This is an excellent but often overlooked primer on magic.
Excerpt from the introduction:
This book marked the culmination of a twelve-year period in which I contributed dozens of articles to magical magazines, conducted daily columns on puzzles and simple tricks, plus a weekly series of fifty magic lessons for Howard Thurston, then America's leading stage magician. In it, I covered all phases of magic then current, from simple tricks to large illusions, updating them to the present with an eye for the future.
Paul Fleming wrote:
We believe we have said enough to justify the statement, . ....
Excerpt from the preface:
This book contains endless entertainment for you and your friends, and represents part of my collection of "tricky stunts" which I have used for several years WITH GREAT SUCCESS - catches, puzzles, and tricks with which all magicians should be familiar. While many of them can be, and have been, performed on the stage, none requires any great amount of skill. For all that, each one should be tried over privately many times before you attempt to perform it to your friends. Neglect this necessary precaution and you will soon find how easy it is to produce a fiasco with...
All the routines revolve around the idea of beginning with no visible apparatus and having "nothing in your hands."
If you truly aspire to be a magician, you'll need to be ready to perform at a moment's notice, and that's where this book will be the best investment you make all year.
An ebook of magic as you like it unique and baffling, but light and humorous. Tricks and routines developed and used over a period of fifteen years, but were new to the magic fraternity when it was originally released because, prior to this book, they had never before been published.
John Stanfield says...
Excerpt from the introduction:
The end is purely altruistic. There is little cash to gain in Magical Publishing, but loving Magic, I cannot help but write about it, and in writing, I fondly hope that I am helping many other conjurers to progress nearer to the perfection that cannot be fully accomplished on this mortal sphere.
I shall not eulogise the contents of this book, but I would point out that the complete cigarette act described has been worked exactly as described, and has proved to be eminently satisfactory.
Bish is the collected Kaymar Magic Advent for 2020, gathering all 24 tricks into one place. Here are the tricks, carefully explained in Liam's casual style, and the ebook features all new tricks, revealed here for the first time.
All 24 tricks are explained in detail.
1st edition 2021, PDF 61 pages.
Here you will find all the tricks from the 2023 Kaymar Magic Advent Calendar, collected together into one ebook - 24 tricks, meticulously explained over 100 pages.
1st edition 2023, PDF 107 pages....
EXHUME: v. to dig (something) buried; to revive or restore after neglect or a period of forgetting; bring to light.
In Jon's own words:
...the aim of this column is to present interesting items that have been "buried" and forgotten but deserve to be revived and restored. In other words, we will "dig them up" to be reused, discussed, and performed again.
This is a compilation of all 56 Exhumations columns from Genii starting with the first column from February 2020 to the last one in December 2024.
This is clever, usable magic for table or close-up work with a minimum of skill and an emphasis on misdirection and subtle presentation. In all, a twenty-minute act or superb table routine.
In Transfix, The Pervious Coin, Extortion, Creeping and a Wrinkle on the Miser's Dream, you get some fine coin routines; and in Uncanny Rags, an Afghan Band presentation that segues into a rope routine.
The effects are accompanied by illustrations by the author.
CONTENTS:
Excerpt from the preface:
... most of the material in this book consists of effects which were intended to appear in Abracadabra. Government restrictions on the use of paper for new periodicals delayed publication of the weekly, and so I decided to release some of the best material in book form.
Most of the effects which follow are my own originalities, but for the benefit of those readers who dislike my ideas intensely, a number of contributed effects by certain magical celebrities have been inserted at intervals, the idea being that, just as the reader is losing patience, a really good...
Assorted commercial close-up magic.
The term 'commercial' is overused in magic. Every second trick is being marketed as 'commercial' simply because the author has perhaps performed it a few times to a lay audience. The routines in this compilation are truly commercial because Jim Sisti has performed and honed them over decades in hundreds perhaps even thousands of performances. These are the routines he has earned his reputation as a top-flight close-up performer. Every detail, from the presentation to the method, has been thought through.
Excerpt from the introduction:
The effects...
Excerpt from the preface:
The title was chosen partly for want of a better one, but more especially because the only items mentioned are those which have now formed the major part of my regular programme for a number of years.
1st edition 1924, reprinted...
This is a fascinating compilation of apparatus magic explained in text and photos.
