Eugene Burger: Final Secrets — a review
Eugene Burger: Final Secrets
by Lawrence Hass and Eugene Burger
In January of 2020, my final book review for the Lyons Den at Magicana.com was of Eugene Burger: From Beyond by Lawrence Hass and Eugene Burger. Therein I discuss many of that book’s strengths. I encourage you to revisit that review, along with two other pieces I wrote about Eugene in my Take Two series at Magicana, “Two #6: Eugene Burger” and “Take Two #39: Saying Goodbye.[1] ”
Now, the last of the planned posthumous volumes has been released: Eugene Burger: Final Secrets. In it, all of Eugene’s magical secrets have now been told, and we need speculate no longer about this book’s contents, or the recording of Eugene’s complete magical legacy.
In a recent lengthy email correspondence with Larry Hass, he explained how the plan for the contents of the final two volumes was birthed. “… the first time I saw Eugene after assembling ‘the document’ of unpublished items—in July 2010—he read the document, put it down, and immediately said, ‘We have two books. The first one will use the title we have discussed, Eugene Burger: From Beyond, and the second one will be called Eugene Burger: Final Secrets.’ Just like that, it was done.”
Well, to be fair—just like that, it was conceived. Larry Hass had a lot more to do, and it is understandable that it took him a while to do it. Fortunately, promptly upon those decisions being made, the authors began a project of making extensive video records of the material, both in performance and explanation by Eugene. That effort turned out to provide tremendous resources enabling the thoroughness of the content in this last volume. And, as with From the Beyond, purchasers of the book also gain access to an invaluable archive of videos—27 in this case—for study and enhancement of the written explanations.
While there are some 17 tricks and routines described in Final Secrets, including many items that were part of Eugene’s regular repertoire, and including the very last routine he ever thoroughly explored and adopted for use (Ben Blau’s “Unfazed”), I am going to focus on two areas that comprise my greatest and most significant personal interest.
In 1985, Eugene Burger presented a limited number of workshops around the country—generally add-ons for lecture tour appearances—focused entirely on the subjects of psychological card magic and particularly on equivoque. He stopped doing these workshops within a year’s time because, as quoted in the new book, “The material was too good! I decided to save it for myself.” While in the 1990s he revised and updated the content for a new version of the workshop, presented on a limited basis, while he updated some items, he deleted all mention of one significant routine from these later classes.
I attended the original workshop in 1985, and I used a great deal of the material immediately in my job at the time as Magic Bartender at the Inn of Magic in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C. It’s possible that I actually took the workshop twice—I’m no longer certain, because I didn’t keep a record, and Eugene and I discussed the material so much over the years that it’s possible it only feels like I saw it more than once. And I have continued to use some of that material regularly ever since.
Also, as I wrote in my review of From the Beyond, “… many years ago, Eugene tipped a signature card routine to me, which I believe will appear in the second volume, but with the instruction that ‘You can only do it once I’m dead!’” We laughed together when he said that, but we also understood that it was spoken in earnest, a request I honored throughout his lifetime.
And so, I feel a deep connection with this material, and have been awaiting its publication with great curiosity, and even a touch of trepidation. I didn’t know how Final Secrets had been conceived. I didn’t know if all the material would be there. I did not know how it would be recorded.
It is no exaggeration to say that I am both pleased and profoundly relieved to find Final Secrets a fitting conclusion to the published body of Eugene Burger’s work.
One aspect of the conception of the posthumous books was that all the non-card material would be confined to this volume’s two predecessors. Hence Final Secrets is solely devoted to the subject of card magic—and while Eugene created many wonderful and important card routines over the decades of his performing and writing careers, this volume contains the work he valued the most. These are the routines he considered his greatest creations, and as well, his greatest secrets, which is why he kept much of this material to himself throughout much or the entirety of his lifetime.
