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The Book: Close Up Card Magic By Harry Lorayne (No link I'm afraid but Davenports and International magic should have it.)

Around £20

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)

Tricks covered mostly range from 1 - 3

Table of Contents

Introduction by Dai Vernon

Foreword by Harry Lorayne

CHAPTER I: NECESSARY SLEIGHTS
Hindu Shuffle
Faro Shuffle
Jog Shuffle
Double-Lift Palm

CHAPTER II-EFFECTIVE CARD MYSTERIES
Location Supreme
Two Card Reverse
Salt-Less
Aces Wild
Revelation
Stab-Two
The Sloppy Card Trick
Coincidentally Yours
Take Me To Your Leader
Lorayne's Ambitious Card Routine
Little Fella'—Big Fella'
Stop!
Impossibility
Quinella!
No Looking
In The Side Pocket
Out Of This Universe
This Is Mind-Reading?
The Apex Ace
Ose's Addition
Ose's Cut

CHAPTER III-NOVEL CARD MYSTERIES
Automatic Mind-Reading
Revolving Aces
Force Prediction
Tell My Fortune
Three For The Money
Three Again
Three Times And Out
Fourtitude
Sam-Ultaneous
Two-Gether
Flash Aces
Spread Control
Personally Yours
Through The Table
Calculated Risk
Mathematical Affinity
Magnetic Reversals

CHAPTER IV-UNIQUE CARD TRICKS
The Inseparable Four
Sensitive Touch
Lorayne's Poker Deal
The Moving Pencil
Vernon's Aces
Fan Prediction #1
Fan Prediction #2
Sympathetic Decks
Mated!
Reverse Location Blackout!
The Spectator Estimates
Card Sandwich
Lost And Found Aces
Lazy Man's Card Trick
Challenge Aces
Push-Through Change
Push-Through Poker

CHAPTER V-THE TURNOVER CHANGE
The Turnover Change
The Little Card That Wasn't There
Plunge-Thru‘
Mentalamazement
Chango-Cards
Prediction Extraordinaire
1-2-3-4
4-3-2-1
Random Thoughts
Absolutely Free Force
Quickie Prediction
Cross-Over Change
Variation Change And Stud Poker
Four-In-Hand
Automatic Mind-Reading #2
On Spectator's Hand
Torn Corner Transposition
Red Ace—Black Ace
Fantasia
Just (Business) Cards
Spirit Writes
Flash Printing
Multiple Change
Ambitious Aces
The Traveling Jewels

LORAYNE'S CHALLENGE
LAST WORD


Review
I was stunned that no-one has reviewed this book yet. It is a must have book. You can see from the contents that this book has a ton of material. Not just material though this is packed with reputation makers. Out of this universe, Vernon's Aces and the Apex Ace are worth the price of the book alone, and I could carry on picking out groups of tricks that are worth the price of the book several times over. The book is very well written and Harry's conversational style of writing makes this an enjoyable read and very easy to learn from. Even though the majority of the tricks are relatively simple to perform, this book is jam packed full of miracles.

Overall
Quite simply a must have book, and more than worth the asking price. In fact if I lost my copy and had to pay 3 times the price to replace it I would not feel ripped off. Don't be put off by the fact that the tricks do not need years of practice and personal sacrifice, this is full of real workable and practical material. If I could only keep one book on card magic ..... I'd be real pi**ed off at the money I spent on all the others But this is the one I'd keep without a second thought.


Value 25:10 (yep worth more than double the price )
Tricks 10:10

Mark

mark excelent review m8, sounds like a card workers dream.

No doubt about it, I got this book sometime around 1983/4 and I still use several tricks from it even today, in fact having been looking through it again to do the contents list for this review I'm going to go back and grab some more great stuff out of it.

Mark

Funnily enough I bought a reasonably conditioned second hand* copy of this at the Top Secret Magic Day on Sunday. (Did I mention how much fun that was?)

* A second hand is very useful for doing card magic

funnily enough i was thinking about getting this a few days ago..never even thought to ask if anyone had it... hehe.... thanks for the review

I entirely agree with the previous posts: very highly recommended, and more accessible to the average performer than some of Harry's later works. I'm less keen on the final chapter which deals with the Curry Turnover Change but the book contains some classic routines (some so old that they deserve to be resurrected). The Vernon Aces is excellent (but you need to be able to do a faro). Al Koran's Lazy Man's Card Trick is simple and would fool everyone, magicians included. Very well written (although Harry has said that his writing improved with his later books): I can't imagine anyone being less than delighted with it.

I recently decided to try out the AK's Lazy Man's Card Trick after seeing it on ETMCM4. It looked like a great self-working trick. But not quite self-working enough. After eight cuts I'm still saying 'Err...keep going', while people look at their watches and start to chat. Nice in theory but horribly unreliable in practice.
Having said that the book does sound very good in general and I think I'll be ordering it. Thanks for the reviews.

forgive reviving such an old post, but I bought a copy of this, and recieved it yesterday.
Its a great book, and well worth buying, even if like me, your not a card man.

Everything ive looked at so far is explained in very great detail.
It had me sat at the table with a deck in my hands, so its got to be a good book.I rather like "The Apex Ace ".There is no knuckle busting sleights. Just a couple of things that we all do.


Recomended.

Take a look at Vernon's Aces if you haven't already Dale, it's lovely.

that's what the guy who sold it to me said.

I bought this book last year, and it is a wonderful volume. One that goes down well is "Revolving Aces".

I think I'll get this - sounds great and HL is an excellent performer. Just the right balance of skill and humour.

i think this book contains the world's best card trick, which beats all that nonsense with aces that most magicians do

the trick is Revelation, which john milner does a real treat

i do a version in which the specator's card is swapped for a blank

can't be beaten - simply can't

Great review of a great book.

Thank you for taking the time.

This book created a sensation when it first came out. I have always regarded Harry Lorayne as the clearest of all writers on magic. It is quite a difficult thing to describe sleight of hand clearly in a book. Harry succeeds quite admirably.

I have been a fan of him all my life.

Incidentally the Lazy Man's card trick is hidden away in the Royal Road to Card Magic and hardly anyone knows it is there.

I do of course since I know everything.