70 of the best rope tricks ever devised using overhand knots, slip knots and square knots. Dissolve knots, cut and restore ropes, make ropes magically shrink or grow longer, rope escape tricks, flourish knots. 423 illustrations and clear, easy-to-follow directions make performing these startling feats foolproof.

Proposing the innovative concept of palimpsest bodies to interpret provocative theatre and performance experiments that explore issues of cultural memory, bodies of history, archives, repertoires and performing remains, Ruth Hellier-Tinoco offers an in-depth analysis of four postdramatic and transdisciplinary collective creation theatre projects. Combined with ideas of postmemory and rememory, palimpsest bodies are inherently trans-temporal as they perform re-visions of embodied gestures, vocalized calls and sensory experiences. Focusing on one of Mexico's most significant contemporary theatre companies, La Maquina de Teatro, directed by renowned artists Juliana Faesler and Clarissa Malheiros, this ground-breaking study documents the playfully rigorous performances of layered, plural and trans identities as collaborative, feminist and queer re-visions of official histories and collective memories. Illustrated with over one hundred colour photos, Performing Palimpsest Bodies: Postmemory Theatre Experiments in Mexico will appeal to creative artists and scholars interested in contemporary theatre and performance studies, critical dance studies, collective creation and performance-making.

Make an eggshell turn a somersault, spin a coin so that it lands on "heads," teach a bear to climb a string, and perform other acts of scientific wizardry Martin Gardner, the master of mathematical puzzles, shares more than 80 of his finest magic tricks, teaching children and adults the scientific properties behind water, air, fire, heat, motion, gravity, inertia, friction, electricity, magnetism, sound, and light.
Fun and fascinating, the simple maneuvers require only basic everyday props, and those requiring matches, knives, boiling water, and other tricky items are marked with a symbol that lets kids know they'll need assistance from an adult. Helpful drawings illustrate each stunt.

This book explores the circus as a site in and through which science and technology are represented in popular culture. Across eight chapters written by leading scholars - from fields as varied as performance and circus studies, art, media and cultural history, and engineering - the book discusses to what extent the engineering of circus and performing bodies can be understood as a strategy to promote awe, how technological inventions have shaped circus and the cultures it helps constitute, and how much of a mutual shaping this is. What kind of cultural and aesthetic effects does engineering in circus contexts achieve? How do technological inventions and innovations impact on the circus? How does the link between circus and technology manifest in representations and interpretations - imaginaries - of the circus in other media and popular culture? Circus, Science and Technology examines the ways circus can provide a versatile frame for interpreting our relationship with technology.

This comprehensive book contains everything the budding magician needs to put on a dazzling show at home. Expert guidance from a professional magician reveals how to perform more than 200 illusions, ranging from party tricks, close-up magic and stage magic to confounding puzzles and awe-inspiring stunts. It reveals how you can make a coin vanish, have x-ray vision, read an audience member's mind and cut a volunteer in two. Whatever your previous experience and skill level, this exciting and inspiring book will enable you to confound and impress friends and family, providing hours of enjoyment for both performer and audience alike.

India's association with magicians goes back thousands of years. Conjurors and illusionists dazzled the courts of Hindu maharajas and Mughal emperors. As British dominion spread over the subcontinent, such wonder-workers became synonymous with India. Western magicians appropriated Indian attire, tricks and stage names; switching their turbans for top hats, Indian jugglers fought back and earned their grudging respect. This book tells the extraordinary story of how Indian magic descended from the realm of the gods to become part of daily ritual and popular entertainment across the globe. Recounting tales of levitating Brahmins, resurrections, prophesying monkeys and 'the most famous trick never performed', Empire of Enchantment vividly charts Indian magic's epic journey from street to the stage.

