This is a large hardback with 271 pages, covering interviews with 18 diverse magicians. The book jacket is appalling. It is a portrait of a medieval magician reading a book with a dragon sitting on his shoulder. What was the author thinking? I imagine simply looking at the dust jacket would cause most people to hop to the next book on the shelf. However, they would be missing some fascinating reading.

Some of the magicians interviewed are, Lance Burton, Billy McComb, Johnny Ace Palmer, Whit Hayden, and Michael Finney. Each chapter is an interview and is set up in the question given and then the answer. If you ever wanted to get into their heads and see what they like and dislike about magic, how they think, what mistakes they made, etc. This is the book to read.

As I write this review, I am going back through the book and find myself reading and enjoying the interviews once again. How useful it is to you will depend on what stage you are at in your magic. If your goal is to only learn more tricks, move along. If you want to gain insight into how the working pros think and learn then gobble this book up, pronto.

It was written in 1990 and out of print, however; because of that dreadful dust jacket, I have seen copies of it floating around in various magic stores and internet sites. This is a nice book that one could easily reread each year. There is much advice given throughout the book if one pays attention.

Sergeant