Table of Contents
Introduction 1 About This Book 1
Where the tricks came from 2
Of handedness 2
How This Book Is Organized 3
Part I: Becoming Magical 3
Part II: Wizardry Anywhere 3
Part III: The Restaurant Zone 3
Part IV: Pick a Card Trick 3
Part V: Party Time 4
Part VI: The Part of Tens 4
Part VII: Appendixes 4
Icons Used in This Book 4
The Process of Learning a Trick 5
Welcome to the Circle 6
Part I: Becoming Magical 7
Chapter 1: All Form, No Content 9
The Anti-Gravity Pencil 10
The Disappearing Anything 13
The One-Legged Leg Vanish 15
Fingertip Munch 18
How to Get Rubbery 19
The Stretchiest Thumb in the World 19
The Stretchiest Finger in the World 21
The Stretchiest Arm in the World 22
Off the Wall 24
It’s a bird, it’s a plane 24
Social climbing 25
The mugger nobody knows 26
Chapter 2: The Instant Gratification Chapter 29
Two-Card “Sleight of Hand” 29
The Tale of the Tightrope Walker 33
The Pencil-and-Quarter Double Vanish 37
Part II: Wizardry Anywhere 43
Chapter 3: The Financial Wizard 45
Hard, Cold, Pencil-Breaking Cash 46
Sheep and Thieves 49
The Vanishing Quarter, Show-Off Edition 52
The Big Money Rises 54
The 7-Penny Reflex Test 57
Don’t Show Me the Money 61
Heads or Tails: The Shadow Knows 64
Chapter 4: New Uses for Old Office Supplies 67
Pencil up the Nose 67
Cheapskate Houdini: The Triple Rubber Band Escape 70
Stage I: The rubber band jumps 71
Stage II: Locked in place 73
Stage III: Dueling bands 75
The Antigravity Ring 76
Post-It-ive Identification 78
The Photocopied Card Trick 82
Chapter 5: What to Do with Other People’s Clothing 85
Give Me a Ring Sometime — and a String 85
Walking through Ropes 88
Scarf Decapitation 92
Give That Purse a Hand 94
Chapter 6: Take It Outside, Pal 99
The Missing Spray-Paint Marble 99
The Ninja Key Catch 102
Straw through the Jaw 104
The Astonishing Straw-Wrapper Restoration 106
The Creepy Little Baby Hand 109
The $100 LifeSaver Trick 113
The Unforgettable “Cloudy” Toilet Paper 116
Part III: The Restaurant Zone 121
Chapter 7: Cutlery Is Your Friend 123
The Bendy Spoon, Part I 123
Bendy Spoon II: The Return 126
The Classic Salt Shaker Penetration 129
Forks a Lot 132
The Three-Mug Monte 134
Three-Object Monte, Freakout Edition 137
Chapter 8: Playing with Your Food 143
A Sugar Substitute 143
The Evaporating Sugar 146
The Linking Pretzels 149
Beans through the Orifices 152
Bouncing the Roll 157
The Floating Dinner Roll 158
Chapter 9: Matches Made in Heaven 163
Making an Ash of Yourself 163
Ashes through Someone Else’s Palm 165
The Three-Matchbox Shell Game 168
Weighing the Matchbooks 171
The Static-Electricity Test 173
Intermission 177
A Day in the Life of a Semi-Pro 177
Entertainment Weekly 179
The Restaurant Summers 179
The Offer 180
The Show 181
It’s in the Cards 182
Part IV: Pick a Card Trick 183
Chapter 10: I Could Have Dealt All Night 185
How to Shuffle without Really Accomplishing Anything 185
You Do As I Do 187
The Hands-Off, Mixed-Up, Pure Impossibility 190
Aces by Touch 193
Dealing to the Aces 195
The Envelope, Please 198
Soul Mates 200
The “Pick a Number” Spelling Bee 203
The Shuffling Lesson 207
Sleight of Foot 211