The authoritative guide to planning, organising, managing and delivery events of all size Anyone responsible for organising a voluntary or public event will want to do it safely and well, complying with the legislation relating to different aspects of their event. This book will help you to research, plan, organise, manage and deliver any event, match, show, tournament or function that will be attended by more than a handful of people. You may be running a gymkhana, fete, fun run, steam fayre, half marathon, carnival, school sports day, jumble sale, tennis tournament, car boot sale, model aircraft show or even a huge pop festival or Formula 1 car race. Whatever it is, the principles are the same. As event manager you will need to research, plan, liaise with authorities, obtain permissions and licences, comply with legal requirements and then deliver the event to the public. Contents: 1. Introduction; 2. The event manager; 3. The event objective; 4. Planning the event; 5. Health & safety; 6. Type of event; 7. When to run the event; 8. Defining your target audience; 9. Audience size; 10. Advertising; 11. Event attractions; 12. Event requirements; 13. Accommodation and services; 14. Event site; 15. Traffic management; 16. Sign posting; 17. Permissions; 18. Car parking; 19. Radio communications; 20. Staffing; 21. First aid; 22. Security; 23. Insurance; 24. Emergency and normal procedures; 25. Formal presentation; 26. Event manager's manual; 27. Money; 28. Accounts; 29. Video diary/evidence; 30. Setting up; 31. Site maintenance; 32. Strip down/clear up; 33. Final debrief 34. Final report; 35. Conclusion; Annex A; Annex B; Index.

Clear diagrams and step-by-step instructions for performing 18 simple feats of prestidigitation: Strength Test, Untangled, Elastic Lock, Mystic Spinner, Rollaway, Heavyset, The Great Escape and many more, using such ordinary objects as coins, rubber bands and string.

This marvelous treasury of card magic presents the exact details of 155 professional card tricks that anyone can learn. The world's number-one card wizard, John Scarne, reworked an exciting series of classic card tricks to eliminate the need for sleight-of-hand. Simple instructions and clear diagrams illustrate Houdini's "Card on the Ceiling," Blackstone's "Card Trick Without Cards," Carlyle's "Piano Card Trick," Milton Berle's "Quickie Card Deal," and Scarne's own "Drunken Poker Deal" and "Knockout Card Trick." Scarne presents all tricks with advice on accompanying patter, offering helpful suggestions about the kinds of words and gestures that give performances a professional gloss. Introduction. Index.

These two great books of conjuring tricks: includes illusions, puzzles and stunts with 300 step-by-step projects for you to try, in over 2300 photographs. This title includes two fun and accessible step-by-step guides to more than 300 brilliant illusions, tricks, puzzles and stunts, including close-up magic and party tricks. Each fantastic trick is fully illustrated and expertly described, enabling you to amaze your audience with feats such as making someone levitate, walking through a postcard and defying gravity It includes a fascinating history of magic from its origins in ancient Egypt through the 19th and 20th centuries to today, featuring magicians such as David Copperfield and David Blaine. It provides more than 2300 specially-commissioned photographs that guide you through each illusion, trick and stunt, with information on preparation, patter and the performance itself. It is engagingly written by an expert, professional magician and member of 'The Inner Magic Circle'. Nothing delights and amazes more than brilliantly performed magic tricks and this comprehensive new box set contains everything the budding magician needs to put on a dazzling show. From the history of magic to card tricks, stage illusions and much more, these two expertly written books will help you to wow your friends and family. Step-by-step instructions show you how to perform each trick, and close-up secret views show exactly how each is done, along with tips on preparation and the patter you need to accompany it. With these books you can appear to have superhuman strength and x-ray vision, cut a volunteer in two, make everyday objects vanish and reappear, and restore torn-up paper napkins. It provides a special section on putting on a show provides invaluable advice on planning your performance, from selecting a venue to choosing running orders and sample programmes. This exciting and inspiring book collection will provide hours of entertainment for performer and audience alike!

Easy-to-master crowd-pleasing tricks, require a deck of cards and offer beginners experience in handling an audience. Instructions.

Hemingway's passion for Spain and for the bullfight is renowned. In Death in the Afternoon he shares the sights, the sounds, the excitement and, above all, the knowledge which fuelled his passion for the 'the emotional and spiritual intensity and pure classic beauty that can be produced by a man, an animal, and a piece of scarlet serge draped on a stick.' First published in 1932, Death in the Afternoon remains a classic for its historical account of the Corrida, for the stories of the great matadors, their banderilleros and picadors - the men who live every day with death - and for the stories of the bulls whose bravery is the primal root of the bullfight. Death in the Afternoon also contains some of the finest short stories Hemingway ever wrote, inspired by the intense life as well as the inevitable death of those hot, violent afternoons.

