Learn Ventriloquism from the ground up as taught by a master: Technique, comedy, performance, equipment, promotion, and show business. "Al Stevens has written this wonderful new textbook on ventriloquism that any student - young or old, beginner or seasoned pro - will find of tremendous value. It covers not only the basics, albeit described in new ways and with delightful new twists, but it also contains advanced techniques and concepts for the serious student. In addition, it reveals deep insight into subjects rarely touched upon in other books on ventriloquism." From the Foreword by Tom Ladshaw

Self-described as "A Hilarious New Act, Wherein a Magician Rides the Washington Merry-Go-Round," Patent Pending focuses on the importance of having a well-thought-out magical routine.

A collection of 60 selected magical illusions drawn from 25 years of Tops Magazine.

All The Tricks And Secrets Of The Famous Herrmann Fully Explained And Demonstrated. Many Of The Tricks Are Easily Executed Without Apparatus.

Step right up to this eye-opening account of how circuses are scouted, produced, directed and ballyhooed - and forever reinventing themselves. Covering them all, from the Kings of the sawdust rings to the bottom feeder big tops, the author's unflinching candor and rich historical grasp may change forever how you view and experience the great spangled parade "Step right up for a visit to the American Circus There could be no finer guide than David Lewis Hammarstrom ... His passion for sawdust and spangles bubbles from every line but - a rarity among circus writers - he's as quick to point out the rubbish and rip-offs as the wonderful" -- THE STAGE, London "Fascinating ... Something we need in these changing times more than anything else." -- PLANET CIRCUS, Germany "Bold and ambitious ... Timely and provocative ... It is difficult to disagree with most of his views." -- CIRCUS REPORT, USA "Once in the audience, how can viewers evaluate what they see? ... A concise guide ... Hammarstrom's memories are vivid, and his enthusiasm is infectious" -- CHOICE "I eagerly read this book - as a circus arts performer and instructor I found it entertaining, and as an academic educator I found it very useful ... strikes a fun balance between history and gossip, critical guide and personal insights into the diversity that is the world of the modern circus show." -- ELSIE SMITH ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, NEW ENGLAND CENTER FOR CIRCUS ARTS "A thought-provoking book... how circus, particularly American circus, has changed and developed over the past 50 to 60 years, this book is packed with information and opinion." -- KING POLE, UK Penetrating ... Informative ... Takes us out of our comfort zones. THE WHITE TOPS "Roll up, while you still can, to the greatest show on earth 'fresh, alive, magical and compelling.' Along with the author of this fine volume, I urge you to buy tickets for the world of sawdust and spangles before it's too late and circuses go the way of steam trains." -- THE DAILY MAIL, London "Pay Attention ... A good show ... This engaging study functions as a sort of everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-the-circus-business-today-but-were-too-mildly-nostalgic- to-ask." -- SPECTACLE, USA

William L. Slout, circus historian par excellence, here provides six essays on the development of the American circus. "From Rags to Ricketts: The Roots of Circus in Early Gotham" looks at the beginnings of circus entertainment in old New York City during the eighteenth century. "The Great Roman Hippodrome of 1874: P. T. Barnum's 'Crowning Effort'" describes the great showman's grand experiment: the collection and display in the Big Apple of the "largest collection of living wild animals in the world." "The Recycling of the Dan Rice Paris Pavilion Circus" tells the story of an American circus entrepreneur who took his traveling show to Europe in 1867. "Strange Bedfellows: The Pogey O'Brien Interval, 1874-1875" relates how O'Brien partnered with P. T. Barnum to take the circus master's show on the road while Barnum was creating his "Great Roman Hippodrome." "Two Rings and a Hippodrome Track" demonstrates that the first two-ring circus mounted by Barnum (or anyone else) occurred in 1873, and not 1872, as previously supposed. Finally, "The Adventures of James M. Nixon, Forgotten Impresario," describes the career of a major circus manager who worked between the 1843-75, directly competing with Barnum for the same audience--and eventually losing the struggle. Slout's vivid accounts, highlighted by contemporaneous newspaper accounts of the excitement generated locally by these traveling shows, help bring a long-forgotten era alive again.

With Instructions For Using And Making The Ventrilo.