The book essentially begins and ends with this most secret and signature material. The first routine in the book is entitled “Influence.” This is actually comprised of two tricks that Eugene developed at different times, and eventually combined into the version that appears here. The first part was taught in the original equivoque workshops, and then, as mentioned, removed, because it had become an important piece in Eugene’s repertoire. The effect is that of the classic Psychological Stop Trick, a version inspired by an idea of Ed Marlo’s that he dubbed “The Ace of Spades Trick.” This was arguably the best presentational idea that Marlo ever created, because it entailed both a clever presentation as well as a method for the classic Stop Trick[2]. When Eugene became aware of Marlo’s piece, he applied an ingenious innovation—namely having the spectator deal the cards themselves, and, significantly, from a face-up deck. Refining some of the psychological elements, Eugene also created a presentation built on the idea of a precognitive dream. I fell in love with this trick and promptly took it home from the workshop, and have used it ever since. But when Eugene began teaching his sessions on psychological card magic again, this was the trick he “scrubbed,” as Larry Hass recounts in Final Secrets.
In 1990, Eugene was introduced to a Bruce Bernstein item entitled “PSY-DECK,” with a similar plot but entirely different method. Eventually Eugene would combine this trick with the face-up Stop Trick, creating a signature routine entitled, “Influence.” While Eugene would frequently perform this routine for magicians as well as for the public, he rigorously kept their secret workings to himself. And indeed, this second part was the routine that Eugene would eventually tip to me—perhaps as early as the late ‘90s, but definitely in the totality of the two routines together by 2003—instructing me that I could use it, but not while he was still walking among us.
I had always cherished Eugene’s having gifted me with the secret of this routine, but I did not have a clear idea of how relatively generous or secretive he had been with it. In our recent email conversation about this, Larry Hass volunteered that, “Eugene told me you were one of the rare few he had shared ‘Influence’ with. I think that is really nice, and people should know it.” And when I passed along some additional details of the story, he added further that, “… it is interesting that he shared this routine so fully with you when he was protecting it from pretty much everyone.” I hope the reader will forgive my sharing this information (with Larry’s permission and encouragement), if only to allow me to explain how long I have been thinking about, and in many cases, using some of the most important material included in the pages of Final Secrets.
Larry speculates that there were many reasons Eugene might have shared the material with me, beyond the simple fact of our longstanding friendship. Another is that he could now talk about it with somebody! “Sometimes, secrets can be hard to keep,” as Larry remarked. But, too, Larry suggests that, given my active study and use of the workshop material, I would have fully appreciated what Eugene had accomplished in synthesizing this remarkable routine. By contrast, for example, I have already heard of one magician substituting a brutally heavy-handed method for one part of Eugene’s elegant methodology. To do this misses the point entirely of what renders this routine such layered artistic complexity, nuance and power. It’s a masterpiece, and it took many years to evolve—as such things do.
In fact, it is not my intention—far from it!—to encourage every reader to go out and try to duplicate this routine. While it took Eugene years to devise and polish it, and by doing so he has provided most of the heavy work in advance, still, these effects and handlings are subtle, delicate things, and will require a similar commitment, and insight, in order to try to make them suit you, and to garner the results that Eugene did in his performances. As published items now, what they provide above all are invaluable lessons in what it takes to create great magic, and in understanding all the countless fine points that can serve to move magic from stunts, to tricks, to—on occasion—profound mysteries. This is where the lessons in these pages are truly to be found.
And so, “Influence” opens the book, and what closes it is Part Five: Psychological Card Magic, consisting of two chapters: the first about Eugene’s approach to equivoque, the second specifically focused on Eugene’s version(s) of Dai Vernon’s “The Trick That Cannot Be Explained.”
Dai Vernon was the most influential sleight-of-hand magician of the 20th century, and in one of my many writings about Vernon—“Vernon’s Elegant Selected Card Magic” elsewhere on my blog—I discuss the range and breadth of the multiple arenas in which he was particularly interested and innovative. One of his fascinations was the methodology of multiple outs, a principle he was fooled by in his youth, as recounted by David Ben in his Dai Vernon: A Biography. Eventually, Vernon would provide what is unarguably the ultimate application of that principle, with the creation of what Lewis Ganson would dub “The Trick That Cannot Be Explained [TTCBE],” which Ganson described in Dai Vernon’s More Inner Secrets of Card Magic in 1960.
