talkmagic.co.uk

Feedback on this please?......

After trawling the UK sites and cross referencing with reviews (seriously your reviews section is the most valuable magic buying resource on the web!!!!!) I’ve come up with some stuff I want. I want to get away from buying card tricks, although there are many that have taken much will power to resist. The books are to be my learning resource for improving my card work as you can probably see. In the meantime I thought the others would be (mostly) nice little impromptu effects. Having always used cards I quite like the idea of these new creepy little effects like the shrinking finger so if anyone can recommend some good ones I’d appreciate it – magic with (apparently) non magical things. I like examinable effects, switching is ok. I am not a fan of palming or coin manipulation etc, the plunge de france is about my current limit. I want to concentrate more on magic happening rather than I am “doing” some magic. As if I am almost as surprised as everyone else if that’s understandable. I’m keen on some DVDs if there are some “must have” ones??? Also if I have made a blindingly poor choice in something down below please tell me!

Finally, I would like to buy this lot outright initially so I would appreciate it if any dealers/traders could contact me if they feel they could supply the entirety or majority with some notice. If anyones going to get my money may as well be someone deserving on here.

Many Thanks, please contribute if you know of an effect that would suit.

James




I Would Like……..





Books

Encyclopedia Of Card Tricks
Napkin Folding by Tom Osborne
Doc Wayne’s The Art Of Public Squeaking
Counthesaurus
Card College Volumes 1-5
More Card Manipulations
Counts Cuts And Moves
Expert Card Technique
Expert At The Card Table
Card Control
50 Tricks With A TT
Reality Twister Book
Dai Vernon’s Ultimate Secrets of Card Magic

DVDs


Prime Cut DVD
Bicycle Red Gaff Deck DVD
Pass With Care

Other

Amazing Ghost Lighter
Bicycle 52 Card Red Gaff deck
Pen Through Anything Perfect Examinable
Spider Pen
Break The Habit
Cesaral Melting Point
Crystal Card
Hypnotrick
Cigarette Up The Nose

there's a LOT to be going on with there and you'll find that a lot of the content is repeated across a number of the books that you have mentionned.

I recommend giving the Raven, the spider pen, the Bicycle Gaff deck (which you've noted twice) a miss.

Newton's Nightmare is a nice little bit but if you want it to be done with (apparently) ordinary objects then you're probably best off giving that one a miss. I saw it, didn't particularly amaze me but with the right presentation it does play well. Pen Through Anything is nice and innocent, so maybe that's worth a spin.

Amazing Ghost Lighter and Break the Habit might go well together. Healed and Sealed can be good but...I've got mixed feelings about it. I too recommend leaving The Raven. Get something like Modern Coin Magic instead.

How new are you to magic? Magic and Showmanship by Henning Nelms might be worth a look.

A lot of the stuff on your list is prop based, and if it were me I would cut back on the amount of prop stuff I bought and save the money for something else.

I would avoid creature pack, a few like them but i saw some and was not impressed at all. I agree about sticking to books.

Thanks for your quick replies!! I've been dabbling since six, performing since 13 and took a break at 18 now restarting at 22 I love cards and wanted to spend the next 5-10 years building on my basic card technique. I invent alot of my own stuff just blending the things I pick up in books. Hence the extensive list of books - I was hoping that there would be unique elements to each that would be useful? I get where you're coming from re props. Think I'll take another look at the non-standard stuff.

I am a practice slave and basically like to get a few solid useful items and perfect them. I was hoping that the spider, pen thru anything and raven would be nice little carry around jobbies I could have for those "show me a trick then..." moments. I really hate doing card tricks for people now, infact anything with cards. After the success I had with reality twister the other day in the bank (haha!!) I thought wow this impromptu unexpected stuff has some heavy impact to it. Can I ask why you would advise against the spider and the gaff deck. I was thinking the occasional gaffed card would add a bit of spice when I really really had to do a card trick for someone and the dvd (2nd mention) might have some quickstart ideas?

Thanks again,

James

jesus, thats a lot of stuff!
I agree with what everyone has said and reccomend you win the lottery first.
good luck

I really hate doing card tricks for people now, infact anything with cards

so why do you want so many card books and dvds??

The problem with buying a lot at once is that you will be tempted to learn everything at once. This means you may rush learning one effect because you want to get on to the next one. It really is best to concentrate on one thing at once.

Braundy wrote:I am a practice slave and basically like to get a few solid useful items and perfect them. I was hoping that the spider, pen thru anything and raven would be nice little carry around jobbies I could have for those "show me a trick then..." moments.

The Raven is not a 'nice little carry around jobbie' I got one and found it very difficult to set up and you have to be wearing a jacket. There are many other discussions on the raven if you look on the search facility

I must admit, I finally had a mega-CUPS episode yesterday morning and bought about £120-worth of gimmicks and other stuff from a selection of shops. I've got the idea to do two sets - one of gimmick-based magic, the other being the usual clean mental magic and cards.

