Submitted by Jamy Ian Swiss on
When I began writing for Magicana in October of 2016, I was contracted to contribute a monthly book review or essay. Shortly afterwards the concept of Take Two occurred to me (but not the title, which was eventually contributed by David Ben): namely to write a magic-focused series of video curation, accompanied by essays of art appreciation.
A few months later, in my “Prologue: A Belated Mission Statement,” I provided a description of my vision for the concept. By December of 2017 I had (somehow!) produced fifty-two such pieces. I confess that I am pleased with the output, as I look them over now.
Take Two #71 about Ed Marlo, comprises my concluding installment here at Magicana. Although at times I would be frustrated by a lack of sufficient available video sources about some potential subject, a situation that could prevent me from profiling performers I thought worthy of my readers’ attention, nevertheless I would always find another option, or ten. At the top of my pending short list, for example, are the names Bill Malone, Simon Aronson, and Max Maven, only three names among many who I hadn’t yet gotten to writing about. Perhaps I will have the chance to do so elsewhere down the road; the concept of Take Two has resonated with magicians and non-magicians alike, in a field that suffers from a scarcity of useful fodder for magic aficionados and appreciators, who might not be interested in learning to do magic themselves, but instead maintain an enthusiastic interest in learning more about our art and history.
But for now, I would like to thank Magicana for providing an outlet for such work, as well as for their remarkable resource library of magic-related film and video, which is on its way to significant enlargement in the future. I hope these seventy-one pieces, Take Two The Collection, continue to serve as a useful resource for readers and viewers for a long time to come. Thanks for reading, and for watching.
—JAMY IAN SWISS
SEE TAKE TWO INDEX
