Excerpt from the introduction:
Every effect is practical, for each one has been "tried out," and works.
"Now the question arises, who will be the legitimate successor to Prof. Hoffmann? I will venture to predict that it will be another Briton, Brunel White, whose first plunge into the literary end of the business, "Original Mysteries For Magicians," in my humble opinion, with the single exception of "Modern Magic," the best book I have yet seen, and there are hundreds of Magicians who will agree with me." - Maurice Bliss
Excerpt from the foreword by Paul Rosini:
His book on the 3-Shell Game is a classic - but his new one on sleeving is superb. You may benefit from the many years that it has taken Jack to compile and simplify the different tricks in the art of sleeving. It is unbelievable how clean you can do a trick with his new methods, if used moderately.
Sleeving to me is one of my most valuable assets. As you well know, practical magic is what counts, and I have always found it my magical exploits that sleeving has been very practical. In fact, many well known magicians at conventions have passed...
Anyone who has seen a magician perform has almost certainly seen one or more of the tricks explained in this book. For these are great tricks of the magic profession, tricks that have proved perennially spectacular in performances on the stage, on television, or in private audiences.
The author explains first the basic scheme of each trick, then discusses the possibilities for variation and expansion as developed by a number of famous magicians. Each of the classic tricks included here is methodically described in detail and illustrated in line drawings; none of them involves expensive...
Excerpt from the preface:
It is to be supposed (and profoundly hoped) that something good may be found herein: a quantity of sketches of more or less merit; certain idioms straight from the American; strange words in italic with wriggly accents; and, possibly, one or two typographical errors (the light is so bad in my attic and the gas has been cut off for many months past).
The magic tricks presented here are subtle, easy to do, and require little or no apparatus. The inventions of some of our greatest magicians, these are sleights that involve a minimum of practice but achieve a maximum of effect.
Here are card tricks that are almost foolproof, and others that require some skill and more practice. Sleights for close-up performing, where the magic takes place right under the noses of the audience, and tricks with paper-folding, an ancient art adapted to modern magic, are outlined and diagramed. The author also includes tricks with coins and paper money, rings,...
The name Chris Congreave is synonymous with commercial close-up routines and ideas. As a full-time close up pro for over a decade, he has learned how to hone his magic in order to make it totally practical for performance to lay people in the real world, and this new ebook brings together a collection of 40 of his best ideas as well as providing you with three essays that offer sage advice.
Although a few of his routines do require some elements of sleight of hand, much of his material is extremely straightforward or even virtually self-working. In fact, the variety and breadth of the material...
Routines with the Howard Adams' Ramasee Principle - a self-working method.
Crambazzled: A condition of complete bafflement caused by excessive magical experiences.
- The Bammo Dictionary of Silly Words
The Bammo Crambazzled Dossier is a deep-dive examination of a very strange and magical principle. You will fool yourself and, of course, everyone else. It works automatically, maybe even automagically. How it works may not be capable of an explanation from this world, but Bob Farmer does offer his ideas and those of many others.
The routines involve magic words, runes, Tarot cards, antique keys,...
1st edition 1922, 93 pages; PDF 50 pages.
Excerpt from the introduction by Nevil Maskelyne:
The articles contained in this book have been written by good friends of mine. With some of them I have had the privilege of working, both in public and as officers of the Magic Circle. All of them are men well qualified to deal with the subjects they respectively discuss. Not only so, they have the faculty, sometimes lacking in writers upon magical subjects, of making their literature interesting. It is not too much to say of some magical works that they are deadly dull to read. No such reproach can be brought against this series of articles. The ideas...
Excerpt from the introduction:
In this set of notes you will find several tricks and routines that have served me well during the last few years as a stand-up performer. In fact, almost all the tricks explained here can be done standing up as no table is required and are great for walk around or strolling magic. Done this way you simply use the hands of the spectators to help you.
I have written these tricks and routines with the assumption that you already know some basic magic such as a card control, an Elmsley Count and the like. My purpose here is not to teach you 'sleights' but rather...
This "Scrapbook" is a small, haphazard collection of some of my contributions to the Art of Magic, over the past 50 years. Since the late 1960's I have contributed hundreds of my ideas to over a dozen national and international magic magazines, run a magician's service producing over 2000 magic items, (some hundreds of which were my own creations and which sold over a million Dollars worth a year around the world at one time), and for which I wrote over 2000 "instruction sheets." Many of these instructions had "ideas" for the use of the props that enabled our customers to get the maximum mileage...
Excerpt from the Foreword:
In this book, again you will find not only tricks that work, but more important, entertaining close-up routines, with the accent on entertainment. Some of the effects may not be new, but they all have a most unusual twist, or that little something that makes them different.
As long as I have known Tony Griffith, which is over ten years now, he has never been contented to purchase a trick and do it as per instructions. He is a firm believer in reading the mechanics of the trick, then throwing the working and routine away, and starting from scratch. These then...
