talkmagic.co.uk

Hi everybody. (Hi Doctor Nick!)

So I've just started to get back into magic after a couple of years. My 2 decks of red, rider-backed, poker-sized Bicycles came through the door today, along with The Expert at the Card Table.

Needless to say I'm playing around with the cards more than I should be working.

I popped in my David Blaine: Mystifier tape last night and watched in amazement how two entire shows had been compiled of tricks revolving around nothing much more than the double-lift.

Now, I've seen these shows before, of course, but had more of an appreciation for David back then than I do now. While David has some skills, I got bored pretty quickly after seeing gimmick after gimmick, double-lift after double-lift.

I think the most skillful card manipulator I have come across thus far is Jerry Sadowitz; it is from him that I found out about Erdnase and was always astounded by the pure skill he used to pull off those amazing techniques.

I haven't seen many magicians, you understand, mainly because I cannot stand the whole Vegas, huge light-show, massive-tricks type of thing -- I find it very dull, and that's all TV seems to show. Either that or the same old generic street magic that we've all seen time and time again.

I'm going to work to bring something new, and to develop techniques of my own.

work hard skeen,and you will creat your own new things.

I'll have to check out Annotated.

I came across Erdnase from one of Sadowitz's shows -- remember, they used to come on Channel 4 here in the UK. In this particular show Sadowitz explained to the audience who Erdnase was, and explained to them some of the techniques he used.

Even though Sadowitz was giving away everything, the ease and skill in which he pulled off the techniques was highly impressive. They even put the cover of Expert up on the screen.

So do you have any other book recommendations on card manipulation?