Magic Books v. Magic DVDs
I was having a conversation with another magician the other day on this subject, and thought I’d summarise my continuing reasons for preferring magic books over DVDs.
- You don’t have to keep pausing them! That is, you can leave a decent hard backed book open on the page you want and study the details to your heart’s content with the props in your hands.
- The pictures (in my experience) tend to be drawn from the performer’s perspective – whereas in most of the DVDs I’ve seen you have to work it out from the spectator’s view – very confusing.
- Often, a well-written explanation is easier to understand than a moving image. This sounds paradoxixal, but in fact you can read and re-read an instruction on a page with the props in hand, whilst on a DVD, if you are pausing or re-running a segment, it is much harder (though it must be said that the practise sessions on some L&L DVDs work quite well for this).
- You can read a book anywhere. This is particularly good (he writes, as Christmas approaches) when you are given a book for Christmas, and you can start reading it whilst sitting with your family! Slightly less anti-social than watching a DVD!
- I’m just a bit biased, because I love books!
And here’s a recommendation for a great book I’ve just read recently:
Dear Mr Fantasy by the excellent John Bannon. $50. (Sorry – I can only find it in the US at the moment).
