Friday, August 9, 2024

Revealing Houdini's diary at MAGIC Live!

Part of MAGIC Live!'s mystique is that all performers and presenters are kept secret until the event. So I can only now share that I gave a presentation on Houdini's diary and the upcoming book, Escaping Obscurity: The Travel Diary of Harry Houdini, 1897-1899, during MAGIC Live!'s General Session on Monday.

I spoke about how the project came to be and shared select entries from the diary for the very first time. MAGIC Live! is a convention that focuses mainly on performance magic. But based on the kind words I received after my talks, I think this diversion into magic history went over really well.

Initially, we had planned to launch the book itself at the convention. But Michael Albright is still working hard on the layout and design, so I'm afraid we don't yet have a release date. But however long it takes, it will be worth the wait.

Thanks to Stan Allen for allowing me to be part of MAGIC Live! It was a real honor.

You can listen to an interview I did at MAGIC Live! with our friend Scott Wells at The Magic Word Podcast. As always, Scott provided excellent coverage of all four days. I've excerpted my interview for patrons below.

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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousSeptember 11, 2024 at 11:06 AM

    Just a quick personal opinion on " Escaping obscurity" Houdini diary, wish book coming out would look in a way like a "replica" of the real one

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    1. John CoxSeptember 11, 2024 at 12:38 PM

      That's a great idea and I know Michael Allbright is working elements of the diary into the book's overall design. But we have so much extra material in the way of photos and the annotations are so substantial, that it really needs to be a large coffee table book to hold it all. The diary itself is pocket-sized.

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