Where to start and what's important.
This is a well thought out and compact introduction to card magic by Paul Hallas. He teaches you the most important sleights and tricks that go along with these sleights.
From the introduction:
If you learn a sleight, learn a trick to do with it. Don't learn moves you have no tricks for, what
is the point? Better to know a few moves that you can do many effects with than many moves
that you are not sure what to use for. Just like magicians have drawers full of tricks they never
use why fill up your mind with moves (and waste time learning them) you'll probably never
use.
The Basic, Basic Card Magic Toolbox:
- Being able to shuffle the deck.
- Knowledge of two or three ways to force a card.
- Knowledge of a few ways to control a card returned to the deck.
- Knowledge of the key card principle and a tactile key card like a short card/thick card.
- Being able to shuffle the top card to the bottom of the deck and vice versa.
- Casually being able to peek or glimpse a card on the bottom or top.
- Being able to do a double lift or turnover.
- The Elmsley Count.
- How to handle the most well known gaffed decks effectively.
- Being able to subtly switch a deck for another
[Paul offered this booklet first at a lecture at the Funarama convention in Maryland in 2006. It met with success and now many more can read the digital edition.]
"...No, it's not "better" than The Royal Road To Card Magic or Card College, of course it's not. But anyone struggling with the dry tone of Royal Road and/or the scholarly prose of Card College, might well find this to be a bit of relief. At the price it's well worth having on the shelf, which is where the copy I printed now resides. In conclusion, about all I can say, and repeat, is that at the ridiculous price of less than five pounds, it's too good to miss. Assuming you're looking for Basic Basics." - Al Smith (full review at www.magicweek.co.uk)
1st edition 2006, 1st digital edition 2012, 32 pages.
word count: 15774 which is equivalent to 63 standard pages of text