The Magic Shop

With a foreword by David Copperfield! * There’s nothing like performing magic—and there’s nothing like plodding through a text-heavy book on the subject whose illustrations don’t quite “do the trick.” By the publisher of Genii: The Conjuror’s Magazine, this book packs 450 full-color, step-by-step photographs, many from the magician’s point of view, plus advice on how to patter with an audience while pulling off mind-blowing deceptions, illusions, and sleights of hand. From simple to advanced, and using household and inexpensive props, Knack Magic Tricks includes tricks using cards, coins, handkerchiefs, and fruit, as well as mental tricks, anytime tricks, standup tricks, and tricks especially for kids (to be performed both for them and by them).

Magic is everywhere, from the big spectacle celebrity of David Copperfield and Siegfried and Roy to the quirky Penn and Teller to the spooky David Blaine and Criss Angel to the endless material on YouTube. But until now, learning it has never been easy—that's all about to change with Magic, a book that does for close-up magic what How to Grill does for barbecue. Written by charismatic young magician Joshua Jay, Magic combines expertise, photographs, step-by-step directions showing how to perform 100 tricks, and a DVD that demonstrates 35 of them. Joshua Jay took home the top prize at the World Magic Seminar (the Olympics of magic) when he was just 16 years old. Ten years later, he continues to perform magic, write about magic, eat, sleep, and breathe magic. Here, he brings all his passion and knowledge to teaching magic. Each trick is broken down into the Effect, the Secret, the Set-up, and, most important, the Performance, with lessons on what to say, how to direct the audience's attention, where to keep your hands, and so on. (In other words, how to be smart about the things your audience is surprisingly clueless about.) Here are the Ten Greatest Card Tricks; tricks to dazzle a dinner date; tricks to perform for the boss (poke a hole through his shirt, then magically mend it); tricks especially for kids; and even tricks for an audience in another state—with "Australian Self-Help," you can find a participant's chosen card over the phone. It's the Aha! book for a subject whose time has come.

Using everyday items found in most homes, aspiring young magicians can dazzle friends and family with this guide to performing magic tricks. In the activities detailed, items disappear, water refuses to leave a container, and magicians make partners disappear (and reappear). Each activity includes step-by-step directions and illustrations followed by an explanation of how the trick works. The scientific principles and mathematical concepts behind these tricks are valuable teaching tools for elementary and special education instructors.

mystifying tricks done with ordinary objects that can be borrowed from the audience. Make coins appear or disappear; matchsticks jump into the air; classic cups and balls; pierce balloons without bursting them; plus tricks with dice, rubber bands, eggs, safety pins, pens and pencils, more. 185 illustrations.

spectacular and entertaining tricks: card locations, coincidence tricks, mental magic with cards, tricks with double endings, tricks with two decks, predictions, tricks with borrowed decks, trick poker deals. Easy-to-learn, clearly illustrated, these tricks produce spectacular effects with a minimum of practice.

Abundantly illustrated, easy-to-follow guide shows beginning and veteran prestidigitators how to successfully perform over 100 tricks, including The Inexhaustible Hat, The Cut and Restored Turban, The Chinese Rings, The Rising Cards, Steel Through Steel, Fingers That See and dozens of other remarkable feats—each graded according to difficulty.