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The Effect

A plethora of card effects. 431 pages of beautiful hardbound book.


Cost

£35 from International Magic. They published this book + I think are the sole distributors at present

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)

2-5 (but mostly 3-4)


Review

Very early indications with this as I have only had the book 5 days + have been busy. However...

I was in IM last Saturday to buy some of the cheap videos they are currently flogging off ( eg Daryls card sleights for £7.50) and was unfortunately in a rush and so could only watch 3 of the tricks Mr Sadowitz was demonstrating (to a crowd of me + some other bloke called Andy... he seemed to know Jerry so I guess he was reasonably well known to anyone but me... but I digress). Anyway 3 fantastic tricks (including a ver amusing variation on oil and water with boozy cards) later, and I had to add this book to my pile of vids. So there's the back ground.....


Basically on first glance this is a fantastic book. Very well produced on good quality paper (essential as it is certainly going to get some stick). The writing style is much more up to date and less dry than certain other tomes and the tricks within are superb. It is difficult to go into detail on the tricks as they are so diverse, but they are well explained and come with excellent presentational advice .

However, where sleghts/counts/etc are used they are NOT described. i.e it will say perform a HC/EC/ DL etc etc etc and so it is not for the beginner (although there are some effects that anyone could perform. I would say that this is essential reading for anyone wishing to progress in card magic, and that there is much even for experienced card workers.

Jerry's (name dropper I know) word on it (and this was after I'd decided to buy the thing) was that this was the best card workers book he'd sen published in the last 10 years.

And for Mog, if that's not enough to convonce you, it's got a nice tartan edging on the dust sleeve.



Overall

Very difficult to rate without having read the whole lot, but VERY exciting for anyone into cards

I agree with all Fletch has to say - this indeed is a rare find of a book. In fact I get a good feeling from it just by holding it in my hands. Some books can do that.

VERY exciting for anyone into cards

Although predominently cards, there is in fact one chapter devoted to miscellaneous tricks (that don't use cards).

In my copy there was also some missing text from page 181 that I know have. I am not sure if this is a problem with all copies or just mine (unlikely right?) in case anyone else has it missing it reads...

...and count the cards one at a time onto the table showing four blanks. Finally, take the card from under the clip revealing this to the Ace.

Bottom line. This is a beautiful book full of some excellent magic. Very highly rated.

sounds good for both reasons..content AND tartan edging!!

downside is (as usual) I'm skint (hows that for a stereotypical scotsman???)

plus at the minute ive got about 4 books just sitting waiting to be read so it may be some time before i buy any more