talkmagic.co.uk

[BeerForDolphins]

Description

This book is an amalgamation of three Vernon card books: "Inner secrets of card magic", "More Inner Secrets..." and "Further Inner Secrets...".

I was advised to get this book at the same time as I purchased "The Card Magic of Le Paul", a fine book I might add.

There is a lot of information packed into the 220+ pages and for someone to try and use this as a stepping stone from RRTCM might find it a little daunting. It is not linear, due to the fact it is a compilation, and one first reading it seems that you have jumped from basic principles to real knucklebusters. One danger is that you will put the book down and not pick it back up again....basically because you may feel out of your depth.

My advice to the novice is this, if you feel a little overwhelmed DO put the book down and leave it for a few weeks. Practice your sleights and come back to it with a fresh mind. You will find that some of the things which weren't making sense are a lot clearer. Bear in mind that the books were written between 1959-61 and as such, some of the effects are not worded as clear as they could be.

Instead of breaking down the whole book, chapter by chapter, I have decided to give you a summary of what I consider to be the "useful" ones:

Inner Secrets of card magic (nine chapters)

Chapter 1:Taking it easy - Some simple effects to get you started, the first being "Emotional Reaction" which is a fine "hands off" opener.

Chapter 2:A little thought required - Another four effects, which contains the classic "Do as I do". All four effects are actually top notch in this chapter.

Chapter 5: Colour changes - exactly what it says on the tin. Ranging from easy changes (Erdnase) to stinkers like the "Cliff Green change".

Chapter 6: Dexterous deception - Don't try this at home!!!!...you may lose your fingers. This is a way of producing cards from interlocked fingers which were shown to be empty. PHEW!

The remaining chapters cover things from complex second deal variations to tricks with thread!

More Inner Secrets...

Chapter 1: Twisting the aces - a breakdown of the Vernon Classic

Chapter 2: Think of a card - A number of "think" effects including "out of sight, out of mind".

Chapter 3: Oil and Water - Vernon's handling of the Marlo effect...very detailed.

Chapter 7: Magic with the riffle shuffle - Detailed description of riffle techniques and sleights which the novice would find very useful.

Chapter 8: Crimps - Another useful chapter for the novice.

Chapter 10: Forcing a card - Obviously there are a huge amount of forces available but these are classics.

Other chapters includes descriptions of Vernon's glide, some manipulation techniques and more effects including "Cards to pocket"

Further inner secrets....

The first five chapters cover individual effects, "Four blue backed aces", "Blindfold poker deal", "Cards of coincedence", where like blue and red cards appear in an envelope, the classic "Three card monte" and "Cards Across"

Chapter 6:More Novel knowledge - These are miscellaneous techniques from double lifts to card production from a pocket.

Chapter 7: Palming - Obvious really but mainly concentratin on the gamblers palm.

Chapter 8: Dealing seconds - Vernon's method

Chapter 11: Changes - including top, bottom,one handed and four ace changes.

The remaining chapters cover other effects.

Cost

If I remember correctly it was £30...give or take a couple of pence

Difficulty
(1=easy to do, 2=No sleights, but not so easy, 3=Some sleights used,
4=Advanced sleights used, 5=Suitable for experienced magicians only)

Well, like I said, this ranges from definate 1's to knuckle busting 4's.


Review

All in all there is a lot of information to digest and some of it is very wordy however once you discard the bits you don't want to use you are left with some classics of card magic and some very useful techniques.

Would I recommend it? Thats a difficult one as I am sure that there are much better card books out there which are more up to date and have much better descriptions but they may not cover things as specifically as this does. In the age of DVD it may be that soon it will render books like this obsolete however I think this still has a place....I would say that it could be classed as expensive but it is 3 books rather than one.....hmmmm....tricky. I would give it....

Overall
7/10 still relevant and useful for specifics but I would say it would be more for the budding Vernon-phile than the novice looking for the next leap up.

[jabba01]

I have also bought this on jerry sadowitz's recommendation, and can honestly say it is a great book to add to your collection. However a lot of it is very tough especially if you dextrisity (now i know that's not a word) like me.


Cheers

J

[fletch]

I bought this book a little while ago and have not felt that I could do it justice with a review, basically because I did find it a little daunting at first. I came back to it a couple of weeks ago having had a think about its content and how best to use it. I would definitely recommend this book as a progressive step upward from the more basic card volumes, but BeerForDolphins hit the nail on the head in stating that it was not linear in its difficulty levels and so a less experience card worker would have to be initially selective in working out which tricks to progress with in order to avoid being frustrated. (Funnily enough I was also recommended this by Jerry Sadowitz (name dropper!) wonder if he has a deal with the publisher)

[kerplunkmagic]

Yup , Inner Card Trilogy...very nice! One thing I think your forgot to mention and that is the all-famous "Trick That CANNOT Be Explained"! This is (by far) the best trick in the whole book. Okay , this is the effect:

You write down a prediction on a piece of paper (any card) and you give that piece of paper to a spec to hold onto. You never touch th piece of paper throughout the rest of the trick. You BORROW a deck and give it to the spec to shuffle. They can shuffle for as little or as long as they like...or not at all! They can cut the deck or whatever. Then , while the deck is in their hands , they pickout one card and look at it. They can keep hold of it , show it to you , place it back in the deck...it doesn't matter. You then ask them to remove the prediction THAT HAS BEEN IN THEIR POCKET THE WHOLE TIME and it exactly matches the card that they chose!

Now imagine that trick without any setup beforehand , and no gimmicks of any kind! You can do it anywhere , anytime! This is not a pipe dream and , I'm telling you , it KILLS laymen and magicians. This is one of the few effects that has the same effect on laymen as on magicians...

This probably sound like im advertising but i am merely urging everyone and anyone to try and find someone to show you this trick and to see the impact it has on you. Oh yeah , I also forgot to mention that you can actually have another spectator write down the prediction at the beggining...


KerplunkMagic

[BaBaBoom]

Now THAT'S magic!
I'll send you my car and a tall blonde if you pm me the method, lol.
In all seriousness an effect like that does sound good if not impossible, sadly my funds are scared of me as it is lately

[kerplunkmagic]

Well , there used to be a website that tipped the method........................................................................................................................................


































........................................................................................................................................But it closed down!

[BaBaBoom]

lol
you know there is a website depository that stores old copies of long gone websites?
cough

[andycoates]

This is just that website,, he he he he.

http://members.aol.com/maskedmagi/

I tells you how dacid copperfield flies, you will kick yourself when you find out, snigger

Sory had to editit there, forgot to put the website on. oops!

[BaBaBoom]

WHY DO PEOPLE PUT MIDI MUSIC ON WEBSITES
lol

money money money...........

LOL at that site, very good