I would suggest you not buy most of the gimmicks and dvds and just stick to the books for the time being. As gimmicks might amuse you for a while but you will soon lose interest in them (TT and IT being a possible exception). As Stephen said before if you buy a lot of stuff you will feel like you have to learn it all at once and rush and feel overwhelmed. I can definately relate to that (although now I'm sticking to learning one thing at a time)

Misanthropy wrote:I would suggest you not buy most of the gimmicks and dvds and just stick to the books for the time being. As gimmicks might amuse you for a while but you will soon lose interest in them (TT and IT being a possible exception). As Stephen said before if you buy a lot of stuff you will feel like you have to learn it all at once and rush and feel overwhelmed. I can definately relate to that (although now I'm sticking to learning one thing at a time)

Unless of course you learn better with DVDs. Some people do much better with a DVD than a book. And of course visa-versa. Although, you can often get more information from a book. And of course learning from a book helps you develop your style, not the magicians teaching you.

Thanks again for your advice! I've ammended the list. Bought the two DVDs sets last night - long wait for them to arrive from the states though I've never got along with buying things one at a time, I find the time wasted browsing and searching irritating so I complied this list. There is nothing else I can see on the entire internet that I want.Most of the new tricks are just tired old reworkings of old effects, or they spark such unprecedented disinterest on my part that I know I'd ever enjoy performing them! I haven't bought any magic for 4 years, and after this lot I doubt I will buy anything else for a long long while. Which is how I like it

I understand there will be setup for some things, not really fussed but thanks for the tip about the raven. Wont be getting it, the reviews are mixed so I just added it to the list. I wanted one when they came out but resisted.

I've never got along with buying things one at a time,

Spoken like a true CUPS sufferer

I haven't bought any magic for 4 years, and after this lot I doubt I will buy anything else for a long long while.

a long long while can amnount to several minutes or in some cases, hours!

Here's a few thoughts. You mentioned wanting to build up your basic card magic skills - so I'm assuming you're past the basics, and want to branch into more advanced work. In doing so, I think Expert at the Card Table will almost completely satisfy your needs - and the stuff in there will keep you busy for quite a while.

Here's my shaved down list for you.

Books

Encyclopedia Of Card Tricks - Excellent book. Not only will you learn impromptu effects with a regular deck, it has excellent chapters on effects using many of the trick decks you might have used (stripper, svengali, MeneTekel, etc.) Fantastic book that I still read through time and time again.

Counthesaurus/Counts, Cuts, Move and Subtleties - Both are fantastic books. If you can afford it, go for both of them (although as Dat said, a lot of the content is in both.) If you can only afford one for now, I'd go with Counthesaurus and get Mentzer's book when you get a chance.

Card College Volumes 1-5 - If you have the money, you can't go wrong with this set. You would quite easily be completely set with just the Card College books - so you could even pass on most of the other books. However, I would recommend getting these one at a time and not skipping ahead.

Expert At The Card Table - Advanced stuff - if you're willing to put the time in, it's a great investment.

Card Control - I find this book hard to deal with. Don't get me wrong, it's a great book with some incredible ideas, but I find some of the descriptions and instructions to be difficult to follow. That's mostly due to the age of the book, but it's still something to mention.

50 Tricks With A TT - Can't go wrong with a TT. If you're looking for magic with ordinary objects and things of that nature, a TT is essential. If you're feeling saucy, pick up Gary Darwins' Encyclopedia of TT magic DVD instead.


DVDs


Prime Cut DVD - For what you get, I don't think the cost is worth it. The effects are good, but for the price of this dvd, you can snag a copy of card college and have more effects (and a stronger understanding of card magic and presentation) than this dvd will ever offer.

Bicycle Red Gaff Deck DVD - This seems a bit like filler to me. Although I haven't seen it, I would imagine that with a solid understanding of card sleights, you could execute any of the effects using the gaff deck without the need for this dvd.

Pass With Care - I haven't seen this, but learning the pass is never a bad thing.

Other

Bicycle 52 Card Red Gaff deck - If you like gaff cards, cool. Personally, I don't think this is a necessary investment. It's pricey and you can get most of the cards elsewhere. Feel free to check out my review on these forums if you want more on this.

Pen Through Anything Perfect Examinable - Pen thru is always cool. I say go for it.

Spider Pen - If you're interested in IT work, this is a good investment

Break The Habit/Cigarette up the Nose - I'd say instead of buying these two standalone effects, perhaps do a bit of searching and find some resources on overall cigarette magic. This one came to mind:

http://www.trickshop.com/celebrated_cigarettes.html

There's also the encyclopedia of Cigarette tricks by Clark.

Cesaral Melting Point - There are reviews on the site about this one. Personally, it's not my thing. However, it does look good. This one is your call. You either want it, or you don't.

Crystal Card - TM's own Tom Lauten posted a review of this which may help your decision on this one.

http://www.talkmagic.co.uk/ftopic11667.php&highlight=crystal+card

Hypnotrick - Looks pretty cool. I'd probably pick this up, myself so I'm not a big help when it comes to CUPS.