Trade of the Tricks

Inside the Magician's Craft

Graham Jones

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN:
  9780520270473
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9780520950528
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Linguistics
• Index: Social Sciences

From risqué cabaret performances to engrossing after-hours shop talk, Trade of the Tricks offers an unprecedented look inside the secretive subculture of modern magicians. Entering the flourishing Paris magic scene as an apprentice, Graham M. Jones gives a firsthand account of how magicians learn to perform their astonishing deceptions. He follows the day-to-day lives of some of France's most renowned performers, revealing not only how secrets are created and shared, but also how they are stolen and destroyed. In a book brimming with humor and surprise, Jones shows how today's magicians marshal creativity and passion in striving to elevate their amazing skill into high art. The book's lively cast of characters includes female and queer performers whose work is changing the face of a historically masculine genre.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Preface and Acknowledgments
• Introduction: Men of a Thousand Hands
• 1. An Apprenticeship in Cunning
• 2. The Social Life of Secret Knowledge
• 3. Potency and Performance
• 4. Business as Un-Usual
• 5. Conjuring Culture
• Epilogue: “Giving People a Gift”
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index