Reviews: Read What Others Are Saying: page 17
169 ★★★★★ reviews
120 ★★★★★ reviews
78 ★★★★★ reviews
122 ★★★★★ reviews
Gems of Mental Magic
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Sean Hoade (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Sunday 24 July, 2022)
Good, old-fashioned effects ... but the emphasis is on the historical. Very, very entertaining, however!
Mentalism Masterclass 12: propless mentalism
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Sean Hoade (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Sunday 24 July, 2022)
I doubt I need to add anything here, as Turner is a god and this is one of his most helpful gospels! Buy this now.
Coffee Break Mental Magic #1: 3 Invisible Keys of Wonder
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Sean Hoade (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Sunday 24 July, 2022)
This is very entertainingly written, but best for those brand-new in the field. Still, at this price, I will be getting it every month.
Annemann's Buried Treasures
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Sean Hoade (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Sunday 24 July, 2022)
Great, great information and material here. You can also never go wrong with the versions offered by Lybrary.
Cy Endfield's Entertaining Card Magic
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Christopher Reynolds (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Thursday 21 July, 2022)
What makes a book on card magic underrated? Some will argue that most works are woefully under-read by much of the magic community, choosing instead to watch DVDs and YouTube videos to further their knowledge base. But even within the tiny bubble of hardcore card magic fanatics who read over every available card magic book word for word, some great books fall between the cracks or are ignored. Others are unfortunately not as admired as much as they should be or once were. They are either ranked below their value or not ranked highly enough.
With that said, let me tell you about Cy Endfield's Entertaining Card Magic. Seeing that I'm not a copywriter trying to sell you soda pop or toothpaste, I won't insult your intelligence with over-the-top hyperbole: BEST EVER! GREATEST! OUT OF THIS WORLD!
But I will say this: Cy Endfield's Entertaining Card Magic is a superb book and deserves to be read by a wider audience.
I consider myself to be a professional hobbyist when it comes to card magic. I'm no master of the pasteboards but know enough sleight of hand to spice up any self-working trick. In my heart, though, I've always aspired to be a proficient finger-flinger. My bookshelves are lined with must-have classics like Expert At The Card Table and Greater Magic. I'll be honest with you: those books scare me. To quote movie icon Clint Eastwood in Magnum Force: "A man's got to know his limitations."
But Endfield's book was altogether something else. I never felt like I had just read a complicated textbook or technical manual. Instead, I felt like I had taken a private, one-on-one lesson from one of the forgotten greats of card magic, personally learning the best of his repertoire.
Initially published in 1955 in three separate parts, It's not the typical book of advanced card magic packed with complicated tricks and sleights that only other magicians can appreciate. Studying advanced sleight-of-hand from a book is a formidable task and can be about as dull as reading Marx's The Communist Manifesto, not to mention utterly confusing. But, writer Lewis Ganson uses his incomparable talent to simplify descriptions, step by step, to their utmost essentials.
From refreshing twists on classic tricks like the Ambitious Card to gambling effects like the three-card monte, Cy Endfield has created these routines to not only bewilder and amaze fellow performers but also to provide high-caliber entertainment to the lay public.
And he leaves nothing out, not only teaching you the routines and sleights but the psychology and motivation behind the moves.
Endfield was also a screenwriter and director of such classic action films as Zulu and its sequel, Zulu Dawn. So, it is no surprise that some of his effects highly emphasize storytelling and delivery. Tricks like Two To Divine, "Blackie Is With Us!" and Conjure Bones have plots that seem to have jumped from the pages of depression-era pulp magazines like Weird Tales or Adventure.
But don't just take my word for it. Endfield's legacy is hailed by none other than his former student and conjuring virtuoso, Michael Vincent. It's easy to assume that Vincent praises his former teacher's work out of a sense of loyalty or rose-colored nostalgia, but that would be a mistake. He praises the book because it's good.
Cy Endfields Entertaining Card Magic is a minor classic, but a classic nonetheless worthy of your attention (and your $19.00). Its title says it all. It's a guidebook for learning advanced magic that charms, delights, and entertains its audience. It should be read by every magician looking to add unique, tested material to their collection of tricks. From happy hobbyist to major-league move monkey, there's something in this book for everyone at every skill level.
Insomnia
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Rolf-Kenneth Herzog (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Thursday 21 July, 2022)
Very very nice. Even for beginners absolutely no problem.
