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Book: 'Outs Precautions And Challenges' by Charles H Hopkins (79 pages, soft cover)

The blurb: "Ever wondered what the pros do when they find themselves in a tough situation while performing card magic? How do they make a trick gone wrong go right? What about hecklers who make impossible demands and challenges? This book prepares you for all this and more. Now you can turn difficult situations into your favor and create even greater impact. Chapters cover all situations. Gain self-confidence and prestige at the same time."

Cost: £8 (http://www.magicbooksbypost.co.uk)

Difficulty: (1=easy to do, 2=No sleights, but not so easy, 3=Some sleights used, 4=Advanced sleights used, 5=Suitable for experienced magicians only) Hmm... let's say '3', but it's really not a book of tricks, so it's not entirely applicable.

Review:
This book has been mentioned a few times - generally in 'Arrghh! It's all gone wrong - what do you do?!' type threads - but I can't see that it's actually been reviewed anywhere, so I thought I'd pop one up.

For today's Ten-Minutes-Is-A-Lifetime, Internet kids this is quite an old book, written in a more splendid time. However, this appears merely in the form of charmingly quaint language from time to time, there's none of that, 'Then merely place the card behind your cravat...' stuff that can genuinely peeve in older material. The other, erm, spiritual thing about it is it's written by a working pro for other magicians. There's the tacit assumption that the reader knows and performs magic - perhaps not for a living, but regularly and with the benefit of some sustained study. It's definitely not aimed at the absolute beginner. This is an important point to mention, I think, because the absolute beginner is the person most likely to long for a book that claims to be a sort of Get Out Of Jail card for any situation.

What's it like then? Does it contain miraculous and simple secrets, revealed nowhere else, that will cure any card magic ill and destroy anything a difficult spec might throw at you? Well, no, of course it doesn't. There are no miracles in magic. However, it does gather together a handy set of practical and psychological tools that shift things a good way in your favour.

It's divided into the sections of the title: Outs (what to do when things go wrong - sow's ear to silk purse techniques). Precautions (avoiding disasters by forethought; including Not Even Your Fault things, which I have to mention becease Hopkins uses the lovely, lovely phrase, 'the weakling spectator' to refer to that person who, when you, in full adrenaline rush, say, 'And what was you card?' replies, 'Ummm? I can't remember.'). Challenges (dealing with the git spec who says, for example, 'No - I want to shuffle the cards. And you can't see the pack afterwards. And never mind any, "Count down four and" nonsense - just tell me my card.' Each of these areas has (for want of a better word) tricks or moves to help you, but also much psychology - both in terms of taming the spec/situation and also fire-proofing yourself. (As it happens, Hopkins's credo is utterly opposite to the mentalist's 'a few failures are good' feeling - he states, explicitly and often, that the magician must appear an infallible god who always triumphs.) It's tempting for me to repeat a few of the psychological points he makes for illustration, but, as this is an advice book, I suppose repeating the advice here is similar to exposure.

Bottom-linely, then, is it any good? Yes. It has some nice insights, and collects air-bag moves together in one place. They may not be new, but they're useful. The solution to the Challange illustration I gave above, for example, is something Hopkins calls Blind Man's Bluff. The basic method can be found in many places (Expert Crad Technique for one, I think), but its application is still delightful enough to have made me hoot with pleasure when I read it - taking down an enemy spec in this way is doubly satisfying. Keep in mind that it's not for the total beginner, it's not simply a list of life-saving tricks, and, Of Course, it's not an instant, foolproof panacea (just as a thought reading trick - as much as we secretly hope every one we buy will - doesn't actually give you the power to read thoughts) and it's certainly worth having on your shelf.

As a side note, Magic Books By Post were great in the customer service area when I bought this several months ago. There was a delay with my order due (I kid you not) to two heart attacks there. Dispite this (I feel rather justified) excuse, they spontaneously and unasked, sent me a second book free as an apology for the delay. Don't that that kind of thing in Dixon's, do you?

Anyway, overall: 7/10.

This is a fantastic little book. I first purchased it over 40 years ago and I have used the information in it ever since. An essential purchase for those of you who do magic and especially card tricks in the real world.