Vernon’s seminal routine has served as a study of fascination to a small coterie of magicians ever since, as the Vernon trick represents the epitome of psychological card magic, requiring fluid mastery of equivoque along with an expert set of skills with multiple outs. Many magicians play with these skills, often amid one another. But using them in the real world under fire is demanding, and their simple foundational principles are extremely challenging to actually master for real-world use.
Perhaps no one knows more about these subjects today—about both equivoque and the TTCBE—than Max Maven, who figures importantly in Final Secrets. Max used to “play” TTCBE frequently and at length with Vernon himself. And he has created two of the most important resources about these subjects in the realm of magic literature: his groundbreaking booklet, Verbal Control, written in 1976, and his outstanding 2010 instructional video, “Multiplicity.”
And throughout Final Secrets both authors make the fact clear that Eugene’s work with equivoque and TTCBE would not exist without Maven’s influence. Indeed, Eugene recounts that it was Max who first introduced Eugene to the Vernon trick. And then guided him through his study of the subject, as Eugene gradually evolved his own particular preferences, many elements of which came directly from Max (and can be found, in fact, on the “Multiplicity” disk).
Eventually, Eugene would work out his own approach to TTCBE, both in presentation and handlings, refining his preferences in his use of equivoque. Serious students who compare Maven and Burger’s respective approaches (along with that of Eric Mead, who offers some superb work in his book, Tangled Web) will discern distinct differences in their respective takes. Eugene’s approach—as in all his work—was relentlessly practical, consistent, predictable—a pet word of his, “tidy,” comes to mind. Whereas Maven (and Mead) take pleasure in the unpredictability and spontaneity of creating solutions on the spot, Burger was conservative in his choices in order to deliver the results he wanted, every time out.
No one approach is better or worse, but at these levels of expertise, all are interesting and warrant careful and thorough study for anyone who really intends to master the requisite skills. Whereas Maven and Mead continued more in line with what fascinated Vernon about performing TTCBE, Eugene’s focused approach delivered sharply honed material that was predictably consistent and polished.
I offer these thoughts for those new to these areas of study, and to make it clear that what comprises about 50 pages of Final Secrets is far from the last word on these subjects and material. Anyone who thinks they are going to read these few pages, watch the (invaluable) accompanying videos, and be instantly ready to effectively perform the routines will be disappointed and headed for potential failures. All these sources, along with those included in the book’s useful bibliography, should be studied in order to understand the principles, goals, and how the methods work in actual practice. Many may think that because these techniques are psychological and verbal, they are easier to master than advanced sleight of hand. Those individuals would be mistaken.
So, what’s to be found in these pages? Detailed instructions for how to do Eugene Burger’s key routine, along with several slight variations, of Dai Vernon’s Trick That Cannot Be Explained. In Eugene’s routine, which is performed entirely impromptu (and can be done with a borrowed deck), the spectator thoroughly shuffles and cuts a pack of cards. Then through a simple, clear and direct process, the spectator makes a series of choices that leave them with the selection of a single card. That spectator is then directed to look through the deck and remove that card’s mate. As the search proceeds unsuccessfully, Eugene announces, “It’s futile!” And then adds: “It’s in the box.” The spectator removes the card from the playing card box that has been in view the entire time.
Properly handled, this effect is nothing less than a hands-off, test conditions miracle.
However, there is more. Because even though Eugene narrowed his preferred methods down to a select group, nevertheless he utilized, and provides here, a wide enough variety so that with a slight variation in presentation (so as to conceal that it’s the same effect and general methodology), these tools can actually be repeated two or three times for the same audience—by an expert performer—without detection.
It has been said that equivoque is the purest form of deception, in that there is no method other than psychology and and the spoken word. This fact renders the methods difficult to thoroughly master; however, it also can deliver a result that is so deeply deceptive as to be impenetrable. And while some may find this a surprising claim, these are effects that can play the very strongest for the most difficult, uncooperative, challenging audiences, the ones determined to burn your hands and never be misdirected. These are tools with which you can utterly fry that particular spectator.
The methods are described in detail, and as well, there are multiple videos of Eugene performing the many different variants in real time. This is how Eugene liked to teach the routine—by showing the target card to all but the subject, and then performing the trick. Between the text descriptions and the supporting videos, you can come close to learning these techniques as Eugene taught them. However, I would add one small cautionary note, which is that many of these are recordings of demonstrations for magicians rather than full out performances for the public. The procedures are the same; however, when Eugene was actually performing this material, his tone and affect slightly altered, bringing a bit more gravitas to the experience. I don’t know that we really see a performance here in which newcomers can fully grasp the power of this effect. This is a routine that can, and should, leave a lasting impact on an audience.
That said, it is also worth pointing out that Eugene did not choose the make TTCBE a part of his formal shows. It was something he did separately, away from the show—a personal experience, be it for a layman or a magician. And he wrung every bit of impact out of it in these real-world performances. What these two closing chapters provide comprise a course of study in sophisticated methodologies; to capably apprehend them requires the seriousness and thoughtfulness that a genuine course of study—not just the explanation of a trick—in turn demands from the student.
In between these potent opening and closing chapters, the book presents not only 15 other routines, but also includes a suitably chosen and organized selection of essays, interviews and conversations, and other supporting materials, all of which are extremely appropriate to this very particular volume. I note with pleasure that a great deal of these commentaries come back to focusing on two issues I discussed in my review of From the Beyond. One is that Eugene Burger was a career performing professional—he was a genuine worker.[3] As Lawrence Hass writes, “… he started in the restaurants, bars, and lounges of Chicago, inspired by the venerable tradition of Chicago Close-up Magic.” The book’s lengthy introduction is required reading to put this volume, and indeed Eugene’s entire body of work, into clear context. I feel compelled to offer this substantial quotation from it (emphasis per original):
“There are many qualities at the heart of Eugene’s card magic that will come to light in the chapters ahead (for example, commercial, surprising, direct, and uncluttered), but these essential three mark the outside boundaries of the terrain: 1. Utterly deceptive, 2. Artistically presented, and 3. Psychologically subtle.”
These are the marks of a professional. These are the marks of a masterful magician. And these are traits that characterized his entire approach, and by which Eugene’s work should be identified, appreciated, and forever remembered.
And part and parcel of that—“artistically presented”—meant that Eugene emphasized the role of originality in the artistry of magic. Lest anyone think that Eugene gave you a pass on this fact within the pages of From the Beyond, go back and re-read Mastering the Art of Magic, The Performance of Close-up Magic[4], and The Experience of Magic—and think again, and then think some more. Eugene wrote: “Presentation is that point where you put yourself into your magic.” And: “Imitation is the attempt to put someone else into your magic.”
In addition to the presence of these elements throughout Final Secrets, there is also a careful and thorough approach to crediting; for example, and as mentioned, there are particularly significant credits to Max Maven. And part and parcel of this attention to crediting is a focus on the historical record, with many details provided of how Eugene came to certain ideas and tricks. Notably, for example, there is a segment devoted to Max Maven’s neo-classic routine, “B’Wave.” This is a trick that Eugene carried with him every day—and I will confess now that I have done the same for more years than I can remember[5]. Eugene would sell B’Wave at his workshops and many of his lectures, using it as an illustration of equivoque technique. Final Secrets contains his handout for B’Wave, including the details of his exact script and handling.
Also discussed is Eugene’s limited circulation non-gaffed method for B’Wave, a version he did for a time in the early 2000s primarily to “fool magicians with a trick they already knew.” He abandoned it however, recognizing all along that Maven’s original version, combining both psychological and gimmicked methods, is the superior, seamlessly deceptive approach. In preparing the book, Larry Hass was unable to locate any copies of Eugene’s original handout for this version, however Newell Unfried, a close friend and magic colleague of Eugene’s, provided a detailed reconstruction of the handling and script, based on his own recollection and use, having been personally instructed by Eugene.
And here is where I have a bit of news for students and aficionados of Eugene’s work and of the historical record. Upon learning the above facts from the pages of Final Secrets, I located my original copy of Eugene’s non-gaffed handling, which he had sent to me many years ago. Since if an original had been available to Larry Hass it would have certainly been included in the book, I have elected, with Larry’s permission and encouragement, to share this document and publish it on my blog in the near future.
I also shared with Larry several other details of Eugene’s equivoque workshops that did not make it into the book. As Larry Hass recounts, he did not attend the workshop on this material that Eugene presented for a brief period circa 1985, but constructed his presentation of what happened there from an audio recording of one workshop and other sources, first and foremost Eugene himself. Larry also mentions an underground manuscript about equivoque that Bob Farmer prepared that included detailed notes from Eugene’s workshop. Bob shared that manuscript with me at the time, and in return I provided further details and clarifications that I believe were eventually included in versions later than the one I received back then. In a separate blog post, therefore, I will share Eugene’s non-gaffed B’Wave sheet, along with a few other details and recollections of the workshop.
While I have not explicitly addressed every portion of the contents of Final Secrets, I do wish to mention a remarkable memorial piece written by Eugene’s friend, student, and physician, Ricardo Rosenkranz. I had not seen Ricardo's piece—entitled “The Last Lesson”—when he first publicly posted it online, and sadly I was unable to attend either of the memorials held in Chicago and Los Angeles. So I somehow managed to have entirely missed this moving essay until I read it in Final Secrets. On reading it at long last, I find myself grateful beyond measure that Eugene had such an insightful and empathetic partner in formulating and executing that last lesson plan. It is extremely clear, in Ricardo's elegant allusions to Eugene's work, that he truly understood both the work and Eugene himself. (You can also find it here: The Last Lesson.)
In all, Eugene Burger: Final Secrets serves as a fitting conclusion to Eugene Burger’s body of work and literature. At $120, the content is well and fairly valued in my estimation. And in fact, it is no exaggeration to say that there is material in its pages that if actually put to use is worth substantially, dramatically more than that asking price. It is hard to say farewell, yet again—but it is a comfort to know that now, and in the future, there are many who will come to these books, perhaps meeting Eugene Burger for the first time, ready to be transformed.
*
Eugene Burger: Final Secrets by Lawrence Hass and Eugene Burger (2021). 8½” x 11” hardcover with laminated dustjacket, 320 pages, plus a coated stock full-color section. Published by Art and Theory of Magic Press. Available online or from dealers for $120.
***
[1] As with the entire Take Two series, these pieces are accompanied by curated video clips.
[2] It had in fact drawn my own attention when it was first published in the Marlo Magazine volumes, and I adapted it into a three-phase routine in the mid-1980s, which I used at the Inn of Magic bar and also performed in close-up at the Joe Stevens convention in 1988.
[3] I am suddenly reminded that many years ago I booked Eugene for a huge event, for which I had brought in some eight or ten close-up magicians from around the country, to work in some of the most challenging conditions that can possibly be imagined, a jam-packed, brutally loud cocktail party with over a thousand attendees.
[4] Interestingly, Eugene remarks in a conversation in Final Secrets that he ended up feeling that The Performance of Close-up Magic was a weak book thanks to some of the material’s heavy reliance on thread work. I however think it a great book—I think the entire trilogy is truly great—but perhaps because at one time or another I used most of that thread material.
[5] The only time I have mentioned this publicly before this was the one time I taught a class on card magic at Mystery School, in response to a question.