Over 50 years, I have run a Magician's service, producing and supplying several hundreds of thousands of pieces of over 2500 varieties of props to magic dealers and magicians worldwide, with retail sale value exceeding a million dollars a year over several years, so I figure we have been doing something right!
Many were "classic props" - my favorite sources being books like Hoffman's Modern, More and Later Magic, the many excellent magical secrets series and other illusion books by Will Goldston, and of more modern times, the World of Magic trilogy by Jack Hughes - with an effort to some times modify the props and their use to present...
A collection of 15 effects with ropes, silks, balls, cards, ribbons, paper, glasses, canes, dice and other objects.
1st edition 1974, PDF 27 pages.
This is my third Scrapbook composed in this month (March 2023). Even though when I mull over my commercial effects and magazine contributions from the decades gone by, the volume of material seems ample for a few more.
But everything I wrote or created is not worth recording or re-publishing in this collection. I found two big files chock-a-block full of the magazine articles I wrote for most of the magic magazines in the 1970's and 80's. About 2/3rds of these are not worth republishing, being my ideas on some dealer prop I purchased, or another magazine article. They would serve no purpose...
In this video I walk you slowly through the Loaded Salt Shaker Vanish and Reproduction. You can pour an entire shaker of salt in your hand, vanish it, and reproduce it. No TT or tips. This is accomplished with a cheap, easy-to-build homemade gimmick made from objects in almost every home on the planet. The build takes about 5 minutes.
The handling is key in making this work. The salt shaker is real, un-gimmicked and can be inspected. The funnel is real, un-gimmicked and inspectable. The salt cellar is also real and can be inspected. I use a few TT moves to throw off those in the know of...
Excerpt from the Preface:
So it's a mixed bag. But all the tricks have one thing in common; each can be performed to a small audience in the home. One or two (I have "Pseudo-Graphology" and "Question and Answer" especially in mind) are good for performance to a larger audience, as well as to just half a dozen friends.
Every one has been thoroughly tried out and is practical and entertaining. According to your personality and style, I am sure you will find something in this book to entertain your audiences.
Excerpt from the preface:
Exceptional - EX - equals for me Exonian and this book could well have been called Exonian Magic for the Author has been closely associated with the "Exonian Magical Society" for many years, first as Member, then as Fellow, then as President, and now as Hon. Life-Member, and as the deceptions that follow have been conceived and brought forth under its inspiration and by its help. Several of its items have been contributed by fellow-members of the Society, and in this connection, the Author wishes to thank Messrs. J. Hughes, H. Knight, Geo. Moore, and W. T. Lloyd...
Excerpt from the foreword by Duncan Fletcher:
Now he has compiled a book which should appeal to all magicians as there is something for everyone; the close-up worker (coins, cigarettes, sewing needles, wool, lexicon cards), the children's entertainer, the mentalist and the 'card trick' enthusiast, and scattered throughout are suggestions concerning adaptations of well-known effects. Some of these tricks can be made up with little preparation - others like all good tricks require some preparations, but none are difficult to the performer who is accustomed to preparing his own props. No one...
When I compiled volume 3 of these "Scrapbooks" I had mentioned it would be the last, unless I found some of my material in Abra and other periodicals I had no access to, along with a few of my earlier contributions and creations. Just two days after the publication of Volume 3, I received an email from Andy Martin, complete with all the Abra articles, and in subsequent emails a couple of my Magick contributions, and all the date and issue references.
I had forgotten since my Swami/Mantra days just how helpful a fellow "magic addict" can be in helping a complete stranger since I had no correspondence...
A dozen, practical effects for stage, club and platform from this well-respected author. Finally, back in print once again. This fine collection of tried and tested effects that will have your audiences applauding. Why spend a fortune on your magic effects when you can easily make them yourself at home or on the road for pennies on the dollar?
Partial contents:
In this mixed props issue from Gregg Webb, it starts out with some magic news, and a book review, and an essay on how today's audiences want shorter tricks, and why.
Next we have a devilish coin trick, Rolled - or Pennies South, where a whole lot of pennies penetrate the table. Following this is The World's Fastest Cups and Balls Routine. In the essay provided in the magic news section is an essay on how magicians often go too long because they can, and why not to fall prey to that impulse these days.
Lastly comes Gregg's latest version of a series of methods for doing a mental version...
Simplicity is the keynote of this effect, and you will be able to make up the item quickly and inexpensively.
A box rests upon the table. Performer announces that one solid article is inside, and he even opens the lid and bangs it against the base to prove it is there. He emphasizes that there is only one article. A spectator is asked to think of any card from a pack of 52 and then to name it. The lid of the box is opened, and the article is taken out. It is a glass tumbler containing a playing card, the back of which is towards the audience. The performer shows the inside of the box, dismantles...