Dunninger Knows
Atmore, Joseph
In 2001, Joseph Atmore authored Dunninger's Brain Busters which covered primarily Dunninger's radio work. In the ten years since publication, Atmore have collected a huge amount of TV scripts, researched the popular and magic press, conducted interviews with cast and crew and located film footage of his television work. Heck, he even recreated his radio show This new book covers all of his television series in chronological / airdate order and some of his guest appearances on other shows. The "in between series" years are also covered. There is quite a lot of the behind the scenes history into his four series and rare and unique photographs and documents are included to tell the story. While consulting on Uri Geller's show in Germany a few years ago, he even tracked down a 1955 television film in Europe.
Over 100 Brain Busters are examined by not only me, but Banachek, Jan Bardi, Stuart Cumberland, Ken Dyne, Lee Earle, Mathias Fischedick, Nicolai Friedrich, Devin Knight, Looch, Drew McAdam, Colin Mcleod, Max Maven, Richard Osterlind and Marc Paul. The foreword has been written by the International Man of Mystery, David Berglas who can truly understand Dunninger's impact to the world of mentalism. Methods are provided and in some cases, multiple methods are developed for the routines. In cases where a routine would need to be modernized for today (which actually is the rare exception), that information has been provided.
"For the last 5 years, Joe has been a consultant on my international live television series, Phenomenon aka The Next Uri Geller. Almost immediately when he joined the team, I learned about his fascination with Dunninger. We've had many conversations about Dunninger's impact on mentalism and his creativity and boldness. Dunninger Knows presents a scholarly look at his television work. I usually never read magic books but Dunninger always fascinated me, so I couldn't resist! After reading the routines in Joe's book, I now know why he was always trying to incorporate some of Dunninger's routines into my show!"
- Uri Geller
" This book is the result of years of passionate research, giving us an insight into the life and career of Dunninger. Most of these anecdotes would have been lost to our history without Joe Atmore's meticulous work. This is a rare opportunity to get inside the mind of Dunninger."
- David Berglas
Pages: 398 - 8.5" x 11" - Hardcover - Black and white photos
Reviews
(Top ▲)
If/when you get this book, I'm not sure what you'll be looking for, but I Hope You Find It (thank you Miley Cyrus). It's kind of a strange book. Is it well written? Well it's hard to say . . . Did it accomplish the purpose it set out to accomplish? Well it's hard to say . . .
Essentially this book is broken into two parts. The first part is a reproduction of 10 articles written for the PEA's Monthly magazine, Vibrations. These ten articles where written by Joseph Atmore and were entitled "Dunninger Knows." They were written in 2004 from the perspective of Dunninger (who died in 1975) as if he were still alive and commenting on the current state of mentalism.
To me this was the highlight of the book. They were funny, clever, witty, and from what little I know about Dunninger, very accurate as to how he might have responded were he to have written them himself. Unfortunately, the 40ish pages that this section covered is only about 10% of the book. The other 90% was nowhere near as interesting to me, but I'll let you be the judge.
The other 90% and the second of the two parts that make up the book is essentially a copy and paste of the majority of the television transcripts of Dunninger's regular shows (i.e., The Bigelow Show, The Dunninger Show and The Amazing Dunninger). My understanding is that every script included in the book makes up the entire collection of scripts that have been recovered/uncovered/etc. After each copy of the transcript, there are commentaries by Joseph Atmore, Banachek, Max Maven, Richard Osterlind, and several other well known names in the industry.
Much of their commentary was speculation at how he might have accomplished his Brain Busters. Sprinkled throughout are various historical notes and quasi-biographical pieces of information. But for the most part, the next 350 ish pages, you're reading stuff like this (taken from page 151 of the book):
The Bigelow Show, November 9, 1949
Guests: Gene Tunney and Barney Ross.
