I am in the midst of writing an important term paper, and was wondering if anyone here could help me out.

My paper is coincidentally about magic's history. I didn't feel like presenting my fellow peers with the common knowledge of the cliche genres of our art already publicized throughout modern society. I instead decided to try an approach in the history of street magic, an often overlooked area of performing that I'm sure many would be thoroughly interested in.

If anyone has any online documents or links concerning the history of street magic, I would greatly appreciate your input. I am particularly looking for classic street magicians-- Jeff Sheridan, James Cellini, etc. References to actual books and videos would be considered as well. Thank you in advance.

RT

Jeff Sheridan's book entitled "Street magic" is now back in print. This book in my opinion is the end all, be all of the history of street magic and has great information on the roots of all magic.
It is a great read.

Best,

Dan-

I used to be a historical researcher at a university - this kind of thing gets me excited.

I don't know how much detail you need for your paper and how deep the analysis has to be.

But you may want to consider interviewing, and recording, street magicians that you come across. Build up a mini oral history archive. The interviews could be transcribed and placed, along with the tapes, in a reference library.

You would end up with plenty of primary material to use for your paper. It would make a fascinating study to look at the backgrounds of different performers and how this has influenced
a) where they perform
b) why they perform and
c) what they perform.

Hey, this kind of project could benefit lots of us. Any thoughts??

Cheers

ML

Check out Bob Read! He's spent years researching the history of (street) magic. Perhaps you can find some useful material by him.

I SECOND THIS!!! Bob Read is a genius! Not to mention he developed one of the finest busking routines for working a bar room ever devised. He explains it all in his brilliant book "Thanks to Pepeys". One of the greatest books I've ever read.

To top this off Bob is one of the formost historians on the cups and balls, the oldest trick in magic.

Do you have an email address to contact Bob by any chance?

Best,

Dan-

If anyone has his contact, I would like to get in touch with him as well. Bob Read seems to be the man I've been looking for (for magic history purposes, of course...)

RT

You should also see David Groves' book
BE A STREET MAGICIAN,
as well as a book he cites titled
DRAWING A CIRCLE IN THE SQUARE,
by Sally Harrison-Pepper.

This web site has several citations you may find of interest:
Click here

Good luck.

If anybody knows of any sites with photos of Cellini, I'd like to hear from you...

RT

Hi RT,
try this one; Click here
See ya, Shorty