Magic & Conjuring: page 352

An obscure masterpiece in the world of locked room mysteries with a meticulously planned-out crime that will delight the discerning detective story fan.

The original inside flap advert reads:

... and four other Magnum, the science consultant, detective stories.

Each story has a scientific bend or aspect to it. Magnum is not the typical detective who takes on any interesting case. He only engages when there seems to be a scientific aspect to the case. He doesn't involve himself with the law or right or wrong. His primary interest is to figure out the modus operandi as a scientific consultant. Superbly eccentric, Magnum lives up the Thames at Plumstead Marshes and travels to his laboratories via a high-powered motor launch named "Fifi". He has a brilliant but intensely shy assistant,...

Tips for magicians to overcome stage fright.

Conquer the Spotlight is a concise, yet comprehensive PDF guide tailored specifically for magicians who grapple with stage fright. This ebook dives deep into the psychology of performance anxiety and provides numerous actionable tips to help magicians build confidence, captivate audiences, and perform at their peak potential.

• Chapter 1: Understanding Stage Fright
  • Exploring the roots of stage fright in magicians.
  • The psychology behind performance anxiety.
  • Embracing nerves as a catalyst for better performance.
• Chapter 2: Preparing Mentally...

Originally entitled Artifice Ruse and Subterfuge at the Card Table, is probably the most cited and referenced book about card gambling moves - a classic in the history of magic literature. A must read for any card magician or aspiring gambling expert and an indespensable reference book. While the authorship of this book is hotly debated we are convinced it was Edward Gallaway. (For a detailed work on the search for Erdnase see Hurt McDermott's Artifice, Ruse & Erdnase.)

[A copy of this book is also included in Michael McDougall's Card Mastery. This ebook is also available in a German translation.

Paul Fleming wrote:

The younger generation of card magicians probably knows or has heard of Card College by Roberto Giobbi. The Royal Road to Card Magic is very similar but of older vintage and doesn't cover as much ground. It introduces the novice into the art of card magic one move and principle at a time, always with tricks accompanying the moves. It is therefore not a mindless list of moves but a well prepared and thought out textbook. It will take the beginner to an intermediate level. Once The Royal Road to Card Magic has been mastered one can move on to Expert Card Technique which requires a higher skill level.

Actually because Expert Card Technique did not sell well...

This is the sequel to Card Manipulations. It is a collection of four booklets. Emphasis is put on practical methods without any apparatus.

1st edition, 1938-1941, Max Holden, New York; reprint, 1974, Dover Publications, New York; 205 pages.

• No. 1.
  • Part I. - TRICKS
    7. The Three Musketeers and D'Artagnan
    8. The Sheep and the Goats
    11. Snap - A Quick Trick
    13. Crime Club Detection - Dr. H. Walter Grote
    15. Infallible Prediction - Audley V. Walsh and Hal Haber
    16. The Continuous Spelling Trick - Jack McMillen
    17. The Burglars - Orville W. Meyer
    18. The Magic Thrust - Orville W. Meyer
    19. The Two Jokers - P. W. Miller
    20. The Ladies'...

This is an all time classic with 57 beautiful illustrations. It is one of the most complete books written on magic, because it teaches both stage and close-up magic (cards, coins, silks, cups and balls, etc.), technique, presentation, and all the peripheral skills necessary for great conjuring.

"I beg to say that it is far and away the very best work of its kind ever published" - Harry Kellar

"My den contains a large collection of books on magic, but none has a cover so worn as 'Sleight of Hand' by Edwin Sachs." - David Devant

Dieses Buch ist ganz der Zauberei mit Karten gewidmet. Am besten kann es mit dem Amerikanischen Werk New Era Card Tricks, welches 1897 in Chicago erschienen ist, verglichen werden. Es beschreibt ausführlich mit 289 Abbildungen Griffe, Präparationen, Routinen, und Apparaturen. Kennen Sie die 'Deutsche', 'Amerikanische', 'Italienische', 'Französische', oder 'natürliche' Methode Karten zu markieren? Alles wird in diesem Buch beschrieben. Das Buch beginnt mit einer kleinen Kartenschule die dem Lehrling die Volte, das Glissieren und Filieren und vieles mehr beibringt. Das folgende Kapitel erklärt mehrere wunderbare...

