Magic & Mentalism

Understand human attention, plus a selection of tricks.

This book has a most wonderful first part with the best summary of attention mechanisms I am aware of in any magic book. A better understanding of these human attention mechanisms allows one to become a more effective magician by clarifying how attention, misdirection, and memory work. Portions of these are covered by other authors, such as Juan Tamariz, but here you get a very nice and complete summary.

Pavel Vošahlík was a friend of Lubor Fiedler, a like-minded creative magician.

The trick section includes...

A parlor/stage routine for Jay Sankey's Against All Odds from the book The Definitive Sankey Vol 2.

Start clean, end up clean. Two different endings.

The magician explains that he is working with a team of magicians on a way to write to someone's memory using Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) aka body language.

The magician uses a deck of cards and sends cards to spectators' minds using body language. The spectators then somehow mess things up by saying exactly the cards that the magician had sent. All can be examined; pockets are empty, etc.

1st edition 2026, PDF 19 pages, video...

After years of studying matrix routines, Patricio created Symphony, a wonderful sequence of coins inexplicably vanishing from one place and reappearing at another. Everything is explained in detail from two viewing angles. The four effects are:

• Explosive Impact
• Bunch
• Chink to Chink Plus
• Side Explosion

1st edition 2026, video 16:29

A fooling sandwich routine with a simple, fast effect.

The magician takes out two Jokers and places them on the table, then has the spectator select a card and place it into the middle of the deck, outjogged. The magician then transfers the selection between the two Jokers. But here's the question: if the selection has traveled between the Jokers, what is the outjogged card in the middle of the deck? The magician turns over the card in the middle of the deck, revealing the other card of the same value and suit as the selection. At the same time, the two Jokers instantly change into the other...

In an escalating sequence, the performer reveals predictions of matching colors, numbers, and ultimately a playing card.

EFFECT:

Twelve cards are removed from a regular deck. Four are used as prediction cards. The spectator cuts the remaining eight, mixes them three times, and divides them into two equal piles.

He places the top card of each pile in front of the first prediction and repeats the procedure, placing each pair in front of the next prediction. The pairs are turned face up. Only two of them match in color—one is a red pair and the other a black pair. (The mismatched pairs,...

Monatsschrift für Salon-Magie und alle verwandten Fächer.

Der Zauberkünstler war eine Zeitschrift von der nur die erste Ausgabe verlegt wurde, bzw. erhalten blieb. Vielleicht wurden mehr Ausgaben herausgebracht aber nur Nummer 1 ist uns heute bekannt.

• Vorwort
• Der Kobold im Glase
• Der verschwindende Tannenbaum
• Die Aufhebung der Schwerkraft
• Der Vermehrungsthaler
• Chemische Kunststücke: Wunderbares Changement diverser Flüssigkeiten
• Karten Kunststücke
  • Das Blumenkartenspiel
  • Die springenden Karten
  • Der behexte Spiegel
• Ventriloquistik: Die sprechende Hand
• Automaten: Aesop, der...

A collection of Dr. Braude's favorite contributions to various magic magazines through the years. Subtle card magic and other miscellaneous magic that you will enjoy.

Table of Contents

• Introduction by Bruce Elliott
• Foreword
• Super Optical Illusion
• Way "Out Of This World"
• Magnetic Field
• Transmogrification
• Telekinetic Card
• Reversal Of One Or More Bottom Cards
• Numbers Game
• Compulsion
• Sight Unseen
• Do As I Do With One Deck
• "I Am Thinking Of A Card"
• Its The Humidity
• Tactile Spell
• Brain Twister
• Treats (Bits And Pieces)
  • Sensitive Finger Tips
  • Ring-O-Leveo
  • Idea For...

Description, history, variations, suit systems, tricks, tips ... and more.

Excerpt from the foreword by Dr. Hans-Christian Solka:

This is the definitive guide to the Eight Kings Stack, featuring a full description...

Jack Le Dair had a polished, professional presentation, an ideal front-cloth act, each trick used a carefully conceived gem of magic.

This material originally appeared serialised in Abra.

Table of Contents

• Publisher's Foreword
• Introduction
• Foreword
• CHAPTER ONE Cigarette Making
• CHAPTER TWO Oscar The Duck
• CHAPTER THREE The Colour Handkerchief Change
• CHAPTER FOUR The (Stodare) Egg And Handkerchief Trick
• CHAPTER FIVE The Three Cards And Celebrity Trick
• CHAPTER SIX Two Proven Winners
  • Another Way Of Finding A Missing Watch
  • The Vanishing Violin Bow
• CHAPTER SEVEN A Topical Torn...

Note that Peter Duffie released two entirely different publications with the title "Hidden Agenda". The first one was released in 1992. This is the one offered here. Then in 2001 he released an ebook with the same title but entirely different content. We have changed the title of this later ebook to Hidden Agenda 2.

