DIVThe one essential guidebook to attaining the highest level of card mastery, from false shuffling and card palming to dealing from the bottom and three-card monte, plus 14 dazzling card tricks. /div
The Expert at the Card Table has been the most studied card manipulation book for almost 120 years. For the first time you can meet the author S.W. Erdnase, the man shrouded in mystery, and session one-on-one with him. Every page is full of rich illustrations, complete with the original illustrations being re-inked and incorporated into this seminal work. Adapted and illustrated by David Trustman (The Rise, GOD Slap, The Memory Arts) The Expert at the Card Table Graphic Novel is a entirely true to the original, but reformatted to be as reader friendly as possible. With almost an additional 100 figure drawings, this is the most expansive version of The Expert to date.
2015 Reprint of 1944 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition. Not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. This remains one of the most definitive works on card technique, providing step-by-step instructions that will teach you the correct methods for the basic manipulations and for more advanced flourishes. Offering the most foolproof methods available, Jean Hugard and Frederick Braue explain such basic manipulation as the palm, the shuffle, the lift, the side slip, the pass, the glimpse, the jog and the reverse. They detail various false deals, crimps and changes and the more advanced execution needed for forces, fans and the use of the prearranged deck.
This profusely illustrated book demonstrates step by step the astonishing card magic cultivated by one of the premier sleight-of-hand artists of the 20th century. It presents maneuvers that have left theater audiences amazed and that card-playing professionals have used to great advantage. It is not a book for beginners, but will help those with basic card expertise reach new levels of performance in their art. Among the moves are shifts, palms, glides, false shuffles, cuts, fans, and steals. You'll learn how to do the false table riffle shuffle, how to deal from the bottom, how to know an opponent's hole card, how to "warm up a cold deck," and much more. In addition, the author presents forty dazzling deceptions guaranteed to amaze your audience: Confusion, Birds of a Feather, The Ambitious Card, A Brilliant Climax, Your Favorite Ace, A Quickie, The Obtrusive Queens, and many more. Over 300 photographs show the practitioner's exact hand positions during each critical move. Australian-born Arthur H. Buckley became well known in America for the magic he worked with cards on the major vaudeville circuits of the 1920s. Schooled by the great sleight-of-hand artists he met in the entertainment business and by professional gamblers he met in his early years touring Australia, his absolute mastery of the most artful and demanding card-handling routines was legendary. In 1946, he wrote this practical guide revealing in detail the secrets of his art. Any magician or card conjurer who aspires to the utmost proficiency in card manipulation will want to have this indispensable reference in his or her library.
A famous magician's journey to find the greatest cardsharp ever evokes the forgotten world of magic where Americans found escape during the Great Depression It has the nostalgic quality of an old-fashioned fable, but Karl Johnson's The Magician and the Cardsharp is a true story that lovingly re-creates the sparkle of a vanished world. Here, set against the backdrop of America struggling through the Depression, is the world of magic, a realm of stars, sleight of hand, and sin where dreams could be realized - or stolen away. Following the Crash of '29, Dai Vernon, known by magicians as "the man who fooled Houdini," is tramping down Midwestern backroads, barely making ends meet. While swapping secrets with a Mexican gambler, he hears of a guy he doesn't quite believe is real - a legendary mystery man who deals perfectly from the center of the deck and who locals call the greatest cardsharp of all time. Determined to find the reclusive genius, Vernon sets out on a journey through America's shady, slick, and sinful side - from mob-run Kansas City through railroad towns that looked sleepy only in the daytime. Does he find the sharp? Well, Karl Johnson did - after years of research into Vernon's colorful quest, research that led him to places he never knew existed. Johnson takes us to the cardsharp's doorstep and shows us how he bestowed on Vernon the greatest secret in magic. The Magician and the Cardsharp is a unique and endlessly entertaining piece of history that reveals the artistry and obsession of a special breed of American showmen.