From the preface and introduction:
This book could be titled "The Game of Thirty-One Revisited" because of the various articles that have made an attempt to describe the game. Why then did I set out to write this? First, because I consider the game of thirty-one such a delightful diversion from the "norm" that I want to bring it to the attention of the magic fraternity, and second, because I have many ideas I would like to add.
At the Magic Castle, in Hollywood, the game was first shown to me by Dai Vernon in August of 1980. The "Professor" frequently showed me card puzzles that he had learned over...
From the preface:
In offering this collection of Card Tricks to the public it has been my endeavour to make every particular as clear as possible to the uninitiated. It will readily be granted that practical illustration must be vastly superior to the most carefully-written description of anything which, at the same time, requires both rapidity and neatness in execution; yet it appears to me that, if in the following pages I have been successful in making the most intricate trick clear in the manner of its manipulation, proper practice for the acquirement of ease and certainty will do the...
"The Boof is the goods. The most fun and interesting card tricks I've seen in a long time. Nicely done." - John Bannon
"Ridiculously awesome material!" - Cameron Francis
"The Boof! contains solid, practical card work that is the Montier hallmark. Liam has a gift for stripping down handlings without losing impact. There is truly something for everyone in this latest collection. Boof boof bang bang!!!" - John Carey
The Boof collects together over a dozen of Liam Montier's strongest card tricks and routines to date. If you haven't experienced Liam's card magic before, then you are in for a real treat. This is efficient,...
This is a true miracle. The description below is true to the last word. It reads like a miracle - because it is one.
With contributions from: Greg Arce, Neil Tobin and Richard Osterlind
The Prediction:
A prediction is sealed in an envelope and held by an audience member the entire presentation. No switches.
The Game:
On stage; a table, 5 chairs and a deck of cards. 5 players (spectators) come up to play a hand of blackjack. Cards are shuffled by a random player and re-cased to avoid any tampering by the performer as he explains about blackjack. No false shuffles. No Sleights. One player deals...
Mike gave this lecture already twice in the US with great success. He is one of the gambling and cheating-at-gambling authorities in Germany. I liked particularly his 10 card poker deal for the stage, an entertaining piece of card magic for a large audience.
1st edition, 1999, Mike Porstmann, München
This is the most beautiful magic book ever published! I know, this is a pretty strong claim, but read on and judge for yourself.
"I've just had a chance to spend a couple of hours with this book. Wow, Chris. This is an amazing book. Not only does it look incredible, it is of immense historic value." - Ben Harris
"A terrific work, a must have for anybody who thinks of him- or herself as a magician." - Max M.
Before I tell you why I am convinced this is the most beautiful magic book ever published, allow me to give you a bit of history on how this book came to be.
In 1954 Claude Klingsor...
Fabulous collection of card magic culled from the pages of The Pentagram, including an excellent chapter by Graham Adams.
A classic publication with wonderful coin magic, some card tricks and cut and restored rope. Slydini adopted some routines from Benzais.
Alchemy ran for a brief two years and was much loved by its subscribers. Appearing every two months it was also a unique magazine in that it was what is called a "house" magazine put out by not one magic dealer but two, Practical Magic and PH Marketing. There were no columnists, just tricks. There were 92 tricks described in just 12 issues.
Being a past editor of the magazine Paul has picked out what he thought were the best card contributions, nineteen in all. If you missed the magazine, you will find these effects worthy of your attention. For the most part, these are easy effects to do....
This exclusive book has now been republished as an ebook. Encyclopaedic in scope, with notes on making, handling, pitching, and performing in a variety of situations.
Contents
1st edition 1999, 181 pages.
If you are a fan of magic involving memorized decks or algorithmic stacks, you may wish to check out the following manuscript, called The Bart Harding Secret. As many of you may know, Darwin Ortiz published a method of transforming a deck from New Deck Order (NDO) into Si Stebbins order, which he called the The Si Stebbins Secret. Similarly, the Bart Harding Secret describes how to transform a deck from NDO to the Bart Harding Stack (BHS). Although the Si Stebbins stack is highly versatile, one drawback is that it does not look very random, and so many magicians will not use it for effects in which the...
