14 How I Learned the Secret of Hypnotic Writing
F
ew people know this, but I learned a lot about writing hypnotic
copy from reading magic catalogs.
I’ve been interested in magic since I was sixteen years old. In-
spired by Houdini, I wanted to be Harry Excello, the world’s great-
est escape artist. I used to let my brothers tie me up in the
basement in Ohio. I always broke free. I knew Houdini’s secrets. I
could do what he did. One day I even considered being tied up and
thrown off a bridge in my home town, left to struggle under water
while I worked myself free from my binding.
That’s when I turned to card magic.
I invented a few tricks and saw them published in magic maga-
zines while I was still a teenager. But my father never approved of
magic, and I let my interest hide under a mental rock for almost 30
years. Today I’m back into it. I’ve met Lance Burton, Peter Reveen,
and Mark Levy, and famous entertainers like Kreskin use my mar-
keting ideas. I’m now a life member of the Society of American
Magicians, the group Houdini started in 1902.
I love reading magic catalogs because they are usually wonderful
examples of hypnotic copy. In short, they sell the sizzle, not the