Underground magician, Paul A. Lelekis, presents six big effects designed for close-up and table-hopping. All the effects have been performed hundreds and even thousands of times. Included is excellent advice from a working professional with decades of experience.
Also included is some sage advice on approaching tables and making the spectators feel excited about your performances. This is what makes REAL magic! All patter is included. Photographs of Paul's hands explain every move.
Included effects:
- Inspector #1953 - If ever there was a great "ice-breaker" for approaching tables – this is it! Rip a hole into a spectator's clothing – then magically repair it right in front of their eyes! Hilarious routine with patter.
- The Trick That Can't Be Explained! – This is NOT the Vernon effect – but an ingenious self-working miracle by Paul Lelekis! The spectator's are taught a miraculous, self-working effect (it really is!) – but later, they NEVER remember how to do it! This trick "rocked" the magic world when Paul first released it. It is brilliant and VERY EASY to do. Perform it tonight.
- B-Fly – Paul's very strange version of the classic, Biddle Trick. Only 10 cards are used from a regular deck. It doesn't seem possible and performer never knows what the card is. Combines magic and ESP. Very E-Z.
- Devilish Miracle II – Marlo amazed magicians with this "underground" classic. Paul has re-worked the effect so that it is not only very easy to do, but very entertaining with two added ploys by Michael Skinner and Paul.
- CAAN TU – Paul recognized the genius of J.K. Hartman when he added this highly entertaining effect to his working repertoire. Paul plays this effect in such a way that even a magician wouldn't recognize it as a double-revelation ACAAN effect. The patter is absolutely hilarious and is very engaging. The spectators howl with laughter. You're going to love this!
- Triple Revelation – Al Baker (and later, Frank Lane) turned the ESP world, upside-down with this remarkable effect, which spawned Mental Epic! Paul has re-worked this triple revelation effect (unlike any of the other versions) so that it is now COMPLETELY impromptu. You can use any deck of cards. Very easy to do, spectator-friendly and is a magician-fooler. DO NOT PASS THIS ONE UP!
1st edition 2012, 29 pages.
word count: 10988 which is equivalent to 43 standard pages of text
Reviewed by Jozsef Kovacs
★★★★★ Date Added: Thursday 05 September, 2013All the tricks in this e-book are very good. All of them are impromptu and all the effects are very strong. They are real workers. My favourites are: Inspector #1953, The Trick That Can't Be Explained (which trick has nothing to do with the Vernon trick which has similar title), CAAN TU and Triple Revelation.
Reviewed by Douglas Lippert
★★★★★ Date Added: Friday 29 March, 2013If you want to perform close-up magic for a living, these six routines would be a great start! These routines come straight out of the working repertoire of a real magician's magician. Paul has won the Howard Bamman trophy for a good reason. This set of works is well, thought out, magical, and most importantly, entertaining! The presentations provided are excellent. Be sure to modify them to fit your personality though.
“Inspector #1953” - is Paul's entertaining routine for the classic thumb through shirt effect that's been performed on national television in Europe. He provides excellent advice in using this routine as an “in” for performing at restaurants. The method is simple but devious. Highly recommended.
“The Trick That Can't Be Explained!” - is one of my favorite card effects from Paul's. If a layman asks you to show them a trick you'll be prepared. Even when they know how it's done it will still be magic! The best part about this effect is that it is totally impromptu and self-working. There are just a few procedures to memorize and then you're all set.
“B-Fly” - is a very magical version of the Biddle trick involving an invisible card that gets some good laughs from your spectators. There aren't any tough moves to learn here and Paul describes a great feint by Paul Cummins. This routine is very practical and plays very well. This will get you the money in a professional setting.
“A Devilish Miracle II” - This is a solid card effect that gets great reactions and multiple moments of magic. This effect is definitely one of the harder card effects in his notes and is for the experienced card magician. Paul expects the reader to know several card moves that are not explained. Paul makes use of several card sleights for maximum deception. Also, a great card sleight of Harry Lorayne's is explained. Another one of my favorite card effects from Paul!
