Comments (Mill Lichter): The
how's of putting together a show.
Contents: (from book,
updated July 2019)
i Acknowledgments
iii Foreword (Bob Baker)
v Contents
3 Section I: Preamble
3 Introduction
4 Teen Magazine Advice
5 Ken Who?
12 Pardon Me, Your Slip Is Showing
13 Please Take Note
14 The Science Of Entertainment? Never!
17 Chapter 1: Search For Entertainment
17 Defining Entertainment
18 Looking For Entertainment In All The Wrong Places
20 Why A Director?
21 Importance Of Being Videotaped
23 Find A Mentor Or Trusted Friend
23 Raise Your Level
25 My Aha! Experience
27 Say It Loud "I Entertain And I'm Proud"
27 Look To The Stars
29 Too Much Of A Good Thing
30 Competitors
31 Danger Of Success
33 Personal Entertainment Highlights:
35 A Personal Entertainment Highlight - Al Flosso, the Miser's Dream
39 Section II: Precursors
39 Chapter 2: Hierarchy Of Mystery Entertainment
40 Bona Fide Magic
41 Stalking The Extraordinary Moment
42 Magic For Magicians Vs Magic For Everyone Else
44 Trivialization Of Magic
47 Chapter 3: Reactions
47 Big Three
49 Sell The Sizzle, Not The Steak
50 Fizzle Vs Sizzle
53 Chapter 4: Six Pillars Of Entertainment Success
54 Master Your Craft
55 - Man and Superman
57 - The Road Less Traveled
58 Communicate Your Humanity
64 - Certified 100% Natural
66 - Say Young Fella, Ain't You One of Us?
67 - Your Audience Wants You
68 Capture The Excitement
71 Control Every Moment
72 - Use a Lower Gear for More Traction
73 - And Then I, Ummm, Like, Said To The Guy
74 Never Apologize to Your Audience
75 Radiate Control
76 Are You Looking At Me?
76 Excuse Me?
77 Dominate Me. I Like It!
77 Eliminate Weak Spots
79 - Speed Kills
80 - The Pause That Refreshes
81 - The Magic is Rarely Enough
81 Build to a Climax
83 - Vary the Texture
84 - Heighten the Impossibility
86 - On Multiple Climaxes
87 - One True Climax Per Audience, Thank You
88 - All’s Well That Ends Well
89 A Personal Entertainment Highlight: Sylvester The Jester
93 Section III: Preparation
93 Chapter 5: Scripting And Rehearsing 93 Writing A Script: Just Do It
94 Be A Marksman With Your Words
95 Actions And Dialogue
96 Let The Analysis Begin
96 Reverse Engineering
97 Actions
98 For My Next Trick, I Have A Deck Of Cards Somewhere
98 Thanks For The Memorize
100 Ah, The Profound Irony of Magic
100 Buid A Brick House
101 Chapter 6 Choosing Material And Developing The Act
101 Mind Blowing Or Mind Numbing
103 Performance Trumps Trick
103 New Tricks, Old Tricks My Tricks, Your Tricks
105 Destination: Astonishment
106 Strong, Stronger, Strongest
106 Props Get Real!
107 Exposure: Indecent?
108 Second That Emotion
109 Audience Participation
110 Warning, Dangerous Tricks: Proceed With Caution
110 Three Case Studies
110 Case Study #1
112 Case Study #2
114 Case Study #3
115 Look Homeward
117 Personal Entertainment Highlights: Del Ray At The Card Table
121 Section IV: Performer
121 Chapter 7: Your Appearance
121 Dress For Success
122 Hands And Nails
122 Shoes
123 Glasses
123 Handkerchief
124 Your Jacket
124 Your Shirt
125 Chapter 8: Your Voice
125 My Favorite Voice Trick
130 Change The Em-pha-sis To A Different Syl-la-ble
131 Talk In Color, Not Black And White
132 Hear The Voices
133 Chapter 9: Language Skills
133 Words And Phrases We Can Do Without
139 Back To Grammar School
140 Honesty Is The Best Policy
141 Raising Hands
141 Say What?
142 Don’t State The Obvious!
145 Chapter 10: How To Be Funny
146 The Two Hooks For Humor
148 Get To The Point Quickly
151 Use Humor With Compassion
151 Master Your Domain
153 Personal Entertainment Highlights: Mac King
157 Section V: Paraphernalia
157 Chapter 11: Sound And Lighting
159 Chapter 12: Sound
159 Sound Systems
160 Speakers
161 Testing, One.. Two.. Three
162 The Beauty Of The Handheld Microphone
165 Respecting The Spectator
166 Gear For Workers
167 To Mike Or Not To Mike?
168 Monitors
169 Music
171 Control Yourself! You’re In Public!
175 Chapter 13: Lighting
175 Spotlights
176 Finding the Hot Spot
177 Re: Sound and Lighting Dominate the Terrain - An Object Lesson
178 The Search for Remedies
179 Where the Buck Stops
179 Blessed Are the Not-Meek
183 Chapter 14: Before The Show
183 Know Your Audience
184 Setting The Environment
185 Chairs
186 Stairs Or Steps
186 Makeup
189 Malodorous Maladies, Etc
189 Your Introduction
191 Just Before You Walk Out
193 Personal Entertainment Highlights: David Copperfield (Flying)
197 Section VI: Performance
197 Chapter 15: Close Up Magic
197 Pleased To Meet You?
198 "You Want Me To Pick Another Card?"
199 May I Borrow Your Wife I Mean, Your Watch?
199 May I Borrow Your Hand...The Clean One?
201 "And All I Gotta Do Is Act Naturally"
203 Chapter 16: Mentalism
206 Disclaimers
207 On A Related Note
208 Mental Magic
209 Brown And McCambridge
211 Chapter 17: Dealing With Spectators
212 Asking For Volunteers
213 Please And Thank You
214 Clear Directions
214 Talking To Spectators
215 Proper Positioning
216 Listening
216 Like I Said, Listen And React
217 Touching
217 Dismissing Spectators
218 Prepare For Problems
219 Chapter 18: During The Show
219 Your Opening Moments
220 Ewww! Gag Me With A Spoon
221 About Face!
221 Do You See What I See? Do You Hear What I Hear?
223 Rise To The Occasion
224 Avoid Dead Time
225 Careful Where You Step
226 Share, And Share Again
226 No "Thank You"
227 Signing Off On Signing
229 Power Shifting
230 Whose Fault Is It, Anyway?
231 When Bad Things Happen To Good Performers
232 Smile, And The Whole World Smiles With You
235 Personal Entertainment Highlights: Gil Eagles - Q&A Act
236 A Highlight Within a Highlight - Removing the Blindfold
237 Chapter 19: Closing The Show
237 Last Man Standing
238 Standing Ovations
243 Section VII: Postscript
243 Chapter 20: After The Show
243 The Spin Cycle
245 The Postmortem
