“Encyclopedia of rope tricks”

“Encyclopedia of rope tricks”
Stewart James, Dover Edition

This book is, in fact, a republication of the third printing (1945) of the work originally published by ABBOT’S Magic Novelty co. It is also interesting to know that it is in fact the first of three books, the other two being available exclusively from ABBOT’S.

This book is roughly 400 pages long, and has some really amazing effects, all of which have been contributed from various great names in the magic community, such as Harlan Tarbell, Nevil Maskelyne, Grant, Brema, etc… The illusions are well illustrated and easy to follow. The skill level needed varies from beginner to intermediate. However, most of the routines presented are rarely seen on stage, even though they can be quite appealing to all audiences. If you are interested in performing rope tricks, it is therefore a very nice source of material that is not overused.

The book is divided in nine chapters, each relating to one particular aspect of rope magic. They can be studied individually in the order of your preference, the various sections being independent one from the other, so to speak…

Chapter one deals exclusively with knots, giving no less than 19 different ways to tie knots that vanish, or can be made while holding and not letting go the ends of the ropes.

Chapter two deals with penetrations with two ropes. They include such tricks as ropes through neck, ropes and rings mystery, rope releases, walking through ropes.

Chapter three contains 25 sections for penetrations using one rope. Among the various subjects treated are different versions of the leg tie, rope through neck, handkerchief release, vest turning trick, ring on rope, knotted ring on rope, rope through stick, etc…

Chapter four talks about a subject, which personally, I was a little bit more familiar with: cut and restored cord. There are 24 different variations on this subject in this chapter. These tricks vary from tricks using rope, yarn or strings, all of which can be done without too much preparation. Which brings us to the two following chapters: Chapter five has 17 tricks for “cut and restored rope”(impromptu), and chapter six has 16 routines for cut and restored rope with unprepared ropes.

The illusions in chapter five can be performed anywhere, at any time, as you would assume with the word “impromptu” associated with them. The illusions in chapter 6 can also be done n various types of venues, but may take some preparation.

Chapter seven deals with cut and restored rope yet again, but this time with a prepared rope. It contains 29 variations on this concept, such as Grant’s Super rope trick, Tarbell rope mystery, Doc Nixon’s rope mystery, Eddie Clover’s triple cut routine, etc…

Chapter eight contains miscellaneous rope tricks from such notables as Percy Abbot, Freer, Grant, and Hanson.
Chapter nine is composed of seven variations of the hindoo rope trick

Pease feel free to leave me any comments, whether you liked this review or not… It is always a pleasure to hear from you!

Have a nice day!

Louis Jutras
The Montreal magician / Le magicien de montreal

«Complete guide to card tricks and techniques»

«Complete guide to card tricks and techniques»
Jean Hugard and Frederick Braue

This book has already quite a reputation amongst cardicians, and the reason is quite simple: it is a very good work of reference for all things related to cards. It is divided in 6 parts.

The first part deals with sleights. In it, you will start out learning about lifts (double, triple…), getting ready for the lift, the turnover. You will then graduate to false deals ( you name the type, it is in there!), side slip, the pass ( seven different versions…), palming, false shuffles, false cuts, changes, etc… This par contain 16 different chapters, and all deal with one type of sleight in particular, going into details of how to execute them, along with as many variations as space permits.

The second part deals exclusively with flourishes. It is only eleven pages long, but contains the only written version of the interlocked production that I have ever seen. It also shows various color changes, top and bottom changes, springing the cards from hand to hand, pressure fan and fan flourish.

Part 3 deals with technique. Lots of information is given on the palm, various ways of forcing cards, secret counts, etc…

Part four is quite extensive, just like part one. It contains fourteen chapters, all of them dedicated to a particular type of card trick. There are chapters for rising cards, one hand card magic, discoveries, mental discoveries, reverses, tricks using double and triple lifts, etc… . This is the only part of the book where you find actual applications of all the different sleights and techniques that were taught in earlier parts.

Part five talks about miscellaneous points of interest for cardicians, such as peeling cards, making double-faced/backed cards, different types of shuffles, false counts and deals, etc….

