, and fewer still that are as pointed or as relevant to those who consider themselves a genuine student of the art. Nor are there many examples of writing as deeply serious and simultaneously laugh-out-loud funny.

Watch and buy: HERE

A few people asked about last week’s newest release. What is nice about this version is that everything that is used is in play before you begin, and all the outcomes are natural and logical. I especially like it because it is engaging and does not feel like you are doing a magic trick.

►All Is Foreseen:

The routine is based around the premise of whether we have free will or everything in life has been foreseen.

You begin with a quote from an ancient book which theorizes that “Everything is foreseen, yet free will is given.” You then show a picture of a scale which will be used as a pointer when the spectator weighs their choices.

Three cards are then introduced bearing the words Chance, Choice, and Fate. Your friend is asked to move the scale to the one word that is most meaningful for them… or of how their lives have unraveled so far. Was it their choice, was it just a matter of chance, or was it fate.

They of course have a free choice, and you will show that their choice was predicted… was foreseen… So, did they really have a choice in what they chose?

Watch and buy: HERE

►UPCOMING APPEARANCES:

►August 6-9: Exhibiting at Magic Live! in Las Vegas. Info: HERE

►Sunday August 20: Performing at Comix @ Mohegan Sun Casino. Tickets: HERE

Stay happy, Meir

PS: The following week will be spent packing and shipping my booth to Las Vegas, so the stuff gets there before the convention starts. If there is anything in particular you want me to bring for you, let me know, since I usually only bring around 15-20 different items.

“The secrets of magic are the means to an end, not the end itself.”
…Max Maven (Parallax, 2023)