The Glastonbury Festival is the largest performing arts festival in the world, situated in the mythic Vale of Avalon, England. Now in its thirty-ninth year, up to two hundred thousand festivalgoers from all over the world will attend the festival over a four-day period.

Venetia Dearden has been documenting the people of the Glastonbury Festival since 2004. With the help of a professional portable photographic studio, her aim was to single out individuals and groups to capture the motives and personas that make up the fabric of Glastonbury. The result is an intimate and unique set of portraits that includes festivalgoers, stall holders, charity workers, organizers, and many of the celebrity performers. The huge volume of portraits generated over four years brilliantly captures fleeting moments of serenity amidst the surreal, swirling insanity that is Glastonbury.

The selection of performing artists in the book includes: Lily Allen, Amy Winehouse, Paolo Nutini, James Morrison, Leonard Cohen, Jay-Z, Shakin' Stevens, Jimmy Cliff, Joan Armatrading, Duffy, Richard Ashcroft, Paul Weller, The Who, Manic Street Preachers, Goldfrapp, Martha Wainwright, and many more.

Venetia Dearden, born 1975 in Somerset, England, has studied anthropology at Edinburgh University and photojournalism at the London College of Printing. She has documented social and humanitarian issues, producing features and facilitating workshops as a consultant for "Photovoice." Her work is published worldwide in such publications as "Vogue," "Wallpaper," "The Sunday Times Magazine," "W Magazine," "Harpers Bazaar," and "Stern," among many others. In 2008, she published her first book, "Somerset Stories Fivepenny Dreams" (Kehrer Verlag), portraying the region where she grew up.

For eight centuries the City of London has hosted one of the world's greatest public parades, as the newly elected Lord Mayor embarks on a procession through the heart of the City to the edge of Westminster, culminating in an oath of allegiance to the representatives of the Crown. This ancient tradition has become one of the most eagerly anticipated events in the London calendar, combining pageantry with carnivaleseque levity in a distinctly English blend of grandeur and irreverence. This book brings together a host of experts to provide a portrait of the Show across all periods and from a variety of different perspectives. The landmark locations such as the Guildhall and St Paul's, the regiments and livery companies with a proud history of participation in the Show, the Lord Mayor himself (more recently, herself) and his coach, barge, robes and banquet - all are here, as well as some of the fascinating ways in which the Show has been represented, from the paintings of Canaletto and the cartoons of George Cruikshank to the films of Alfred Hitchcock. This collectionof essays, beautifully illustrated with archive and newly commissioned photography, presents an engagingly kaleidoscopic vision of one of the nation's best-loved annual events.

This book shows how Carnival under British colonial rule became a locus of resistance as well as an exercise and affirmation of power. Carnival is both a space of theatricality and a site of politics, where the playful, participatory aspects are appropriated by countervailing forces seeking to influence, control, channel or redirect power. Focusing specifically on the Maltese islands, a tiny European archipelago situated at the heart of the Mediterranean, this work links the contrast between play and power to other Carnival realities across the world. It examines the question of power and identity in relation to different social classes and environments of Carnival play, from streets to ballrooms. It looks at satire and censorship, unbridled gaiety and controlled celebration. It describes the ways Carnival was appropriated as a power channel both by the British and their Maltese subjects, and ultimately how it was manipulated in the struggle for Malta's independence.

For a time, the Isle of Wight Festivals transformed a sleepy English island into the rock'n'roll capital of the world. From promoting a one-nighter in 1968, to raise funds for a local swimming pool, the young Foulk brothers were able to out-perform Woodstock, by signing the world-exclusive appearance of rock's poet laureate, Bob Dylan. The de facto leader of the counterculture had been hidden away in the artist-town of Woodstock, rarely seen after a motor cycle accident three years earlier. He turned his back on the eponymous festival, put there to persuade him to come out and play, but Dylan left for Europe on the day their event began. For the Foulk brothers - lacking experience, resources and time - the coup and ensuing public response was almost overwhelming, but with audacious bravado and steely determination they delivered the most awaited event of the era. Devotees from hippies to celebrities flocked to the Island from mainland Britain, Europe, the Americas and as far away as Australia. As well as changing the lives of Ray and his brothers the phenomenon played its part in a highly transformative period for Bob Dylan, in which the Isle of Wight remained his one and only full concert appearance in seven-and-a-half years.