Magical Adventures and Fairy Tales
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Virginia Hankins (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Tuesday 22 April, 2025)
Whimsical, enchanting, nostalgic. This is a key, historical, book in magical story telling and scripting that incorporates tricks rather than being a book about tricks that incorporates some patter. The writing in this book is reminiscent of the the style that Walt Disney himself used to use when he was alive. It's tight, vibrant, and an amazing example of what story telling can be like. It doesn't talk down to the audience in its scripting but is also non-pretentious. The printed work is around 103 total pages and has an easy to follow flow. Everything in it is well organized with the name of the effect, the script, and then the description of the trick / methods used. By following that repeatable format you can easily flip around in the book to the content of interest, read it, and then use the explanation to study and think about the use of words and scripting. The manuscript is right for a person who has a working knowledge of magic and can easily follow the "directions" that the writing provides. There are limited photos in it - you'll need to have a solid mental picture for context or be able to do YouTube etc. research to really break stuff apart to play with it. As an example, one section states "use the Slydini newspaper tear" or another sentence in a different part reads "You must have recognized our immortal Four Ace Trick immediately. For this presentation you need jumbo cards." Statements like that show that the author assumes that (a) you have a working knowledge of the body of magic, much like a proficient cook would know how to interpret a directive like "start with a white sponge cake" in a recipe and (b) you also know what the materials he's using are (like jumbo cards). As long as you are a well-read person of magic then you will be able to easily read and understand the contents. The English translation, while beautiful, isn't overly wordy and is succinct where it needs to be. Notes on why you need certain things or to say certain things are mentioned where they are needed. Keep in mind that this is a book of its own time in history that is reminiscent of beliefs, opinions, fables, and fairy tales from another time in history - such as the years during and around World War 2. Some of the stories / effects pull from Wales, England, Germany, India, Scotland, and China. Nothing in this book is modern, but it isn't intended to be.