Art of Astonishment, by Paul Harris
Daniel Marcinkowski
I am looking for a really good book about sleight of hand-tricks, especially
card-sleights. I found the "art of astonishment" by Paul Harris - book
series, but its a little expensive, so I wanted to ask first: Does any one
of you know this book(s)? Is it good? Are the tricks explained well?
--
Daniel Marcinkowski
Tipsy MacStagger's Bar & Grill
geared toward the intermediate to advanced card worker. The material
assumes you already have a grasp of, and can perform, advanced card
sleights. If you bought these books now you'd only get frustrated
because you don't understand what their talking about. There are much
better (and a lot less expensive) books on card magic and
sleight-of-hand for the beginner.
Here's a couple of books you must absorb before you advance to books
like the AoA series:
-ROYAL ROAD TO CARD MAGIC by Hungard & Braue
-EXPERT CARD TECHNIQUE by Hugard & Braue
Buy these from your favorite magic dealer, they're not expensive. They
contain all the card sleights you're looking for and are just what you
need to "educate your hands". After learning the material in these
books the world of card magic is YOURS. You'll be able to move onto
graduate work in card handling. All advanced card work revolves around
the material in the above two books.
Now, don't confuse the above two books with "self-working" card magic,
that's a branch all by itself. Self-working card magic is for the guy
who wants to learn some card tricks that don't require any sleights.
Let me list a couple books if you want to learn a few of those tricks:
-SELF-WORKING CARD MAGIC by Karl Fulves
-MORE SELF-WORKING CARD MAGIC by Karl Fulves
There are also videos that can help you learn card magic. For basic
card sleights I would recommend BASIC CARD SLEIGHTS by Richard Kaufmann.
The three most basic card sleights you need to learn are: The Pass, the
Double Lift, and at least one Card Force (preferably a couple more
forces as they're used extensively).
Hope this info helps.
-Leary-
Daniel Marcinkowski
> Daniel, While the Art of Astonishment books are very good, they are
> geared toward the intermediate to advanced card worker. The material
Thank you, thats the kind of info i needed.
Did I understand correctly, the AoA books do not contain explained card
sleights?
> Here's a couple of books you must absorb before you advance to books
> like the AoA series:
> -ROYAL ROAD TO CARD MAGIC by Hungard & Braue
> -EXPERT CARD TECHNIQUE by Hugard & Braue
I will definitely read those books, thanks very much!
> move onto graduate work in card handling. All advanced card work
> revolves around the material in the above two books.
Thats good to know.
> Now, don't confuse the above two books with "self-working" card magic,
> that's a branch all by itself. Self-working card magic is for the guy
Ok, I already knew that. Self working magic is not my cup of tea. I like the
kind of tricks where the magician really does all the work, and the deck of
cards can be examined. Till now, i have learned some little sleight, and
just want to get to know the 'big ones'. On the penguinmagic website i
discovered a demo video for the AoA bookseries, and that guy really did a
smooth routine with the cards. Unfortunaly, I don't know the names for the
sleight he showed in that video, but there was one I really liked, maybe you
know the name?
The magician cuts the deck into two decks and holds each in one hand. now
these decks are cut again, and the resulting decks are brought together and
turned with the forefinger and middlefinger towards the audience. Now the
remaining deck-halfs (on the right and left side) are brought together, and
then the turned cards are turned back. Its not a trick, but it looks great.
Well, if you can do it fast, it looks great. I can do it (after practising
it several times), but i don't get it as fast as in the video. Maybe I'm
doing something wrong, dunno. But perhaps this sleight is in the books you
mentioned?
> The three most basic card sleights you need to learn are: The Pass,
> the Double Lift, and at least one Card Force (preferably a couple more
I can do a not-so-good double lift. But I know two good forces. What is "the
pass"?
> Hope this info helps.
Yes, it did, thanks a lot
--
Daniel Marcinkowski
rob...@freeserve.co.uk
I bought all thre volumes at once and sold them again within a couple
of months.
The books do contain explanations along with line drawings for some
very good tricks but they are written in a rather eccentric style.
The author takes ten sentences to say what could be said in one
sentence, he also seems to have swallowed both a dictionary and a
thesaurus.
This is one reason why the books are so large (and so expensive) they
are padded out.
Some people seem to like his style, I would suggest getting one
through your local library first and if you like the style then get
your own copies.
Daniel Marcinkowski
> Some people seem to like his style, I would suggest getting one
> through your local library first and if you like the style then get
> your own copies.
Hm.. unfortunaly, I live in Germany, so we don't have his books in our
library. :-(
But thanks anyway!
--
Daniel Marcinkowski
Blue Berry
Mitch (Royal Road and Expert Card Technique). Some magic store owners
can probably demonstrate the harder-to-understand explanations (which
can get pretty wordy and intricate, others here might be able to
attest to whether or not Daryl's Encyclopedia of Card Sleights (on
DVD) is a good companion reference for the visuals -- I'm buying it
soon regardless). Expert Card Technique is fantastic for giving you
many methods of accomplishing a given feat, so if one doesn't work for
you, you can try another one.
> I can do a not-so-good double lift. But I know two good forces. What is "the
> pass"?