Part six is constituted of two chapters:
- Misdirection
- Presentation

All in all, as I have said earlier, this book is an excellent resource for anything related to card work. The only drawback that I found with it is that there are very few drawings and images to illustrate the various sleights and moves, sometimes making it rather hard to understand and execute the moves properly. Couple that with the fact that the links between theory and practice are not necessarily obvious, this makes this book a reference for the more experienced magicians. As a beginner, I remember reading this book, practicing some sleights, and not knowing why I was learning them or what use I would have for them. This certainly turned me off card magic for a while. But now that I am quite bit more experienced, it certainly has become one of my favourite books. Beginners would be better off with «Royal road to card magic», or the wonderful series «Card College» by Roberto Giobbi, but more experienced workers will appreciate the «Complete guide to card tricks and techniques» as a reference.

Have a nice day!

Louis Jutras
The Montreal magician / Le magicien de Montreal

«Magic Tricks made easy»

«Magic Tricks made easy»
By Patrick Page, 1977

This is one of the first books that I remember getting when I was younger. It was not what got me started in magic, since I had already quite a bit of interest in the subject. But it had the advantage of being available, relatively easy to understand (so I thought…), and showed four different types of magic:

- Tricks with cards,
- Tricks with coins,
- Tricks with handkerchiefs,
- Tricks with paper.

The first part of this book taught three moves with cards: the hindu shuffle, the glide, and the top stock shuffle. Looking back, I can tell you that the explanations leaved quite bit to be desired, the tricks explained have potential to be really good, but not the way they were shown here.

The same can also be said of all the other sections of this book. The section on coins taught a few basic things, like classic palm, thumb palm, front and back palm, etc… But was severely lacking in showing how to use these techniques effectively. Again, most of the tricks shown can be made to be entertaining, but not in the way it was shown in the book.

As you can tell by this review, I am not particularly impressed by this book. I believe it is still available here and there on the internet, but I would not bother with it. Lots of much better material is available to anyone serious enough to study magic.

The only things I vaguely find interesting in this book is the final section on paper magic, which has interesting effects like paper tearing (not my favorite version, but it is workable…), paper ladder, tree and fence, folding money…

Have a good day!


Louis Jutras
The Montreal magician / le magicien de Montreal

The Magic of Ascanio (Vol. 1)

Before I begin, let me point out that «The Magic Of Ascanio» is actually 4 books:

1- Structural concepts of Magic
2- Studies of card magic: Ascanio’s favorites
3- Studies of card magic: Ascanio’s Classics
4- Knives and Color-blindness

For this particular review, I will concentrate on the first book.

If by buying this book you intend to find various tricks with cards, you will be very disappointed. No tricks at all, of any kind. What you will find, however, are various lectures that Ascanio gave at various points in his career as a magician. It is a very complete analysis of what makes magic «magical». The book is made out of four parts.

The first part deals with various thoughts on magic, as approached by Ascanio. He talks about such things as history, originality, presentation, cover, perception and technique. He also introduces notions pertaining to the conception of a magical atmosphere (Technique, misdirection, Timing,…), and goes into the analysis of effects ( routining principles, performances…).

Part two is constituted of various interviews he gave with various people like J. Tamariz, Docampo, and Aurelio Paviato.

Part three dives straight down in details relating to: Presentation, cover, construction, technique, and how to study magic.

Part four deals with creativity.

This book is roughly 300 pages long, and does raise very important points regarding how we do magic, and how it is perceived by our audiences. It is like a university degree in «Magical Performance». Although Ascanio is mainly concerned with card magic and close=up, his lectures and analysis of magic find applications in whatever sphere of magic you operate in, whether it is stage, close-up, professional or amateur. This book is like having your own personal coach telling your how to improve yourself and your magic.

Have a good day!

Louis Jutras
Montreal Magician/Le magicien de Montreal

First Blog!!!

Well, Here goes!

This is my first attempt for a blog. Obviously, there is not much information on right now, but it can only improve!

I am currently in possession of quite few books on the art of magic. They include "card magic", "coin magic", illusions, etc.... I also have a few teaching videos to review. some are older, some newer... The point is, during the next posts, I will have quite a bit of information to share with you all, and I hope you will find it interesting...

Until then, have a good day!

Louis Jutras,
The montreal magician / le magicien de montreal
http://www.louisjutras.com