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Magic For Dummies

The list of contributors to this book is described as “The Advisory Pantheon” and defines pantheon as “the officially recognised gods” or “a group of illustrious persons” regardless of your taste in magic all of them could be described as illustrious and some as gods( in a worship of magic sense). They are,

Michael Ammar, Mike Bent, Christopher Broughton, Eugene Burger, Lance Burton, Mike Cavney, John Cornelius, Daryl, Doc Eason, Roberto Farini, Paul Harris, Bill Herz, Jade, Kevin James, Aye Jaye, Chad Long, Harry Lorayne, Jay Marshall, Jeff McBride, Tom Mullica, Rich Marotta, Mike Maxwell, Billy McComb, Jon Racherbaumer, Richard Robinson, George Schindler, Jeff Sheridan, Loof Simonoff, Jim Sisti, Tony Spina, Jamy Ian Swiss, Dan Sylvester, Johnny Thompson, Torkova, Gregory Wilson, Meir Yedid.

The above all have a listing of their history and pedigree in magic. There are other contributors listed these include terry Seabrooke and the Amazing Jonathan.

The book is written in the same format as all the dummies books, with a cheat sheet at the front and the icon system that alerts you to important information. In this books they are Prep work, The Hard Part, Acting, Misdirection Moment, Audience Alert, Psych Out and Tip they are all reasonable self explanatory.

The book has good magic, stunts and what could be considered practical jokes, one of the interesting trick in the book was Michael Ammar’s Photocopied Card Trick.

Chapters 16 is entitled Ten Classic Moments in Magic and Chapter 17 Ten Dead magicians Worth Knowing. The book the teaches a bit about the history and not just a book of tricks.

The Appendixes covers A)Magic Stores, Publishers, Societies and magazines, B) A glossary of magic terms and words and C) Gives a break down and credit to where most of the magic in the book came from.

Summing up the book is really good the pictures are clear as is the text the only draw back is the Heavy American influence.

The author David Pogue is described as a member of the IBM and has performed at parties, on TV and even more on radio! For 25 years.

Contributor Mark Levy is a magic consultant with 30 years experience and has written for Magic, Apocalypse and Richard Kaufman’s Card Magic.

More Info can be found at

http://www.dummies.com/WileyCDA/DummiesTitle/productCd-0764551019.html

Pricing at

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0764551019/qid%3D1089636987/202-2750986-6099826

George Colvan

I am aware that a review has been written previously for this book (twice) but felt like expanding on it,
So I hope I’ve not tread on any ones toes.

Thanks for the review. It would seem the only thing wrong with this book would be the title, as my guess is that it would put the serious magician off.

However we all know better now don't we

For interest the other reviews are

http://www.talkmagic.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=1759
http://www.talkmagic.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=1103

bananafish wrote:It would seem the only thing wrong with this book would be the title, as my guess is that it would put the serious magician off.

I know what you mean about the name, but having read some of the other dummies guides I knew what the layout and format would be. There must be loads of Magic Books and tricks out there that have a name that in no way justifies the worth of the item.

No matter what your field of interest (outside Magic) if there is a “Dummies Guide” you can guarantee it will be a good point of reference. I would recommend that no one should allow the title to put them off not just this book but of any the Dummies Guides.

“a rose by any other name would smell as sweet”

I first read this as 'Magic For Brummies'. Frightened the life out of me! Actually I saw this in Waterstones a few weeks back but didn't have time to check the contents etc - I think I need to nip up town and have a proper look!