Performing Magic

This entertaining and sharply written guide - for both beginners breaking into comedy and professionals seeking to improve their sets and advance their careers - examines the work of great comedians such as Louis C. K., Jerry Seinfeld, Eddie Izzard, Moms Mabley, Hannibal Buress, Sarah Silverman, Richard Pryor, and more as a means of illustrating the most important techniques of performing and writing stand-up.

The door to magic is closed, but it’s not locked. And now Joshua Jay, one of the world’s most accomplished magicians, not only opens that door but brings us inside to reveal the artistry and obsessiveness, esoteric history, and long-whispered-about traditions of a subject shrouded in mystery. In 52 short, compulsively listenable essays, Jay describes how he does it, whether it’s through the making of illusions, the psychology behind them, or the way technology influences the world of magic.

In The Magic, Rhonda Byrne reveals life-changing knowledge about the power of gratitude that was hidden within a 2,000-year-old sacred text. Then, on an incredible 28-day journey, she teaches you how to apply this life-changing knowledge in your everyday life, completely transforming every aspect of your life into joy.

For over 300 years, a curse has kept the Owens family from love - but all of that is about to change. The novel begins in a library, the best place for a story to be conjured, when beloved aunt Jet Owens hears the deathwatch beetle and knows she has only seven days to live. Jet is not the only one in danger - the curse is already at work. A frantic attempt to save a young man’s life spurs three generations of the Owens women, and one long-lost brother, to use their unusual gifts to break the curse as they travel from Paris to London to the English countryside.

If you read a standard history of magic, you learn that it begins in ancient Egypt with the resurrection of a goose in front of the Pharaoh. You discover how magicians were tortured and killed during the age of witchcraft. You are told how conjuring tricks were used to quell rebellious colonial natives. The history of magic is full of such stories, which turn out not to be true. Behind the smoke and mirrors, however, lies the real story of magic.

Available only in audio, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald - Makers, Mysteries and Magic lifts the lid on the moviemaking secrets behind the latest installment in J.K. Rowling's Fantastic Beasts series. Narrator Dan Fogler (who plays No-Maj Jacob Kowalski) will guide you through the process of creating the magical on-screen world and explore the story, themes, and characters of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.

Hot on the heels of Gardner Dozois's acclaimed anthology The Book of Swords comes this companion volume devoted to magic. How could it be otherwise? For every Frodo, there is a Gandalf... and a Saruman. For every Dorothy, a Glinda... and a Wicked Witch of the West. What would Harry Potter be without Albus Dumbledore... and Severus Snape? Figures of wisdom and power, possessing arcane, often forbidden knowledge, wizards and sorcerers are shaped - or misshaped - by the potent magic they seek to wield.

Drawing on decades of research around the world - touching on the first known horoscope, a statue ordered into exile, and the mystical power of tattoos - Gosden shows what magic can offer us today and how we might use it to rethink our relationship with the world. Magic is an original, singular, and sweeping work of scholarship, and its revelations will leave a spell on the listener.

There are solo magicians today who are making over $20,000 per performance, while those in the big leagues routinely bring in over $20 million a year. How did they get there and what are the keys to their success? What skills and techniques do they possess and deploy that can be easily adapted for your own personal use? In this audiobook, you will learn of the key attitudes and practices that propel their success, as well as the path they have paved for other magicians and performers hoping to gain an entry into this competitive yet lucrative industry.

The White Dinner is a love poem to friendship, joy, elegance, and the monuments of Paris. And each year it is an unforgettable summer night, especially for Jean-Philippe Dumas, a longtime participant, and the three couples he's carefully selected to attend this exclusive and cherished event. Interweaving the stories of seven individuals, lives will be forever changed on the eve of one such White Dinner; a night that will lead to new friendships, new love, and of course, magical possibilities.