Chuck Smith writes: "Twenty-four illusions as mysterious to audiences today as when they were performed years ago. Most are so easy to construct and execute that a teenager could do them. I know because I, as a student in highschool, built and entertained with several of them. A couple of three fold screens and a large sheet gives you the material for several of the illusions. Recently in a magic periodical I saw an ad for an illusion that looked extremely familiar. It was selling for over $5000. It's method, I'm sure, had it's roots in Grant's Super-Fine Suspension on pages 27-28 of this book....I...

The nail writer is an extremely powerful tool for the mentalist. It's origin is unclear. One of the earliest references can be found in the book Spirit Slate Writing and Kindred Phenomena, written by William. E. Robinson and published in 1898. Therein it was called "The Thumb Pencil Carrier". This booklet will give you an easy start using this gimmick.

Paul Fleming wrote:

Annemann describes a wealth of forty pieces in this wonderful booklet. The first, "Call me up sometime" is a beautifully direct telephone miracle. This is a prime example of Annemann's mantra of 'effect before method'.

I found the following line from Annemann's introduction funny:

1st edition 1934; 50 pages.

5. Call Me Up Sometime
6. The Borrowed Deck Tragedy
7. Help Wanted In The Dark
9. A Thought...

This is not a book for beginners. But it is a book that will lift up the devoted student by two or three levels of proviciency in card handling. Buckley, born in Australia, was one of the masters and innovators of card magic. He studied the card gamblers as well as the top magic performers. This book with over 300 photos, of which most have been enhanced by drawing lines over them to increase contrast, and 40 outstanding routines, is a gold mine and challenge for any card worker.

Paul Fleming wrote:

Another masterpiece from Arthur Buckley written together with John Brown Cook. Only 125 copies were printed, but now again available as a digital download. It comes with an introduction by the great John Mulholland.

This is a collection of 33 extremely practical and entertaining mental routines primarily for stage and parlor. They are all clearly described. There are not that many great books on mental magic. This one is definitely one of them.

1st edition, 1947, privately printed, Chicago; 132 pages.

1. Preface
5. Devious Digits
9. It's A Small World
12. Astral Addition
15. Projection
18. Pennies, Nickles and Dimes ...

Today we have the Masked Magician exposing magic secrets. Eighty years ago it probably was done by writing a book without the author's name given. I do not know if this book falls in the category 'exposure'. It certainly is a book that clearly reveals a lot of interesting tricks. One is the bullet catch. It has nearly 200 excellent photographs. Card and coin manipulation is dealt with in great detail. Overall a very good book. The photographs are the outstanding part.

A review in the March 1909 Sphinx states:

U. F. Grant presents several clever ideas on billet reading or how to use a svengali deck for mentalism. He also has a completely different version of "Grey Elephants in Denmark".

• Bill Reading
• Name Duplication
• Impromptu Test
• Best Digit Test
• Cards Impossible
• In Their Pocket
• Up & Down Test
• Thot of Person
• Card Projection
• Lites Out
• Dunninger Type Act
• Another Dunninger
• Weekly Prediction
• Committee Test
• Thought Projector
• Private Lives
• Lobby Tip-Off
• Directory Test
• Houdini Bill Reading
• Glass Clipboard
• Mental Table
• Flaming Answer
• Fake Questions
• Flower-Color-Animal
• Mass Mind Reading

10...

Five Mind Reading Acts Exposed was written prior to 1940 and upon reading the 12 pages of instruction you realize that everything old is new again. Although all the routines are designed for a two person act some of the ideas contained can be adapted for a single performer. No author is credited and it is a compilation of secrets of acts of that era.