Several excellent effects using a deck of cards and rubber bands. From the introduction:
In this booklet, you will find several effects with rubber bands and cards, mainly card revelations, which should give you enough input to work with, hoping that you will be able to create some new routines of your own.
1st edition 1993, 20 pages; PDF 26 pages.
A new method to quickly and secretly arrange cards from a small pack all the way to a full deck. No math needed unless you want to understand why it works.
Within magic, no mind approaches Bob Farmer's. Outside magic, Machiavelli came close. The evidence is presented in "The Bammo Tarodiction Toolbox." - Stephen MinchBob Farmer's Bammo Tarodiction Toolbox is both a great trick and a genuinely new method for secretly arranging cards quickly, accurately, and right in front of the spectators' noses. - Matthew Field
About what you'd expect from the guy who invented that stupid little hand trick. -...
The Bammo I Don't Know Wallet Dossier is the manuscript that comes with Tony Miller's IDK Wallet. At over 215 pages, the Dossier is the largest collection of wallet effects published to date. The wallet is expensive ($165) so when contemplating the purchase a reasonable person might want to know what exactly the wallet can do.
As an advanced version of the Himber, the Bendix Bombshell, the Sho-Gun and the Z-Fold wallets, it can do what any of those wallets can do and, conversely, those wallets can be used to accomplish some of the effects of the IDK Wallet. Accordingly, the Dossier is...
J.C. Wagner's "Super Closer" is one of the most impressive routines you can do with a deck of cards. Ricky Jay knew this and only was told the workings after Wagner held out for one of Jay's inner secrets.
The deck is shuffled and cut and then divided into four packets. The magician and the spectator shuffle the four packets.
Effect #1: The top cards of each packet are turned over to reveal the four Aces.
Effect #2: The spectator buries the four Aces in the deck. The magician spells each Ace to find all four and, as he does so, four packets are created.
Effect #3: The four Kings are spelled...
The Ace to Six of each suit are placed on the table, and the two players turn cards face down alternately and a running total of the pips is maintained. The winner is the one who takes the total to no more than 31. Even after the spectator is told the secret to winning, the magician still wins. Ends with an extra kicker.
PDF 10 pages
Effects with the Zodiac deck. (Deck not included with this PDF.)
Excerpt from the introduction:
Whilst this beautifully produced pack can be used for card games, as suggested in the small folder that comes with the deck, its main strength to a magician lies in the way that ordinary card tricks can be given an astrological slant and thus personalized. To the mentalist, of course, the pack represents one of the finest adjuncts to have come out for many years. Whilst a spectator may not be able to associate herself with the Queen of Hearts, she can certainly relate to her own birth sign....
The Ascanio Spread is a beautiful false display move, generally used to display 4 cards and hide a fifth one.
From the Introduction:
The Ascanio Spread immigrated to this country from Amsterdam. Del Cartier, Herb Zarrow, Mike Rogers, and Pete Biro were instrumental in bringing this technique to America. In fact, Del Cartier is a close personal friend of Ascanio and was the go-between in obtaining the original Ascanio manuscript for Mike Rogers, who in turn passed it on to me.
This ebook holds extremely valuable information for anybody who would like to become a pitchman or grafter who sells Svengali decks and other items. Even if you do not sell as a pitchman, but perform on the street or other public venues you will learn quite a bit from Walt Lees.
Some of the points discussed are:
The collaboration of T. Nelson Downs and John Northern Hilliard produced this wonderful book. Downs was the first to introduce an act with small objects onto the vaudeville stage. He was most famous for his coin manipulation, and in particular for his version of the "Miser's Dream". The Art of Magic covers sleights with cards, coins, and balls, and teaches many tricks and routines with detailed explanations from the master.
The card section in this book was epoch making. It features the first appearance in print of the side steal. Based on the number of pages dealing with card magic this is more a card book than...