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The Dave Campbell Legacy - Book

£35 - http://www.InternationalMagic.com

http://www.internationalmagic.com/acatalog/info_2771.html

Dave Campbell was one of Scotland's unsung magical greats!

!! Available Now in Ltd Edt !!

In conjunction with Peter Duffie and Dave's many friends, International Magic is publsihing, exclusively and in limited edition, this incredible legacy of material to enjoy, learn and perform.

Dave's work carries the impact of an imaginary collaboration between Roy Walton and Ken Brooke and such is the tresure herein, you'll be hard pushed to decide which routines to leave out of your repertoire!

Within these pages you'll find such Campbell classics as IRISH POKER HAND, BINGO, THE DEFECTORS, HOUDINI ESCAPES and many others.

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Still being a relatively new addition to the magic community I find it very difficult on occasions to decide what to buy next, and what will fit into this routine and what won't (a choice I am sure we have all had to make at some point!!). Since deciding to take the art form a bit more seriously I have started to refine my choices rather than allow the CUPS to overpower me (or rather my bank balance) and spend a lot longer reading reviews to gauge how suitable a trick, DVD etc will be to me... the same cannot be said of this book. Jerry and I were talking last week about the Royal Road book and how invaluable it is in the basis of a lot of modern tricks; he followed this discussion by performing a couple of the tricks in this book for me when I was in International Magic and I was stunned. Two very simple tricks that for me left me astounded despite knowing the basics of the routines. Without any hesitation I grabbed the book off the shelf and purchased it (although for some I think the £35 price tag may put a few reservations in your mind- trust me for the number of routines in here it is worth the price).

For your money you get 431 pages that kept me transfixed (I must have spent at least an hour and a half sat drinking tea in International flicking through the pages, engrossed in the routines). The book has 8 chapters:

1. Forward by Bruce Gordon
2. Dave Campbell Biography
3. Tricks with normal playing cards (21 tricks in total)
4. Packet Tricks with extra or faked cards (19 tricks)
5. Tricks with extra or faked cards (15 tricks)
6. Miscellaneous tricks without playing cards (7 tricks)
7. Card Sleights
8. Tributes to Dave Campbell

I am still ploughing my way through Chapter 3 and every trick has me enthralled and has got my creative ideas in full flow. Most of the tricks have a brief history associated with them explaining how Dave refined them or adapted others handlings and are accompanied by R Paul Wilson illustrations. The routines are not overly pretentious or long-winded (unlike my review...apologies if I am waffling, but thanks if your still reading). So far my personal favourites are Automatic Speller and the Inauguration tricks which will fool most without fail.

All I can say is if you want to supplement what you may have learnt in RRtCM, or the Card College series (amongst just some of the many books out there) this is definately worth a read as I guarantee you will find material to place into your routines that has a either funny twist, or just a How d'ya do that? factor that will leave your spectators bemused.

LOVES & GRIPES


Honour - being new and wanting to read as much about magic as possible it is great to be able to sit and read a book that has not only stunning routines, but is filled with material tha thas been lovingly thought out. It is obvious from reading the biography and the tributes that Dave Campbell loved magic and was a real character amongst his peers, and held in high regard by all that met him. I feel that we live in an age now where unfortunately too much gets revealed either through cruddy videos on the internet, or file sharing and people do not spend as much time practising and refining their shows as much as they could. We have all seen magicians perform some shocking D/L's or palms, and possibly had that happen to ourselves on occasion; but to sit and read this book is a pure joy and will make you realise that we need to work hard to keep this art form something special, and as the title suggests keep the LEGACY of magic well and truly alive.

£35 - quite steep (particularly for those e-book junkies!)
Typo's - surely a proof reading by a couple of people could have corrected these. Some very basic spelling and grammar errors (although I am not too sure whether they have reproduced Dave's routines exactly as he wrote them)
Sleights - a few could do with being explained slightly better. The drawings assist you but do not always relate to the text particularly well (i.e. mentioning that your left hand should raise the packet, yet the drawing is of the right hand?? slightly confusing on the first couple of read throughs).