“CAAN TU” - Card At Any Number has been all the rage among magician's for the last couple years. Paul's take on J.K. Hartman's CAAN is a beauty. I like how the double revelation catches the spectator's off guard. There's a lot of humor in Paul's routine which will help guide you in the right direction towards making it your own. There's a move involved in the routine that if you own JK Hartman's “CAAN Craft” you'll have no problem doing. In the “Post Note” of CAAN TU there's an excellent piece of advice for when a spectator names any card! Don't skip over this!
“Triple Revelation” - This is a great variation on Al Baker's “The Mind Reading Trick” with minimal props that fit in your pockets. I especially liked Paul's variation on the classic playing card force by Balducci. It breaks up the action to make it harder for a spectator to reconstruct the effect!
Reviewed by Chris Ostrowski
★★★★★ Date Added: Wednesday 20 March, 2013Reading this material for the first time, it is a wealth of usable close up for performing in close up magic and or parlor. Not only does the author show he has experience but you can feel the passion and energy in his descriptions. Besides the 6 effects offered here, he also gives great words of wisdom to anyone starting out in the realm of restaurant performing. That alone is worth the price of the e-book. These effects are pricless, most is card work, with great homage to the card master of yesteryear. Paul putting his original handling on the effects. I have performed for the past 20 years doing magic in all types of venues, out of all I must say my favorite is restaurants. It allows you to do great feats of magic in short burst and perfect your patter and handling of your chosen effects. If this sounds like you, then buy this e-book. I would highly recommend it.
Reviewed by Bob Solari
★★★★★ Date Added: Saturday 02 March, 2013Paul's material is fresh entertaining and most of all fun to perform - three things that are sadly lacking in a lot of today's magic! His plots are well thought out and for the most part, easy to execute. If you are a 'worker' or just a hobbyist, don't pass up the work in "A Fix on Six" and "Eight Plus One". They are both winners in my book!
Bob Solari
Reviewed by Ronnie Wood
★★★★★ Date Added: Tuesday 05 February, 2013When reading the quotes in the forward of this book, from well known names in magic, I thought Mr Lelekis must be a very experienced close up magician. After reading through his ideas and effects! I realised Mr Paul Lelekis IS a very experienced close up magician. You can actually feel the enthusiasm he has for his work while reading.
After working in a restaurant environment for many years, I still learned a few tricks (no pun intended) from the material and the afterthoughts that Paul provides.
The opening effect of the book, Inspector #1953, which Paul says he usually opens his routine with, is a sure fire way to approach a table and get the other tables noticing you. I’m not going to give the effect away but I know it’ll have many readers jumping to their “magic den” to find that prop that we all own but hardly ever use nowadays!
“The Trick That Can’t Be Explained” is an ingenious routine for when someone asks. “Can you teach me something to show my friends?” It’s based on a mathematical principle that, well, “can’t be explained”! I don’t know about an ingenious routine but Paul Lelekis must have an ingenious mind to have came up with this.
My favourite of the book, B-Fly brings back memories of The Biddle Trick, but so much more up to date. The performer NEVER sees the cards! Although a card trick, it seems to the spectators to be more like mind reading, ESP etc. A mind blowing effect that totally blows them away. (I’ve used this effect a few times and my audience are bewildered!)
I’m not going to comment on every effect. (There are three more. Devilish Miracle II, CAAN TU and Triple Revelation. I’ll leave those privileges for the reader to find!)
But just add, when I buy a book nowadays and get one, maybe two usable effects, I am happy! Every effect in this book is workable and entertaining. And isn’t that what we do? Entertain!
The effects in this book and the notes that Paul Lelekis provide have shown me that there is so much more to learn in the art of table hopping! And I learned so much more here.
Reviewed by Mcaig
★★★★★ Date Added: Friday 28 December, 2012The notes are an interesting read. The presentations given may or may not suit you, but the tricks themselves are solid. The great highlight for me was B-Fly, which is a streamlined and very easy to follow use of the particular move. A very good trick.