The Spell Book Blog

Report on the 5th Florida Magic History Conference

The phone rang. "What do you know about the Astounding Velma?" asked Sterling Lee, one of my running buddies for all things magical. I...

In The Inventive Magician's Handbook....With Props, I discuss the genius and kindness of Martin Lewis, whose insights in creating "The...

I call it “folded corner syndrome.”   Nearly every magician has experienced it: paging through a magic book, you encounter something...

Magic books generally fall into three categories: Instructional, Conjuring History and Magic Theory.  Each has its place in a magician’s...

I had just delivered a Monday Night Mystery lecture for the McBride Magic and Mystery School entitled “Inspiration and Invention.”  It...

THE SECRET IS OUT! I'm delighted to announce that The Inventive Magician's Handbook . . . with Props will be released on October 1 by...

When someone as articulate and insightful as Sir Terry Pratchett - the celebrated fantasy author who has written extensively about magic -...

During a session at the Mystery School’s “Weekend of Wisdom” in 2021, Jeff McBride challenged each participant to set a magic goal to...

A digital edit of Bosch's "The Conjurer," setting the main protagonists in a science lab produced by the DALL*E AI interface. Send in the...

In an unsuccessful attempt to acquire the most coveted, albeit useless, ventriloquism gizmo of the 20th Century, I inadvertently...

“If you have to ask, you’ll never know. If you know, you need only ask.” ― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Chrisitian...

Tuesday is pizza night at our house: we order pizza delivery every Tuesday evening. A brilliant declaration by my spouse, "Pizza...

During the early days of COVID-19, my friend Lynn Miner suggested I try my hand at writing the "Hocus Pocus Parade" for IBM's Linking...

Passing several Floridian fireworks stands, fruit vendors and cigar stores on the way to the Tin City Magic Shop led to a realization. ...

The Secret Art Journal, produced by the McBride Magic & Mystery School, is featuring an article I wrote entitled "A Different Kind of...

"The Magic Returns" is a mixed media painting I created at the height of the pandemic in 2020. At first, I wasn’t sure why I felt...

I was probably about 12 when I got to visit The Magic Center, by then a threadbare establishment on New York’s Eighth Avenue. Long past...

As part of a "Variety Store" challenge for Long Island's Sleight Club, I set out to buy an ordinary item that I could convert into a...