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The Magic of Pants as exposed by Kjartan Poskitt & Philip Reeve
Price: £5.99
From: Bookshops
Difficulty: Anywhere between 1 and 1.1/2
(1=A Mandrake could do it, 2=No sleights, but not so easy, 3=Some sleights used,
4=Advanced sleights used, 5=Suitable for experienced magicians only)

Description: As the title suggests, there are a lot of tricks in this book all involving underpants of varying types, sizes and gender intention.

Review: Yes, I know, you all think Mandrake’s gone totally loopy (again) but I promise you the title and description is right! I saw this at a book shop at the Airport recently and couldn’t resist buying it. When I actually got down to reading it I realised it was intended for kids and is a Scholastic publication but don’t let that put you off – it contains some excellent stuff.

All of the 40 or so tricks are done using underpants, borrowed or provided, but most can be done with less personal props! As an example, one trick involves tying several pairs together and can clearly be done with a length of rope. Another uses the pants as a cloth so a silk can be substituted. There’s even a section on preparing your own pair of gaffed pants which turns them into a change bag and there are several appropriate routines to use them with.

For children’s magic, some of the routines would be very well received as there is always the slightly rude aspect of waving underpants around and doing tricks with them.

Overall: I really enjoyed this book, the whole style is in very tongue in cheek/mock serious humour and written in good style. The only slight downside is that some of the routines are set out in cartoon comic drawings style and it was a bit embarrassing when I realised that a very large German chappie was reading it over my shoulder – the look on his face was priceless!

Value for money: 7 out of 10.
C.U.P.S.Rating: Possibly a 3 or so out of 10 but it depends on what kind of Magic you do!

So it wasn't Pants magic

I'm glad someone got that one in early! It's actually full of good stuff and a great resource - although I might put a dust jacket on the book to hide the cover illustration of a cartoon stage magician waving a large pair of 'Y' fronts around!