Reviews: Read What Jason Rippetoe Is Saying
2 ★★★★★ reviews
1 ★★★★★ reviews
1 ★★★★★ reviews
1 ★★★★★ reviews
Theatrical Magic Omnibus Edition: Turning Tricks into Theater
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Jason Rippetoe (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Friday 28 November, 2025)
Three books for the price of one, and all three books are worth reading. Lots of great information on the world of live theater and the nuts and bolts behind producing a successful show. The main book is about Pyka's magical revue and includes details about the structure of the show and plenty of behind-the-scenes stories and challenges. The two other books are about the planning of a show, from the lingo to potential pitfalls, with detailed tips and advice on how to sell a show as well, from someone who has been there. I paid $5, and it's a very, very good investment at that price.
How To Produce Your Own Theater Show
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Jason Rippetoe (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Friday 28 November, 2025)
This book is included as an appendix in Theatrical Magic Omnibus Edition: Turning Tricks into Theater by John B. Pyka, also sold here on Lybrary. Both are $5, so just buy the other book if you want the full experience. This was disclosed in the description, but I overlooked it and paid twice. Very useful and detailed information, no matter what version you get. You may never put together a theater show, but if you read Pyka's books, you'll be well situated to know the lingo, the process, potential pitfalls, and both the rewards and challenges.
The Grind: How to Make Sideshow Gaffs
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Jason Rippetoe (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Friday 28 November, 2025)
This is a quick-and-dirty primer for the DIY gaff maker. It gives some guidelines on methods and materials, but it's not particularly in-depth. That said, there is some useful information in a field where information is hard to find. Wish there were more detail and depth.
The $1000 Dollar A Day Show Plan
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Jason Rippetoe (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Friday 28 November, 2025)
This volume has a good deal of solid information on how to make money working with high school fundraising groups. It's a good blueprint on how to approach, how to get buy-in, how to structure an agreement so you will never lose money, and what groups in a high school work best. There's also some good info on how to help the high school market your show for best results, as well as ways the high school could increase their returns.
Although peppered with Devin's typical overly optimistic projections of what you can earn, this is no pie-in-the-sky approach. If you live in a well-populated area with numerous high schools, it is conceivable that you could add 20 or 30 shows a year in a niche market with little to no competition, and if handled well, could easily top the $1000 a day shown in the book's title. It's a win-win for the performer and the school group and even opens the door for repeat performances the next year. While you might not meet Devin's 100 shows a year prediction, I would estimate that adding $30,000 to $40,000 a year to your bottom line for doing some extra footwork is a completely reasonable expectation.
This approach is for a performer with a stage show suitable for a large crowd, and that can fill 70 to 90 minutes. Recommended.
Dark Matter Secrets: 80 Years of Spooky Magic
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Jason Rippetoe (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Thursday 27 November, 2025)
This is a fun collection of effects in a hefty volume. I felt the value for the price was very high. If you're not the DIY kind, you'll still find a variety of effects you can do, but the true value is if you're in the mood to do a little construction. Although many of the effects have a spooky theme, there's little gore and they could be easily adapted to new themes.
Get More Gigs the Easy Way
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Jason Rippetoe (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Thursday 27 November, 2025)
I've purchased several of Devin's products and found some value in most of them. But I feel like a sucker for buying this one. Better than a website! People will flock to you! Most are qualified buyers! One of the cleverest marketing ideas! One of his best booking secrets!
I won't give away the "secret," but it's essentially walking around parks, malls, festivals, and down busy streets with a novelty gimmick to attract attention and get people to approach and engage with you, doing a magic trick and passing on your business card. Could it get you bookings? Devin claims he has booked "many" people on the spot and using this method has booked "tons" of Christmas shows. But this is not going to add much to your bottom line and will involve a good time investment - it can't be automated, you have to be physically in these locations.
In the preface of the book, he denigrates traditional ways of booking, such as websites, yellow pages, and newspaper ads, and since this is an older book (2016), we know he's right about the yellow pages and newspaper ads. But websites?
Devin writes: "The unfortunate fact is if your website does not show up on the first page of Google or Bing searches, then people won’t find it. Statistics have shown that few people go beyond the first page of results when doing a web search. If your website is not on the first page, then you are not going to get calls! It’s that simple. Sad but true." And this is from the author of "Rank Your Act on Google's First Page in 24 Hours" and "One Simple Step to Higher Web Rankings," sold here on Lybrary, published two years earlier! He supposedly has the answer to getting more calls without having to use cheap (and dare I say - goofy) attraction methods, yet here he is hyping this ebook with hyperbole like it's an incredibly great idea and honestly this makes me hesitate to ever buy anything by him again because the difference between the hype and the actual content is so extreme that I feel I can't trust him to either give an accurate description or provide true value.
The Secret Edge For Children's Entertainers
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Jason Rippetoe (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Saturday 24 May, 2025)
Does his one-step advice give children's entertainers an edge? I don't know that I would put it that way and it's such a no-brainer that to call it a "secret" seems a bit much. If you're working with children and you don't already know this secret, you're in a bad place. It certainly isn't something I would charge people for. In fact, treating this as a means to increase sales seems incredibly cynical. This is one "secret" I would like every one of my competitors to know, take seriously, and shout from the rooftops.
Get Paid Doing Free School Shows
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Jason Rippetoe (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Saturday 24 May, 2025)
In this age of tighter school budgets, many schools choose not to budget (or budget less) for school assemblies. The author presents a creative method to finance your assembly program without getting grants, selling ads, or making the school cough up the dough. In a big school, there's the potential of making more than the average school show fee. It could be a back-door method to get a booking when the school says they don't have the budget. Also, there's some room to update the process and use online payment processes to eliminate cash and checks.
I haven't yet committed to following this method, but it seems very viable, and I'm not disappointed that I purchased the ebook.