Teach Yourself Magic by Anthony Galvin £8.99
Teach Yourself Series, Hodder Education – ISBN 0-340-90511-5
Available from: Bricks and Mortar bookshops or perhaps from:
http://www.hoddereducation.co.uk/Title/ ... _Magic.htm.
Also available at a lower price from
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0340 ... y&v=glance.
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Browsing a bookshop on holiday recently I noticed this book and all the memories of the old ‘Teach Yourself’ series in their distinctive yellow and black livery from 1960s etc came flooding back. I’d recently bought a 1954 copy of Teach Yourself Conjuring and was surprised to see the series is still going strong.
So what do you get for your £9 less a penny? Well, you get 11 chapters plus a Brief History of Magic and the chapter headings are:
1: Something to get you stated – some basic rules and advice and seven easy peasy tricks
2: Self Working Card Tricks – seven in all
3: Some Conjuring Basics – seven sections on palming, French drop, coin vanishes change bag and some notes on professionalism
4: Sleight of Hand with Cards – breaking the rule of seven, this time there are 11 sleights and controls plus some final thoughts and a listing of the ‘greatest tricks’ of all time.
5: Card Magic with Skill – 6 sections with three more on one liners and responses to the usual ‘How did you do that’ and for when things go wrong.
6: Money Magic – 9 sections, including Miser’s Dream, plus additional thoughts
7: Tricks with Ordinary Objects – 8 sections on rubber bands, pencils, hankies and a list of must have props for the beginner magician.
8: Cabaret Conjuring – back to seven but one of them is Professor’s Nightmare and there are also a couple of sections on basic cabaret rules and routining an act.
9: Mostly mental – 8 sections including the one involving the Danish Pachyderm, book tests and cold reading secrets.
10: Children’s Magic – 6 sections which include balloon modeling Chinese linking rings plus appropriate rules and thoughts.
11: Illusions – just 3 sections this time.
There are also additional sections on taking magic further and so on so, all in all, well worth the cash. The downside is that some of the tricks are so mind numbingly banal and are the sort of thing included in just about every ‘basic’ magic book and many Christmas Crackers. Ignoring those items the book is still good value and I’m enjoying just reading through it.
The paper used to print the book is rather low quality, there’s lots of text with some pen & ink sketches every so often – a bit like Royal Road to Card Magic but the sketches are a little better. I would have thought that a better standard of sketch/image and certainly paper could have been used but, then again, what do I know about printing & publishing!
Recommended as an addition to any magical library but only after things like Nic Einhorn, Mark Wilson etc.