Mainspring

At its core, Mainspring is a deep exploration of a concept first introduced by Dai Vernon. When he said “be natural”, what did he really mean? Mainspring takes a stab at answering the question.
Filled with handling adjustments, exercises, stories, and essays, this handbook is a must-read for any serious card magician. It will help you remove tension from your sleight of hand, communicate presence, and, most importantly, get out of your own head. While there are no magic tricks taught, the impact it will have on your overall magic journey goes well beyond another book filled with tricks.
The contents of Mainspring expand outside of magic and speak to the permeability of the creative worlds. It’s a showcase of how the motivators that drive magicians are also similar to those that lie at the core of all arts. Factors like state of mind, our relationship to our audiences and to our material, battling nerves and the opinions of our peers, our work ethic, etc. Many of the ideas are built from countless conversations with magicians, painters, cinematographers, skateboarders, musicians, theatre directors and the like.