Comedy is king. From multimillion-dollar TV specials to sold-out stand-up shows and TikTok stardom, comedy has never been more popular, democratized, or influential. Comedians have become organizing forces across culture—as trusted as politicians and as fawned-over as celebrities—yet comedy as an art form has gone under-considered throughout its history, even as it has ascended as a cultural force.

In this short work by the noted lecturer and mystic, Manly P. Hall explores the differences between black and white magic, guiding fellow occultists away from those practices which damage the spirit and lead to the loss of the soul. An essential part of any occultist's library.

Let's be honest - nobody has more fun than atheists. Don’t believe it? Well, consider this: For nonbelievers, every day you’re alive is a day to celebrate! And no one celebrates life to the fullest like Penn Jillette - the larger, louder half of legendary magic duo Penn & Teller - whose spectacularly witty and sharply observant essays in Every Day Is an Atheist Holiday! will entertain zealots and skeptics alike.

Hawk Koch is a renowned film producer who has served as president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He has produced some of the most iconic films of all time, including The Way We Were, Chinatown, Heaven Can Wait, Gorky Park, and Wayne’s World, among many others. He was born into the business, the son of legendary Howard W. Koch, who ran Frank Sinatra’s production company, was head of Paramount Studios, and was president of the Academy. Growing up, Hawk was dealt an immense amount of privilege.

Writing as an ordinary mother as well as a best-selling author and internationally respected literacy expert, Fox explores when and where to read aloud and demonstrates with clear, easy-to-follow examples how to read aloud to best effect and how to get the most value and joy out of a read-aloud session. Filled with practical advice, activities, and inspiring true read-aloud miracles, this audiobook is a must for every parent - and for anyone who would like to know more about how children learn to read.

Cameron Powell has always struggled with goodbyes. On the day his marriage ends, he finds out his mother's cancer has returned, and this time, there may be no escape. Faced with the prospect of more chemo and surgery, his German-born mother, Inge, vows to conquer a 500-mile trek across Spain, and Cameron pushes aside his fears to walk by her side.

In Magic. You Are It. Be It, Gary Douglas and Dr. Dain Heer share processes, tools, and points of view that you can use to create consciousness and magic - and change your life in ways you may not even be able to imagine. Magic is about the fun of having the things you desire. In a larger way, magic is about consciousness - not the addendum to your life, it's consciousness as your life. You can function from consciousness every moment you're alive. When you do, your life becomes truly magical, and there's nothing you can't generate.

Meryl Streep, Marlon Brando, Anthony Hopkins, Carey Mulligan. When we watch these remarkable actors in a performance, we see only Sophie, Stanley Kowalski, Hannibal Lecter, or Cassie from Promising Young Woman. How are they able to transform our world in this way? How and why do they do what they do? In Acting Naturally, David Thomson sheds light on the actors who have shaped the film industry. He shrewdly analyzes these stars, revealing how a sly smile, an extra-long pause, even a small gesture of the hand can draw in an audience.

Peter Shapiro is perhaps the most notable independent concert promoter since Bill Graham. He owned the legendary Wetlands in Tribeca and has gone onto much bigger things, including Brooklyn Bowl (NYC, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, and Nashville), the Capitol Theatre in Portchester, producing U2 3D, and promoting the Grateful Dead's 50th anniversary tour ("Fare Thee Well") featuring the Core Four and Trey Anastasio... and so much more. In The Music Never Stops, Shapiro shares the inside story of how he became a tremendous powerhouse in the music industry

Jonathan Taplin’s extraordinary journey has put him at the crest of every major cultural wave in the past half century. His is a lifetime marked not only by good timing but by impeccable instincts - from the folk scene of Woodstock, to Hollywood’s rebellious film movement and beyond, Taplin is not just a witness but a lifelong producer, the right-hand man to some of the greatest talents of both pop culture and the underground. The Magic Years is both a rock memoir and a work of cultural criticism from a key player who watched a nation turn from idealism to nihilism.