The Future Deck 215
Dream a Card, Any Card 219
Chapter 11: The Build-Your-Own-Card-Trick Kit 223
How This Chapter Works 223
Forces 224
The Cut Anywhere force 224
The Under the Hanky force 226
The Bottom-Deal force 227
The Countdown force 228
Revelations 230
The Geiger Counter 230
The Jumping Out revelation 230
Feeling by Muscle 232
The “Name of the Card Is” revelation 234
Slap It! 235
The “Above and Beyond” revelation 236
The Magic For Dummies Grand Finale 237
Part V: Party Time 241
Chapter 12: Rope 243
The Classic Cut-Rope Restoration 243
Ring off Rope 247
Escape from the K-Mart Tie 251
Chapter 13: I Knew That! 255
The Three-Card “Pick by Touch” Test 256
The Triple-Prediction Spouse-Clincher 258
The Math/Geography/Animal/Color Test 263
Divide & Conquer 265
The Book Test 268
The Great Vegetable Prediction 273
The Telephone Trick I: Call This Number 275
The Telephone Trick II: Call the Phantom 279
Chapter 14: Group Hysteria 281
The Torn and Restored Toilet Paper 282
You Can’t Do as I Do 285
The Strength Test 288
The Phantom Photo 291
The Late-Night Party Murder Mystery 298
Part VI: The Part of Tens 303
Chapter 15: Ten Basics of Good Magic 305
Don’t Reveal the Secret — Ever 305
Don’t Repeat a Trick 306
Know When to Start 306
Know When to Stop 307
Build Up Your Audience 307
Suit the Tricks to the Crowd 307
One Great Trick Is Worth Ten Not-Ready Ones 308
Keep at It 309
Act the Part 309
Make It Yours 310
Chapter 16: Ten Classic Moments in Magic History 311
Robert-Houdin Prevents War with a Trick 311
Herrmann Pulls a Coin from a Roll 312
Malini Produces a Block of Ice 312
Houdini Becomes Dangerous 313
Blackstone Saves His Audience 313
Richiardi Jr Bisects His Daughter 314
The Great Tomsoni Capitalizes on His Mistakes 314
Doug Henning Comes to Broadway 315
Copperfield Changes the Scale of Magic 315
You See Your First Magic Trick 316
Chapter 17: Ten Dead Magicians Worth Knowing 317
John Henry Anderson (1814-1874) 317
Harry Kellar (1849-1922) 318
Servais Le Roy (1865-1953) 318
Howard Thurston (1869-1936) 319
Horace Goldin (1873-1939) 319
Joseph Dunninger (1892-1975) 320
Cardini (1899-1973) 320
Slydini (1901-1991) 321
Ed Marlo (1913-1992) 321
Dai Vernon (1894-1992) 322
Chapter 18: Ten Things to Say When Things Go Wrong 323
Chapter 19: Ten Ways to Get More into Magic 325
Watch Other Magicians 325
Read 326
Go to Magic Shops 327
Watch TV Magic Specials 327
Join a Magic Association 328
Read Magic Magazines 328
Surf the Web 329
General magic 329
Magic history 329
Magic dealers 329
Individual magicians 330
Current events 330
Watch Magic Tapes 330
Take a Course 331
Perform 332
Part VII: Appendixes 333
Appendix A: Magic Stores, Publishers, Societies, and Magazines 335
Magic Shops 335
Book and Video Sources 336
Organizations 337
Magic Magazines 337
Appendix B: Magic Words: A Glossary 339
Appendix C: Trickography 345
Chapter 1 345
Chapter 2 346
Chapter 3 346
Chapter 4 346
Chapter 5 347
Chapter 6 347
Chapter 7 348
Chapter 8 348
Chapter 9 349
Intermission 349
Chapter 10 349
Chapter 11 350
Chapter 12 351
Chapter 13 351
Chapter 14 351
Chapters 16 and 17 352
Chapter 18 352
Appendixes 352
Index 353
