You will love the books Nicolino. I picked them up at Magic Live and have worked through most of the two volumes. An amazing amount of unique creativity displayed in these volumes!

If you're interested in the full contents, I have posted them here, at MagicBooks.be:
Volume One: The Idea Garden
Volume Two: Bloomeries

I need your user name and password to read the contents list. Please supply. Thanks. I get enough mail in my inbox.

Bill:

This is the page where you register to get access to the info on Jackie's website:
http://www.magiccafe.be/drupal/user/register


Jackie:

I'd like to toss in a "thank you" for posting all that valuable info on your site.

Steve Hook

Read thru the books... My first impressions are somewhat mixed.

First of all it is clear that Gaetan is one clever "sensored" His thinking really isn't from this world. Lots of totally new effects and methods. In many cases the methods can be as fun or even more fun than the effects themselves.

What I found problematic are the effects and pictures. Many effects are so strange and different that you don't even realize how good they are when performed. Written word just doesn't do a justice to many of em. I know this since I own the old VHS tapes from A1 magical media "tales from planet Bloom" and also some Bloom lectures in French. From just reading many of the routines from the book I would have totally missed how awesome they are unless I had seen em performed. Other thing that makes the book even harder for reader is the pictures. Hodges is a great drawer but when book is composed of mainly material that is gaffed to various extends and must be self made the pictures don't help it a all. For example Gaetan Blooms elevator card case is explained in the book but with text on few other pages, dozen or so small pictures on one single page I coudnt make the thing even if I tried. And I am extremely crafty with my hands.

Also worth noting that Bloom doesn't divulge into any of his working material. He is still performing actively and keeping this material to himself. Totally understandable but sometimes I see this set marketed similarly to Mike Caveneys latest set where Caveney indeed reveals everything.

As stated earlier, most of the material is geared to stand-up performers with few ideas for close-up now and then as well. This is not a bad thing since there is lack of books for stage performers.

Juha-Matti

I really enjoyed Full Bloom, though I agree with much of what Juha-Matti says. The illustrations look great but don't always make it easy to work out how to construct the (sometimes quite complex) props. And in the second volume there are a couple of references to illustrations or photographs that don't seem to exist. I've not seen any of this material on DVD, though, and I was able to follow everything - it just occasionally took a bit of work.

You won't find Gaetan's famous Microphone Act in the books, but they do contain some of the most creative and original magic ever to see print. These books are a goldmine for stand-up performers. As others have said, they mainly contain quirky parlour and cabaret magic, often with unusual props and a comedic twist. Gaetan is a big fan of thread, which is a method I've always steered clear of, but there are some brilliantly original ways of using thread here, in effects where the use of thread would never be suspected.

If you do stage magic and admire original thinking then you will love these books. If, on the other hand, you are mainly looking for close-up tricks for table hopping - or you are the sort of magician who doesn't like using props - they are probably not for you.