Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20717 in Books
• Published on: 1983-02-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Customer Reviews

Not what I was expecting, but still interesting
If you are looking for a book full of quick mental magic gags, this isn't very good. All the tricks in this book require either A) Advanced skills in slight of hand (palming, quick switches, etc) or B) A gimmicked apparatus. It isn't as easy as amazing your buddies at a party with some mind reading tricks. These are for more advanced magicians. It was also written in 1944.

That being said, it is a very interesting look into how some of this stuff is (or was) accomplished. I have seen several of these tricks used before and wondered how they were pulled off, now I know.

If you are a magician with basic skills in slight of hand, palming, and switching, then you will probably find some cool additions to your performance here.

If you are looking for some basic stuff to baffle your friends with, this is not the right book for you.

Needs an update
I was disappointed in this book after having read so many glowing reviews. I was surprised to discover that it was written in 1944. The archaic language is a bit distracting, the hand-drawn illustrations look very dated, and there is too much use of words where clear diagrams would have been better. A picture is worth a thousand words, and you can double that amount of words if the prose is written in such an old style. I wasn't even able to understand what the writer was trying to say in a lot of cases. I don't recommend this book for beginners.

Quality but not Quickie
One of the great classic texts, but don't get the idea that you're going to be doing the effects in the book five minutes after you pick this gem up. More important for the principles they use and show, and some effects and not logically or easily done in the drawing rooms of today!