Dimitris Zafiropoulos' book is an introduction to the world of dolphins and whales of the Greek Seas as well as an identification and field guide. It includes information on their geographical distribution, on how to find, study and identify dolphins and whales that are regularly observed in Greek waters. The book is a result of Zafiropoulos' 12 years of field research, experiences and adventures; it's an account of close encounters with Striped Dolphins, a Fin Whale at Khorinthiakos Gulf, of fieldwork with the Bottlenose Dolphins of Amvrakikos, and of observations of the endangered Common Dolphins. Full of photographs and in-depth illustrations of dolphin and whale species, the guide is ideal for any one with the intention of having a close encounter with these animals either in Greek waters or abroad.

This delightful collection of easy-to-make puppets will be a boon to all parents, teachers and entertainers of children. The puppets are based on an ordinary household-size matchbox which enables them to have opening mouths. The pages are designed to photocopy on to A4 card, cut out and colour as fancy takes. With a choice of some sixty different characters there is something for all ages and abilities in these simple but clever constructions. The collection varies widely from a simple flower to the Minotaur, a whale to Henry VIII, octopus to Roman emperor, and a selection of characters which can be topical at different periods of the year - turnip lantern, Easter bunny, scarecrow, Father Christmas etc. The puppets have been designed by Alan and Brenda Stockwell who for over forty years toured primary schools throughout the UK and abroad with their educational puppet show conducting many puppet-making workshops for teachers. Now retired, they are placing their expertise in the hands of future generations. In 2000 Alan Stockwell was awarded an MBE for services to education, a rare honour for a professional puppeteer.

This book takes the student of magic on a magical journey to the other side of the glass, providing for an extensive study in magic theory as well as application --- all from the perspective of the classic Card through Window effect. As a beginner, intermediate or advance student, you'll learn the general framework for implementing your vision and the specific conceptual tools that you need to construct, refine and customize any magic effect (trick or illusion) to fit who you are as a performer. This book explains the overall dynamics of magic: misdirection, audience management, presentation, patter, performance psychology, degrees of deception, group dynamics and the list goes on. That's the theory. Yet, this book also nails down the mechanics, the nuts and bolt of various methods and techniques with details, real-world insights, and hard-learned lessons along with illustrations (of gaffs, gimmicks and sleights), diagrams, photos and video links. Table of Contents: Chapter 1: The Basic CTW Effect Chapter 2: History of: A Card in Flight Chapter 3: Conceptual Framework Chapter 4: Theme Variations Chapter 5: CTW Methods Chapter 6: Method 1: Plants Chapter 7: Method 2: Assisted Plant Chapter 8: Method 3: Gimmicks, Gaffs & Apparatus Chapter 9: Method 4: Sleights for Impromptu Performances Chapter 10: Types of Windows Chapter 11: Adhesives- Types and Usage Chapter 12: Misdirection Techniques

This 1944 book of card tricks focuses on simplicity, quick results, a minimum of skill, and audience appeal. Included are: This Card Gets Around, Back Up ; New Ace Control; Military Mixup; Delayed Discovery; Hindu Slop Shuffle; Perfect Prediction; What a Coincidence ; Tell How It's Done; W.W. Color Change; Miracle Discovery; Numerical Discovery; and Instantaneous Four Ace Transposition.

Semiotics is long on theoretical, often obscure discourses, but short on applications that demonstrate with clarity the applicability of its methods. This book confronts a challenging object, the circus, and endeavors to describe its performances in ways that explain how circus acts produce meaning and cause a deep emotional involvement for their audiences. The approach is not top-down, such as would be a method that would dogmatically apply a particular theory to fully explain the phenomena in terms of this theory alone. Epistemologically, this book is an example of the bottom-up strategy, which consists of considering first the objects and heuristically calling upon methodological resources in a broad theoretical array to come to grips with the problems that are encountered. Any circus act is a complex event that has cognitive and emotional dimensions. It is also a part of a history and an institution, and cannot be abstracted from its cultural and sociological contexts. Thus the range of relevant theoretical and methodological approaches must include structural semiotics, biosemiotics, pragmatics, socio-semiotics, cultural anthropology, the cognitive sciences, the psychology and sociology of emotions, to name only the most important. But the ultimate focus of this book is to enable the readers to better understand the meaning of circus performances and to appreciate the skills and creativity of this traditional popular art, which constantly renews itself from generation to generation.

