Mr. James has been an underground secret. During his many years as a professional he refused to lecture for magicians or publish the effects he used in his professional performances. Now, Mr. James has largely retired from performing and has begun to lecture for magicians. Selling the Tough Stuff are the lecture notes from his 2nd lecture series.
Larry Jennings, Ken Krenzel, Jim Patton and Gordon Bruce would agree. They all attended his past lecture.
Wesley's first new set of lecture notes in almost 15 years. Packed with 10 new effects, routines or sets straight from his working repertoire. This is powerful close up magic with coins, a needle and thread and, of course, Wesley's brand of gasp-producing card magic. Never content with the same old card tricks, Wesley has applied his meticulous eye for detail to some new and some classic plots, constructed them so they appear effortless - though they do require work - and wrapped the results in presentations offered with such clarity the audience feels they must be the most impossible effects anyone could imagine. All the details are fully and carefully explained and presented with Wesley's style and precision. Here's what you'll be able to learn:
Quick 3-Way, My Way - Wesley's favorite opener
Stopped Cold - The most seemingly impossible Stop effect extant
Four Card Heisenberg - An Impromptu Four-Card Brainwave
Yantra - A unique animal magnetism effect with cards
Yantra-Haunted Deck Combo - Al Baker's classic combined with the visually arresting illusion of Yantra
Indian Alms Portal - A routine that takes fingertip coin magic to new heights of apparent impossibility
Brownian Movement - For the first time in print, a breath-taking presentation of the E.G. Brown "Wandering Card" plot.
MacMillan Unmoved - The lead-in to a gambling skill/magic set where he apparently deals 5ths, 4ths, 3rds and 2nds.
Too Much Ambition - The second, magic phase of the routine, including Wesley's version of Dingle's "Too Many Cards."
Presbyopia - A needle penetration effect that offers tribute to Amedeo Vacca, a former assistant to Houdini.
No set of Notes can replicate the experience of attending a Wesley James lecture, but these notes bring his thinking and style to the reader with the next best thing to that performance-changing opportunity. Fully illustrated in 45 packed pages.
1st edition 2003, 45 pages.
word count: 23397 which is equivalent to 93 standard pages of text