Act No. 1 is the reading of dates on coins sealed in envelopes. Today’s mentalists could combine this with Psychometry and Cold Reading to use as a feature in their act.

Act No. 2 is a preamble to the question answering act of Falkenstein....

This is a neat little collection of bar tricks, stunts and simple magic effects. Some of it will be familiar to you, some have a new twist or plot and others might be completely new to you. Julian added photos to make it very easy to present these on your next visit to your favorite bar or restaurant. It is a good idea to have a few of these stunts ready when you are not prepared to do a full magic show, but still want to be the center of attention.

1st edition, 2004.

1. Red or Black
This trick will prove that your volunteer has ESP as they correctly predict whether cards are red or black. ...

For a long time I had the perception that magic with thimbles is at best something for kids. Then I saw a performance by a Japanese magician. And it blew my mind. It was a fast paced, very visual and beautiful manipulation performance.

In this booklet Hugard teaches all the moves and quite a few routines to build your own thimble act. One of the big advantages of thimbles is that they are easier to manipulate than other objects such as balls and coins.

1st edition, 1936 Max Holden, New York; 46 pages

3. Chapter 1: The Thimbles
9. Chapter 2: Advanced Sleights
22. Chapter 3: The First Thimble ...

Shades of the Manchurian Candidate...this book teaches how to put someone into a hypnotic trance by showing them a playing card.

This is a great starter book from the depression years with all kinds of diverse hypnotic information. There are even a few "politically incorrect" statements in the book. But, after all, it was the 1930s.

You will be taught ways to hypnotize yourself or a room full of people, how to hypnotize someone instantaneously, and even how to hypnotize animals. It also covers mesmerism, magnet healing and other closely related subjects.

1st edition 1930s; 35 pages

Although this booklet was written in the 40s, paper cups are still ubiquituous objects. Go to any fast food restaurant and you will find them, or at parties, at the company water cooler, picknicks, fairs a.s.o. This makes paper cups an ideal item for us magicians - great for an impromptu miracle. Sam Berland teaches 25 amazing tricks, from vanishing liquids to appearing silks in cups. Almost any magical effect can be achieved.

You too should know at least one trick with a paper cup for the next discussion at the water cooler.

1st edition 1942; 26 pages.

3. Introduction
5. Liquid Vanishing Cup:...

Fred was a specialist in performing close-up, parlor and stage card tricks using jumbo cards and even giant cards. He teaches you how to do an Elmsley count, a Jordan count, a Hamman count and an Ascanio count using jumbo/giant cards. You will learn to do a number of wonderful effects, such as 'Oil and Queens', 'The Holiday Adventure', 'The James Bond Trick' and others.

Once you mastered these techniques, you can take many small packet tricks and perform them with jumbo or giant cards. I did myself the famous 'Twisting the Aces' with jumbo cards, and I developed a method to do the 'mirror...

This complete mini-course in hypnotism starts with the assumption that the reader knows nothing about the subject at all and then rapidly leads him, step by step, to the point where he can hypnotize perfect strangers. It is succinct, no nonsense and unpadded. Its slim 33 pages are jammed with the essential information one needs to become successful in the art of hypnotism. In the first section comprised of eight lessons Mr. Wolff stresses strongly that you achieve the goals in each chapter before increasing your skills. In these chapters he teaches many “tests” and various ways to hypnotize....

Walter Schwartz a member of the SAM and IBM wrote for many magazines among them The Sphinx. A total of 38 practical tricks is presented in this booklet. Not all effects are Walter's own, but many are. You can find quite a number of mentalism pieces, some card tricks, even a rabbit production is described.

1st edition 1933; 38 pages.

Burning of Candles, Use of Roots and Oils Powders and Incenses. Significance of Cards, Horoscope with Lucky Days and Lucky Numbers. A Guide to Spiritualists, Mediums, and Readers, from the most powerful and famous Voodoo priestess.

72 pages.