Reviews: Read What James Wood Is Saying
Scripted #19: Sidewalk Shuffle
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by James Wood (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Thursday 05 March, 2020)
Larry Brodahl's presentation of how to perform the Sidewalk Shuffle is very helpful. He has made two innovations. First, he has changed the script so that the magician, rather than the spectator, is the naive victim who gets fooled by the Three-Card Monte. In my opinion, this is a genuine improvement because it removes any "sting" in the presentation and makes the routine even more humorous than the original. Second, Larry explains how to perform the slights while keeping the cards vertical at all times. This is also an improvement over the original version where the cards are held horizontally for some of the shuffling/mixing. I slightly modified Larry's script and presented it to a group of about 100 retired people. It went over extremely well. It's very fooling and very humorous. Larry's routine is now a regular part of my adult act. I recommend it highly.
Hints and Tips
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by James Wood (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Wednesday 12 July, 2017)
Hints and Tips is a wonderful gift from Larry Brogdahl and Lybrary.com. It is the equivalent of attending a Magic Club meeting where a highly experienced magician shares his hard won knowledge of how to deal with common problems encountered by every magician. For instance, this little book gives very useful tips for how to keep the balloon from popping in Needle Through Balloon (Brogdahl's solutions is NOT scotch tape), how to simplify the handling for Sidewalk Shuffle, and how to improve the Surprising Dots trick (the trick in which the number of dots on two sides of a large card keep changing). Hints are also given for how to transport props to a magic show, how to handle dry hands, and many other common problems. Every working magician is sure to find several hints in this book that will make life easier. Thanks, Mr. Brogdahl!