An introduction to conjuring.
Carl March was a pseudonym of the award-winning children's book author Sid Fleischman. He was an excellent magician. Performing magic informed his writing both in content and dramatic structure. This beginner's magic book is excellent and profusely illustrated with 201 photos by Willis I. Deits.
Excerpt from the introduction:
If this is the first magic hook you have ever opened, you may anticipate material that demands fingers more nimble than yours. We might start here and clear up some misconceptions on the subject of magic.
Dexterity
Long, slim fingers are handy but by no means essential for doing magic. The late Harry Kellar, one of America's greatest magicians, performed his miracles with unusually stubby fingers. Don't despair if you think you have clumsy fingers. You may still become an excellent magician.
Although some advanced feats of magic require great skill and delicacy of handling, many tricks do not. A number of the mysteries in this book demand no more skill than it takes to lace a shoe.
A popular misimpression is that the magician's attire is a catacomb of secret pockets. Nothing of the sort! Your wardrobe is in perfect safety. Only our magical forefathers depended on such absurdities to accomplish their effects. The simplicity of present-day magic has so completely done away with secret pockets that the average contemporary conjurer has no use for them whatsoever.
Do magicians really spend endless hours practicing before mirrors? Yes, many of them do. No one can relieve you of having to do some practicing, but you should be able to give a creditable performance after a short period of work. And what practicing you do, you will probably enjoy and find relaxing. But more about this matter later.
- Introduction
- PART ONE Intimate Tricks
- The Peculiar Match And Pin
- Penetration
- The Broken Match
- The Torn And Restored Paper Napkin
- The Lifesavers And Cord
- The Object Vanishes
- How To Cash A Check
- The Cut And Restored Dollar Bill
- The Homing Paper Ball
- The Confounding Cocktail Pick
- The Headless Match
- Restoring The String
- The Spools And Ribbons
- The Itinerant Sponge Ball
- The Wandering Spools
- The Indestructible Newspaper
- The Anti-Scientific Safety Pins
- The Thumb Tie
- The Famous Three-Shell Game
- PART TWO Basic Card Sleights
- To Palm A Card
- To Draw Off And Palm The Bottom Card
- To Draw Off And Palm The Top Card
- False Shuffle For The Entire Deck
- To Pass The Bottom Card To The Top Of The Pack
- To Pass The Top Card To The Bottom Of The Pack
- The Crimp
- False Shuffle For One Card
- The False Cut
- The Double Lift
- The Top Change
- PART THREE Magic with Cards
- A Gambler's Trick
- Quicker Than The Eye
- With A One-Way Deck
- The Educated Card
- The Card And The Hair
- A Four-Ace Trick
- Striking The Deck
- Through The Hand
- The Shadow
- The Perplexing Pack
- Strange Affair
- Knife It
- Getting The Deck In Order
- Beneath The Foot
- PART FOUR Coin Magic
- The Palm
- Rotation Vanish
- The Thumb Palm
- The Traveling Coin
- The Coin In The Lap
- The Finger Palm
- The Secret Coin Fold
- Vanish From Below
- The Automatic Vanish
- Up The Sleeve
- Again The Sleeve
- The Coin Roll
- The Coin In The Ball Of Wool
- PART FIVE Conjuring with Cigarettes
- The Magnetized Cigarettes
- The Cigarette In The Handkerchief
- The Pivot Vanish
- The Fist Vanish
- The Pinch Vanish
- The Phantom Cigarette
- The Cigarette Divided
- PART SIX Stage Tricks
- The Glass Through The Table
- The Trick Without A Name
- The Master Memory Act
- The Torn And Restored Newspaper
- The Multiplying Cigars
- The Cut And Restored Handkerchief
- How To Produce A Rabbit From A Hat
- PART SEVEN Card Tricks
- The Force
- To Get A Peek
- The Mental Selection
- The Wandering Card
- Prediction
- The Gossiping Lady
- Double Discovery
- More Adventures With The Gossiping Lady
- Three-Card Monte
- PART EIGHT Card Fans and Flourishes
- Springing From Hand To Hand
- The Card Fan
- The Blank Fan
- One-Hand Fanning
- The Vanishing Cards
- To Cut The Deck With One Hand
- The End-To-End Shuffle
- The Giant Fan
- PART NINE Hints to the Amateur Magician
There is also a British version of this book that is illustrated with line drawings rather than photos. We are listing it under title Magic Made Easy (150 Illustrations).
1st edition 1953, 96 pages; PDF 122 pages.
word count: 30410 which is equivalent to 121 standard pages of text
