BEACON #6

The Treasure Map That Already Exists

There’s a question I’ve been hearing for years: “Where can I find good material?” And the answer I want to give is so simple it almost hurts.

The best tricks already exist. They’re in books you probably already own, or in magazines you once flipped through and then put back on the shelf. In eBooks that have been sitting on your hard drive for years. The problem was never that there isn’t enough good material. The problem was always knowing where the diamonds are.

That’s why I want to introduce you to something that’s given me so much: Mark Elsdon’s *Hidden Gems*.

Elsdon is a British mentalism performer and author many of you will know, perhaps from his *Conversation As Mentalism* series or creations like *B’Voque* and *Ouroboros*. But *Hidden Gems* is something different. It’s not a trick book. Elsdon doesn’t explain his own effects here. Instead, he’s done something so obvious you’ll wonder why no one’s done it before.

He’s opened his notebooks.

For decades, Elsdon stuck Post-its in books, scribbled in the margins, marked tricks, and catalogued them. Material he had read, learned, and performed—some of it over twenty or thirty years. Then he sat down and distilled a lifetime of work into a series of eBooks: ten volumes plus a pure mentalism edition. Each volume contains around a hundred annotated recommendations. Together, that’s over a thousand handpicked gems from printed magic literature.

I deliberately say “annotated recommendations” because that’s what makes the difference. Elsdon doesn’t just give you a source reference and leave you to it. He tells you why the trick is special. He tells you whether it’s suited for close-up or stand-up, whether it’s better for sessions with other magicians or real performances for laypeople. He reveals which variation he prefers and why. He recommends the bonus trick right next to it in the same book. And he writes it all with a passion that’s contagious. You’ll read things like: “I nearly spat my tea out when I first saw this!” or “This has been in my repertoire for almost 30 years.” This isn’t a catalogue. It’s a person sharing their enthusiasm.

What impressed me most about the series is the system behind it. In each volume, Elsdon systematically mines a specific magazine: Apocalypse in the first, MAGIC Magazine in the second, Labyrinth in the third, Richard’s Almanac in the fourth, The Minotaur in the fifth. In later volumes, he focuses on individual authors, like Bruce Elliott, Robert Neale, or Michael Weber. This isn’t random—it’s a curriculum. If you read all the volumes, you don’t just get a thousand tricks recommended; you get a structured overview of the most important sources in magic literature.

And now comes the point that has occupied me the most.

When you read Hidden Gems, you realize that the vast majority of tricks Elsdon recommends are in books you either already own or can buy second-hand for a few euros. The diamonds aren’t behind a paywall—they’re on your shelf. You just needed to know where to dig.

Elsdon puts it this way: “We truly have access to an embarrassment of riches when it comes to material, which is why it’s all the more disheartening to see so many performers doing the same tricks.”

That’s the core of it. We have access to an almost embarrassing wealth of great material, and yet most magicians perform the same tricks. Because they follow the hype instead of reading the literature. Because they buy what everyone else buys instead of discovering what no one else does.

Hidden Gems is an antidote. It’s the most practical, accessible guide I know for building a repertoire that’s truly unique—not by buying the latest download that everyone will know next week, but by opening the books or magazines you already own and finding things no one else is performing.

Let me give you an example. In Volume 2, Elsdon recommends “Collective Telepathy” by Juan Tamariz, published in the October 2002 issue of Genii Magazine. It’s a routine in which the audience collectively guesses the name of a person known to only one person in the room. No stooges, no dual reality. Pure Tamariz genius. Elsdon saw the routine performed live and adds a warning: “You might read it and think it’s not as good as I’m making it out to be. Don’t! It IS that good I promise.” This routine sat in a magazine for ten years before Elsdon saw it live. Ten years waiting to be discovered. And this is just one of a thousand.

Or take “Between The Lines” by Michael Murray from Volume 1: You hand the spectator a folded book page. They describe what they’re imagining. Then the page is unfolded and read aloud, and the text mirrors their thoughts exactly. No switch. Elsdon says: “One of the best tricks ever devised and I guarantee no one you know is doing it.”

That’s the crux of it. Nobody’s performing them. The material exists, it’s brilliant, it’s affordable—and yet no one’s showing it. Because no one knows about it. Because it’s “hidden in print,” as Elsdon puts it. Concealed in print. Right where you’d expect to find it, but where hardly anyone looks.

There are people who need the latest release every two weeks. Who follow the algorithm, the hype cycle, the social proof. And then there are people who prefer to forge their own path. Who’d rather open a book than buy a download. Who’ve realized that the literature of magic is one of the greatest treasures our hobby has to offer—and that all you have to do is uncover it.

Hidden Gems is made for the second group. And if you’ve read this far, you’re probably one of them.

The e-books aren’t expensive (in March, Mark even released a hardcover book containing all 10 Hidden Gems), and they’re available directly from Mark Elsdon (https://elsdon.blogspot.com/2026/03/) or from Lybrary.com. But really, it’s not about the PDFs themselves. It’s about what they point to. It’s about the books on your shelf, the magazines in your cabinet, the e-books on your hard drive. It’s about the wealth you already own.

All you have to do is start reading.

Until next time,

Alexander