Magic & Mentalism

A calculated stack for mind readers.

A new deck order built for mentalists, not card magicians. Black cards count up in fours, each black card is followed by its red partner, and partners always add to fourteen. One rule lets you name the card above or below any card you glimpse, and the stack survives any number of cuts. It has built-in mind-reading features: alternating colors, suits that separate when dealt into four piles, twin "mates" exactly half a deck apart, and controlled survival of a spectator's riffle shuffle. There are five routines: First Impression, The Polygraph, Fourteen,...

Cut through your thumb with a playing card.

The guillotine is a classic concept in magic illusions. Now you can even perform it up close using a playing card. Choose any card from your deck and visually cut through your thumb.

video 16:25

The performer accurately describes three thought-of pictures.

The performer displays ten cards, each bearing a different picture (an eye, an apple, a gun, etc.). Three spectators cut the packet one after another before the performer openly mixes the cards.

The performer then divides the cards into two packets, picks up one of them, and asks Spectator 1 to remember the picture on the bottom card. The procedure is repeated with Spectator 2 and Spectator 3.

The performer openly mixes the cards again as many times as the spectators wish and hands the packet to one of them. Once the performer...

Excerpt from the preface:

Table of Contents

• PREFACE
• PARLOR TABLEAUX VIVANTS
  • Preparing the Stage
  • Simple Tableaux Vivants, and Frame Pictures
  • Faith, Peace and Glory
  • Milton at the Age of...

For evening parties, picnics, and social gatherings.

Includes: attractive parlor games, clearly illustrated by means of witty examples, showing how each may be most successfully played. Surprising tricks, easy of performance. Musical and other innocent sells. Comical illusions fully described, very startling in their effects, and presenting little or no difficulty in their preparation. A variety of ingenious puzzles. It also includes a new version of Mrs. Jarley's Wax Works.

Table of Contents

• PREFACE
• SOCIAL AMUSEMENTS FOR EVENING PARTIES
• FIRST EVENING
  • The Signal Master
  • The Elephant ...

With contributions from well-known artists and chalk talk lecturers.

Excerpt from the introduction:

1st edition 1946, PDF 32 pages.

Excerpt from the foreword:

1st edition 1953, PDF 31 pages.

This catalog was published in two parts. Both parts are included in this digital edition.

1st edition 1997, PDF 184 pages.

1st edition 1988, PDF 64 pages.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

• Oil & Water – Klondyke Style
• 4x bis 4
• Going on a 4ay
• Zähl auf mich! (1)
• Zähl auf mich! (2)
• Au-re-li-us
• Getrennt und doch verbunden
• Josephus trifft Bessey
• Bye-bye, Bessey!
• Trennkost
• re-paar-abel
• Die Karte Ihres Vertrauens
• 2 + 2 + 2 + 1
• 2 für 1
• AngESProchen 1
• AngESProchen 2
• Geordnete Verhältnisse
• Sechster Sinn oder Magie?
• Wingers
• Freya sei Dank!
• Sfilata
• 1 + 4
• Zig-zag Separation
• Corner Kicks

Erstausgabe 2026, PDF 49 Seiten.

Minor math-based tricks and procedural surprises.

Includes trick #81 - #100.

1st edition 2026, PDF 21 pages.

The spectators shuffle the cards themselves, and yet their minds line up. Shadows in the Shuffle takes the Gilbreath principle off the card table and puts it into mind reading, with four sleight-free routines using cards, handwritten words and real money.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• About Diesel Vance
• At a Glance
• The Shuffle That Remembers
• Routine 1 · Two Minds, One Shadow
• Routine 2 · The Mirror Line
• Routine 3 · The Fourth Door
• Routine 4 · Exact Change
• Performing the Set
• Verification
• Credits
• Appendix · Library Comparison

1st edition 2026, PDF 35 pages.

Dai Vernon's Inner Secrets of Card Magic, Lewis Ganson's captivating four-part series, was the source for our previous release Five Vernon Gems. And now, here are Another Five Vernon Gems, this time the carefully selected contents drawn from the sensational Vernon Chronicles series, authored by Stephen Minch.