Refining Vernon's 1-2-3
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by hal barlow (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Tuesday 19 July, 2022)
A simple clear plot finally gets a simple clear handling. This handling makes this wonderful trick easily accessible to most everyone with no loss of effect. Worth much more than the modest price of $4.
Four Told
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by hal barlow (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Monday 18 July, 2022)
Basically Al Mann's Ti-Id-El principle. This is a very good, more visual item. Very high level, believable, mentalism.
Best Tricks with Invisible Thread
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by William Steele (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Monday 18 July, 2022)
1-star review as no 0-star option - Ordered to expand my repertoire of options using IT which I have been working with for around a year now. This booklet contains no actual instructions whatsoever but only a very brief outline of each trick telling what it is but not how it’s done. Each outline is usually no more than a paragraph or a few sentences long. Utter waste of money and while it might cost only the equivalent of a cup of coffee. Go with the coffee as then at least you will get something for your money other than disappointment and a feeling of being ripped off!
The Best of Slydini ... and more (Text & Photos)
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Piero Giani (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Wednesday 13 July, 2022)
Fantastic, very well explained and with all the pictures A book like this cannot be missed by fans of the genre. It is written as if taken by the hand and shown and taught as a child, the beauty and tailor-made techniques of Slydini.
Diary of a Madman
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Chet Cox (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Tuesday 12 July, 2022)
Jeff Stone IS a madman. Let there be no mistake about that. Only a madman would dream such dreams as his. Only one lost to reality would take random thoughts, undreamed dreams, and manipulate them into words and sentences on paper, then to present them as feats of the supernatural which he presents as harmless. So harmless.
You think this mad? First he gives a deck of cards to Alice. (Is he dreaming of the madness of Wonderland or the Land Behind the Looking Glass?) "Alice" looks through the deck, choosing a card, then cuts, shuffles, cuts and shuffles again, and you suddenly reveal which card she only thought of!! Why would you think him mad?
Then - or perhaps much later - he flatters a child, drawing a simple drawing to represent the child. He suggests that she is in disguise - indeed, that the youngster is a superhero and that he will prove this by revealing her secret identity. He drapes a cloth over the drawing and holds it tight to the table. The drawing begins to fly into the air, struggling to escape from the cloth!! As the cloth is pulled away, we see that he HAS revealed her secret identity, in costume, flying about the drawing of her civilian identity.
Madness! That there are at least six further demonstrations of shattering what we know to be real! And yet further ideas that, if worked out in one's own mind, can lead a person to an experiment in possibility, of the most successful man trapped in that possible reality where Life itself offered no further challenges. You may find a page from his diary, in which he lost his reason in an attempt to find some law of change, some rule of physics, which would cause him to win, and win, and win again.
These are the scrambled thoughts, disguised as several "magic tricks," which make up that page and more - from a Diary of a Madman.
Fifth-Business Monkey Business
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Dan Sherer (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Wednesday 06 July, 2022)
As expected from Harry Anderson, it's full of good stuff. Well worth a read.
New Pentagram Magazine
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Dan Sherer (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Wednesday 06 July, 2022)
There is so much good stuff in here that it's well worth the price.
The Secret Gate
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Joe Mckay (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Saturday 02 July, 2022)
This is a brilliant book.
I haven't been this excited by a magic book since I discovered the work of Andy (The Jerx). The book comes packed with superb bonus podcasts that make spending time with Dartagnan a real joy. I spent all of yesterday working through the ebook and the bonus content. It was one of the highlights of my life in magic (25 years and counting).
Dartagnan has performed thousands of shows as a street magician. And this has allowed him to see (first hand) the brutal indifference that most people have towards magic. This book is a record of his obsession with trying to find a way to tackle this problem head-on.
Nobody is more fooled by magic than magicians. They mistake tricks for magic and overlook the importance of meaning. This isn't some boring magic theory book. Dartagnan has dug deep into some of the best ideas from the world of cinema to help the reader understand how transformative the addition of meaning can be to your magic. Dartagnan has fused some of the most powerful ideas from the world's greatest storytellers with a key observation made by Henning Nelms back in the 1960s.
There is a giant blindspot in magic that 99.9% of magicians are seemingly unaware of. Just reading this book will show you where most magicians are going wrong when it comes to performing magic. Or rather - tricks, since most magicians today are actually tricksters rather than magicians (read the book to understand the difference).
This isn't a book. It is a revolution. Jump on board now and be part of the future.
