Who loves Jay Sankey?!
I suspect most people who have ever encountered Jay Sankey will at the very least respect his work as a performer and teacher. Personally I'm a big fan and Jay Sankey's material has played a big part in my magic and at least one Sankey effect is found in my working routines. He is in short a creative genius.
Obviously Jay has forged his career out of hard graft and has spent many hours working the floors of restaurants, gigs and events. This experience has payed off tremendously and it allows him to create very workable material. It also means that he has alot to give back to the magic community in terms of how to do things properly. Beyond Secrets reflects this wealth of knowledge and is indeed Jay Sankey's collected thoughts ideas and experiences involving the non-magic side of magic.
Beyond secrets is exactly that, it is the next step on the ladder in terms of magical performance. Look at it this way; when you first start out in magic all you're interested in is the tricks and how they work. After a few years you have crafted an image for yourself as a performer and you begin to look introspectivly at your own performance. Usually this process is a hard one because you have only yourself to compare with. Now imagine that somebody who has been through all that and come out a better performer because of it has written a book describing his thoughts on that process. Wouldn't you be so grateful that you don't have to find out the hard way? This is Beyond Secrets.
This book contains so much useful information and personally I think it comes close to being on a level with Absolute Magic by Derren Brown (if you havn't guessed by now, a personal favourite!!). I say it comes close because it is not quite as defined as Absolute Magic.
Beyond Secrets is set out in a very higgldy piggldy way. There is no set structure to the content,
it is simply a collection of short essays. Neither is it set out into defined sections. The contents page just lists the name of each little section.
Don't get me wrong, I think that the set-up of the book is its only downfall but besides that it is a
very valuable source of knowledge.
I would love to give this book 10/10 but the fact that I find it so difficult to digest due to it's layout means that I cant. However, I would still strongly suggest that you try and get hold of it simply for it's reference value if nothing else.
Overall: 8/10
Price: £16.77 from
http://www.penguinmagic.co.uk