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This is an excellent magic book that deserves to be known more widely. Bruce Elliott wrote in the foreword:
This introduction to a noble and ancient kind of amusement will lead you as a primer should, from the easy to the more difficult. It stops short of the really difficult, again as a primer should. It helps you on the road to becoming, for better or worse, a magician.
For the better? Yes, for a way to enjoy yourself, to get a kick out of performing something that is out of the ordinary. For the worse? If this book serves its purpose, you will have set your faltering feet on the rocky road to magical hobbyism - and a thorny road it is. You will never be satisfied unless you are trying constantly to improve yourself and your technique. Your technique can cover anything from sleight of hand to stage presence, from patter to the construction of stage illusions. In other words, once the magic bug has really bitten you, a whole new world opens for you.
Presentation is rarely covered in books on magic. This book, by a talented performer, tells you about presentation. Tells you in a way that will teach you much, if you will but learn.
However, whether magic is to be your business or your hobby, we can truly say this book will make the learning easy. Much thought has gone into the description of the various effects that Greer Maréchal has written for you. Try them the way he has described them. See if you can reason out why he places the emphasis on what he does.
Table of Contents:
Foreword
PART ONE The "Why" of Magic
I. An Introduction to the Theory of Magic: Principles of showmanship as applied to magic. The important tools of deception and entertainment.
PART TWO Impromptu Magic
II. Tricks with Playing Cards: Simple yet effective tricks that can be mastered within a few minutes and performed anywhere at any time.
Look, No Hands!
Backward Glance
Spellbound
Color Blinding
Sympathetic Student
Between The Eyes
Blackstone's Penetration
That's All
A Word About Impromptu Card Routines
Miscellaneous Discoveries
III. Tricks without Playing Cards: Other varieties of "spur-of-the-moment" magic.
Spirit Calling Card
Drawn And Quartered
Should Not Knot
Where There's Smoke . . .
Cutting Wit
Demi-Tasse
IV. When Conversation Lags: Impromptu opening effects to help the magician turn the conversation to magic as a preface to his demonstrations.
Card Flourishes
Card Tricks
Impromptu Openings Without Cards
V. Handle with Gloves: How to execute and utilize seven simple and easily mastered moves with a deck of playing cards.
Size Of The Cards
Riffle Shuffle
Overhand Shuffle
False Cut
The Glide
Hindu Shuffle
Palming
Double Lift
Fan Force
PART THREE Prepared Magic
VI. Prepared Playing Cards: The most useful methods of preparing a deck of playing cards and how to use them most effectivel.
What Are Prepared Cards?
VII. Tricks Using Prepared Cards: Representative effects illustrating the proper way to use prepared cards. The masterpieces of playing card magic.
Sucker Trick
Pocket Pickings
Double Trouble
Divining Dagger
Four Told
Fifteen Miracle
Precognition
VIII. Tricks with Silks and Handkerchiefs: The colorful spectacle of the amateur magician's program. Easy but effective tricks with one of the most useful of magical items.
Tarbell Silk
Two To One
Twentieth Century
Silk Productions
Fast And Truly Barehanded
Old Hat
All Out-Of Nowhere
Master Silk Routine
IX. Mental and Spirit Effects: The magician as a mind-reader or spirit medium instead of merely a conjurer.
Spirit Slates
The Message
Playing Card Forces
Other Card Forces
Clipboard Forces
Mental Effects
Billets
Limited Choice
Book Test
Two-In-One Routine
X. Miscellaneous Tricks: The masterpieces of the amateur magician's repertoire. Effects using nonmagical-looking apparatus that can be made or collected at home.
Lucky Lemon
Pocket Pastry
Raise You Three
Linking Rings
Bathtub Gin
A Word About Sucker Tricks
Stung Again
Read To Shreds
Ready Mixed
L'Envoi
1st edition 1957, 396 pages; PDF 247 pages.
word count: 108390 which is equivalent to 433 standard pages of text
This introduction to a noble and ancient kind of amusement will lead you as a primer should, from the easy to the more difficult. It stops short of the really difficult, again as a primer should. It helps you on the road to becoming, for better or worse, a magician.
