1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910781676203321

Autore

Jones Graham

Titolo

Trade of the Tricks : Inside the Magician's Craft / / Graham Jones

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berkeley, CA : , : University of California Press, , [2011]

©2011

ISBN

1-283-27858-8

9786613278586

0-520-95052-6

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (308 p.)

Disciplina

793.8

Soggetti

Magic tricks

Magic

Magician

Social Sciences

Recreation & Sports

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Preface and Acknowledgments -- INTRODUCTION. Men of a Thousand Hands -- ONE. An Apprenticeship in Cunning -- TWO. The Social Life of Secret Knowledge -- THREE. Potency and Performance -- FOUR. Business as Un-Usual -- FIVE. Conjuring Culture -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

From risqué cabaret performances to engrossing after-hours shop talk, Trade of the Tricks offers an unprecedented look inside the secretive subculture of modern magicians. Entering the flourishing Paris magic scene as an apprentice, Graham M. Jones gives a firsthand account of how magicians learn to perform their astonishing deceptions. He follows the day-to-day lives of some of France's most renowned performers, revealing not only how secrets are created and shared, but also how they are stolen and destroyed. In a book brimming with humor and surprise, Jones shows how today's magicians marshal creativity and passion in striving to elevate their amazing skill into high art. The book's lively cast of characters includes female and queer



performers whose work is changing the face of a historically masculine genre.