Roberto Giobbi is one of my favorite magic artists and writers. His bibliography is amazing. Like many I discovered him from his encyclopedic work, Card College; however my favorites are Sharing Secrets and Stand Up Card Magic. I was recently gifted Confidences which I haven’t fully studied yet.
Roberto has maintained a blog, Magic Memories, on his website under the title of News for years. It might be news but it’s also filled with stories, observations, and occasional tricks and moves. It was weekly for years. He switched to monthly this year. It’s well worth your time.
Today’s entry is on the recent FISM convention in Torino, Italy. Roberto leaves the details to others, focusing on his personal experience. While discussing the dealers, he said the following which I found echoes my thoughts and experience.
A lot of it nowadays is based on some kind of electronics, an app that works over your phone, etc. Many of these items are in my opinion completely useless, as you can obtain a similar effect – sometimes even exactly the same effect – with much simpler and infallible means. The real magic of such items to me is the fact that the dealers can convince someone to buy the product… The problem I see with many (not all, of course) of these products is that they work very much like the method a layperson suspects. This is by no means the “Too Perfect Theory”, rather the “Too Direct and Obvious Method Theory”. I know you would like me to name some of these products, but it has never been my intention to harm other people or to take away the illusion from buyers that they have acquired a beautiful toy 🙂
Still, I am slightly disappointed to see that someone will spend hundreds of Dollars to get what is essentially one single “trick”, instead of buying a book or a DVD that has dozens of miracles, often well-explained, and that teach a lot more beyond the mechanics of a trick. I am not envious, as this is a feeling I do not have, but when I see how certain lecturers do some mediocre magic and then sell out on their wares that most people will never use, well, it makes me a bit sad.
Roberto Giobbi, The Magic Memories 211, gone online Sunday, August 3rd, 2025