Check out this page:
http://www.angelfire.com/tx5/jcgcardman/card.html
Scroll down, and there are some links to explanatory passages here
about the pass. A lot of it looks like it's been blatantly plagiarized
from Expert Card Technique and maybe other sources.
A pass is just a way of cutting a deck of cards so that it doesn't
look like you've just cut a deck of cards. Expert Card Technique gives
you a half-dozen to choose from, but you're looking at lots of
practice before regularly and comfortably nailing any of them. If the
goal is to just move a given card up or down in a deck, there are
other methods available. The benefit of a good pass is that it works
without doing any visible manipulation of the deck -- unlike a
shuffle, which can make it seem less like magic and more like you're
just a very good card handler.
Most advice I've read is that beginners should avoid the pass at first
because the amount of effort necessary to nail it isn't worth the
reward, when the same effect can usually be accomplished with easier
moves. I haven't been doing this long enough to be an authority, but
while I can personally attest that you can do plenty of neat tricks
without a pass, it seems to me like there's no time like the present
to study the pass so as to eventually add it to your repertoire, along
with a few neat flourishes and whatnot. I'm taking that approach on
the side-slip, myself -- it's another move that I'm several months
away from using regularly in a trick, but since I want to use it
eventually, I've got to start practicing now...
Work on nailing the double-lift, because it gives you access to many
tricks right away without that much extra sleight practice needed. Of
course, don't overdo double-lift tricks since they might call
attention to the sleight. Same with the glide, an unbelievably easy
but effective sleight (I don't know if you're already using it in your
forces or not). A lot of non-magicians know about key card tricks, but
there's an absolutely wicked key card sleight in Royal Road that
doesn't even require a cut the way that others do (ie: they don't need
to put the card on top of the deck and then cut once, or anything like
that). Get comfortable palming a card, too, since in a couple of
tricks a palm goes hand-in-hand with a double-lift. If you can do all
those you should be able to pull off a few tricks for your friends
right away, and work on some of the other important aspects of card
magic (like figuring out what patter and misdirection works for you)
and in the meantime study the harder moves for more advanced tricks
later on.
dar_kwan
> discovered a demo video for the AoA bookseries, and that guy really did a
> smooth routine with the cards. Unfortunaly, I don't know the names for the
> sleight he showed in that video, but there was one I really liked, maybe you
> know the name?
> The magician cuts the deck into two decks and holds each in one hand. now
> these decks are cut again, and the resulting decks are brought together and
> turned with the forefinger and middlefinger towards the audience. Now the
> remaining deck-halfs (on the right and left side) are brought together, and
> then the turned cards are turned back. Its not a trick, but it looks great.
> Well, if you can do it fast, it looks great. I can do it (after practising
> it several times), but i don't get it as fast as in the video. Maybe I'm
> doing something wrong, dunno. But perhaps this sleight is in the books you
> mentioned?
The name of the Cut is the Butterfly cut :)
JG
<daniel.ma...@post.rwth-aachen.de> wrote:
I do not have all the books yet, but I have a lot of Paul's earlier
stuff, both in print and video. A lot of the material is from his
earlier releases.
In fact, much of Volume 1 is gems from previous published works. (Some
people online have said that the stuff in volume1 is his strongest
stuff. You might even try his 1 volume Art of Astonishment video,
which is a good intro to PH.)
I am no cardman at all, but I can do a few real goodies that from PH.
I especially like Stapled from vol. 1.
I like the linking card effects in vol. 2 as well as his Cellophane
Surprise, where PH opens a cigarette pack and extracts a cigarette
then restores the pack to its sealed condition.
Certainly if you want to experience all of his effects, you will need
advanced skills but, dare I say it, some are easy. He does give the
details of most of the sleights. (In fact, he gives some simple
methods so that an easy effect doesn't become a knuckle buster.)
For a really complete list of what's in these big 300-page volumes,
see
http://magicref.tripod.com/books.htm
This page tips no methods, but it describes all the effects.
I would not dismiss AoA as for advanced cardmen only. He's funny and
he's inventive. In Uncanny, he does a cup and ball routine with a can
of Beenie Weenies. --->The guy has a seriously warped mind.
I like Paul Harris, but not everyone does.
mellowyellow
appreciate this man's genius, would be better off going through the
usual classics on card magic: Hugard, Lorayne(general magic), Mark
Wilson (general magic) etc. THen when you hit AOA, you will be blown
away. By the way, if you guys are interested, look for the website
learnedpig, has a couple of classic magic text up for free viewing,
including the hugards.
mellowyellow
JG <7coaster...@spamgourmet.com> wrote in message news:<smttrvkf1q2f13jec...@4ax.com>...
Mitch Leary
They made one Art of Astonishment video and it had all unpublished
material, up to that point. It came out about the same time the books
did. It's got some good tricks on it, but the best has to be that
trick with aluminum foil and a quarter. If played right, such as
combining it with material you learn in Darren Brown's ABSOLUTE MAGIC,
you'd achieve legendary status. It doesn't look like a trick, it
looks like something someone would do to prove he's an agent of the
devil.
-Leary-