Excerpt from the foreword:
'The World's Most Ingenious Magical Apparatus' was the title of a Lecture which I have presented all over the world including the famous 'Magic Castle' in Hollywood. Many of the items in this book were used in the Lecture but I have added some recently acquired items which have never before seen the light of day.
Introducing my Second Chance Collection - a carefully selected set of six individual eBooks ready for rediscovery. While these gems didn't sell well when first appearing on Lybrary.com, I'm confident you will perform these effects if you give them a chance. I'm offering this complete collection at over 50% off the regular price.
And here's what makes this deal even better - I'm including my bestseller for Free: 103 Tips and Resources for Magicians. This eBook alone is worth the price. It will save you time and money.
Tricks with magical accessories.
Edited by Roy Fromer and illustrated by "Doc" Tony Shiels. From the introduction by Roy Fromer:
Filled with creative, imaginative brain children . . . some with standard magicians' props . . . others utilizing such diverse equipment as licorice rope, fortune cookies, toy footballs, fluorescent bulbs . . . properties seldom, if ever considered "tools of magic". Mercurio grows hair on a billiard ball, out-Svengal is a Svengali deck, and even rediscovers (for our benefit) the age-old "Coin Slide".
Also known as the "K" Book of Magic.
This material originally appeared in the booklet, Close Up Deceptions and in The New Tops magic magazine under the headings, Kardyro's Klose-up Konjuring and Klever Kardyro Kapers.
This was Eric C. Lewis's first publication, a start to what would become a series of excellent magic books.
Excerpt from the introduction:
The contents of this book are not intended for the work-dodging tyro, neither can the effects explained be performed "immediately upon receipt of the instructions." Real Magic needs careful planning and every small detail taken into consideration. Throughout this book I have endeavoured to explain fully every point of "misdirection" (which to my mind is most important to the success of any experiment), and yet to explain the working of each effect clearly. ...
To compile this work, Derek Lever approached a number of Las Vegas resident magicians and visiting performers to contribute. Many have participated offering tricks, essays, and advice, including Rick Thomas, Jeff McBride, Aaron Fisher, John Bannon, Dan Garrett, Joshua Jay, Ed Ellis, Tony Chapek, Dirk Losander, Luna Shimada, Craig Dickson, Daryl, and Banachek.
For too long, the color-changing knife has lived in the pockets of polite close-up magicians, flicked back and forth like a novelty toy. But in the right hands ... it is something else entirely. In Whispers in Steel Mystic Alexandre unlocks the hidden potential of one of magic's most popular tools, offering three unusual and unique presentations that linger long after the performance is over.
You will not learn how the knife changes color, you will learn why it matters that it does.
Also included: The Psychology of The Color...
Excerpt from the introduction:
Some of the tricks herein are old tricks, but with neat twists in presentation; some are old principles in new dresses; while others are quite new tricks with new principles. We commend to the reader, however, the introduction by Max Sterling and the article by The Great Levante, which should be carefully studied before any one trick is attempted.
Cristian has performed his original Hot Rod routine thousands of times in a strolling magic environment, amazing spectators with this unique blend of visual and mental magic. He now shares his time-tested routine with the magic community. He also includes two other variations as well as other practical tips. The last variation is a very strong mentalism routine, suitable for close-up or stand-up, and which can even be incorporated in a hypnosis or pseudo-hypnosis show.
Excerpt from the Editorial:
There is valuable material in this book - but it is only valuable to you if you put it into practice. Do that and you will agree with me that this book is of abiding worth, and the money you have parted with will have been invested in something sound.
The word 'stooge' evokes all sorts of emotions from magicians. Whenever we, as magicians, hear that a stooge is involved in an effect, often we're disappointed or angry. Many magicians have never even used a stooge as part of a routine. There are several reasons for this. Some magicians think that using stooges is dishonest, as if there are moral limits to trickery. Other magicians think that using stooges is too obvious, in the sense that an observing spectator will easily figure out that a stooge is involved.
In this PDF I would like to offer some ways of using a stooge that are not at...
Excerpt from the introduction:
In writing this present book, I have had three aims in view; to present a series of practical routines ranging from sleight-of-hand to the mechanical; to describe various gadgets and hints and tips in the construction of magical apparatus; and finally, to make the book entertaining to read by incorporating views and discussions which, though probably controversial in parts, will amuse as well as stimulate constructive thought.