I'm not sure this is in the right forum for this, but...

I am working my way through Mind, Myth and Magick and have found more than the subject matter interesting. I have also enjoyed Waters' style, attitude and humor very much.

I don't know anything about T. A. Waters. The book is copyrighted in 1999 by his estate.

Can anyone tell me anything about T. A. Waters: where and when he performed, where, when and how he died, etc.?

Thanks.

Gianni

I could be wrong but i think / assumed that he was still alive?
phillip

I can't provide many of the details requested, but I can confirm that sadly T A Waters died a few years ago. At the time he had been discussing a possible TV show with David Britland, and I believe David has some unpublished Waters material that he may one day fashion into a sell-able book. But this is conjecture, not hard fact.

Waters was primarily a writer, wrote lot of fiction besides magic. I believe he died shortly after Minch published MMM. But that was way before '99. I'd guess late 80's early 90's. Based on one performance video, that I've seen wasn't much of a performer
from
Ford

It was definitely in the nineties, he had a stand at Ron McMillan's International Convention once and I'm told he looked miserable all day. At one time he also used to edit a Men's magazine.

I had the video once and it is certainly nothing to write home about, and someone once told me they had seen a performance at the Castle that was not too hot.He did have a good writing style though and was certainly a good thinker. Mind Myth and Magick is a great book.

There was a funny story about a column he had in Genii, which led to his association with that magazine ending. Apparently the first letter of every paragraph made up a sentence insulting one of the Larsen family (who owned the mag. before Kaufman bought it).

Paul Hallas

Aside from any personal faults we all have, I recommend Mind, Myth and Magick as one of the best books ever written for us. The amount of excellent information within it's covers is astounding. Mr. Waters' ability to create mind-twisting illusion was almost unprecedented. I am grateful for his many creations, and I'm happy to say his book sits beside Annemann's, Corinda's and Busch's on my top shelf. It's that good!

Yes it is good. It is one of my favorite books on mentalism. A person can spend a lot of hours browsing through this book...very interesting, to say the least.

Jerry
..

T.A. Waters died Aug 7, 1998 at the age of only 60.

I can say, without a shadow of a doubt, that Mind Myth and Magick is the best book ever written on mentalism.

It's a good book, but not the best in my opinion.

Paul Hallas

I just decide to get back on one of the routines I got from the book MM&M ...The "grey-scale" thing. Unbelievable. It is a thing of beauty. A bianary code thing applied to cards. I've applied it to a tarot card routine I do.
I'm not sure what page it's on or if it was his. I'd have to agree with Paul, I think its a great book but not the greatest.

E-Leoni.

It's interesting to hear that his performance, at least in the video mentioned was not overly great.
I guess MM&M is a powerful textbook then. I must admit it has been very useful to me so far.

Now I'm wondering what is the greatest? Why?
Paul H, E-Leoni, any comments?

Tom Waters and I were friends back in the 60's. At that time he called himself"The Human Ouija Board" Although I never saw him perform I was around him enough to realize that his creativity was brilliant. Most of his ideas were workable and a few were mere pipedreams. Richard Himber called Waters the best and most creative mentalist he had ever seen. Himber's "Thought Control Wallet" was Tom's idea and they sold like hotcakes on a winter morning. Unfortunately, I don't think Tom got any credit from Himber for the idea.
As Ford mentioned TA Waters was primarily a writer and creator, not a performer.His opinions on magic, mentalism and it's performance and performers was very pointed and opinionated, but very difficult to argue. This did create a lot of animosity at times .He also worked as an actor in and around the NY area.
In his later years Tom becoame somewhat of a recluse and was addicted to peanut butter sandwiches which he ate almost exclusively. A really heartfelt tribute to Tom was written by Jon Racherbaumer and Ricky Jay also wrote an obit that, if I'm not mistaken, was published in New York magazine.

If you want a taste of the Water's material and you haven't read MMM, take a look at Mysteries - Mental Magic For Magicians by T.A. Waters for a good taste of what he had to say and published. However, you may have to do some legwork to find a copy, but the trip would be well worth the effort.

There is a group of regulars who have lunch at the Magic Castle on Friday afternoon. Billy McComb and Ron Wilson preside at the table which is usually populated by seven or eight other magic types whose names would not be familiar to the readers of this post. In mid-1998 Tom Waters became a regular at the table. He would always show up as we were finishing our lunch, would drag up a chair and would join in our conversations. He was a very well-read intelligent man who liked to talk religion, philosophy and politics.

On August 7, after lunch, he walked to Hollywood Magic and after his visit he headed home. He never got there. He suffered a heart attack before he reached his front door.

There was a memorial service for Tom at the Castle and Jim Steinmeyer presided. Jim showed us a video and delivered a most touching eulogy. There is a small plaque that commemorates TA at the Castle. It is hard to find and it was meant to be that way.

-Marty

What is your pick for best book?

Regarding his performance -he often would claim on video he was not performing but rather doing just the skeletal presentation so that viewers wuold come up with their own presentations rather than mimic his.

He is missed.

Enjoy!
Rex

Didn't L&L do a video project with him?

Pardon me for resurrecting an old thread, but does anyone have any information regarding the estate of T. A. Waters? I assume he left behind some next of kin that could be contacted...

Philemon, I'm surprised you don't try and contact Mr. Waters yourself, if you know what I mean.

I did, but since he doesn't believe in the afterlife, he didn't return my call. ;-)