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Will Ayling

Will Ayling

(Portsmouth, England: 2nd Mar 1914 - 23rd May 1992)

Learned from a box of tricks. Since 1930 has been variously an amateur, semi-pro, and pro magician with close-up, general magic, and illusions. President, British Ring, 1981-82. Lecturer and collector. Collapsed and died at the roadside while traveling to a show.

Wrote The Art of Illusion (1968, 237pp; repr 1971), Genii Presentations (1972, 163pp), Oriental Conjuring and Magic (1981, 384pp, with Sam Sharpe), Knowing the Egg Bag (1988, 36pp), Ganson Supreme (1988), etc. Tricks in Abra, Genii, and Magigram.

Coauthors: Rex Taylor, Lewis Ganson, Fred Lowe, Sam Sharpe

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Rex Taylor & Will Ayling & Lewis Ganson & Fred Lowe
The Endless Chain (Know-How Series) by Rex Taylor & Will Ayling & Lewis Ganson & Fred Lowe

This is not a magic trick but a carnival game, a con game, where the operator can decide if you should win or not. Everything looks fair and above board, but there is simply no chance for the mark to win. It looks so innocent, a ball-chain loop, put out on the table in a figure eight. One loop in the eight catches your finger the other does not. You have to find the one that catches your finger. Only problem is that you will never find it if the operator so decides.

This game is sometimes called Loopy Loop, Figure Eight, the Chain Swindle, or Pricking the Garter. You will find in this ebook...

★★★★ $9.50
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Will Ayling
Knowing The Ropes (Know-How Series) by Will Ayling

Featuring the rope magic of Edward Victor, Shigeo Takagi, and Harry Carnegie. This was part of the Supreme 'Know How' series written and edited by Will Ayling, which was the continuation of the famous Teach-In series by Lewis Ganson.

1st edition 1987; original 36 pages; PDF 44 pages.

  1. Contents
  2. Cut & Restored Rope
  3. - Requirement
  4. - And So To Cut
  5. - The Extra Piece
  6. - The Extra Loop
  7. Edward Victor's Original Cut & Restored Rope Routine
  8. - The Know How
  9. - Harry Carnegie's Patter For The Edward Victor Rope Trick
  10. The Off Knot
  11. Rope Routine by Shigeo Takagi of Japan
  12. - Apparatus
  13. - Method
  14. - First part - the...
★★★★★ $9.50
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Will Ayling
Knowing The Rising Cards (Know-How Series) by Will Ayling

Surprisingly little has been published in an encyclopedic form about the classic rising cards in English. You can find some in Greater Magic but the rest is spread out in many books and journals. Although this publication can hardly be called an encyclopedia, it is one of only two publications in English I know which are entirely dedicated to the rising card effect (the other being 25 Rising Card Tricks). It is a wonderful collection of a number of methods, described clearly with photos and illustrations. This was part of the Supreme 'Know How' series.

If rising cards are your thing you should also check out...

★★★★★ $9.50
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Will Ayling
Knowing the Egg Bag (Know-How Series) by Will Ayling

The egg bag is one of those classic routines such as cups and balls or the linking rings. Will Ayling teaches a number of very successful egg bag routines:

  • Malini Egg Bag
  • Ken Brooke's Egg Bag
  • Illusive Egg in a Hat Bag
  • Bamberg Egg Bag
  • Dante Egg Bag
This is part of the Supreme 'Know How' series.

1st edition 1988; original 35 pages; PDF 47 pages.

★★★★ $9.50
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Will Ayling
Knowing the Chop Cup (Know-How Series) by Will Ayling

The Chop Cup turns a sleight-of-hand classic - the cups and balls - almost into a self working miracle. Of course, to perform a strong Chop Cup routine you will still need a good amount of sleight of hand and misdirection, but a lot of the 'work' is done by the cup itself.

Al Wheatley is credited with the invention of the Chop Cup. Will Ayling collects in this ebook a series of strong Chop Cup routines including Ken Brooke's routine.

This was part of the Supreme Know-How Series.

1st edition 1989; original 40 pages; PDF 56 pages.

  1. Another One Cup And Ball Routine
  2. Paper Cover Cup And...
★★★★ $9.50
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Will Ayling
The Art of Illusion by Will Ayling

This is a classic work on illusions that focuses on the presentation and staging. The method of the illusion is explained often with illustrations but no detailed building plans with dimensions are included.

The following illusions are explained:

  • Floating and Phantom Princess
  • Sword and Chair Suspension
  • Broomstick and Kellar Levitation
  • Aga Illusion
  • Temple of Swords
  • Head Cremation
  • Crushing a Woman
  • Temple of Benares
  • Broomwitch
  • Golfer's Dream
  • Eye of a Needle
  • Rod Through Mediaeval Style
  • Tiger
  • Totem Pole
  • Rod & Rope Release
  • Guillotine
  • Head Chopper
  • Vivisection of a Clown
  • Wrist...
★★★★★ $25
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Will Ayling & Sam Sharpe
Oriental Conjuring and Magic by Will Ayling & Sam Sharpe

This ebook is almost an encyclopedia of Indian, Chinese and Japanese magic. It consists of two parts. The first part is an index, reference and bibliography compiled by Sam Sharpe. The second part, researched and written by Will Ayling, describes all 101 effects from Sharpe's index.

You will learn about fantastic effects such as buried alive, sword swallowing, pulse stopping and snake charming. But it is not all about geek magic. There is also a lot of close up magic, stage magic and illusions. The 101 effects described are:

  1. The Psychology of the Indian Conjurer
  2. The Bamboo Rods and Strings...
★★★★ $25
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Will Ayling
Fabian's Magic Notes by Will Ayling

From the preface:

Fabian's contributions to the Supreme House Journal The MAGIGRAM, the items edited and photographed by the Late Lewis Ganson, will be well known to so many magicians throughout the World.

Acknowledged for their novelty, routine and presentation, the tradition is continued within these pages, the effects forming the lecture notes of Colombini. The items are described and photographed in detail so that the reader may be able to duplicate the tricks etc., without actual recourse to the lecture itself.

  • Fabians Sympathetic Ropes
  • The Three Ropes
  • Aye
  • Chinese Coin
  • Trio
  • Cards And Ropes
  • Fabian's Book...
$10
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Will Ayling
Knowing The Ropes (Know-How Series) (used) by Will Ayling

Stapled booklet in like-new condition. For details on the contents see the digital edition.

$10
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Will Ayling
The Lilliputians by Will Ayling

An adventure into glove and rod puppet theatre.

From the introduction:

The need for a puppet show being established, the selection of type both of figures and presentation raised problems. The marionette string puppet, operated mostly from above, has an indirect application and limited movement in spite of considerable flexibility of joints. Rod puppets worked mostly from below, also suffer limitations, their movements restricted and stylised. Certainly both types require more than one hand to effectively operate one figure and are best suited to the traditional proscenium staging. ...

$10
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Will Ayling
The Lilliputians (used) by Will Ayling

Softcover book stapled in like-new condition. For details on the content see the digital edition.

$15
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Displaying 1 to 11 (of 11 products)