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The Book: WD40 by Wayne Dobson Including Star Struck, a Magical Story

Cost: Prices vary but the semi hardback version is from £25 plus P&P and the limited edition hardback version is from £35.00 plus P&P.

From: Most sites and shops seem to be offering this but at varying prices. Check around for the best deals including, of course, Wayne’s own site of http://www.waynedobson.co.uk/

Review: This book contains 40 of Wayne’s superb effects and routines, some are culled from the earlier Dobson’s Choice books so may not be new to you, but there are others which are included for the first time. One of the previously published routines, Echo, is also available with a slight modification or two as a separate booklet. All the routines have that Wayne Dobson style of being stripped to the bare bones and re-built to minimise any finger flinging knuckle busting moves and sleights thus leaving you free to put all your energy into the presentation. Echo is a typical one where the presentation is all but you’d need to bear in mind that the script/patter is unique to Wayne’s style and not everyone can carry this off as easily as he does. A bit of thinking and tailoring to your own style is all that’s needed to make this your very own. Exactly like we all ought to do anyway! The contents are:

Imagine, Invisible Lie Detector, TNT, Point Blank, Ring Flash, Stunning, The Winning Hand, Think As I Think, Sweet, Jack In The Box, Vision, Rainbow, Tax, Word, Sharpie, Man Eaters,
On The Bottom, Janus, Missing Think, Spell Check, Synchronicity, Switch, TLC, Unique Prediction, X-Change, An Englishman In New York ( a superb routine!!), Chews A Card, Zippered, Magic Spell, The Crying Game, The Kid, Tossed Deck, I Swear, Invisible, Echo,
Oddball, 4seen, Banana-Drama, Dream, Webmaster.

In addition is an autobiography charting the highs and not so highs of Wayne’s career from school to stardom, Leicester to Las Vegas, and from Clubs to Cruise Ships. He describes his early schoolboy interest, the influences that folks like Pat Page, Roy Johnson and many others have had. Along the way we hear stories involving stars in the UK and USA and Wayne also describes the issues with a certain other magician and, surprisingly, a well known UK comic. His health problems are of course significant and Wayne describes the onset of MS and what it means, or doesn’t mean, to him. As with all other walks of life, friends are important and Wayne is fortunate that he has good friends like Joe Pasquale. You need to read it to fully appreciate Wayne and his magic in its proper light. Those who have seen Wayne in his lectures, or in the Blackpool Q&A sessions will know that Wayne had the daily choice of being happy or sad. He chooses to be happy and boy does it show in this book and some of it will hopefully rub off on all the readers as well.

Overall: Well recommended. If you don’t have the Dobson’s Choice trilogy then all the effects will be new but even if you have, this time round they’re given a fresh look and interpretation where possible and I felt the autobiography was well worth reading on its own.

Rating: A definite 9/10.

Sounds great. I'll probably be getting this in the near future.
Any problems with the cost?

Before posting the Review I Googled around a bit and found the prices varied quite a bit from £25.00 plus P&P upwards. Wayne was selling this at Blackpool for that price so I'm assuming the higher prices for the semi hard back version were including P&P - I may be wrong! In terms of value for money, if you don't have the Dobson's Choice books then this is real bargain but, there again, I much prefer books where possible so I may be biased. I also have the Dobson's Choice and they're full of excellent material anyway - not all will be suitable for everyone but they're all well within the grasp of most basic magicians looking to add professional effects to their repertoire without too much need for complex sleights and funny moves.

Hello Mandrake,
can you make a rough estimation about how many of the 40 effects are (suitable for) stand-up?

Regards
Alraune

I just bought it. For 15,- I can't go wrong.

In that case you'll be able to see for yourself which effects are suitable for various surroundings - sounds like you got a bargain as well, congrats!

I just had a look and the first pieces look all as for close-up but I saw that some stand-up routines come later in the book.

The 15,- is for the pdf which is of course not as nice as having a book, but as I live in germany, I normally wait one week or more before items arrive and the postage is more expensive, too. Thats why I decided to choose the pdf.

As I brought up the question about stand-up material in the book, I'll post something about it later, when I had more time to look through the material.

Here is the answer to my own question:
Most of the tricks are close-up tricks, mainly with cards and when I say cards I should say gaffed cards. For the most routines there is none or minimal sleight of hand used. Wayne uses the one way forcing deck, double backers, double blanks, maked decks, sticky tape etc. and mixes them to avoid sleight of hand.
Probably the most used move in his routines is the cross-cut-force


There are some stand-up routines, too and I found two which suit me perfect.
Echo which is included in the book is marketed seperately for 10,- BPD.

In my opinion the pdf is well worth the 15,- BPD as some of the close-up tricks are strong, too.