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Annemann's Card Magic
by Ted Annemann


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Annemann's Card Magic by Ted Annemann
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This book is actually two books: Ted Annemann's Full Deck of Impromptu Card Tricks and Annemann's Miracles of Card Magic. Annemann, perhaps more famous for his mental magic, was an extraordinary card man, a master of subtleties and misdirection. That is why most of the tricks in this collection do not require difficult moves, which does not mean that they are all easy to perform. His tricks have often the impromptu quality and can thus be performed without any prior preparation. You will also find contributions from such famous masters of card magic as Dai Vernon, Dr. Daley, Jean Hugard, Al Baker, Audley Walsh, Stewart Judah, and many others.

Paul Fleming wrote about Full Deck of Impromptu Card Tricks:

This is a volume of 78 good-sized, well-printed pages of text, illustrated with 27 Nelson Hahne drawings, and bound in soft boards. It is announced as consisting of "fifty-two of the finest card tricks with a borrowed deck known to America's leading magicians ... selected from the early files of The Jinx magazine." The book actually contains fifty-five, and not merely fifty-two, tricks. Sixteen are by Mr. Annemann himself, five by Martin Gardner, three each by Dr. Jacob Daley and Audley Walsh, two by Henry Christ, and one each by Al Baker, Dai Vernon, Jean Hugard, Stewart Judah, Bob Hummer, Lynn Searleā€™s, Tom Bowyer, and others whose names will be recognized promptly by those who read widely in the literature of magic.

If a compiler were to pick fifty-five items from The Jinx purely at random, he would almost inevitably have a valuable collection of tricks, because of the generally high standard that Annemann set for himself in publishing his little journal. But the material in the Full Deck of Impromptu Card Tricks was not got together by hazard; it was, on the contrary, selected and edited by John J. Crimmins, Jr., with a skill that we naturally expect him to exhibit in view of his previous success as an editor. He has seen to it that the tricks are described and explained in simple, straightforward English. He has also grouped the material under seven headings for the greater convenience of the reader. These headings, which give some idea of the types of tricks found in the book, are as follows:

Extemporaneous Magic. Tricks With Two Decks. Tricks Using "Short" Cards. Card Transpositions. Poker Demonstrations. Spelling Tricks. Simplified Prearrangements.

The difficulties of giving, in a short review, an adequate description of many tricks are not inconsiderable, and they become almost insurmountable in the case of card tricks of The Jinx type. Described very briefly, feats of this kind often sound more alike than they actually are, and also more complicated than they prove to be in actual practice. We shall content ourselves, therefore, with the statement (quoted from the foreword, and fully substantiated by a reading of the book) that the majority of these tricks "bear the earmarks of his [Annemann's] genius for substituting subtlety where difficult sleights would ordinarily have been called for." Upon second thought, we cannot refrain from suggesting that the last three pages of the book (which explain The Force That Couldn't Be Done, The "So Simple" Force, and The Indetectable Shift Palm) would in themselves be sufficient excuse for adding this volume to one's library. It should be remembered, also, that Annemann's Full Deck of Impromptu Card Tricks has illustrations which did not appear in the text as it was printed in The Jinx, and which add definitely to the clarity of the exposition.

This material was collected from JINX magazine after Annemann's suicide. Ted Annemann's Full Deck of Impromptu Card Tricks 1st edition, 1943, Max Holden, New York; reprint, 1977, Dover Publications, New York; Annemann's Miracles of Card Magic 1st edition, 1948, Max Holden, New York; reprint, 1977, Dover Publications, New York; original 188 pages in total; PDF 177 pages.

Ted Annemann's Full Deck of Impromptu Card Tricks

  • EXTEMPORANEOUS MAGIC
    1. The Card on the Ceiling
    2. The Undercover Mystery
    3. The Walk Around Discovery
    4. Locatrix
    5. Audley Walsh Coincidence
    6. Up and Down
    7. Wise Guy Catch
    8. A Story of Crime
    9. The 32 Card Mystery
    10. The Card Angler
    11. Aces of Eight
    12. Les Cartes Par Hasard
    13. A Paradox of Pairs
    14. The Psychic Toothpick
    15. The 'Elm' Card Change
    16. The Card Unharmed
    17. Restless Colors
    18. The Torn Deck Trick
    19. A Card in Flight
    20. The Spectator's Choice
    21. Queer Quest
    22. Your Fortune, Miss
    23. A Test of Power
    24. Subconscious Mystery
    25. Nufind
  • TRICKS WITH TWO DECKS
    1. Follow Me
    2. Synthetic Sympathy
    3. An Easy Lesson
  • TRICKS USING 'SHORT' CARDS
    1. The Miracle Speller
    2. Nuts to You
    3. Composite Routine
    4. The Migrating Pasteboard
    5. Decepto
    6. Lies! Lies! Lies!
    7. The Modern Eye-Popper
    8. The Card that Isn't!
  • CARD TRANSPOSITIONS
    1. Impromptu Passing
    2. Acme Thought Card Pass
    3. Card Passe-Passe
  • POKER DEMONSTRATIONS
    1. Draw Poker Plus
    2. Dead Man's Hand
  • SPELLING TRICKS
    1. Give A Number
    2. 'Ad Lib' Spelling
    3. Preposterous
    4. Newspell
    5. Jordan Plus Gardner
  • SIMPLE PREARRANGEMENTS
    1. Card Minded
    2. Tattle Tale Cards
    3. The Touch that Tells
    4. Card Box Sympathy
    5. Wired Thought
    6. The New Nightmare Effect
  • ADDENDA
    1. The Force that Couldn't be Done
    2. The So Simple Force
    3. Indetectable Shift-Palm
  • WORTH KNOWING
    1. Shiner
    2. Deck Minus Three
    3. Sidney Lenz

