• Production of a large (16 lb) rabbit in the middle of a nightclub floor.
• Floating a large rabbit about the stage and then vanishing it into mid-air!
• A bird appears in clear plastic tube.
• Twentieth Century Silk performed not once, but THREE times in a row!
• The destruction of a borrowed watch and its restoration.
• The inside workings of Tony's box and tips:
  • Setting up the Act
  • Rehearsing the Act
  • A walk-through of the Act
  • Care and handling of Rabbits and other livestock
  • Tony gives good advice
  • Tony take you behind the scenes of performing magic on the road for 40 years.
• PLUS: A slight history of the nightclub and early TV era as told by Tony Marks, his wife, Rosita, and friends: Jay Marshall, George Boston, Dr. John Booth, Jack Kodell, Billy Bishop, Don Arthur and Bev Bergeron, editor.

Contents Include:

• The Night Club Era 
• How This Book Was Assembled 
• From Vaud Through Night Clubs to Casuals 
• Tony Speaks 
• The Act
• As the Audience Sees it 
• Encore 
• Tony Gives Good Advice 
• Tails 
• The Box Table 
• Bird in Tube Explanation 
• Paper Bags Preparation 
• The Bare Bones of Twentieth Century Silk 
• Newspaper Tear Construction and Preparation
• Tearing the Paper 
• The Rabbit Bag 
•  The Floating Rabbit 
• Loading & Props 
• Actual Performance 
• Inside Tips on the Act
• The Magician’s Rabbit 
• Rosita Tells How it is to Troupe With Rabbits The Stars of the Act
• Watch Trick 
•  Music in the Act 
• Tony Marks the Man
•  Don Arthur Remembers Tony 
• Further Study 
• Up My Sleeve 
• Final

A REVIEW 

As reviewed on the Denny & Lee Magic Studio website, in May of 2002.


You know, there are times when a book is printed and you hold it in your hands and begin reading. When you are through, you hold the book against your chest, sigh, and say a silent "thank you" to the author of the book. This is one of those books. 

Tony Marks was a very successful stage and night club performer. In this book, Tony breaks down his entire act and teaches you step by step the act that kept him a working performer throughout his entire career. BUT, this book goes a lot further. In his description of his act, he talks about the timing, the pauses, the "takes," the pacing of the act, the routining, etc. These are the things that make an act. Sure the tricks are good but it's the other things that make it a successful act. 

If you are a stage performer this 120-page hardbound book is a true lesson in what it takes to make your act work. Every detail is here. Tony Marks worked in the classic style. He did a complete act with a single "box" table and worked from that alone. The act consisted of the true classics in magic: Card Manipulation, Cigarettes, Silks, Vanishing Cane, Doves, Silks, Torn & Restored Newspaper, Thimbles, and finally the Production of the largest Live Rabbit you have ever seen. All of this was done in the middle of a night club floor. The act was strong and structured correctly. At times he would add the Borrowed Watch in Nest of Boxes. This is also included complete with his great presentation and patter lines. Every detail from the holders, the secret loads in the tails, the routines, and the thought behind the act. 

This is "real" show business all in one book. It's what the business is all about. If you work on stage or WANT to work on stage, I recommend this book highly!!!!   -- Denny Haney
 

Details: Tony Marks - Aristocrat of Deception

120 pages, hardbound, size 8 1/2" by 11 1/4".