Reviews of products by Eddie Joseph
1 ★★★★★ reviews
The Art of Body Loading and Productions
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Tim Schultz (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Tuesday 28 March, 2023)
Very Nice publication. Well worth the price of the download. Thank you.
Eddie's Dumbfounders with Cards
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Christopher Reynolds (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Wednesday 21 September, 2022)
Eddie Joseph was a night-club magician who lived in Calcutta, India. He authored almost seventy books on magic in his lifetime, cementing his international legacy as a respected inventor and sleight-of-hand master. His pet trick was the cups & balls.
He is the type of writer I admire; he doesn't let silly things like talent get in the way of being prolific. Sometimes, to be prolific, one has to sacrifice perfection.
A few of Eddie's books, like Eddie's Dumbfounders With Cards, are of dubious quality.
The cover boasts:
No Sleights! No Skill! No Moves!
NO FUN!
Reading Eddie's Dumbfounders With Cards by Eddie Joseph made me feel like I time-traveled back to my high-school remedial math class.
Here's how I solve a math equation: 1. Read the problem 2. Cry
Mathematical card tricks are supposed to be fun to learn, not dull. Many of Eddie's dumbfounders are long and tedious, with endless dealing and counting cards.
Joseph's old-timey prose was challenging to understand. At best, his writing is confusing and monotonous. Much of the time, the instructions made no sense, leaving me puzzled.
Reading a novel about paint drying would have been more interesting.
I understand that writing the methods for card tricks isn't the same as writing literature. But, at minimum, the instructions must make things clear to the reader. This point is where the book fails.
Joseph was a more technically accomplished magician than many of his peers. His profound influence as a magic creator suggests that he was a better performer than a writer in the acute sense of expressing and communicating his ideas.
I enjoyed the principles behind a couple of tricks, but regulations don't make lively entertainment:
Memory Phenomenal: Immediately naming the location of a mentally chosen card in an entire deck of fifty-two while blindfolded.
Over the wire: a mental effect performed over the phone.
Maybe, with some imagination and style, you can create a repertoire of card tricks using Eddie Joseph's methods. But, overall, I found the book boring, impractical, and devoid of any actual content.
I can't recommend it to any magician looking for their first trick or advanced performers interested in expanding their magic repertoire. The only people I can recommend this to are people like me: Book collectors. If that describes you, Eddie Joseph is a classic author to add to your digital shelf.
I give it three stars strictly due to its obscure collector's value.
15 Exciting Minutes with a Borrowed Deck
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by David Martin (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Saturday 09 January, 2021)
One thing I've learned studying our craft for the last 33 years is that if you wish to discover something "new" to study, one must look to the past.
I just purchased this gem of a book yesterday and already I am compelled to shout as loud as I can that the title of this book does not lie. I have already slightly tweaked the methods used in a few of these gems and I will also develop my own presentations for these until I'm ready to perform this act from start to finish for family and friends.
I know doing so will provide my audiences with a sense that perhaps there are some things in this universe and life that we aren't meant to comprehend or understand and that's great and very beautiful. All of this with a pack of cards that may be borrowed.
Highly recommended!
Eddie's Dumbfounders with Cards
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Sarin Suriyakoon (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Sunday 30 August, 2020)
These are the fooler and innovative. Some of them can be done over the phone, blindfolded, and all of them (except one you need a bit of work) can be done with borrowed deck. Most of them can be presented as mentalism.
Eddie's Dumbfounders with Cards
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Loki Jedi (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Tuesday 10 January, 2017)
Overall I learnt some new things and is good value for money. Some pros n cons -
Pros - All self working, no slights, borrowed deck and some interesting principles.
Cons - Tricks have 'longish' process. A lot of dealing n counting involved.
But once I understood the basic principle, I could structure the tricks to suit my style.
Eddie Joseph on Cups and Balls
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Michael Lyth (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Tuesday 13 September, 2016)
A excellent information by past master of the art of cups and balls recommended for anyone starting out plus those interested in the history side.
Staggered
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Paul Lelekis
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Wednesday 27 April, 2016)
Those of you who are not familiar with the ingenious Eddie Joseph MUST purchase this e-book! Staggered is one of those VERY rare effects that plays even better than it reads...this effect is called 'Staggered' for a very good reason.
Mail Mentalism
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Loki Jedi (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Thursday 28 January, 2016)
A unique routine. The explanation may sound a little long but in practice quite simple and effective.
Card Magic of the Mind
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Cortez Magicus (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Thursday 28 January, 2016)
Great ideas. Even today great lessons for learning presentation for mentalism.