D. Angelo Ferri

In addition to rules, you will find beginner to advanced playing strategies and Ferri's method for secretly signaling your partner as to what cards you hold. This is based on the system he learned from one of his early influences - the great John Scarne.

In addition to be being one of the greatest manipulator of playing cards and perhaps the greatest card mechanic of...

I worked as a "Magic Bartender" for several years, tricks have to be simple, entertaining, and ideally employ common objects. Occasionally I'd sit at a customers table which gave me the opportunity to perform 'The Glass Through the Table' and my 'Hat Load'. Slydini taught me the 'Glass Trick'. He uses sound to control the perception of the spectator, The Hat Load begins with a coin trick based upon Don Alan's Hat Load but my mechanics for loading the hat are based upon Slydini's System of movement. My Copper and Silver Transposition employs a slightly modified version of John...

Slydini's Production Silks is a routine he cared deeply about. This is an opening stage effect. (He used to say: "If you wait too long the silks will get stale".) The magician shows his hands empty then picks up a silk from the seat of a chair. The silk is displayed and placed on the back of the chair. The magician reaches into the air and produces a second silk, which is also placed on the back of the chair. Two more silks are produced from the air and then all four silks are picked up. These silks multiply into a beautiful 'fountain...

Slydini's Paper Balls in the Box is the first miracle I ever saw my teacher perform. His performance compelled me to give up everything I knew about magic and seek him out for lessons. This routine will teach the student many guiding principles such as:

• the body takes the hand
• leave and take
• Slydini's misdirection sleight
• Timing
• Coordination

This is a master's routine. One of its great lessons is the use of the eyes. Malini said: "It's in the eye". This is something Slydini instinctively understood and employed in all of his magic. This routine teaches the use of...

This is Slydini's version of the Silk in the Apple. He told me he performed it on Cuba television in the 1950's. When he walked through the streets of Havana people recognized him and came up to saying "The apple... the apple...".

The lessons here are the Slydini's approach to handling the device that makes the routine possible, the head, hand movement, which is the same movement he used in his Paper Balls Over The Head, and his Helicopter Card. This routine will give the student a greater insight into the natural mechanics of the hand, how those natural mechanics can be...

My manuscript on Slydini's Cigarette Magic teaches all of his major cigarette routines including his Cigarette Fantasy; a production of un-lit cigarettes performed to music. With the exception of his 'Torn & Restored Lit Cigarette', all of the routines employ un-lit filter less cigarettes. (Either Lucky Strikes or Camels are recommended.)

A study of Slydini's Cigarette Magic will introduce the student to Slydini timing patterns, the concept of performing a necessary mechanic when the mind of the observer is mentally at rest, and Slydini's System of Movement (The...

The Button Biting Trick is something I rarely see performed by other magician's, I have enjoyed and benefited form this routine for many years. It is a great way to let people know you are a magician. My original investigations of the routine led me to Malini and Scarne. I have developed my own method to make the effect more 'mentally acceptable' to the spectator. My grandfather was a tailor; buttons are not easily bitten off a coat. The trick rises and falls upon the spectator believing...