Secrets to Winning Bridge #2: 2/1 Game Forcing
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Pat Up (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Saturday 02 July, 2022)
Okay. Describes very specifically 2/1 auctions and the rebids ONLY. But completely skips over 1NT Forcing, or how to show major suit raises with either 1NT Forcing, Bergen Raises, Jacoby 2NT or Splinters. How can you play 2/1 without knowing how to show a 3-card 10-point raise?
Aether #12: Polaroid Princess II
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Marcos Ortega Noguera (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Friday 01 July, 2022)
5 dollars and 3 pages and the material is not a premium material.
Aether #9: Sponge Balls to Box
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Marcos Ortega Noguera (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Friday 01 July, 2022)
Five bucks for 3 pages. And no material.
Aether #8: Sox, the Trick
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Marcos Ortega Noguera (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Friday 01 July, 2022)
Five bucks for one cover and two pages of text with no material.
Jinx
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Sean Hoade (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Friday 01 July, 2022)
What else is there to say that hasn't already been said? 908 pages of amazement EVERYONE needs to read if they're interested in anything to do with mentalism!
Use Your Thumper
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Heather Johnson (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Thursday 30 June, 2022)
This is a good book and I'm sure at the time of its release it was pretty innovative and useful. I don't think this holds up to modern technology and with what is described in this book there are far more efficient methods to achieve the same effect. I would recommend this book for anyone starting out in sending and receiving secret information through the means of electronic devices.
The Magic Kettle
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Heather Johnson (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Thursday 30 June, 2022)
This book goes over some really cool history and basic ideas on the "think a drink" and "any drink called for" plot. I don't think these exact methods and descriptions hold up so well in modern times BUT they certainly helped me inspire my current working version of "Think a drink" I perform regularly. This is a super easy quick read but might only be appealing to those who are specifically interested in the "Think a drink" and "Any Drink Called For" plots. Some of the information could inspire other plots but this book is definitely suggested for a specific study on these plots.
Streetmagic Lecture 2005
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Luis Romero (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Saturday 25 June, 2022)
Very nice product the information is very valuable.
It's a Biddle Thing
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Christopher Weber
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Saturday 25 June, 2022)
[I am a colleague of Paul and have received this ebook free of charge.]
It’s a Biddle Thing by Paul Lelekis is a fantastic collection of card tricks that you will be sure to start using right away and that are a delight to learn and perform. First off, it’s nice to discover and learn a little something about Elmer Biddle who was the originator of these terrific card slights. The Biddle sleights taught are all very effective utility slights that you will no doubt find useful not only for the effects taught here but for many other effects as well. They are not complicated or overly difficult yet their impact is quite impressive. The videos included providing clear and easy-to-follow explanations of all the Biddle slights used in this collection. I really love the effects presented in this collection. Several of the effects in this collection are truly some of my favorite effects of all time to perform. All of the effects in this collection are very straightforward, clean, and conducive to a comfortable relaxed performance where the emphasis is on presentation and effect, not complicated sleights. Paul enhances this exceptional collection of card effects with many practical ideas and nuances plus some presentational tips that will be sure to elevate your performances.
It's a Biddle Thing
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Rick Carruth
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Saturday 25 June, 2022)
[I am a colleague of Paul and have received this ebook free of charge.]
This is a great addition to the history and use of the biddle switch and the biddle steal. B-Fly and 21st Century 21 Card Trick are both effects you'll have to add to your routine. They are true foolers. E Z Cards Across is ideal for multiple spectators, particularly women, and aside from all the moves, Paul includes his personal patter. The Invisible Card is a Paul Cumming's effect, revised by the author. It is probably my favorite effect.. but that may depend on the day of the week. A chosen card is seen in one small packet.. vanishes.. and appears in another packed.. with a minimum amount of moves. A Develish Miracle II has a lot in common with The Invisible Card. It uses more sleights..(taught) and will become the favorite of many readers. The only reason I like the Invisible Card more is... I have two left hands... Paul also includes videos of all the essential moves, and carefully walks the reader through each step. This is the first ebook Paul has written in a little while, and I think he's been holding out on us. This is of great value and contains more useful effects than most books with ten times the pages. As the editor of the Magic Roadshow Journal of Magic.. I'll be recommending 'It's A Biddle Thing' to all my readers.
S.P.I.T: Secretly Peeked Information Technique
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by paul nightingale (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Thursday 23 June, 2022)
2 methods are taught. A great business card peek for pin or drawing duplication!