{"id":38709,"date":"2026-08-04T19:14:41","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T17:14:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/strixmagic.shop\/prodotto\/stepladders-demon-traps-by-nicolaj-christensen\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T19:14:41","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T17:14:41","slug":"stepladders-demon-traps-by-nicolaj-christensen","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/strixmagic.shop\/en\/prodotto\/stepladders-demon-traps-by-nicolaj-christensen\/","title":{"rendered":"Stepladders &amp; Demon Traps by Nicolaj Christensen"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b><i>Stepladders &amp; Demon Traps<\/i> makes you a thoughtful, confident creator of your own magic.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><i>&#8220;This is the best thing I&#8217;ve read this year.&#8221;<\/i><br \/><b>&#8211; Mark Elsdon<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Why do magicians ask people to say &#8220;stop&#8221; instead of &#8220;freeze&#8221; or &#8220;hold it&#8221;? Why do they pretend to fail a trick? Why does a routine include a magic effect at all?<\/p>\n<p><b><i>Stepladders &amp; Demon Traps<\/i><\/b> advocates purpose in the creation of a magic routine. Countless choices are always made but not always consciously, so Nicolaj Christensen reminds us to identify a creative vision and actively explore and cherry-pick the most fitting ideas. In a nutshell, form follows function.<\/p>\n<p>Teaching seven routines (close-up and stand-up, with and without playing cards), Nicolaj provides a case study of various choices he has made to fit the elements of each routine to its vision, trying to support what&#8217;s at the center of each premise and clean out the clutter.<\/p>\n<p>Five essays speak more generally about a deliberate creative process:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A summary of the routines as part of a larger vision.<\/li>\n<li>A reminder that changes cannot be made in isolation.<\/li>\n<li>A deconstruction of brainstorming as an analytical tool.<\/li>\n<li>A helpful distinction between theme and premise.<\/li>\n<li>A discussion of the kinds of subject matter that come with the territory of a magician. Nicolaj suggests that if a magic trick doesn&#8217;t take into account the layers of meaning inherent to magic-as-magic, the work might be fundamentally out of touch with itself.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you&#8217;re the analytical type, you&#8217;ll enjoy the message of <b><i>Stepladders &amp; Demon Traps<\/i><\/b>. But if you mostly go by instinct, you&#8217;ll love it even more for giving you new tools to create with.<\/p>\n<p>218 pages, 57 hand-drawn illustrations<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stepladders &amp; Demon Traps makes you a thoughtful, confident creator of your own magic.&#8221;This is the best thing I&#8217;ve read this year.&#8221;- Mark ElsdonWhy do magicians ask people to say\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":38710,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"product_brand":[1818],"product_cat":[1631,1630],"product_tag":[],"class_list":["post-38709","product","type-product","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","product_brand-pegani-magic","product_cat-artista-di-close-up","product_cat-magia-con-le-carte-e-mazzi-truccati","first","instock","taxable","shipping-taxable","purchasable","product-type-simple"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/strixmagic.shop\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/38709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/strixmagic.shop\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/strixmagic.shop\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strixmagic.shop\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/strixmagic.shop\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/38709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strixmagic.shop\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/strixmagic.shop\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strixmagic.shop\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_brand?post=38709"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strixmagic.shop\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=38709"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strixmagic.shop\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=38709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}