I bought the book impulsively from a New Orleans book dealer. I didn’t have much money, but I knew I might not see it again. As soon as I left the shop, I turned the corner, sat down on the cobble-stone streets near Jackson Square and turned the cover.
“Warning. This book is not for the Y.W.C.A. (Young Women's Christian Association). Rhetoricians and purists attempting to read this book will suffer violent poisoning,” it read.
The opening promised blood, and it delivered. There was nothing politically correct about it.
“The hell of it is that there has never been a book or magazine that ever criticized. Always pats on the back for everything,” Jarret says.
This book is no pat on the back. Quote after quote, Jarrett tells it like it is.
“If some eight year old thought it up, alright. But for a man to publish it in a book, that is horse shit…”
“Oh it was brutal. It was a slap in the puss. You really wanted to believe something, and to have the hokum showed up to be not even cleverly hoked… it was just an enema.”
From a 5X8 Kelsey cast iron desktop printing press—not far off from Gutenberg’s original invention, just a bit smaller—Guy Jarrett produced one of the greatest books in the history of the conjuring arts by piecing it together one letter a time, inking the plate and pressing it. I was holding the result in my hand: Guy Jarrett Magic and Stage Craft Technical.
Understandably, there were only four-hundred copies made. This book has always been hard to get your hands on. But thanks to Jim Steinmeyer’s research it’s a bit easier to get. He republished it with extra diagrams and added notes.
“I SAY my book is… just different,” Jarrett writes in the opening of the book proper.
Jarrett worked everything from sideshows to Broadway. He built illusions for many of magic’s notables, such as T. Nelson Downs, The King of Koins, and Howard Thurston (often referring to the latter as a “mental stumble bum”).
It’s hard to tell for certain why I connected so deeply with the book. Most of it is stage illusions; an area of magic I’ve never had the chance to perform. There are some small apparatus effects and other tricks, but that’s not the reason I wanted the book. I wanted it because of the depth of Jarrett’s thinking. I don’t think you could read it without it making you a better magician.
The book also gives insight into the inner-depths of the magic and theater scene of the 1920s and 30s. It’s filled with Jarrett’s stories, telling how Thurston made “an abortion of my effect” and explaining why Houdini’s Vanishing Elephant was a lousy trick.
Jarrett complained about drugstore magicians (those who just get and perform tricks without ever thinking through what they’re doing or why). Reading Jarrett is a reminder that just because some famous magician said or wrote something, that doesn’t make it true. He reminds me of what is and what is not important, of what is and is not good magic. He reminds me that most magicians fool themselves more than their audience. He reminds me not to be one of them.
I was impressed by his ability to think through every detail and to fight for fractions of an inch, or a slight shade in a paint-color. Perhaps it was his work on Broadway that gave him his eye for theater and his strong focus on effect. Jarrett even built the vanish for Bela Lugosi’s Dracula during its initial broadway run. He also tells an interesting story about the vanish and Bela Lugosi.
Jarrett showed an appreciation of his audience’s intelligence and a love for clever hokum. Often designing his pieces to be a back-and-forth battle of wits with the audience, he would give them the secret to the trick and then fool them just the same. The appeal of magic is an intellectual one and no-one embodied that better than Jarrett did.
While heavy-handed at times, the book is also brilliant and inspiring. Jarrett’s thinking has impacted magic more than any other illusion-builder of his time, which is why I find it odd that most magi don’t know the name. His impact on me and my thinking has been unparalleled. But it’s not for everyone. This book is no pat on the back.
For anyone interested in trying to find the book, heed the warning: there’s nothing politically correct about it. Drug store magicians and purists attempting to read this book may suffer violent poisoning… This book is just … different.