Tag: <span>Anonymous</span>

Definately worth a look.

This is a wonderful book featuring the complete compilation of Richards Almanac, a monthly (and eventually quarterly) magazine that ran from 1982 to 1985.

First of all, there are "bonus" items worth a mention. The book starts off with an interesting history of the magazine, why it was made, original plans for its name and so on. There are also a few extra tricks that did not make it into the final magazine, and for the sake of curiosity, the first issue in its Japanese form.

The magazines themselves are very good, featuring wonderful magic from many of the best magicians, including Dingle, Sankey, Roth, Jennings and many others. There are simply too many good peices of magic to describe here.

Finally, the Bull column is an interesting one, which often talks about the then current events in the magic world, so it is nice to look back and read about them.

Highly recommended to all.

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The final volume.

This, strangely, was the first (and so far, only) volume of this epic compilation that I bought. Please bear in mind that I haven’t read the other volumes, if you think this will affect my review.

You will buy this book for the magic, no doubt. And there is tons of it. I challenge any close-up magician to look through this book and NOT find a trick or an idea they would use.

The overall quality of magic is very good, though there may be some stinkers. Of course, this is down to personal opinion, different strokes for different folks, whatever tickles your pickle. Suffice to say, there is something in here for everyone.

I’ve read in other reviews that this is one of the weaker volumes of the collection, if so, I can’t wait to read the rest. There is plenty to play with in this book.

Negatives? Not many that I can think of. The magic is taught very well, as you can expect from Harry Lorayne. If you can ignore his self-infatuation, that is. It is sometimes annoying when reading the book to see Lorayne talk about how great he is. Still, he manages explanations VERY well, and things are easy to follow (yep, even those rubber band tricks).

Another negative might be the size. The book is very large, and while not arm-strainingly heavy, it can be quite cumbersome to read.

For magical content alone, this is a wonderful book, and worth the price tag.

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fantastic

this is a great book for the intermediate card student. it has a lot of usable material. also mint vol 2 is the book to get after this one.

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Classic

everything from close up to full blown stage effects with swimming tanks and trap doors.Not a great lot of detail on anything but lots of everything!!!

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Over The Top.

The very BEST. One of the best classics on magic. Joe Berg was a real pro.He knew as much about the profession as any magician. His book is one of the most sought after magic collectables. Anyone who has one of these books should hold on to it tightly.

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An excellent book to start card handling & magic…

This book has started more cardicians than any other book published. It’s been reprinted countless times because it’s simply great! The book follows a logical progress of card sleights and tricks that utilize what is taught. Everyone starting out in card magic should own this book. Everything you need to know is here except the more modern sleights. This book was written in the golden years of magic but nonetheless it still is a gem! I highly recommend this book and any others that Jean Hugard & Frederick Braue have written! Definitely a collectors item.

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Impossibilia: A Short Review

This book contains very simple and easy to perform tricks that focus on performance over sleights. The effects are ALL powerful and things that you would use in everyday work. I am a card guy so I concentrated more on the card effects in this book and they are all amazing. The Bonus routine involving a card being "printed" is quite amazing if I say so myself. There is also a prediction effect which is simple, witty, and hard hitting. I recommend to pick this book up NOW if you want some new, intriguing, magic for your repertoire.

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Keeping a dying Art alive…

Gaft card magic has been around for many years and definitely has a place in Magic history. The problem is that sooner or later gaft cards wear out and have to be replaced. With the aid of this valuable book these cards can be duplicated for pennies! The book covers everything, tools and techniques, to manufacture double face, double back, split face, split back cards. There is a slight learning curve to the technique, but after one deck’s worth of splitting you have the technique down enough to create any gaff required. This is a wise investment to keep a dying art alive!

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Great Book!

I was quite surprised to read the previous review, it is obvious that this person knows very little about magic or didn’t actually read this book. I have been lucky enough to have seen Mr. Cervon perform at the Magic Castle and he is truly one of the best. I have also seen him fry magicians and layman alike with some of the tricks in this book. There are nearly 70 items and if you only got the "Devil’s Elevator" you would have gotten your moneys worth. It is a very easy and an extremely commercial trick. Looking at the contents I see many items that I use but will only mention a few of what I think are "classic" tricks. "Perfect Speller" (a killer for magicians and layman but be sure to use the option to tell the spectator if he lied or told the truth), "Aerodynamic Aces" (the original invisible palm ace routine, a great trick no matter how you cut it) and try his "Open Prediction" I saw him do this on TV once and thought it was a stooge. It’s that good.

In short this is book that any magician should not be without, I own all the books with his name attached as I find them to be FULL of top quality practical professional magic.

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Review for Close-up Card Magic

This book is simply one of the most influential book in my magic learning – and it’ll remain in the magic library for many years to come. However, it’ll mainly benefit newcomers of card magic. If you dabble at card conjuring then you will want to take a look at this. It contains a lot of beautiful routines that are very easy to do. This is the genuine ‘easy to master’ card miracles. If you know your basic sleight-of-hand (hindu shuffles, double lift, glide – to give you a rough idea of what level) you’ll have no problems learning the routines in here. Even if you don’t, it’ll only require a little practice before you’ll be entertaining your friends and family with a deck of cards. What I love most from this book is some of the routines end with a beautiful layout. There are some routines I relearn once in a while because they are so effective. The downside is the description is very wordy at times and the routines have too many unnecessary actions from an effect standpoint. You’ll also have to accept the fact that names to moves like the bluff pass will not be given because Harry Lorayne wrote the book way back in the 1960s. Otherwise, it’s a great classic!!!

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