Stuff: A collection of Original Magic
by Eric Mason

Stuff is a beautifully designed and produced book (now available as ebook) of top quality magic and contains detailed descriptions of several marketed props and routines. These include the Beta Wallet, the Breese-Mason Wallet, Cummupence, the Silver Retriever, the Golden Retriever and Pandora. Eric Mason was not only a brilliant inventor and magician; he was a creative and talented illustrator. You will find several examples of Mason's skill as illustrator in this ebook.

Eric Mason was a highly talented and exceptionally creative magician and illustrator. He was the Art Editor of Pabular magazine and illustrated countless books. He released many commercial magic effects including the Beta Wallet, the Breese-Mason Wallet, Cummupence, the Silver Retriever and the Golden Retriever and many of these effects are described in this ebook.

Eric used to share the spotlight with Fred Robinson at the Marlborough Arms public house near the Magic Circle on Monday evenings. There the alternative Magic Circle met and Eric was always ready to perform a seemingly impromptu miracle; seemingly impromptu because his pockets were always so jammed full of props that David Britland once described Eric as, ‘Rattling with magic as he walked’.

He was a great sleight of hand performer and was so adept with coin sleights that he could back-clip an old English penny and hold a half dollar coin in the palm of the same hand. He used to throw the half dollar up in the air and as it landed back on his palm he would back-clip it and simultaneously release and display the penny concealed between the back of his fingers. As far a spectator could see, Eric held a half dollar in his open hand tossed it up in the air and by the time it landed back in his hand it had changed into a penny.

Early in his career, Eric and his wife Eileen lived in a caravan in Cornwall for several years where Eric spent his time designing, painting and illustrating. Unusually, many of his paintings were published in miniature form on matchbox covers.

[In this digital reproduction we have added back, purely for historical reasons, the chapter "The Creation of a Magical Effect", which is a socialist rant.]

1st edition 1983, 2nd edition 1989; 170 pages; PDF 177 pages.

Table of Contents

4. Contents
8. Preface to Second Edition
11. Introduction by Fred Robinson
13. Introduction by Barrie Richardson
15. Introduction by Gordon Bruce
16. Forword
23. Orringinal
26. Framed
29. Note in Cigarette
31. Kapala
32. Ashram
34. Desiderata
49. Overture
53. Caboodle
54. Eca Tuoba Ecaf
58. Ubique Sed Non
60. A Birthday Card
62. The Wimbledon Aces
66. Acemblage
68. Put and Take
71. Spread Eagled
72. My Card - Your Card - Anybody's Card
74. Topsyturvy
80. One Million To One
83. Banditry
87. Anything For A Change
89. The One Handed Fiddler
89. Classical Bit
90. The Problem Is
94. Beauideal
96. The Married Lady
98. Billett-Doux
100. Brainwave
102. The Mason Spread
104. Arise Comrades
104. The Pit-A-Patter of a Tiny Feat
107. Fred Trick The Great
108. Sock It And See
109. Uriker
110. Amason
111. Make A Note Of It
112. Watch
112. For A Borrowed Note
114. Impromptu Coins Across
115. Twenty To One
116. Snap Backclip Throw
118. The Coin In A Bottle
118. A Pound With A Bottle
120. A Peep Into A Bottle
120. Come In Jimmy Herbert
121. One Green Bottle
123. Cumuppence
126. Moniker
130. Papier
131. On Reflection
132. N.C.R.
134. Tactoscophy
136. Kineto
138. Magnifique
141. The Cuffs
142. The Silver & Golden Retrievers
149. Pandora
150. Reviews
153. Collarboon
155. Nefertiti
156. Mental Magic Square
156. Card In Cigarette Pack
158. Pop
161. Matchless
162. Mason Colour Improvement to the Monahan Paddle
164. Eric Mason Wallet
166. Violistik
169. The Creation of a Magical Effect

Publisher: Martin Breese