Tspall: I've already expressed to you, in other conversations, how much I love your ideas...especially for the bizarre magic.

You have unique ideas and interesting stories to go with effects that are appropriate for what you want to do. How do you get your inspiration for the stories and effects?

Thanks for everything you've contributed to magic. You're a true gentleman and professional. We've all gained by having you here.

Peter Marucci: Wow! I can never live up to that build-up so --- good night, folks!
Aaaargh! An o-o-o-ld gag!
But how very kind of you to say.
The ideas for routines and stories come from reading everything all my life. Not just magic, but everything. Especially in bizarre magic, virtually everything that you learn can be turned to an event or routine or story line.
For example, in the e-zine Visions, I have a bizarre routine coming up based on Stephen Vincent Binet's wonderful short story, called the Devil and Daniel Webster (Daniel Webster was an ante-bellum northern U.S. lawyer and statesman, regarded by many as the greatest man of his day). In the story, Webster and the devil argue over a man's soul. The story percolated around in my mind for literally decades before the idea presented itself to turn it into a magic routine.
There's no easy way to do it, unfortunately; it requires lots and lots of hard reading and absorption.
And, remember, only about 2 per cent of what you read will actually stick with you!

Mike: Again, thank you for taking your time with this, Peter. It is greatly appreciated.

Peter, you are probably the most prolific magician in cyberspace. I don't think that a group of magicians exists on the net that you are not a member of!

Considering the fact that you have your own line of magic products that you market, the touring and lecturing which you do, that you write for multiple magazines and e-zines, still take the time to post on those groups for which you are a member and give yourself to projects such as this...Where do you find the time? Or, do you just not sleep?

Seriously, though, I have wondered about this for a long time!

Peter Marucci: Oh, I sleep -- a lot!
It's just that I don't do much else, except work on magic (hey, I'm more or less retired now and I'm SUPPOSED to be having fun!)
And that's only partly in jest: The minute something stops being fun, you should stop doing it.
I know that's not always possible, given the economic constraints of feeding and housing a family (not to mention yourself!); but, maybe, I was just lucky! And for that I am eternally grateful.
Actually, as for being involved with so many magic groups, that's true; and my wife Helen encourages it; it keeps me out of her hair!
Some are much better than others, of course. (And The Magic Bunny is one of my favorites!)

There are two schools of thought about magic groups:

One says that you should avoid them because it ends up with the same ideas being recycled, many of the members are there just for the social side of the group, and nobody is every bad (read some of the reviews, and you'll see that everyone is described as "brilliant" or something like that.)

The other school says magic groups are a good thing because many minds strike sparks off other minds and take many ideas to the extreme limits; the social side of the group shows that there is more to life than just magic; and everyone is described as "brilliant" because everyone has a different skill level, everyone should have a place to fail, and everyone should have the opportunity to appear in front of an appreciative group.

Both arguments are correct! (How's that for waffling! LOL)

BTW, as for touring and lecturing, the reason I'm here right now (and not at some later date) is that in mid-August I'm off to the Midwest Magic Jubilee in St. Louis, Missouri, where I'm lecturing, doing a close-up show, and also doing a stage turn. Then it's off to Indianapolis, on my way back home, for another lecture.

Believe it or not, with all the monthly columns, and lecturing, and magic groups, I consider myself to be slowing down!

Ah, well, I guess it's all in the eye of the beholder!

Magic SamX: I have enjoyed reading your various magical creations and your writing in the Top Hat E-zine.

You also mentioned in the "Time Management" thread that you spend most of your time practicing magic.

From your words on retirement I guess you mean retirement from performance. Do you think that a Magician ever truly retires?

Peter Marucci: Heavens, no!
A magician doesn't -- CAN'T -- retire.
I'm not even sure I meant "retiring" from performance work, since I've promised myself to do that a couple of times and had justified doing it again with a line something like "well, just this one time!"
What I specifically meant was "retirement" from my previous job, which was an editor with a major daily newspaper; and I retired from that about 15 or 20 years ago (much as I liked it!).

Page: I have read many of the outstanding articles that you have written for this site's e-zine and at other sites around the internet.

What would you attribute to your main source of inspiration for your various effects?

Peter Marucci: Probably my voracious reading for much of my life. There are several routines that I have published that have been the result of an idea or ideas that have been rattling around in my head for a long time, sometimes decades.
For example, Jekyll and Hyde, Sweeney Todd, and -- as mentioned on another post here -- Daniel Webster.
I believe anyone can come up with good, solid routines if they want to work at it hard enough.
The main thing is to expand your experience base, and the easiest and quickest way to do that is by reading. After all, it would take several lifetimes to actually DO all the things that you can read about!
Next best way is to talk to someone who has done them all, but that's not always possible.
So that leaves reading.
And it works. For me, at least. But it probably should for you, too.