Once again, Australian card man Ian Baxter is responsible for offering these variations of his own devising, respectfully focusing on Vernon's originals as the vital source of inspiration.

The Fingerprint Card Trick, Aeroplane Card Trick, Corsican...

The artist shows a playing card and, using his fingers to simulate a gun, fires a bullet, and a hole appears in the card.

1st edition 2023, video 10:40

The deck is shuffled and cut. A spectator freely selects a card, remembers it, and returns it to the middle of the deck. The magician never touches the cards again. The spectator cuts the deck (no force) and turns over a seemingly random card. It isn’t the spectator’s card—but its value reveals exactly how far down to count. The spectator counts down to that position and turns over the card: their selection.

There are countless indicator card effects - so what makes this one different? The deck appears to be fairly shuffled from the start, yet no false shuffle is required. Instead,...

A no-gimmick ACAAN routine.

The magician first takes out 9 cards and tells the spectator that these cards will locate their selection. The spectator then freely selects a card and shuffles the deck. The magician arranges the original 9 cards into a 3×3 matrix on the table and has the spectator freely choose 3 cards. These 3 cards not only reveal the selection's color, suit, and value, but their values also add up to the exact position of the selection in the deck.

1st edition 2026, video 10:17.

Performance transcript:

• Set these 9 cards aside for now.
• As I riffle, have the spectator...

To most folks back then, the mechanisms described in this book looked like magic. Wine flowing without any visible pumping apparatus or temple doors opening on their own were unexplainable to most and looked like the doings of the gods. These mechanisms are therefore the forefathers of magical apparatus and illusions. While today, nobody would ascribe these actions to godly interventions, they can still be surprising if staged and implemented properly.

The Pneumatics of Hero of Alexandria is a foundational ancient Greek treatise that describes an extensive collection of mechanical inventions...

Remarkable Delusions; or, Illustrations of Popular Errors is a historical survey of human superstition, false sciences, and historical misconceptions, written from a 19th-century rationalist and theological perspective. It was published as part of an educational, cheap monthly series designed to debunk historical myths and explain the psychology behind why large groups of people fall for massive deceptions.

The book is structured into thematic chapters, primarily focusing on:

• The Occult and False Sciences: Critical examinations of the fruitless searches, foundational theories, and eventual...

This book catalog includes two lovely articles by Edwin A. Dawes. One is about magic book collecting; the other is about bookplates. The catalog lists more than 840 books in 21 categories:

• Balloons
• Cards
• Children's
• Close-Up
• Comedy
• Cups and Balls
• Escapology
• General
• Hypnotism
• Illusions
• Know-Hows
• Lecture Notes
• Linking Rings
• Livestock
• Magazines
• Manipulation
• Memorabilia
• Mentalism
• Punch & Judy
• Stagecraft
• Tech-Ins

Excerpt from the introduction:

Excerpt from the introduction:

The Phoenix was a biweekly periodical published in New York by Walter Gibson and Bruce Elliott. After issue 73, Bruce Elliott ran it alone. A total of 300 issues were published. It was meant to continue in spirit and quality the legendary Jinx, which ceased after Annemann's death in January of 1942. And indeed, The Phoenix continued to publish excellent and innovative material.

1st edition 1942, PDF 1238.

• No. 251
  • Emlyn Williams, the English actor. [Personalities]
  • Bow-Tie [Paper] / G. Legman
  • The Lotus (paper folding) [Paper] / G. Legman
  • Pavane For A Pagan (paper ball) [Balls]
  • Magicians Club Entrance from "Lilliput" - sent by Dr. Jaks [Cartoons - Artists]
  • Pavane for a Pagan (preparation) [Paper]
• No. 252
  • Hal's Hallucination (billets) [Apparatus] / H. M. Greenberg
  • Fourth Dimensional Turning (signature made with money making machine) [Paper]
  • Glen Pope [Personalities]
  • Leslie Barrie [Personalities]
  • The Easter Bunny [Puzzles]
• No. 253
  • The Unambitious Card (reversed...

• No. 201
  • Tap Tap Tap [Cards (Preparation, Duplicates)] / Royal V. Heath
  • Sub Aqua (cards, coins) [Cards (Preparation, Duplicates)] / Cy Endfield
  • Loaded (book test, mental effect) [Book, Magazine & Newspaper Tests] / John P. Hamilton
  • Cartoon artist: Ravielli, Anthony [Cartoons - Artists]
  • Optical Sensitivity (Cy Endfield) (b.r.) [Letters]
• No. 202
  • Deanball (sleight) [Balls] / Wally Dean
  • Jokerneurosis [Cards (Preparation, Duplicates)] / Bert Fenn
  • Out! [Cards (Impromptu)] / Hugh Carroll
  • Victor Jory [Personalities]
• No. 203
  • Jory's Verdict! [Mental Effects - One...

• No. 151
  • Cartoon artist: Ravielli, Anthony [Cartoons]
  • Ted Annemann, recollections of [Dissertations of Special Interest]
  • Parallels (Do as I do) [Cards, Impromptu] / Roger Barkann
  • Triphecy (Prediction) [Cards, Arranged] / L. Vosburgh Lyons
  • Pendle (Billet test) [Mental Effects, One Person] / Jaks
  • Lu-Site (Card box) [Apparatus] / Bruce Elliott
  • "XX" (two person mindreading) [Cards, Impromptu]
  • Code Transmission Devices of Annemann [Mental Effects, Two Persons]
  • "XX" (Cards) [Mental Effects, Two Persons] / J.G. Thompson Jr.
• No. 152
  • Plus or Minus? (Follow the Leader) [Cards,...

• No. 101
  • Clipped (Card Reading) [Cards (Preparation Required)] / King Stevenson
  • 142857 [Numbers] / Bruce Elliott
  • Thumble [Thimbles] / R.M. Damison
  • Homing Eagle / J.G. Thompson Jr.
• No. 102
  • Follow The Leaders (Routined magic) [Cards (Impromptu Feats)] / Roger Barkann
  • Discus [Miscellaneous] / L. Vosburgh Lyons
• No. 103
  • The Town Skryer (Mental effect) [Cards (Impromptu Feats)] / Orson Welles
  • Hamilton's Pointer (One way card) [Cards (Impromptu Feats)]
  • Facsimile [Billet Reading; Mental Effects (One Man - Preparation)] / Cyril Marriott
  • A Word There Is [Miscellanea] ...

• No. 51
  • Duo-Finale [Billet Reading; Mental Effects (Two Persons)] / J.G. Thompson
  • 3 Jacks and A Pat (Gambling demonstration) [Cards (Arranged)] / Phil Weisbecker
  • Allow Me [Matches] / O'Hagan
  • Variation of "Sucker Bet" (Prediction) [Cards (Impromptu)]
  • Brave Corrections [Cards (Preparation)]
• No. 52
  • Moth-Eaten [Paper]
  • "Free" French Drop [Coins]
  • Yankee Vase [Suspensions]
  • On and Off [Rings]
  • Carlyle's Card Idea [Tips and Improvements]
  • Back To Back [Matches]
• No. 53
  • Out Of This Phone Book [Book Tests; Mental Effects (Preparation)] / Paul Curry
  • A Cute One [Betchas]...

• No. 1
  • Pay Off (Numerical prognostication)
  • Grade "A" Vanish (Milk)
  • New Finger! Finger!
  • Mind Over Money (Memory)
  • Mae West Telephone Stunt
  • Tribute to Theo. Annemann
• No. 2
  • Hard Boiled Miracle
  • Lost In The Shuffle (Two person mindreading)
  • The Blackstone Show (Program Review)
  • Clip Color
• No. 3
  • Scrambled Thought Waves (Novelty location) / Claytong Rawson
  • Blow Up / Frank V. Taylor
  • Penny-tration / Harry Baker
  • By-passed (Cover up for pass)
  • Making Your Mirror Glass - par. 11
• No. 4
  • Ball-istics
  • Rehydration / Alvin R. Plough
  • Slide-less
  • Williston's Pull (Handkerchiefs) ...

Add to your arsenal of magic and card sharper's knowledge with this hard-to-find manuscript from a recognized master of deception. Daub or "shade work" is a special treatment that the card cheat adds to one or more cards during play. It's most always done when playing with someone else's deck.

Savvy magicians and card workers decided that card cheats shouldn't be the only ones to make use of this technique. Thus, Irv Weiner devoted this booklet to the topic.

The book gives 12 practical methods of securing daub in a natural manner. Five suggestions for applying the daub are given, as...

An imagined PIN, read one digit at a time.

A spectator invents a PIN on her own phone and gives only a fragment, and the performer reveals it digit by digit in a lie-detector frame. There are three routines plus a Night Writer kicker. It uses only public-domain arithmetic, and only imagined PINs throughout.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• About Diesel Vance
• At a Glance
• THE ARITHMETIC Encryption
• THE ARITHMETIC The Hidden Digit
• ROUTINE ONE Four Digits
• ROUTINE TWO Redacted
• ROUTINE THREE Read Receipt
• Ethics
• Credits and Bibliography
• Night Writer

1st edition 2026, PDF 28 pages....

A fun effect that will produce a laugh because it is an absurd visual. A pencil, pen, or Sharpie enters one hole and exits another, creating a visual miracle - a portal that defies common sense.

A possible routine would be to combine it with Lubor Fiedler's Invisible Zone using the same pen.

The card with the two holes and the pen are ungimmicked and can be handed out. The secret gimmick is easy to make.

1st edition 2025, video 7:12

The mentalist divines a sentence, a number, and a playing card, each one connected to the next.

EFFECT:

The mentalist invites a spectator to join him and introduces his next experiment:

"Even the smallest event can set off a chain of consequences. That is called the Butterfly Effect. It makes you wonder how much do the events around us influence the decisions we make? And ultimately, how much control do we really have over our own fate?"

First, the spectator cuts a deck of cards as many times as he wishes. He removes any card, remembers it, and places it into his left pocket.

Next,...

The audience is asked to choose one of the two decks from which two different spectators will each select a card: the first will keep his card hidden, while the second will return his to the deck and shuffle to hide it; once the deck is returned to its case, the magician will guess the first card simply by weighing the case. Then, taking the second deck and showing it, the magician will have the second spectator’s card found among a predetermined number of cards!

Strengths

• The effect requires no technical skill and is practically automatic.
• A new, secret, previously unseen stack is...

Viene fatto scegliere uno dei due mazzi dai quali due diversi spettatori dovranno scegliere una carta ciascuno: il primo la tratterrà nascosta, il secondo la reinserirà nel mazzo e la disperderà mescolandolo.

Fatto reinserire il mazzo nel suo astuccio, solamente soppesandolo il mago indovinerà la prima carta. Prendendo poi il secondo mazzo e mostrandolo, il mago farà ritrovare ad un numero prestabilito la carta del secondo spettatore!

Punti di Forza

• L’effetto non richiede abilità tecniche ma è praticamente automatico.
• Viene utilizzato un nuovissimo e inedito stack segreto,...

This catalog lists supplementary items to catalog numbers 30 and 31.

Excerpt from the introduction:

1st edition 1982, PDF 128 pages.

This catalog lists supplementary items to catalog numbers 30, 31, and 32.

Excerpt from the introduction:

1st edition 1983, PDF 112 pages.

A sealed-envelope test with a scratch pad, a hidden card, and an invitation in view from the start.

A three-person sealed-envelope routine in the Fourth Dimensional Telepathy tradition. Two answers are predicted openly on a pad. The third person's answer is never written down by anyone, and her envelope is never opened. The finale is a handwritten invitation, loaded into an envelope that the host signed before the routine began.

The ebook includes a full script, props and setup, outs, a Night Writer variation, and printable true-size invitation cards. The credits are careful: Annemann,...

"This is what levitation should look like. Magic that happens in mid-air." - Patrick Kun

"This looks like real magic." - Takumi Takahashi

Do you want to float matches, rings, and credit cards in midair? Right in front of your spectators? Of course, you do! This video download will teach you how. Just watch the video above and tell me your eye didn't pop out.