Table of Contents

• Two Packs But With A Single Thought
• Alternative Update
• Divisory Capacity
• Return Journey
• Quick - Serve Aces
• The Graveyard Shift
• No Chance
• It Is Written
• Rooms For Manoeuvre
• The Beast With Five Fingers
• Straight From The Bottom
• Straight From...

A selected card is returned to the deck; the deck is boxed. A razor blade is inserted into the box. After shaking the box in an attempt to locate the selected card, the box is opened. The cards are poured onto the table. Surprise. The cards are all cut into pieces except for the selected card. A perfect finish for any card sequence.

1st edition 2026, video 3:54.

Magic Tricks. The End of History is a fundamental monographic study that explores the ontological boundaries of magic tricks. The work traces the civilizational trajectory of illusionism as an art form: from its sacred origins to secular entertainment and, ultimately, to its contemporary terminal phase of anomie within the architectonics of the digital era.

Relying on an interdisciplinary approach, the monograph examines magic tricks not only as a specific sociocultural phenomenon but also as a distinct form of communication, tracing their genesis in connection with transformations in the...

A fooling card trick designed to fool magician friends. A Self-Working effect.

The spectator freely cuts off a packet, remembers the bottom card, and returns it to the middle of the deck. The magician then cuts to the middle of the deck and claims that three cuts will locate the spectator’s selection. After three consecutive cuts, none of the cards is the selection. However, the values of the three cards cut to add up to the exact position of the selection.

1st edition 2026, video 5:16.

Performance transcript:

• Place the deck on the table and have the spectator cut off one-third...

You will learn Peter Pellikaan's switch of four cards for another four cards. As a bonus, he also teaches you the Pelli Spread, a move that allows you to fan 4 cards while hiding a 5th card.

1st edition 2026, video 3:43.

The performing magician's guide to creating original magic.

You are gaining traction as a magician. You have studied the art form, practiced everything that has been taught to you, and performed these miracles for audiences. Now you want to create your own magic. But how? Creativity is notoriously elusive—especially when what you are trying to create is, by definition, impossible. This book dives into the importance of originality in magic—defining what it means for magic to be "original"—and gives you concrete, practical advice for how to create your own, original magical effects....

Excerpt from the introduction:

Table of Contents

• Paris Slant
• Crux Deluxe
• Freeze! ...

Two chosen symbols perfectly match a prediction that was in full view from the very beginning.

EFFECT:

The performer introduces a 50-card ESP deck (two regular 25-card decks combined) to two spectators. He divides the deck into two piles, explaining that he is going to explore the connection between the three of them.

For this, he asks each spectator to think of a different number between 1 and 20. He deals down to each spectator’s chosen number, one card from each pile at a time, and sets aside the two selected cards for each spectator. The four cards are then arranged in a square...

A fresh look at five card classics from Dai Vernon.

Straight from the pages of Lewis Ganson's sensational four-part series, Dai Vernon's Inner Secrets of Card Magic, five brand new entries, carefully revised variations highlighting the genius of 'The Professor' himself.

These renovated approaches are from Ian Baxter, Australian card man and author.

Colour Separation, Pinch Colour Change, Out Of Sight - Out Of Mind, Switching A Card In An Envelope and A Spectator Finds His Own Card are all carefully examined, with twists and turns that give each of them a totally fresh...

A very special way to locate a card—guaranteed to fool you.

The spectator freely cuts the deck and remembers the bottom card. The magician then claims that the trick has something to do with the number 12, and counts twelve indifferent cards from the top to the bottom twice. The magician then deals through the cards, attempting to locate the spectator's selection, but ultimately deals to a Queen. Counting twelve cards down from the top reveals the spectator's selection. Not only that, but the spectator's random cut position and the two packets of twelve cards also come into play. Turn...

• A full-circle mentalism plot: a card apparently reserved for a later trick becomes an impossible foretelling in the current effect.
• The spectator searches a packet, shuffles both packets, participates in reassembling the deck, cuts the deck, and makes the final choice.
• The final choice is genuinely clean: no equivoque.
• The prediction is apparently placed aside before the spectator begins the shuffling and decision-making.
• The written message creates a two-stage climax: first, the unexpected prophecy; then, the spectator’s impossible card revelation.
• The final card remains face down...

Excerpt from the foreword:

Table of Contents

• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• FOREWORD
• CHAPTER ONE BASIC TECHNIQUE
  • I. The Lamont Grip
  • II. The Gesture Move
  • III. The Transfer Technique
  • IV. The Pick-Up Move
  • V. One-Hand Separation
  • VI. Two-Hand Separation
  • VII....

Dieses Buch ist das früheste veröffentlichte Werk über Zauberei, das von einem in Amerika geborenen Zauberkünstler verfasst wurde. Zusätzlich zu den Zauberkunststücken findet man auch Heilkunde. Philadelphia schreibt dazu:

I am very happy to present this new Spellbound routine! The main feature of this method is that it allows you to repeat the transformation again and again, creating a continuous and highly visual sequence of changes.