OVERALL 4/5

PUBLICATION QUALITY - 4/5
MATERIAL - 5/5
VALUE FOR MONEY - 4/5

This. Book. Is. Brilliant.

Three of the routines (Beyond Belief, Everywhere and Nowhere and Cards Across) I perform regularly, Beyond Belief nearly always has people saying it's "my best trick" (it's an insanely clever and fair looking Wild Card flavoured trick).

The cards across uses a pretty bold move that makes you feel oh so sneaky, in an oh so wonderful way. Dave's ungaffed Everywhere & Nowhere is I think my (current) favourite trick, and has been for a few months.

Some of the scripts provided are a bit twee, but who cares about that, we should all be writing our own anyway.

Infact, I think I'm going to go and read it now.

Quoth: Some very basic spelling and grammar errors

I'm sure you won't mind, then, if I point out these:

but thanks if your still reading

Typo's

Take care, Ian

Its been said before - but this is a great book by a very unique magician. I was lucky enough to be looking for a few gaff decks, wandered into International Magic in Farringdon - and was introduced to this feast of unique card magic.

After shelling out for "the latest and greatest" card magic books for a few years not, only to find that its the same repackaged tricks form 5 decades ago - Legacy truely is a breath of fresh air. I refer specifically on the 19 packet tricks detailed in Chapter 4. No more of this standard David Blaine DL and duplicate dribble we have seen over and over again - not to say that is not entertaining - but this really does push beyond what the audience may have seen before on some late night channel 4 re-run.

My favorites would have to be the "Irish Poker Hand" which details a fantastic little story to do with it, and "Beyond Belief" - which having preformed it numerous times, usually ends with the spectator running out of the restaurant sreaming - fantastically satisfying finish.

An essential for any card-connaisseur.

"Beyond Belief" - which having preformed it numerous times, usually ends with the spectator running out of the restaurant sreaming - fantastically satisfying finish.

I must be doing something wrong

im amazed people talk so highly of this book its so so at best and the price is ott worth about £20

Every time I open it, I find something new.

Just today I realised the pretty much self working envelope effect where you predict the exact order of a suit of cards that the spectator shuffles.

Incredible stuff.

Agreed - an essential purchase. I think Marco recommends it to everyone who goes into IM and quite right too!

It's even better if Jerry's in, not only will he persuade you to buy it with words, but he'll perform practically every trick in there!

Great book- I love doing leapfrog. I am currently trying to perfect the harmon count just for that Irish poker hand.

i've only recommended this book once before to someone, i dont like to mention it too often as it is genuinely, one of my fave card magic books...

this, lewis jones, david britland booklets, and basil horwitz books, i love them all for different reasons...

horwitz's isnt card magic really, its mentalism - but some of the effects do use some very clever card ideas too...

anyway - this is a magnificent book, and easily worth the money...i'd have happily paid double...

This is one of my favorites books.

my favorites effects

DAVE PREMONITION is simply genial. (a variation of it, it´s my opener effect)

MIX `N` MATCH, is simply destroyer

LEAP FROG is simply a notable jump in classical transpossition effect

AUTOMATIC SPELLER simply unexplicable for audience.

Like Iain - I've been keeping this book to myself for ages as well

Selfish yes, but it is soooo good, I don't want too many people finding out about it!

Buy it - well worth the money. The hard back edition I have is a really lovely book

This is one of those books which is destined to sit on the shelf between Ascanio and 'RRTCM'.

I don't think it justifies a 'so so', especially when I consider some of the dross that I have placed on my bookshelves.

Some of the tricks are surely to be found under other names, after all - there's nothing new under the sun - and this is surely most true with magic!

BUT, in my opinion this does warrant a place on the shelf and, despite all those ebooks, is well worth the money.

V

I was looking for some good books which teach us how to perform some magic specially with cards as it is easy to learn card magic compare to other and also dont need to carry other stuffs with it