From Chile, South America, returns Patricio Terán with his great illusions, this time focusing on levitation in a compilation of 8 ideas that you can incorporate and surprise in your routines.

"Patricio Terán has very creative...

"Bravo! Awesome! Wonderful! This is what I'd been wanting to do the most." - Mott-sun

"Objects jump, travel and get excited. Keys open doors, jumping dices, rings that compromise travels and others elements will play to the matrix compases." - Bruno Tarnecci

"I think Patricio revolutionized what the Matrix effect is, great impact visual magic." - Federico poeymiro

Matrix specialist Patricio Terán delights us with a combination of his routines so that anyone can perform them. The video explains how to make the system and the effects that can be made. Simple and complex versions;...

A treasury of practical miracles, rare magic lore, and historical oddities

Beginning in 1999 and into the early 2000s, I managed The Learned Pig Project website, the Internet's first and most important online repository of classic magic books and documents, visited by thousands of magicians around the globe. Parallel to the website, I published an email eZine—TLP Magic eZine—which featured tons of interesting, practical, and highly creative material.

In 2003, I selected the best articles, routines, and essays from those back issues and compiled them into a single volume. Now, you can...

This intro price will go up to $30 from November 16, 2026.

A surprise free gift worth $18 is included inside.

The core principle underlying these effects is the classic binary method. But the twist here is that instead of "directly" identifying the target object (as done in the standard binary method), the participant is asked to identify only a group that contains the target object and not the target object directly. This adds a thick layer of deception over the regular binary method. So I call this Shadow Binary. And it is performed from a pocket card, which is an ideal EDC - Every...

Completely impromptu, locating two freely thought-of cards.

The spectator freely shuffles the deck and cuts it into two packets. Two spectators each think of a card, then freely cut their packets before the two packets are combined.

The spectators freely cut the cards, think of two selections, and mix up the deck. There is no stack. Even so, the magician can accurately determine the exact position of both selections in the deck.

1st edition 2026, video 10:22.

Performance excerpt:

• Next is a completely impromptu routine.
• First, have the spectator shuffle the deck freely.
• There...

The magician challenges a pair of spectators to a game of Texas Hold'em Poker and lets one of them deal the cards, but manages to predict everything about the outcome, including his win with a straight!

The title, which is intended to mean 'Sensory Perceptions for 3 Poker Players', presents an experiment in which the magician, after showing and shuffling a pack of cards, plays a game of poker with two members of the audience. By letting one of the two spectators act as the dealer and following the rules of Texas Hold'em - without even looking at his own cards - he will know the hands held...

Il Mago sfida una coppia di spettatoriad una partita a Texas Holdìem Poker e lascia che sia uno dei due a fare da mazziere, ma riesce a prevedere ogni cosa riguardo al finale, inclusa la sua vincita con una SCALA!

Il titolo, che in italiano potrebbe suonare come “Percezioni Sensoriali per 3 Giocatori di Poker”, indica un esperimento dove il prestigiatore, dopo aver mostrato e mescolato un mazzo di carte, ingaggia una partita a poker con due spettatori.

Lasciando il ruolo di mazziere ad uno dei due spettatori e seguendo le regole del Texas Hold’em, senza manco guardare le sue...

Designed especially as a warning to the youthful and inexperienced against the evils of that odious and destructive vice.

For magicians and gamblers, the various explanations of cheating are most interesting.

Excerpt from the preface:

Excerpt from the introduction:

1st edition 1984, PDF 96 pages.

Excerpt from the introduction:

1st edition 1977, PDF 87 pages.

"The hottest Matrix effect." - Nicholas Lawrence

"Patricio Teran brings an extra visual punch to one of my favorite plots in magic." - Alain Simonov

"Matrix was already a good routine, imagine adding fire to it ... amazing." - Felix Bodden

After years of studying matrix routines and building on Vanni Bossi's effect, Patricio decided to fully evolve the fire matrix routine plot with his own handling and applications. You will learn new movements and explosive routines, and even examples of fire matrix routines that can be done without extra chips.

The Matrix effect evolved....