My Favorite Magic Books: Michel Huot
By Alex Robertson - Wednesday, April 8, 2020
We asked some of the best magicians we know what their favorite three magic books are. This week is the turn of Michel Huot, you may know him from his best selling effects, Priceless, and Socks. Over to Michel:
Ahhhh books!
Call me crazy but I think books are coming back!
There is nothing like opening a new book and discovering at your pace the gems that hide inside.
Books are NOT expensive. If the tricks in a book would all be a download, it would cost between $400-800. A book is about $50 which is about $1 per trick as opposed to $10...
Oh well!
For my top 3 books, I think I have 25 books in my top three. Actually, my top 2 are always the same but the third one depends on my current mood.
A book that EVERYBODY should by is FOUNDATIONS by Eberhard Riese.
You could build an incredible act if you read that book from front to cover. I actually built one.
Number of tricks in the book: none
Value of the book: invaluable
It covers everything about an act. How to get inspired, how to practice, the right color of light you should use etc. Even if you don’t do stage, you should buy that book.
LEADING WITH YOUR HEAD by Gary Kurtz.
This is actually more a booklet than a book. It focuses on the choreography of magic. Why you should take a step back while you reveal a chosen card, why you should take a step back while you execute a move etc. It is PURE GOLD.
As I write this blog, my 3rd favourite is THE DARKEST CORNERS by Neil Kelso and Ben Hart. WOW!
It has nothing to do with the fact that it is a Vanishing Inc. book and NO they do not ask us to, when possible, include one of their books. They're not that kind of company. It is such an amazing book.
It is a shame that most people just ‘read a book’. Whenever I read a trick, I stop reading and see myself executing the trick. Most of the time, it doesn’t fit me so I skip to the next one or I read the history of the trick, the footnotes and so on. In the case of The Darkest corners, after the very first trick, I stopped, closed the book and even felt an emotion. Wow.
'A Shot In The Dark' is a masterpiece. You can feel the tension. The book is one of the most interesting books I have ever read. Incubation, Glitterbomb, Melocoton are all incredible. This guy thinks differently than most of us. Incredible material, beautiful book!
Back to blog homepage
Similar posts on the blog:
