“Regardless of your age or magic experience, if you’ve ever thought about magic as a profession, you need this book. Highly recommended.”
- Michael Close
“Assassin is just too good to share with new generations… I Just want to have it for myself… If I would just have known about this book 40 years ago, to save time… But really, You give them far too much… it’s pure gold…”
- Gaetan Bloom
“If you want to develop a show and make a good living doing a hard job then you should invest in this master class on magic.”
- Norman Beck, MUM book reviewer
“This is a master work written by a stone cold pro who’s done it all. Invaluable golden info and inspiration for any magician looking to up their game.”
- Paul Harris
“In ASSASSIN Steve Spill lays out, with astonishing clarity, the process of developing and refining performance material that is novel, authentically you, and strong enough to kill. He also shares lethal material. This is a must read for anyone who performs stand-up magic.”
- Nathan Coe Marsh, Genii Magazine Book Reviewer
“The information Assassin contains is powerful, and the material is unique, I highly recommend this book and give it a 5-star rating.”
- Nick Lewin, Vanish Magazine.
“Real world advice for magicians who want to create in the real world. If you ever want to step on stage as a magician, this is the book you need: along with bullet-proof advice, every one of the newly published routines is a killer. Highly recommended.”
- Jack Shalom
“I had a ball reading this. It’s fascinatingly bipolar: a wealth of solid advice and experience, whilst at the same time a collection of barking magic. Thank goodness for the likes of Steve Spill.”
- BoB Gill, Magic Circular
“Steve is one of the greatest and “workingest” magicians who has ever lived, and he lays out how we can pursue similar goals. It blows my mind that this resource is available to us. Inspirational and packed with tangible business and creative advice, this book is gold.
If you like great magic books, or more pertinently, if you’re in the process of building or growing your career (or if you’re trying to create your own unique magic), buy this book and thank me later.”
- Alyx Hilshey
Overview
If you’ve followed my career, been to my shows, or read my previous books, I wrote ASSASSIN just for you.
It’s a 260 page turner hardcover that can advance your career, both artistically and lucratively, either to take you to the next level or to get you back on track. Whatever the case, over the last five decades I’ve been there, and in terms of what I know, no stone has been left unturned. Some think, “Only a few special people can make it.” There are only a handful of Penn & Tellers and Copperfields in this world, but there are moderately successful magicians who live amazing lives. You can be one of them.
If you are a competent performer and need a full calendar of gigs, a residency, or want to own your own theater – be like me and get those things… my step-by-step guide, from real-life experience instead of theory, encompasses one-third of this book. Some readers will only be interested in audience-tested material they can do to bring laughs and surprises, included are these twelve little gems right here…
THIRD EYE
A lot of mentalism seems to be about suggesting it’s the art of suggestion or that one has a sharply developed sense of non-verbal communication or other psychological or scientific influence or precognitive ability. You can’t say that about this merrymaking wonderworker that features a telepathic fish expiration date projector, cleverly disguised as an ordinary flashlight. What can be said, without giving everything away, is that audiences will tell you they had no idea you were this amazing and amusing. A thing of real beauty that’s real magic and real funny. Another plus, this routine also makes use of a real fake fish eye.
LOVE LETTER
A prediction that’s not a magician’s prediction-comes-true scenario. It’s all about a twist in time, a clumsy mistake in the postal system. You received a yellowed-with-age love letter from the year 1914. Even though they’d be well over a hundred-years-old today, you wish you could find the person it was written to. Instead an unintended reverse forecast, fortune telling from the past thing happens, involving members of your audience. Though not my intention, someone once told me this trick was proof of reincarnation.
ENZYMES
In this experiment, plastic eating enzymes devour a borrowed credit card into nothingness which reappears, restored, in a gift-wrapped box of Cracker Jack.
CHOKER
A Public Service Announcement about how to save a restaurant choking victim that finishes with the surprise appearance of a large bottle of wine.
YOUR TOASTER IS EVIL
Your toaster – that burns everything – has a bad influence on your empty microwave, from which appear multiple cans of burnt vegetables and a real live burnt bunny rabbit.
WEAPONIZED DENTURES
If you are looking for a good holiday themed routine to add to your act, you might consider a Santa hat that doubles as a change bag or a trick about Rudolph. This is neither of those things. What we have here is a chattering teeth card revelation that tells a holiday story which is absolutely completely different in both script and effect to Terry Seabrook’s chattering teeth card revelation.
CUBISM
Solving a Rubik’s Cube as a magic trick does not, aesthetically, appeal to me. But this little caper does, because it’s a mystery with a painting of an unsolved Rubik’s Cube, done with crayons, by Picasso.
JAVA SCRIPT
Nothing to do with a programming language that is one of the core technologies of the World Wide Web, this is a recurring bit of connective tissue to tie your show together with a Thermos that’s constantly proved empty, but repeatedly replenishes itself, and ultimately fills nine clear mugs with black coffee.
TOXIN
A quick infomercial about the new Toxins from Around the World Collection. Those who do this routine demo the first offering, Nuclear Waste, by multiplying their fingers which glow and are eaten and then blow into their thumbs and grow giant ten-inch mutant fingers.
PINK FLAMINGO
There was a time – for real – when I was a fashion show MC, that’s when this bit with invisible accessories was tailored. The surprise climax happens when a lit candle – used for meditative purposes – transforms into the exact color and design of an invisible pocket square imagined by a spectator. Here’s the routine intro, “When I started in the comedy magic game, every magician wore a tuxedo, and every comedian wore a T shirt and jeans. In terms of fashion, as a comedy magician, I was a wardrobe half breed… one foot in each craft… until I met a stylist…”
HAIRLESS WONDER
A striking practical example of a one-off special routine developed for a corporate event that’s a how-to object lesson, done with photo blow-ups of famous women you didn’t know were actually bald. Their names are – Oprah, Cher, Britney Spears, Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Dolly Parton.
BARNACLES
A unique method and presentation for the classic Chess Knight’s Tour.
Hardcover book available now.
- USA: $125 plus $8 shipping/handling – $133
- International orders: $125 plus $25 shipping/handling – $150