SEYMOUR INTRODUCED GENE TUNNEY AND BARNEY ROSS AND INTERVIEWS THEM BRIEFLY. THEY EXPLAIN THAT THEY HAVE A MENTAL EXPERIMENT TO PRESENT TO DUNNINGER.
SEYMOUR INTRODUCES DUNNINGER WHO COMES ON STAGE.
APPLAUSE.
TUNNY AND ROSS EXPLAIN THEIR EXPERIMENT TO DUNNINGER. THEY WILL CONCENTRATE ON A PARTICULAR TELEPHONE NUMBER. THEY WANT TO SEE IF HE CAN MENTALLY RECEIVE THIS NUMBER, DIAL IT, AND THEN READ THE MIND OF THE PERSON ON THE OTHER END WHO ANSWERS. DUNNINGER AGREES.
. . . [blah . . . blah . . . blah . . . ]
Forgive me, but his is not exactly a page turner. Some of the commentary between the scripts - they really were written in ALL CAPS LIKE THAT - was a bit interesting. It was kind of interesting to hear speculations on possible methods, but overall, you don't really get to know much about Dunninger. This is not really a biography (though it never claims to be). You essentially are just purchasing nearly 90 (yes I counted) copies of television transcripts.
You get that, plus the somewhat interesting commentary I mentioned, and the 10% "Dunninger Knows" articles I mentioned earlier (best part of the book).
Bottom line: unless you're a magic collector, use your 70 bucks to fill up the tank in your car and buy a gallon of milk . . . you'll get more use out of that. If you are a collector of magic history, I would argue that this is possibly a must have for your collection. It's got a fair amount of history about Dunninger's shows in the form of a timeline and a boat load of scripts . . . but very little about the man.
So back to my opening statements/questions: Is it well written? Well it's hard to say . . . because it's 90% cut and paste of TV transcripts, so there's not much writing to judge. I did find it a bit humorous that one of the "Dunninger Knows" articles was a rant about quality of print and how everyone who published stuff made too many mistakes in their publications. Yet, Dunninger (played by Joseph Atmore) boasted, none of his (Dunninger's) published works had any grammar, punctuation, syntax or other errors. What I found funny was the fact that there were many such errors in the text to come in the book.
Did the book accomplish what it set out to accomplish? Well it's hard to say . . . because the author never really clarifies what that goal is.
Final Verdict:
2 stars with a Stone Status of grubble (a whole bunch of rubble with a teeny bit of gem)
(Top ▲)
These columns were written in the first person as if Dunninger was currently living and giving his thoughts and answers to questions we might ask him today. The author acknowledges it is his interpretations of Dunninger's thinking, but since Joseph Atmore is most likely the best authority on Dunninger and we might even say a little obsessed with him, I think he did a great job. I enjoyed reading the columns and thought he did a great job of capturing Dunninger's personality and most likely his thoughts on various subjects.
The second part of the book is a historical look at the Dunninger television shows from 1948 to 1967. Mr. Atmore examines each show with a script (when possible) and feasible answers to how Dunninger might have accomplished his miracles. Mr. Atmore also sprinkles bits of history and anecdotes about Dunninger along the way.
As I read through this book, I wonder, who is this book for? It is not an easy reading historical perspective nor is it a book of tricks that are laid out, ready to be dropped into your show. I would call it a scholarly analysis of a past mentalist's work. This book is for those that want to peek into the mind of a past master of the art. Perhaps by scrutinizing the scripts of his shows you will be inspired, generate new ideas, find a little gems, or learn a valuable subtlety that you will incorporate into your own show.
It is not an easy read, but I don't think it was intended that way. I believe that if I were to really dive deep into this book, I would be making notes in the margins. (Mr. Atmore has provided enough space for that) The book is intriguing. You want to examine some of the ideas and methods that are laid out for you in the scripts or post show analysis that Mr. Atmore gives you. I believe this would be a fun book to dissect with a few friends, reading, talking, and analyzing the material.