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The Effect
Next contains eight of Garcia's impromptu magic notes which they say contains some of the strongest and most visual impromptu magic ever seen. There's some stuff in here that's really worth it, but I'm not wholly convinced.

Price - $15.00 -£9.37 from Lybrary

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)

1-4. Most of this stuff is disarmingly simple, but Garcia's writing style here is horrendous. He often reiterates that it's difficult to explain in type so pictures are included, and while most of the effects are understandable it takes a big cup of tea and a lot of inference and patience.

The Review
I'm going to do this effect by effect, as whilst there's one incredible and a few good tricks in here the quality is a little inconsistent. Kicking off with...

Cliptrip - Here the magician takes a paperclip, straightens it and then promptly bends it again by merely rubbing it. The paperclip can be borrowed and can be examined at the end. This is good, yes, but nothing to shout to the heavens about. This is illusion at its finest, and when it's revealed some of the magic is lost. It's also difficult to tell whether or not what the spectator sees is as remarkable as it's made out to be. - 6 out of 10

No Smoking
The magician apparently teleports and vanishes a series of matches using the power of smoke, at one point with smoke billowing out of his mouth. This is a nice little effect, marred slightly by the fact that we don't really have matchbooks in England and the trick is heavily reliant on one. The effect itself is, again, simplistic but effective, but one element (the billowing smoke) never seemed to work satisfactorily for me. - 7 out of 10

Dischover
The magician floats a credit card using no gimmickry or setup, purely sleight of hand. I'm not a fan of this at all. Trivial and light it serves only as a nice filler, one of those effects that you have to 'stop quickly' so the spectator doesn't see how it's done. No thank you. - 3 out of 10

Addict
A cigarette burns through the cellophane of the packet which is then restored. I don't smoke, so this caused me some problems. After a bit of borrowing I found this is a nice little effect that requires a little practise. It's clean, and looks really nice, but it strikes me again, as a little light. - 7 out of 10

Whassup!
An impromptu cap in bottle routine. This is lovely, simple, easy and looks great. I'm not an expert in cap in bottle so I can't comment on the relative ease of the method but I've a feeling this is a goodie. To be performed in a bar, the handling is again simplistic and the moves nicely hidden. This and the final effect are the best in the book. - 8 out of 10

Stretch
The magician performs a three phase routine with two rubber bands and a ring, jumping the ring between the two, vanishing the bands and then the ring, and finally melting the ring off the band leaving both intact. Ah, Daniel. What will we do with you? This is a brilliant, easy, and visually astonishing effect that is horribly marred by its incomprehensible explanation. It took me a very long time to actually work out what was going on but when I did, I was mightily impressed. - 9 out of 10

Overall
Well, I'm in two minds about this. Whassup is really rather good and Stretch is downright brilliant, but the rest of the effects seem a little light and Dischover is very weak. Mr. Garcia, please get a proof reader! You're an excellent teacher as my torn and restored skills show, but please, this book could have been so much better in terms of the language and teaching used.

7 out of 10 - The price would be worth it for Whassup and Stretch if the writing was better, but in the state that it's in - I'm not sure. If you've got the money and you're adamant to learn an excellent 3 phase band routine, go for it, but read carefully.