The method is very easy to perform and is based on one of the approaches explained in my book Giacomo Bertini's System for Amazement. I developed this handling to make the transformations practical, direct, and suitable for real close-up performances.

The result is a highly visual Spellbound sequence that can be repeated several times in succession, while keeping the handling...

This booklet explains techniques and effects for second, center, and bottom deals. It describes Marlo's fantastic Master Grip technique, which allows for false dealing from the same grip. Apart from this, the booklet also contains weird and wild techniques for various deals, the No Touch theory, the incredibly clean The Over Deal, deals invented by Marlo's peers, and a ton of other ideas, techniques, and effects.

Table of Contents

• Foreword
• "Seconds, Centers, Bottoms"
• The Master Grip And Deal
• The Bottom Deal
• The Over Count
• The Second Deal
• The Havana Deal
• The Sail
• One Hand Bottom...

The author conjures up: Reminiscences, recollections, reminders, featuring anecdotes, memories, flash-backs, untold nostalgia.

Ian Adair has spent a fascinating lifetime in magic. He delves back into the past, reliving the times he spent with magicians, inventors, makers and customers who were very much part of his life. Revealing many unpublished anecdotes - flashbacks exposing disasters - triumphs and successes, plus his magical idols, heroes and favourite iconic magicians.

Excerpt from the preface:

A retrospective.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• BEGINNINGS
  • Touch Turn
  • Named Reverse
  • Think Ace
  • Gaffed Think Ace
• TRIBUTARIES
  • Swindle Think Ace
  • Technicolor Think Ace
  • Four-Card Technicolor Thought - Number One
  • Four-Card Technicolor Thought - Number Two
  • More Four-Card Technicolor Thoughts
  • Cased-In Technicolor Thought
  • Tabled Think Ace
  • Spread Think Ace
• Contingency Aces / Robert Walker & Jon Racherbaumer
• Pumping B'Wave / Jon Racherbaumer

3rd edition 2002, PDF 28 pages.

Entrez dans l’univers fascinant de la magie!

Le Manuel du Magicien est un ouvrage pratique qui réunit 57 tours, effets et astuces de magie pour découvrir et pratiquer différentes formes de magie.

Au fil des pages, vous trouverez des expériences autour des cartes, pièces, boules, cordes, foulards, baguettes, ainsi que des effets de mentalisme, close-up et spectacle.

Chaque tour présente son effet et son explication, afin de permettre au lecteur de comprendre la préparation et la présentation de l'expérience.

• 57 tours et effets + en bonus 20 autres tours rajouté
• Cartes...

A Biddle trick that can fool magicians.

The magician has the spectator freely select a card and shuffle it into the deck. The spectator then freely cuts the deck into four packets, with the selection ending up on top of one of the four packets. The selection then vanishes, and the values of the remaining three cards add up to the selection’s position in the deck.

1st edition 2026, video 9:18

A spectator, having chosen two cards from a deck she has cut herself, says 'Stop' and then randomly selects two different points where to place her two cards, which, inexplicably, will end up right next to their respective twins!

Unexplicable Random Twins is a new card magic trick in which the magician, after showing and shuffling a pack of cards, hands it to a female spectator, who cuts it and rearranges it as she pleases. She then takes it behind her back and, after cutting it one last time, draws the top two cards face down. The magician and the spectator divide all the remaining cards...

Una spettatrice, scelte due carte da un mazzo che ha personalmente tagliato, pronunciando “Stop”, sceglie a caso due diversi punti dove collocare le proprie due carte, che inspiegabilmente finiranno proprio accanto alle relative Gemelle!

Si tratta di un nuovo effetto di Cartomagia dove il prestigiatore, dopo aver mostrato e mescolato un mazzo di carte, lo consegna ad una spettatrice che lo taglia e ricompone a piacere. Poi lo porta dietro la schiena e, dopo aver tagliato un’ultima volta, estrae di dorso le prime due carte ora in cima. Il mago e la spettatrice suddividono tutte le carte...

Four cards with the same backs change their design every time they are turned over. Eventually, they change into four aces with different backs.

1st edition 2026, video 2:29

Making Magic is fifty years in the making—a lifetime of invention distilled into 60 of Martin Lewis' favorite effects.

Within these pages lies a remarkable journey through the creative life of a magician. Ideas first captured in notebooks, shaped in lectures, shared through magazine pages and videos, and even brought to life as marketed effects—including the beloved "Close-Up Cardiographic"—have been gathered together and given new life. Each routine bears the marks of the years: performed, pondered, refined, and rewritten as Martin's understanding of the magic deepened.

These...

The Secret Weapons at the Card Table: A Real Look at Marked Cards

Hand the same deck to a magician and a cheat, and they will see two completely different opportunities. A magician sees a tool to create wonder; a cheat sees a weapon to make money. This ebook explores the real world of "paper"—not the movie version, but the actual techniques that survive under fire.

If you want to elevate your card work, you need to understand how to actually mark playing cards and use them under fire.

Magicians vs. Card Cheats: The Real Difference

Most magicians think they know marked cards, but...