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Scarne’s Magic Tricks by John Scarne – Dover Publications
Price: £7.49 or thereabouts
Avaiable from: Bookshops, both 'on-line' and 'in reality' types.

Those of you who like the Ian Fleming James Bond novels may recall the bit in Moonraker where, as 007 prepares for his card battle with Hugo Drax at Blades, M says he’d leave Bond to ‘sandpaper his fingertips or whatever cardsharps do’. Instead, Bond settles down with his favourite book on card sleights and moves, ‘Scarne on Cards.’ Thus it was that I forever associated the Scarne name with mystery, intrigue, high flying adventures, and gorgeous female Russian spies. It was a bit of a shock to find out later that Scarne was not, as I asumed, an expert gambler but a magician!

Originally written and published in 1951 and faithfully reproduced in the 2003 printing by Dover, some of the text is dry, some of the effects seem out of time – several routines assume that the performer will not only be a smoker but will be smoking or have a cigarette in the hand whilst performing. Illustrations are of that time, clear pen and ink drawings (very similar to the original ‘Superman’ comics and many of the spectators strongly resemble Clark Kent!) but some seem to be superfluous – page 221 shows the performer standing in front of two specs concentrating hard on the serial number of their dollar bill - the performer ‘divines’ the number and they reply, ‘That is correct!’. Great picture, guys!

What It Says On The (Introduction) Tin: Quite a lot and it covers Scarne’s work for the US War Department, appearances entertaining G.I.’s and so on. In response to many requests, Scarne decided to compile a book of Magic covering many aspects, routines, props with very simple goals:
1) Easy to do – all complex moves were removed or replaced.
2) Great variety but see also point 5.
3) Any gimmicks required must be easy to make or obtain.
4) Tricks must be suitable for ‘every’ conceivable occasion, from close up to stage. Offhand I can’t think of many tricks that would truly be suitable at a funeral but I think I know what he means.
5) Tricks must use items which are commonly found in the house and home – which just about rules out the enormous Buzz Saw thing used by D.Copperfield.
As well as prop based tricks, there must also be mentalist, hypnotism, fortune telling and similar effects.

Review/Overall: Well, did Scarne do it? I have to admit he did and he did it in style. OK I can’t see any reason for him to include trick number 3 which presents the ‘mystifying and humorous’ (his words) effect called Smoking Sleeve whereby the performer blows smoke down one jacket sleeve and it comes out of the other sleeve - no prizes for guessing that a length of rubber tube is involved – but I’m just being picky!

There are 155 tricks, which cover the promised very wide assortment of props and routines. Some of them are probably more correctly classed as gags or jokes rather than tricks but most are extremely worth while trying out. There’s the usual one with a book of matches where the same number of matches remain after one has been torn out and burned, there’s Cut & Restored ropes, plenty of mathematical and mentalist effects, lots of colour divination items and, as mentioned above, enough smoking effects to keep John Player in business for a while. Coin effects, tricks with hankies, matches, liquids, bottles, boxes, pencils, string, rulers, pins (not quite Dreamweaver but close!), currency notes, tables, chemical reactions (!) and lots more far too numerous, as they say, to mention. If you’re looking for an effect involving specific items, there’s a good chance that there’s one in this book either smack on or very close to what you want.

Value for money: 9/10 – one point lost because of that turkey number 3 trick!

C.U.P.S. Rating: At £7.49 (or less) – possibly an 8 out of 10.

Nice review of a great book. It's a real "boys own" book of magic, and in it's time I am sure it would have been the equivelent of "Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic".

It was a bit of a shock to find out later that Scarne was not, as I asumed, an expert gambler but a magician!

I am pretty sure that Scarne was in fact an excellent gambler as well as a magician, although I for one would never have agreed to play cards with him!

several routines assume that the performer will not only be a smoker but will be smoking or have a cigarette in the hand whilst performing

That is so true. I think it wasn't just written in an age where smoking was acceptible, but in an age where it was positively cool to smoke.

Talking of the great illustrations, I just love the one on the front cover (also trick 134 Hypno Magnetism), where my first thoughts were that it showed a very angry looking magician trying to pull his rope away from a cocky spectator who not only wouldnt realease it, but also was giving the magician "the finger". Classic. True Classic.

One of my favourite tricks in that book is the "4th dimension knot". (95). Try it in the pub. Bring a few extra lengths of rope to hand out, show everyone how it is done, and watch with great glee whilst no one else can do it...

Thanx for the review - I must watch "Moonraker" again, it is my favorite bond movie.

The book "Scarn on cards" also makes an apperance in a movie called "Croupier" which was (funnily enough) about a croupier. After reading the book he goes on a weekend away & deals the most amazing hand of poker (not for himself)

Here is some insteresting history about John Scarne

Fascinating link - thanks!

(PS The following posts were split and moved to Miscellaneous so the Bond debate can continue!)

I have to admit that this is probably one of the least picked up books in my small collection. However, like any "old" book there are some quite long forgotten little gems.

There is one trick that I LOVE the sound of but and petrified of attempting. This is from a man who couldn't wait to try the "Block-head" routine after seeing Mr D. Brown perform on TV and have been freaking friends and family out ever since.
The effect in question is "95: The Unstickable Pin". In Scarne's own words "Even after you have done this, no-one else will have the courage to try to duplicate the feat."

The question is, have any of you ever tried to perform this and if so, how long did you spend in A+E afterwards?

Warms my heart to see this review. This was one of the FIRST books I ever picked up regarding magic. I'm guessing I was about 9 or 10 years old. There was another book: Scarne on Cards that I also picked up. Later they sold both books together in a single volume.

When it comes to magic books, I have always had a financial rule: If a book can give me only ONE trick that I can really use, the book was worth it. After all, there is no book on magic from which I can expect to perform EVERY trick - and on occasion, I will find nothing that appeals in one or another book (sometimes because I have found nothing NEW for ME).

Well, I have owned the Scarne books for well over 40 years. I still perform some effects from those books, although I haven't re-read them in almost as long. That is some real value! There are excellent pocket tricks, strong-man stunts, and of course, excellent card effects. Many impromptu effects worth having in your arsenal - or at least in your magical vocabulary. A great versatile introduction, especially for beginners, as I certainly was when I read it.

Thanks for reminding me of the wonderful ideas in these books. Maybe it's time to dust them off and have another look!