Beyond Look, Don’t See: 10th Anniversary Edition by Christopher Barnes – Book

“This book became the guiding light on my journey to making my show mine and unique, one that could connect with every age, all at once. It gave me the tools I needed to make a show that was not only entertaining, but something I could be truly proud of performing.”
– From the Foreword by Jon Armstrong

In 2013 Christopher T. Magician cemented his place among the great thinkers in the world of kid show entertainment with this, his debut book on the art of performing magic for children. Since then, he has gone on to publish Just for Fun, A Show for All Seasons, and Be More Funny. All of Christopher’s books have been heralded for their creativity and out of the box thinking, and they have taken him around the world to lecture and teach his approaches to performing for kids and adults.

In this special tenth anniversary edition of Beyond Look, Don’t See, the book that started it all, it should come as no surprise that Christopher couldn’t just reissue the book with a foreword (although the foreword by the incredible Jon Armstrong is among the greatest honors of Christopher’s life). No, in typical fashion, Christopher took this opportunity to revisit his classic and refine it for the ten-years-later world.

In these pages, Christopher revisits each of his performance techniques, adding new thoughts and insights to each one. The 24 techniques, including Say Anything, Misplaced Magic, Premature Magic, Wrong Rhymes, Mis-Made, and many more, are now revamped with his ten years of experience since releasing the first edition.

While the original book included 25 fully-scripted routines, one to demonstrate each of the techniques described, this new edition includes 48 routines, 41 of which are brand new, honed over the past decade.

Routine highlights include:

“Pop-Tart 2.0.” One of Christopher’s all-time favorite routines has been a staple of his magic shows for twenty years. The magician tears a Pop-Tart to pieces and places one piece aside. The remaining pieces are completely restored, and the torn corner amazingly fits. The routine includes non-stop laughs and reactions from children while leaving adults completely dumbfounded.

“To Catch a Monkey.” Christopher redesigned Eric Lewis’s Comedy Comeback Card with pictures of animals in a demonstration of how he feeds monkeys at the zoo. Much to the children’s delight, the wrong animal (a chicken) repeatedly appears instead of the desired monkey.

“Professor’s Lesson.” This backwards and forwards take on the classic Professor’s Nightmare is a perfect opener for family and adult audiences. The impressive magic paired with the pseudo explanation leaves audiences, young and old, laughing and amazed.

Christopher also includes many Spotlight chapters, his bonus musings on the kid show art form, including:

“The Sequel Show.” Christopher shares his methods for appeasing clients when tasked with presenting a new show for repeat audiences.

“No String-of-Tricks.” Most magic shows exist as a mere string-of-tricks. Christopher offers a few simple additions magicians can add to their performance to turn it into a full-fledged, satisfying show.

“Routine Start List.” One of Christopher’s favorite creations, once you’ve built a kid show routine full of hilarious hijinks (based on the techniques in these pages), this list will allow you an easy and effective way to figure out how to start the darn thing.

In this new edition, not a single page went untouched by Christopher. Fans of the original will be thrilled to find that Christopher has, in actuality, added an entire second book within his first book! At 822 pages, there are a full 352 extra pages here for the reader to pour over, learn from, and use to be the best dang family show performer they can be!