Dunninger's complete Encyclopedia of Magic
This isn't particularly a review, although I must say that this book is one of the most enchanting magic tombs I have been lucky enough to read.
It is wonderfully illustrated with black and white drawings and is choc a block full of magic tricks, optical illusions, end science experiments from a bygone age. This is a real boy's own book of magic and something that will fascinate boys (and girls) of ages from 8 to 80. (Possible 81. And I am sure some 6 and seven year olds would get a lot out of it too).
Some of the magic effects described are frankly so out there that they make the effects revealed on that recent BBC television show seem workable (you know the one with Danny Butler getting electrically charged so he could light a light bulb, and where john Lenahan filled up cups of different flavoured juices from rubber tubes wrapped around the body). And yet - you have to believe that everything in the book is a proven working method that has been used somewhere by a magiician - maybe even Mr. Dunninger himself.
And it's not just parlour tricks either, it ranges from full blown stage illusions to "pub tricks". Even magic that is better described as a science experiment. (How to have a test tube of boiling water with an ice cube in it for example).
I am not saying that this book is full of ideas that you will immediately take an add to your act, but it won't half broaden your knowledge of all things magic.
I really can't recommend this book enough - although more for it's curiosity or history value (in the same way as "Hiding the Elephant" is, for example).
The single one article that prompted me to write this review (which isn't really a review) is for possibly the most un-politically correct piece of magic in the world...
How To Vanish a Midget.
I appreciate that I shouldn't be copying bits out of books, but this is so funny that it would be criminally wrong of me to exclude it.
The text reads something like (I apologise I forgot to copy it out word for word).
"You hold a cloth in front of the midget and after a few seconds whip the cloth away to show that the midget has disappeared. What actually occurs is that he climbs onto the specially built frame on your back and hides there."
And below is the accompaning illustration. Pure gold.