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

The puppet creates delight and fear. It may evoke the innocent play of childhood, or become a tool of ritual magic, able to negotiate with ghosts and gods. Puppets can be creepy things, secretive, inanimate while also full of spirit, alive with gesture and voice. In this eloquent book, Kenneth Gross contemplates the fascination of these unsettling objects--objects that are also actors and images of life.

The poetry of the puppet is central here, whether in its blunt grotesquery or symbolic simplicity, and always in its talent for metamorphosis. On a meditative journey to seek the idiosyncratic shapes of puppets on stage, Gross looks at the anarchic Punch and Judy show, the sacred shadow theater of Bali, and experimental theaters in Europe and the United States, where puppets enact everything from Baroque opera and Shakespearean tragedy to Beckettian farce. Throughout, he interweaves accounts of the myriad faces of the puppet in literature--Collodi's cruel, wooden Pinocchio, puppetlike characters in Kafka and Dickens, Rilke's puppet-angels, the dark puppeteering of Philip Roth's Micky Sabbath--as well as in the work of artists Joseph Cornell and Paul Klee. The puppet emerges here as a hungry creature, seducer and destroyer, demon and clown. It is a test of our experience of things, of the human and inhuman. A book about reseeing what we know, or what we think we know, "Puppet" evokes the startling power of puppets as mirrors of the uncanny in life and art.

Follow the adventures, romances, and tragedies of Georgian men and women who were seduced by the promise and opportunity of making a living in America. Their thrilling feats of horsemanship captured the imagination of the American cowboys to become the gold standard of trick riding through today. Join us as we pull back the canvas and peek behind the scenes into the lives of those who felt both honored and cursed. Author Richard Georgian chronicles the the lives of these brave performers, including his grandfather, from 1892 to the Russian Revolution in 1917.

All The Tricks And Secrets Of The Famous Herrmann Fully Explained And Demonstrated. Many Of The Tricks Are Easily Executed Without Apparatus.

This is the story of the Golden Age of magic and of the world's most legendary magicians: the eccentric personalities who patented the first ghost and competed fiendishly in the race to make things materialize, levitate and disappear. We meet Harry Kellar, the ruthless thief of secrets who was the model for the Wizard of Oz, and PT Selbit, the first man to saw a woman in half on stage. We meet John Nevil Maskelyne, whose Egyptian Theatre was a London institution for sixty years. Hiding the Elephant is the masterwork of a man who has dedicated his life to magic, who knows the tricks inside out, and still believes.

This book is a practical guide for clowning. It is filled with tools and techniques that will help you find your clown and become more open to your creative sources. The author examines and makes use of the powerful qualities that children possess: imagination, innocence, purity, spontaneity and lust for life. A clown is playful and optimistic. From behind world's smallest mask, the red nose, he invites people to drop their own masks and show their true selves. Being very sensitive, he is able to touch them deeply. This so-called contact clown wants to make a connection from heart to heart. Kurstjens is convinced that clowns can play a crucial role in our society: they can bring people together through their open communication. This richly illustrated book comes with 25 practical exercises, and provides useful information about essential themes in life: setting boundaries, overcoming emotional blockades, and daring to be vulnerable. It is not only meant to inspire clowns and clowning instructors, but also coaches, (communication) trainers, and everyone else who is interested in personal development. Ton Kurstjens (born in the Netherlands, 1959) started as an improvising clown in 1983. He played in Duo Het Elftal and Duo Biek and currently he conducts clowning courses for individuals and workshops for businesspeople. He also directs the clowning theatre performance Met de Neus op de Planken (literally: With your Nose on Stage) and he supports clowns and clowning groups.

Mark St Leon presents a comprehensive, entertaining and visually stunning history of circus in Australia. His interest was sparked by his insatiable curiosity about his own familys celebrated past in Australian circus.

With Instructions For Using And Making The Ventrilo.

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

The culmination of more than thirty years of research, Olympians of the Sawdust Circle is an attempt to identify every major and minor player in the American circus world of the nineteenth century. This A-Z guide lists: surname, given name, dates of birth and death (if known), type of entertainment (and function) with which the individual was associated, and the companies and dates by whom the person was employed. Every researcher and library interested in American circus history will need this seminal guide. An absolutely astonishing piece of scholarship.