For the better? Yes, for a way to enjoy yourself, to get a kick out of performing something that is out of the ordinary. For the worse? If this book serves its purpose, you will have set your faltering feet on the rocky road to magical hobbyism - and a thorny road it is. You will never be satisfied unless you are trying constantly to improve yourself and your technique. Your technique can cover anything from sleight of hand to stage presence, from patter to the construction of stage illusions. In other words, once the magic bug has really bitten you, a whole new world opens for you.
Presentation is rarely covered in books on magic. This book, by a talented performer, tells you about presentation. Tells you in a way that will teach you much, if you will but learn.
However, whether magic is to be your business or your hobby, we can truly say this book will make the learning easy. Much thought has gone into the description of the various effects that Greer Maréchal has written for you. Try them the way he has described them. See if you can reason out why he places the emphasis on what he does.
Table of Contents:
Foreword
PART ONE The "Why" of Magic
I. An Introduction to the Theory of Magic: Principles of showmanship as applied to magic. The important tools of deception and entertainment.
PART TWO Impromptu Magic
II. Tricks with Playing Cards: Simple yet effective tricks that can be mastered within a few minutes and performed anywhere at any time.
Look, No Hands!
Backward Glance
Spellbound
Color Blinding
Sympathetic Student
Between The Eyes
Blackstone's Penetration
That's All
A Word About Impromptu Card Routines
Miscellaneous Discoveries
III. Tricks without Playing Cards: Other varieties of "spur-of-the-moment" magic.
Spirit Calling Card
Drawn And Quartered
Should Not Knot
Where There's Smoke . . .
Cutting Wit
Demi-Tasse
IV. When Conversation Lags: Impromptu opening effects to help the magician turn the conversation to magic as a preface to his demonstrations.
Card Flourishes
Card Tricks
Impromptu Openings Without Cards
V. Handle with Gloves: How to execute and utilize seven simple and easily mastered moves with a deck of playing cards.
Size Of The Cards
Riffle Shuffle
Overhand Shuffle
False Cut
The Glide
Hindu Shuffle
Palming
Double Lift
Fan Force
PART THREE Prepared Magic
VI. Prepared Playing Cards: The most useful methods of preparing a deck of playing cards and how to use them most effectivel.
What Are Prepared Cards?
VII. Tricks Using Prepared Cards: Representative effects illustrating the proper way to use prepared cards. The masterpieces of playing card magic.
Sucker Trick
Pocket Pickings
Double Trouble
Divining Dagger
Four Told
Fifteen Miracle
Precognition
VIII. Tricks with Silks and Handkerchiefs: The colorful spectacle of the amateur magician's program. Easy but effective tricks with one of the most useful of magical items.
Tarbell Silk
Two To One
Twentieth Century
Silk Productions
Fast And Truly Barehanded
Old Hat
All Out-Of Nowhere
Master Silk Routine
IX. Mental and Spirit Effects: The magician as a mind-reader or spirit medium instead of merely a conjurer.
Spirit Slates
The Message
Playing Card Forces
Other Card Forces
Clipboard Forces
Mental Effects
Billets
Limited Choice
Book Test
Two-In-One Routine
X. Miscellaneous Tricks: The masterpieces of the amateur magician's repertoire. Effects using nonmagical-looking apparatus that can be made or collected at home.
Lucky Lemon
Pocket Pastry
Raise You Three
Linking Rings
Bathtub Gin
A Word About Sucker Tricks
Stung Again
Read To Shreds
Ready Mixed
L'Envoi
1st edition 1957, 396 pages; PDF 247 pages.
word count: 108390 which is equivalent to 433 standard pages of text
