Lybrary.com: ebooks and download videos
Home / Magic & Conjuring / Cards

Take Five
by Michael Breggar

$12

(2 reviews, 2 customer ratings) ★★★★★

PDF | by download [6.28 MByte]  
Take Five by Michael Breggar

From the unsyncopated mind of Hepcat "Dizzy" Michael Breggar comes a new album of killer-diller-thriller card routines: Take Five

It's Dave Brubeck in style, Miles Davis in form, Louis Armstrong in structure, and all Michael Breggar in method and quirkiness. Mike is back with five incredible, sleight-lite masterful effects that will shake your clefs and make your audience's jaws sag while they laugh, applaud wildly, and cut a rug!

These routines are all part of Michael's current repertoire and include some that have been performed at his Magic Castle gigs.

Here's what's been waxed, cool cats:

BR-ACAAN - Michael's newest go-to "Any Card at Any Number" routine. It is sleight-lite easy and impossible to backtrack. Based on ideas from Barrie Richardson, other magicians have called it "superb." Audiences just call it "in-the-pocket awesome".

Sympa - "Lippy" Liepzig's "Sympathetic 13" gets a jazzy makeover in Michael's mind-blowing, easy version using a single non-gaffed deck - fully shuffled by the audience.

Decisions, Decisions - Direct from Michael's last Magic Castle set, think impossible "Blizzard" abetted by several audience members. Bebopping with your spectators, they name any card color, value, and suit to jam a card. You cleanly remove that named card from the deck and then instantly show every other card hasn't been printed yet! Yeah, they are all blank, Hepcats!

Sherlock - A jazzy melody straight outta Baker Street, Dizzy Mike takes a Harry Lorayne tune and egg-beats-it-to-the-bar. A card is selected and returned, and using Holmesian deduction and Scotland Yard line-ups, is revealed in a rather unusual fashion. But then Sherlock, also reveals the card's three sidekick mates. But then Dr. Watson sockdollagers everyone by revealing a prediction that has been in front of everyone's goggles from the start.

Order in the Cortex - Another frequent performance piece from the Breggar song-book. Two participants shuffle and cut an ordinary deck. Each keeps half of the cut cards, then removes six cards sight unseen from their piles. They then look at a single card of their six and swap it face-down with their partner who mixes that card in with their other five. The two six-card packets are turned face-up as the subjects try to discern which of the six cards they are looking at is the stranger from the other person's packet. They may guess correctly, but the cool cat magician has already read the minds of both and pulled matching cards out of a jumbo deck.

You'll also groove to Michael's Liner Notes at the end of the book. There are some fabulous nuances and hints to use as you shred as well as some great touches on Jay Ose's false triple cut and an incredible false full-deck mix that'll have your eyes buggin' out like Dizzy Gillespie's cheeks.

So, press some kale in our mitts, grab your axes, and start jammin' some zoot magic. You'll slide from noodlin' to smokin' toodlin' in no time at all!

1st edition 2023, PDF 50 pages.
word count: 18478 which is equivalent to 73 standard pages of text



Reviewed by Sanket Mahapatra
★★★★★   Date Added: Wednesday 13 March, 2024

I am a big fan of Michael's work; many of his earlier books and almost all of his Automagic Columns in The Linking Rings magazine. Take Five is a great read. Loved each and every effect. BR-ACAAN is great and really well constructed. Order in the cortex is a great variation of Mental Rescue by L. Vosburgh Lyons. In the end, Michael explains a variation of Jay Ose's cut which looks very chaotic, and deceptive. It is very useful for small packets of cards, Zener deck etc. All effects are Semi-automatic in nature, fun to perform. I highly recommend it.

Reviewed by Nick Lewin
★★★★★   Date Added: Saturday 20 May, 2023

Many of our readers will be familiar with Breggar from his long-running column in 'The Linking Ring'. He is now acknowledged to be something of a master of the "sleight-lite" school of magic. His ability to construct routines that replace "knuckle-busting" sleight-of-hand with subtleties and cunning is second to none. Michael creates magic that is entertaining and fun to perform.

Breggar has many books and marketed tricks to his credit and 'Take Five' is the latest to hit the magic world. It is a superb collection of five tricks culled from Michael's performing repertoire. Every one of these effects is powerful and entertaining, these routines have all been featured in Michael's Magic Castle act. Not only are the tricks good, but Breggar has woven them into a delightful Jazz influenced framework in his book.

I am a hard-core fan of both magic and music and thoroughly enjoyed Michael's cleverly written narrative that uses jazz references and parallels. One of my favorite pieces of ear candy is the Dave Brubeck tune that gives this book its title. So, all you hep-cat conjurers and jive-crazy prestidigitators are in for a double treat with Breggar's latest release!

Let's talk a little about the magic in 'Take Five'. "BR-ACAAN" is based on an idea by Barrie Richardson. I greatly respect Richardson's work, and this routine gives a nice twist on the classic ACAAN theme. "Sympa" is a very jazzy makeover of Nate Leipzig's "Sympathetic 13," and it is a very cool routine that I have had a lot of fun performing. "Decisions Decisions" is an excellent routine with a double-punch finale; check out Michael's performance of the effect at the Magic Castle above. My favorite routine is "Sherlock" which has a (you guessed it!) Sherlock Holmes "deduction" theme wrapped around a Harry Lorayne effect. Rounding out the 'Take Five' playlist is "Order in the Cortex," a neat and dandy card effect that will amaze any audience.

As you can tell I am very enthusiastic about Breggar's latest book, the price is right, and every magician will find at least a couple of routines to add to his repertoire. In fact, with strong and relatively easy effects, they might even find themselves Taking Five of them! I give this release a five-star rating and highly recommend it.

Frequently bought together with:

This product is listed under the following topics:

Magic & Conjuring / Cards

Magic & Conjuring / with Demo Video