The "feints" and "temps" in the elegant title of this fat new book hail from The Secrets of Conjuring and Magic, by Robert-Houdin. The former word of course refers to a pretense or simulated action, while the latter, loosely translated from French, refers to "favorable moment." Although both are used to advantage in Harry Riser's extensive repertoire, which we'll get to in a moment, we should pause to note that Harry's references to these words, by page number, indicate that we are dealing here with a classicist. Throughout The Feints and Temps of Harry Riser, Harry quotes from Erdnase, Robert-Houdin, Downs, Hofzinser, and Bobo, among others, evidencing a thorough grounding in classical magic literature via his own studies and through such mentors as Dai Vernon and Charlie Miller. But although Harry's philosophies and techniques are firmly based on time-tested principles, his plots are by no means mired in the past. He brings fresh new entertaining approaches to such fare as the cups and balls, "The Cap and Pence," "McDonald's $100 Four Ace Trick," the Hofzinser transparent card, all-backs routines, and so on. My primary regret in reading this book is that I did not have the opportunity to see the routines performed first. I'm certain I would have been both enchanted and baffled by the lot.
Like the best of the books from Richard Kaufman, this is a personality book, a book that conveys the essence of a performer via forewords, introductions, biographical material, photos, testimonials, and, most importantly, the creative thinking, philosophies, and repertoire choices of its subject. Richard feels -- rightly so -- that this is one of the best books to come out of his shop recently, and it will stand well alongside other personality books such as Derek Dingle's Complete Works, The Uncanny Scot Ron Wilson, Show-Time at the Tom-Foolery, The Secrets of Brother John Hamman, and so on. I had the pleasure of meeting Harry Riser for the first time last October, at a Doc Eason lecture, where I found him to be tall, energetic, very funny, and a great story-teller. (He did not, alas, give me permission to pass on the story!) He certainly didn't seem old enough to have been the confidant of so many of the now-departed greats in magic (at Doc's lecture, Harry jokingly claimed to have introduced Houdini on his lecture tour through Indianapolis), but his new book claims otherwise. Through the three forewords by John Braun, Charlie Miller (this book was a long time in the works!), and John Thompson, along with related material, Harry Riser is painted as being in cahoots with the likes of Jay Marshall, Johnny Thompson, "Dorny" Dornfield, Robert Parrish, Julius Sundman, J. Elder Blackledge, Stewart Judah, Ed Marlo, Dai Vernon, Charlie Miller, Herb Zarrow, Bill Simon, and Ken Krenzel. (No offense intended to those of you in this list who are still quite alive and in your primes!) Although Harry is an Indiana product -- a native of Vincennes, a student at Indiana University, and a current resident of Indianapolis -- it was his business years in Chicago, with frequent trips to New York City, that made him privy to so many of the architects of 20th-century American magic, and to be able to share his own creations with them. Photos proliferate through the book of Harry with Miller, Vernon, and Chick Schoke, among others, and there is a photo of a very nice testimonial letter from Dai Vernon. Harry introduces his philosophies in his own words via two reprinted M-U-M columns, particularly on the uses of feints and temps and on the subject of uniformity of action. Practical examples of these philosophies are included.
Nearly every trick on which he works acquires a new dimension, whether it be a new subtlety to help disguise the method or a different presentation to bring it into the realm of true entertainment.
-Ed Brown
