Onward into 2025
Thank *you* for an awesome 2024
It’s not just me being friendly when I say “thank you” for 2024. Without you, this newsletter wouldn’t exist. I’m incredibly grateful for each readthrough, like, share, and membership. I appreciate the opportunity to grow my skills as a writer and share valuable book content with you.
In this issue of the digest, I’m sharing some of the highs (and lows) of the year from Erudite Magic, a new book on my radar, and a grouping of tricks that I think works well together. There’s even a surprise get-together at Magifest I’m announcing. Let me know as we head into 2025 what you’d like to see from the Erudite Magic Digest!
Erudite Magic 2024
What went well
We hit several new records on the channel, and over the course of the year, almost every metric was positive versus the year before:
Subscribers: +20% (1,089 vs. 904)
Views: +14.5% (193,595 vs. 169,047)
Hours watched: +16.9% (15,145 vs. 12,958)
That last statistic always blows me away. The average American accounts for 2,080 hours during the workyear (40 hours per week x 52 weeks per year). That means that if I employed people to watch the content I’m generating, I would have had to hire more than 7 people to watch my videos full time. That’s up a whole full-time person from last year, so thank you again!
The most popular entry this year was my hidden gems video with almost 5k views. I enjoyed making this style of content, and it seems to have resonated with a lot of viewers. We’ll definitely replicate this going forward. If you liked it, consider sharing your favorite hidden gem with me, and you could be credited in my next video!
Episodes have been consistently crossing 1,000 views within 24 hours of going live, which I consider a major accomplishment (according to YouTube, fewer than 14% of all YouTube videos garner more than 1,000 views in their lifetime). It certainly means you’re finding value in the content I’m creating, which is incredibly gratifying.
Missing some beats
2024 was one of my busiest years ever on a personal level, so I did not publish as much content as 2023. I published 14% fewer videos (43 vs. 50). I think it surprises me that I put out 7 fewer, but I was pretty comfortable with the cadence.
As much as I love producing video content, I’ve also realized that it’s healthy for me to take some breaks. It’s quite a bit of work to produce each episode, without even counting the time it takes to absorb the content in order to have something to say about it.
It typically takes me around 6-ish hours of work to produce an episode: I have to fashion a script, set up the primary shot, film b-roll (the peeks inside the book), and then edit.
Editing takes the most amount of time, particularly since I have a style that I’ve developed over 4+ years. Adding shots of the book that tie in with what I’m saying, obtaining performance footage, overlaying text, and creating miscellaneous shots that help convey the story I’m telling take a significant amount of time. It’s all a labor of love, but thought I’d share some of the BTS knowledge with you.
What’s coming
I plan to output videos in 2025 at approximately the same cadence as 2024. I’ll continue to experiment with formats and topics, but you can still expect book discussions to be the backbone of the channel, and I’ve got some great ones on deck for Q1.
As we approach five years of talking about books together, I’m making big plans to celebrate. There’s still a lot of planning to go, but I can tell you that it will include my first ever livestream with special guests, giveaways, and more. Stay tuned for further discussion on this subject, but I’m putting it on your radar that we’re going to celebrate together.
Magifest
Speaking of special events, I want to schedule our first ever Magifest get together for just a few weeks from now. I will be in attendance at this delightful Midwest convention on January 23-25, 2025, and I thought it would be fun to put together a little party for the Erudite Magic insiders (that’s you!).
The plan is to have coffee, showcase some new VI books, do some giveaways, and even share a quick “make your own pocket notebook.” Plus, I want an opportunity to meet you and discuss magic books.
Be thinking about your 60 second pitch to get me to read your favorite magic book. I’m going to film some short snippets for the channel while there, and if you come prepared with your opinion, you might just make it into an episode.
Regardless, I’m looking forward to our first ever Erudite Magic meetup. More details to come soon, but help me spread the word.
Mike Close publishes a book
Shortly before Christmas, I became aware of the hardbound compilation of Mike Close’s Workers 1-5 compendium. Of course, it immediately went on my Christmas list since I don’t own the originals and they’re getting harder and harder to find.
Mike knows what he’s talking about when it comes to commercial close-up magic. After all, he’s been performing magic professionally since 1978, and he didn’t even put pen to paper for Workers 1 until 1990. Lucky for us, once he started writing, he continued sharing his professional routines through five volumes and six more years.
This isn’t the first time these previously individual books have been offered together. No, they’ve been offered as a collective ebook for some time now. However, this hardbound offering is new, and knowing you like I do, I thought you’d want to know about this format.
It feels like this collection is a bargain, even if the original sources are 30+ years old. The originals sold for a variety of prices depending on the size and material:
Workers Number 1 (1990): 36 pages & 5 entries, illustrated by Chris Kenner - $20
Workers Number 2 (1991): 52 pages & 18 entries, illustrated by Chris Kenner and Homer Liwag - $20
Workers Number 3 (1993): 138 pages & 36 entries, illustrated by Homer Liwag - $42
Workers Number 4 (1994): 66 pages & 23 entries, illustrated by Robert D. Michaels - $20
Workers Number 5 (1996): 167 pages & 62 entries, illustrated by Susan Kern - $40
If you’re disinclined to do math when you’re reading a magic newsletter, I’ve done it for you. The total if you bought the originals as they came out was $142, and those were comb/spiral bound. This new volume is hardbound, self-published through Amazon.com, and is $100 shipped.
I’m excited to dive into these modern classics. I’ve read many works that reference Mike’s magic, but never the sources themselves. I’ll try to keep you posted on what I find there, but in the meantime, if you have some holiday cash burning a hole in your pocket, these could be worth a look…
Magic’s True Colors
I’ve already announced this weekend’s review: Asi Wind’s Repertoire II. I’m not going to touch on that here, but I will point out a synergy I discovered while revisiting the first volume and connecting it with another effect I like to perform. It makes a tidy little routine, and I hope you’ll take this initial idea even further.
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