Annemann's Miracles of Card Magic

  • IMPROMPTU TRICKS FOR EVERY OCCASION
    1. The Whistle
    2. The Mystic Twelve
    3. Card of The Gods
    4. The Divining Pasteboard
    5. Two Cards in Fear
    6. The Twenty Card Trick
    7. Mathematical Black Jacks
    8. Three Predictions
    9. Mephisto's Prediction
    10. Like Seeks Like
    11. A Card in Hand
    12. Double Reverse
    13. Stop When Ready
    14. Twentieth Century Cards
    15. Modern Monte
    16. Mental Stud
    17. The Ribbon that Made Good
  • TRICKS WITH DUPLICATES & SHORT CARDS
    1. Trickery
    2. Four Ace Stage Presentation
    3. Flighty Aces
    4. A Question of Power
    5. Simplex Torn Card in Balloon
    6. Card Finesse
    7. Red & Blue Back Color Change
    8. The Finders
    9. Three Chances
    10. Here or There
    11. Hidden Mystery
  • TRICKS WITH FAKED & DOUBLE FACED CARDS
    1. Card in High
    2. A Card in Flight
    3. The Super Eye Popper
    4. Card on the Wing
    5. Uniflight
    6. Lost & Found
    7. Renovated Sphinx Card Trick
    8. The Mutilated Card
    9. Coloroto
    10. Vice-Versa
    11. Sympathetic Clubs
  • TRICKS WITH SIMPLE SET-UPS
    1. Card Voice
    2. A Futile Lesson
    3. The Scarne Thought Card
    4. Restless Cards
    5. The Card Phenomenon
    6. The Ultra Find
  • TRICKS WITH SPECIAL DECKS
    1. Criss-Cross
    2. The Future Deck
  • COMPLETE ROUTINES
    1. The Omega Card Act
    2. 1. The Rising Card
    3. 2. The Penetrating Card
    4. 3. The Pocketbook Card
    5. 4. The Impaled Card
    6. 5. The Torn Card
    7. Five Findo
    8. 1. Card at any Number
    9. 2. You Count 'Em
    10. 3. Card Finder
    11. 4. 'Stop'
    12. 5. The Speller
  • FORCES & IMPROVEMENTS
    1. One Hand Card Force
    2. Forcing with a Die
  • ADDENDA
    1. It Goes this Way

word count: 83649 which is equivalent to 334 standard pages of text


Reviewed by Christopher Reynolds (confirmed purchase)
★★★★★   Date Added: Thursday 27 October, 2022

While visiting Disneyland in the early 1980s, I bought the Dover Books edition of Annemann's Card Magic at the Main Street magic shop. It was one of the first "grown-up" books of card tricks I had ever purchased.

I've had this copy on my bookshelf for almost four decades, and it's been a constant source of inspiration. I've read it so often that the pages are held together with Scotch Tape and staples.

When I saw it available on lybrary.com, I decided to put my physical copy out to pasture and purchased the ebook version.

That's how great this book is; it's good enough for me to purchase twice.

There's no preface, foreword, or general discussion about performing magic, just step-by-step instructions for over 100 brilliant, easy-to-manage effects. The roster of tricks included in this book is culled from The Jinx magazine's files. It contains two separate publications: Ted Annemann's Full Deck of Impromptu Card Tricks and Annemann's Miracles of Card Magic.

The book is bursting at the seams with a wealth of first-rate material that magicians will revere for generations, including contributions from some of the most recognized names in conjuring literature: Dai Vernon, Dr. Daley, Jean Hugard, Al Baker, Audley Walsh, Stewart Judah, and others.

Annemann, who gained notoriety as a mentalist (and tenor singer), was also a gifted card man, relying on his mastery of subtlety and misdirection to make up for his lack of sleight-of-hand chops, which he never felt comfortable performing in public.

The late comedy magician Harry Anderson was a rabid fan of Annemann's act. In his book, Wise Guy, magician and Anderson biographer Mike Caveney writes, "What Harry appreciated most about Annemann's magic was that it cut right to the bone. Everything unnecessary was stripped away, and the simplest methods carried you straight to the effect."

Sleight-of-hand is one way of performing magic, but it's not the only way. That's why most of the tricks in this collection don't require any tricky moves, substituting shrewdness for skill.

The successful presentation of the many brilliant feats on these pages depends upon the card magician's hidden allies: short cards, double-faced cards, stranger cards, duplicates, simple prearrangements, and other ingenious methods that provide the means for creating otherwise elusive miracles.

Annemann's Card Magic contains illustrations by artist Nelson Hahne that didn't appear in the original versions of The Jinx and help add clarity to the text. Also included are two complete, original routines performed by Ted Annemann. These alone are worth the entire price of this volume.

The search is now over if you've been looking for a few simple (yet not simplistic), easy-to-master effects. Whether you're seeking card tricks for close-up work or stage presentations, you'll find a whole array of solid performance pieces here that won't disappoint.

Annemann's Card Magic is a classic book every magician should add to their library. I highly recommend it.


Reviewed by Feras A. Alkharboush (confirmed purchase)
★★★★★   Date Added: Friday 10 November, 2006

Simply, a GEM. You get 155 card effects. Not all are anywhere anytime. But most of them are ( the ones contained in the second book ).

I read all the effects. Some of them are of those little pieces that you do when asked for a trick. Others. however, are very good, and worth the price of this book alone, or even more.

Go for it. You will enjoy performing these effects. I did.