talkmagic.co.uk

OK So I am attending the CAM Convention this June, and want to buy one or two of Sankey's four books.

Which do you recommend? 100% Sankey, Sankey Panky, Sankey Unleashed, or Beyond Secrets?

I want them all for different reasons. One other reason, however, is that I love Sankey magic. BUT:

I want 100% Sankey and Sankey Panky because I have been told his older stuff is his best

BUT I want Sankey Unleashed because it holds a whopping 82 Sankey effects

BUT I also want Beyond Secrets because I want to hear his ideas and thoughts on the theory and psychology of magic.

If someone could recommend one or two out of the four, it would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you.

Michael Kras

I recommend you get something not by Sankey. There's a huge world out there just waiting for you to explore it.

It doesn't really matter what we want, get the two you prefer... If you don't know, just get any two. I'm sure you will learn something valuable out of them and if you don't you can probably sell them later and buy the other two )

In a few years you'll probably have read all four books anyway, so it doens't matter which ones you start with.

Why not buy all four? if you're at a convention you could haggle for a special price for buying all - say four for the price of three.

if you can only go for two for some reason then why not have a short browse through each of the books whilst you're at the convention and then select the ones that appeal to you the most. It is actually diffferent to buying online

Sods law is that whatever we advise, when you pick up the books you will find reasons of your own for having a preference for one over the other.

However, as stated above, buy something other than Sankey as you do want to have some variety.

Mike, I'm going to ask you a question and I want you to answer honestly. Have you ever, while performing magic, bought an effect that is not by Sankey or somehow related to his magic? I know you like Sankey, but every fifth post you say something like: "And the best part about Sankey is . . . " or "There's a Sankey effect that . . . ". Get effects that are by people other than your favorite magician. I think this could be your biggest problem in magic, you've become too devoted to one magician's products.

Of course! Yes, I do perform magic other than Sankey magic. I also perform effects by Richard Sanders, Gregory Wilson, and many,many others.

Also, I will take previous advice and buy all of them. BUT, is Beyond Secrets worth the money?

I personally wouldn't recommend Beyond Secrets although there are many good thought and musings within it. If you want a book which runs through the theory of performing magic then save up the extra money and go for Darwin Ortiz's Strong Magic which is far more indepth. One thing about this book though, as with any book, the information in it is only useful if you think about what is said and put it into practice.

do you want to be a sankey junior? why not spread your horizons a bit like tomo said?

find out who sankey likes even, and buy some stuff by them instead?

Sankey's INFLUENCES are where you should be looking...

Learn who SANKEY draws inspiration from, and forget emulating him.

You are already very Sankey-esque in your performance style. It doesn't suit you at all.

A lot of Sankey fans on this forum, me being one of them. But we are nothing like him.

I like his creativity and his thinking.. my persona is my own, not his, not yours, not anybodys..

I really think, FOR ONCE.. you should take the advie and re-think your persona as a magician.. its quite scary watching you 'BE' sankey.. albeit very badly.

Look into Sankeys influences as said.. you should know Sankey is a big fan of Dai Vernon.. ( who isn't )

Look into the works of Alex Emsley and Vernon.. Buy the vernon trilogy, Dai Vernons autobiography.

And in respect to the books you are looking for, I have Beyond Secrets, its a nice read.. but I think Id be much better off getting Darwin Ortiz' strong magic.. which I will do.

Can I ask you something Little Mike...

where d'ya learn magic..?? everything you do seems to be COMPLETELY sankey influenced.. like you have just copied sankeys material like a clone rather than actually learning the sleights involved.

Its about time you started to... not just read the posts by members here.. but LISTEN to what they say.. seriously.. listen to the words.. you may learn something.. Id have gladly paid for some of the advice people here have given you!!!

If the boy likes sankey then let him like Sankey. I like some Sankey. David stone a lot of my stuff I do at the moment Is by Looch , Peter Nardi and Marc spelmann. Amongst others. But Micheal you are not Sankey the other day you was asking about how to get in to resturants so why dont you buy the David Stone dvd? (i know you wont) But it shows simple but hard hitting magic. Anyone who has the dvd will agree.

The David Stone DVD is superb.. some great routines as well. especially the splash bottle production and one coin demo.

Its ok to like sankey, fine. But to make him the ONLY guy you learn from can only be detrimental Im sure you'd agree.. you need a few people to learn from

My current are in fact Sankey, David Stone, and James Brown ( pot of jam ). 3 completely different styles yet I can draw out things from all of them and adapt them to my personality.

When I first started in out in magic, my first purchases where Jay Sankeys, he does have some really nice effects (In a Flash, XL) But, I've noticed from some of your videos that you are almost imitating his exact style. On youTube I saw you were perfroming killer key, then I watched the Sankey video and you have the exact same patter. 'I have had this key for many years' This is an ilogical sentance for you to say. It's like someone our age saying well a good ammount of years ago I travelled the world. I went to so many different countries e.t.c' it just seems so fake purely because someone would know that you were lying, which diminishes the effect because people will just feel you have copied it, (laypeople I'm taling about here)

I think with some of the Sankey DVDs I own he goes in to patter, talking about what he says. Personaly I wouldn't realy look in to this because you, me and no one else is Sankey (well apart from Jay Sankey, or maybey RobStanley!) so using his patter just would not make sense. You have to have exceptional humour to be like him. (I think people were having this discussion about Gazzo's Cups and Balls a couple of months ago)

Gregory Wilsons style is almost like you can't trust him. For example in his Ring Leader effect he says ' Do you want to know a sure fire way to keep your ring safe, don't give it to me!' This kind of style would not work for everyone. I would not say that because it doesn't fit my style, and then again I am not that tall for my age so saying that I was steealing someones ring who is a lot taller than me would just not make sense!

It is hard to come up with your own patter when you are young and starting out in magic but all I say is be yourself, and say what comes naturally.

I'd recomend getting Dai Vernon's Biography instead...you'll learn a hell of a lot more!

plus, it's a good read