Have nothing but a deck of cards? With this book you'll soon be dealing out playful poker, and four-ace tricks that will make everyone say: How did you do that? If you can shuffle a deck, you can perform jacks be nimble, about face, number nonsense, and dozens more. Clear illustrations demonstrate how to execute each move precisely. A chart gauges the difficulty of each trick.
Learn 101 simple magic tricks to astonish and amaze
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. Step right up and try not one, not two, not three, but 101 Magic Tricks Astonish and amaze everyone you know with easy-to-master tricks and illusions.
Learn classic sleight of hand techniques that are simple enough for any apprentice to grasp. Conquer magical ruses that require no special equipment, and are explained with simple step-by-step instructions. Bryan Miles will guide you through The Foundations of Magic including: The Hand, The Deck of Cards, Mechanic's Grip and Biddle Grip, Classic Two-Handed Spread, and Cutting the Cards.
From Merlin to Copperfield, magicians have been baffling crowds for centuries. Now you too can learn tricks that are guaranteed to mesmerize any audience. Including an array of dazzling tricks, and step-by-step illustrations, you will learn everything from simple sleight-of-hand tricks to advanced illusions and deceptions. This guide to the secrets of some of the world's greatest magicians will keep your audience bewitched, baffled and bewildered Learn how to perform over 100 magic tricks from the man who worked a combined 40 years with all-time greats Houdini, Thurston and Blackstone.
From the author of Hiding the Elephant and The Glorious Deception comes a collection of five essays that shows how the great stage illusions were integrally products of their time, based on the traditions and fashions of the people, and the offspring of the incredible, inventive personalities who brought them to the stage. Like no other author, Jim Steinmeyer gives us insight into the timeless appeal of magic. His human subjects include such characters as Steele MacKaye, Maskelyne, David Devant, P.T. Selbit, Horace Goldin, and Charles Morritt. Illusions he discusses include: The Mascot Moth, Sawing a Lady in Halves, and Morritt's Disappearing Donkey.
Every year, magic is gaining greater popularity because it offers more rewards than almost any other hobby. The time spent learning tricks, practicing them and working out individual notions is a pastime in itself.
Harry Blackstone was one of the great magicians of the twentieth century. Along with his equally famous peers Houdini and Thurston, Blackstone's feats of legerdemain dazzled audiences around the globe.
The present volume is Blackstone's legacy to the parlor magician. All of the props required can usually be found in the average household and those not easily at hand may be purchased at a neighborhood shop. Indeed, here are 200 tricks... feats of magic... which will mystify and entertain but may be performed in anyone's living room.
Would you believe that you could ask a full-grown man to hold a penny for you and then tell him to drop it and finds he can't, hard as he may try? In what is undoubtedly the most original magic book of our time, John Fisher shows the reader how, with minimal practice, he can use the marvels of the human body to entertain and mystify friends and family, small and large audiences. This book is first of all a delight to read because of the instant education it provides us with about the unknown powers we have in our hands, our eyes, our noses, and our incredible nervous system. In each case, Mr. Fisher shows the easy-to-grasp principle first and then how to put the principle to work in actual tricks. Most magic books require a great deal of study and dexterity. This one enables you to entertain people even before you have finished the book. Moreover, you never have to worry about being prepared, because you always have with you all the miraculous things you need--your hands, your eyes, and the rest of your body.
This profusely illustrated book demonstrates step by step the astonishing card magic cultivated by one of the premier sleight-of-hand artists of the 20th century. It presents maneuvers that have left theater audiences amazed and that card-playing professionals have used to great advantage. It is not a book for beginners, but will help those with basic card expertise reach new levels of performance in their art.
Among the moves are shifts, palms, glides, false shuffles, cuts, fans, and steals. You'll learn how to do the false table riffle shuffle, how to deal from the bottom, how to know an opponent's hole card, how to "warm up a cold deck," and much more. In addition, the author presents forty dazzling deceptions guaranteed to amaze your audience: Confusion, Birds of a Feather, The Ambitious Card, A Brilliant Climax, Your Favorite Ace, A Quickie, The Obtrusive Queens, and many more. Over 300 photographs show the practitioner's exact hand positions during each critical move.
Australian-born Arthur H. Buckley became well known in America for the magic he worked with cards on the major vaudeville circuits of the 1920s. Schooled by the great sleight-of-hand artists he met in the entertainment business and by professional gamblers he met in his early years touring Australia, his absolute mastery of the most artful and demanding card-handling routines was legendary. In 1946, he wrote this practical guide revealing in detail the secrets of his art. Any magician or card conjurer who aspires to the utmost proficiency in card manipulation will want to have this indispensable reference in his or her library.
To the magician and to most audiences, card manipulations are the most fascinating type of card trick. Since the manipulator's skill is the only determining factor, once a degree of card dexterity is acquired the performer can go on to learn tricks sure to entertain, at any time, with no further preparation, using any available deck of cards for the performance. In this five-book series, Jean Hugard, master performer on stage and with small groups, teaches the passes, palming methods, shuffles, arm spreads, color reverses, sleights, flourishes, set-ups, and tricks in the best professional versions. After showing the basic manipulations, he develops a number of exceptional tricks where the manipulations are used. A number of illustrations and step-by-step explanations teach each detail as the trick would be given in a performance. By working through these tricks, from the simple to the complex, the magician learns his skills in a professional manner and also gains a wide repertoire of specific tricks. Throughout the book a great number of manipulations and over a hundred tricks are explained.
The keys to these tricks are not well known outside professional magicians' groups. But to the advanced beginner or semiprofessional who has some degree of card skill, the manipulations and tricks developed in this book will add to the dexterity of the performance, give hours of rigorous skill-developing practice, and help build a professional, well-rounded repertoire with cards.
"Recommended." -- Linking Ring.
