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Magician’s Magic by Paul Curry (Dover Publications)

From: Lots of places – online and at bookshops. Local Waterstones and Borders bookshops certainly had this on sale last Saturday.
Price: £12.95

As mentioned elsewhere, this book was first published in 1958 and is written in a more gentle style compared to a lot of the whiz-bang books of later years yet isn’t as old fashioned and dry as books such as RRTCM.

The main reason to getting hold of this would be to enjoy the sheer magic of the original Out Of This World routine – the routine which fooled Churchill during WW2. Paul invented it and Harry Green was the guy who performed for Churchill that night.

Paul’s style in this book is to intersperse Magical history with new and old routines explained – many of them not explained anywhere else for many years. He starts the book with the reasons why he first became interested then moves on to discuss Magic at the time of the Pharaohs, how it developed in medieval times up to the present day. He refers to, and discusses, names such as Reginald Scott, Giussepe Balsamo, Robert-Houdin, Hermann The Great, The Fox Sisters, Harry Kellar, Howard Thurston, Houdini, Cardini and many later performers.

Paul also has a chapter on levitations and refers to the proper origins of the Indian Rope Trick - which didn’t happen in India and didn’t involve a rope. (If you want the full details of how a legend became a reality which has never existed then check out The Rise of the Indian Rope Trick: The Biography of a Legend by Peter Lamont first published 2004 and available from Amazon @ £10.49!). The later versions of levitating assistants etc are discussed and explained.

Small illusions and large scale optical illusions are covered, Fake Mediums, rope tricks, Houdini’s Walking Trough a Wall illusions, sawing persons of the female persuasion in half, mentalist and mind reading effects are there as well as tricks involving gaffed and normal cards are included and, my personal favourite, The Case of The Missing Hat which is right at the end of the book. This is where cards are used to depict 10 Magicians attending an annual meeting, handing their top hats to the cloakroom attendant who promptly loses one hat. Despite this, all 10 Magicians go home at the end with a hat and you’re left squeaky clean. This was a trick I first saw in the 1980’s when I borrowed this book from the Library and I made my set of cards using the humble office photocopier and a black marker. Modern Technology would allow a better standard of prop but the trick remains the same – a right little gem!

All in all, definitely worthy of inclusion in any Magician’s library and a darn good read even if you don’t feel like doing any of the tricks explained.

Value for Money: 9/10
C.U.P.S. Rating: 10/10 (but there’s nothing Unnecessary about this book!)

Great review - I ordered mine last week from Amazon - which incidentally was just £6.17 and no postage as I (looks sheepish) bought several books and so didn't have to pay postage. (my name is Simon, and I suffer from CUPS). They should arrive any day now!

I was interested to read that the Indian Rope trick didn't originate from India and didn't involve rope. Begs the question what it was originally? A coin trick by a guy from Belgium maybe?

So next time I see a gentleman of Indian origin climing a rope from a basket I'll be the first to shout "Oi. You! What do you think you are doing? The Belgian Coin Trick?" Then let's see what he has to say to that!!!!!

Hmmmm. The Indian Rope Trick should properly be called the Chinese Leather Strap Trick. (Alternatively the Chinese Thong trick but that would lead to too many jokes about the Eurovision Thong Contest etc.).

Marco Polo referred to seeing such an effect on his travels around China but the actual effect he saw is nothing like the Rope Trick legend - this was a fusing of 2 other effects with a lot of hype and misunderstanding. More than that I will not say 'cos I'm in an enigmatic mood today. So there!

(PS I only borrowed the Rope Trick book but will happily try and borrow it again for a review if nobody else wants to do one.)

mandrake wrote:Hmmmm. The Indian Rope Trick should properly be called the Chinese Leather Strap Trick. (Alternatively the Chinese Thong trick but that would lead to too many jokes about the Eurovision Thong Contest etc.).

So very much cleaner than what I would have said, Mandrake.

I held back, I really did!

I saw this in Waterstones a few weeks ago, for some strange reason, it was in the wicca section along with the royal road to card magic, but according to the people there, thats where all the magic stuff is kept . Anyway, when I picked it up I noticed there was another book inside it and as I pulled the book out, there was a huge roar of thunder, the book turned out to be one on satanism. I can get very superstitious about stuff like this so I left the shop...very quickly...okay, okay, I ran from the shop shouting "Run!!!The apocolypse is upon us!!!!".

In the words of Jay Sankey-"Help me...please!!!!"

It's disappointing to see Out of This World explained in a book so readily available to the general public.

True but, as we've touched on in other posts, only magicians would delve far enough in to find the details and, from the title, I doubt most would know what it is. Oh, and welcome to the forum, by the way!

It's disappointing to see Out of This World explained in a book so readily available to the general public.

I must admit I tend to agree with Madrake on this, in that it is unlikely that anyone but a committed magician will buy this book, and then it is usally JUST for that routine, although there are some over nice bits and pieces in their too.