Hello everyone, Eric and Shari here – working on the Tim Conover magic project and thought we should take a moment to update this website on the progress being made to publish Tim’s work. In short, we are inching forward. Actually, since last updating we’ve made tremendous progress. No publication date yet, please don’t ask, but we can genuinely start to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
All of Tim’s close up magic has been written, save a couple pieces requiring some special attention and editing. We are about 2/3 through the writing of his stage mentalism, and it is coming along well. Which means there will be some odds and ends to pick up, but the bulk of the technical writing is really getting close to being done. Oh, we still have to write the biographical material, and chapters about Tim’s philosophy and performing style, which is no small detail, but the technical writing–the real heavy lifting–is close to wrapping up.
Today we finished taking all of the illustrative photographs. Four multi-day sessions over a three year period yielding over 4000 photographs, finished. Woo-hoo! Tim’s brother-in-law Andy is a fabulous photographer, and has been incredibly patient as I called for shot after shot of ridiculous detail. Then he would surprise me with his own perfectionist tendencies by spending endless time adjusting lights, changing angles and making sure that nothing was merely “good enough” and everything was perfect. (The photo seen here is Andy shooting yet another picture of Tim’s Crystal Ball. I told him after 40 minutes, many changes to the surrounding set/lighting and several dozen photos, that I was sure he had it. He didn’t even look up and replied, “This is one of his signature pieces. It has to be right.”) So it’s been great to work with him, the book is a true family affair, and everyone involved sees it as a real labor of love.
So that’s it. We are tearing apart the studio, enjoying a late night cup of tea and uploading thousands of photos to shared folders for the next phase–the beginning of layout. We have lined up a great team of proofreaders and historians to check our work once it’s in some kind of loose book format.
And that’s where it stands my friends. As of March 2017 it is coming along beautifully, and we are incredibly proud of the work we are doing. Not just of the work we are doing, but more importantly what and who it represents. Even the magicians who knew Tim well, who believe they know a lot about his work and thinking, will be astonished at the revelations in this book. Tim’s magic was and is incredible. But, as Tim’s brother Michael said to me just the other day, “His main tool was his heart.”
And that’s the most important thing, and the part we still have to capture for posterity.
Eric Mead and Shari Conover Rosenberg
3/6/17