Magic For Dummies

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

Where the tricks came from 2

Of handedness 2

How This Book Is Organized 3

Part I: Becoming Magical 3

Part II: Wizardry Anywhere 3

Part III: The Restaurant Zone 3

Part IV: Pick a Card  Trick 3

Part V: Party Time 4

Part VI: The Part of Tens 4

Part VII: Appendixes 4

Icons Used in This Book 4

The Process of Learning a Trick 5

Welcome to the Circle 6

Part I: Becoming Magical 7

Chapter 1: All Form, No Content 9

The Anti-Gravity Pencil 10

The Disappearing Anything 13

The One-Legged Leg Vanish 15

Fingertip Munch 18

How to Get Rubbery 19

The Stretchiest Thumb in the World 19

The Stretchiest Finger in the World 21

The Stretchiest Arm in the World 22

Off the Wall 24

It’s a bird, it’s a plane  24

Social climbing 25

The mugger nobody knows 26

Chapter 2: The Instant Gratification Chapter 29

Two-Card “Sleight of Hand” 29

The Tale of the Tightrope Walker 33

The Pencil-and-Quarter Double Vanish 37

Part II: Wizardry Anywhere 43

Chapter 3: The Financial Wizard 45

Hard, Cold, Pencil-Breaking Cash 46

Sheep and Thieves 49

The Vanishing Quarter, Show-Off Edition 52

The Big Money Rises 54

The 7-Penny Reflex Test 57

Don’t Show Me the Money 61

Heads or Tails: The Shadow Knows 64

Chapter 4: New Uses for Old Office Supplies 67

Pencil up the Nose 67

Cheapskate Houdini: The Triple Rubber Band Escape 70

Stage I: The rubber band jumps 71

Stage II: Locked in place 73

Stage III: Dueling bands 75

The Antigravity Ring 76

Post-It-ive Identification 78

The Photocopied Card Trick 82

Chapter 5: What to Do with Other People’s Clothing 85

Give Me a Ring Sometime — and a String 85

Walking through Ropes 88

Scarf Decapitation 92

Give That Purse a Hand 94

Chapter 6: Take It Outside, Pal 99

The Missing Spray-Paint Marble 99

The Ninja Key Catch 102

Straw through the Jaw 104

The Astonishing Straw-Wrapper Restoration 106

The Creepy Little Baby Hand 109

The $100 LifeSaver Trick 113

The Unforgettable “Cloudy” Toilet Paper 116

Part III: The Restaurant Zone 121

Chapter 7: Cutlery Is Your Friend 123

The Bendy Spoon, Part I 123

Bendy Spoon II: The Return 126

The Classic Salt Shaker Penetration 129

Forks a Lot 132

The Three-Mug Monte 134

Three-Object Monte, Freakout Edition 137

Chapter 8: Playing with Your Food 143

A Sugar Substitute 143

The Evaporating Sugar 146

The Linking Pretzels 149

Beans through the Orifices 152

Bouncing the Roll 157

The Floating Dinner Roll 158

Chapter 9: Matches Made in Heaven 163

Making an Ash of Yourself 163

Ashes through Someone Else’s Palm 165

The Three-Matchbox Shell Game 168

Weighing the Matchbooks 171

The Static-Electricity Test 173

Intermission 177

A Day in the Life of a Semi-Pro 177

Entertainment Weekly 179

The Restaurant Summers 179

The Offer 180

The Show 181

It’s in the Cards 182

Part IV: Pick a Card Trick 183

Chapter 10: I Could Have Dealt All Night 185

How to Shuffle without Really Accomplishing Anything 185

You Do As I Do 187

The Hands-Off, Mixed-Up, Pure Impossibility 190

Aces by Touch 193

Dealing to the Aces 195

The Envelope, Please 198

Soul Mates 200

The “Pick a Number” Spelling Bee 203

The Shuffling Lesson 207

Sleight of Foot 211

The Future Deck 215

Dream a Card, Any Card 219

Chapter 11: The Build-Your-Own-Card-Trick Kit 223

How This Chapter Works 223

Forces 224

The Cut Anywhere force 224

The Under the Hanky force 226

The Bottom-Deal force 227

The Countdown force 228

Revelations 230

The Geiger Counter 230

The Jumping Out revelation 230

Feeling by Muscle 232

The “Name of the Card Is” revelation 234

Slap It! 235

The “Above and Beyond” revelation 236

The Magic For Dummies Grand Finale 237

Part V: Party Time 241

Chapter 12: Rope 243

The Classic Cut-Rope Restoration 243

Ring off Rope 247

Escape from the K-Mart Tie 251

Chapter 13: I Knew That! 255

The Three-Card “Pick by Touch” Test 256

The Triple-Prediction Spouse-Clincher 258

The Math/Geography/Animal/Color Test 263

Divide & Conquer 265

The Book Test 268

The Great Vegetable Prediction 273

The Telephone Trick I: Call This Number 275

The Telephone Trick II: Call the Phantom 279

Chapter 14: Group Hysteria 281

The Torn and Restored Toilet Paper 282

You Can’t Do as I Do 285

The Strength Test 288

The Phantom Photo 291

The Late-Night Party Murder Mystery 298

Part VI: The Part of Tens 303

Chapter 15: Ten Basics of Good Magic 305

Don’t Reveal the Secret — Ever 305

Don’t Repeat a Trick 306

Know When to Start 306

Know When to Stop 307

Build Up Your Audience 307

Suit the Tricks to the Crowd 307

One Great Trick Is Worth Ten Not-Ready Ones 308

Keep at It 309

Act the Part 309

Make It Yours 310

Chapter 16: Ten Classic Moments in Magic History 311

Robert-Houdin Prevents War with a Trick 311

Herrmann Pulls a Coin from a Roll 312

Malini Produces a Block of Ice 312

Houdini Becomes Dangerous 313

Blackstone Saves His Audience 313

Richiardi Jr Bisects His Daughter 314

The Great Tomsoni Capitalizes on His Mistakes 314

Doug Henning Comes to Broadway 315

Copperfield Changes the Scale of Magic 315

You See Your First Magic Trick 316

Chapter 17: Ten Dead Magicians Worth Knowing 317

John Henry Anderson (1814-1874) 317

Harry Kellar (1849-1922) 318

Servais Le Roy (1865-1953) 318

Howard Thurston (1869-1936) 319

Horace Goldin (1873-1939) 319

Joseph Dunninger (1892-1975) 320

Cardini (1899-1973) 320

Slydini (1901-1991) 321

Ed Marlo (1913-1992) 321

Dai Vernon (1894-1992) 322

Chapter 18: Ten Things to Say When Things Go Wrong 323

Chapter 19: Ten Ways to Get More into Magic 325

Watch Other Magicians 325

Read 326

Go to Magic Shops 327

Watch TV Magic Specials 327

Join a Magic Association 328

Read Magic Magazines 328

Surf the Web 329

General magic 329

Magic history 329

Magic dealers 329

Individual magicians 330

Current events 330

Watch Magic Tapes 330

Take a Course 331

Perform 332

Part VII: Appendixes 333

Appendix A: Magic Stores, Publishers, Societies, and Magazines 335

Magic Shops 335

Book and Video Sources 336

Organizations 337

Magic Magazines 337

Appendix B: Magic Words: A Glossary 339

Appendix C: Trickography 345

Chapter 1 345

Chapter 2 346

Chapter 3 346

Chapter 4 346

Chapter 5 347

Chapter 6 347

Chapter 7 348

Chapter 8 348

Chapter 9 349

Intermission 349

Chapter 10 349

Chapter 11 350

Chapter 12 351

Chapter 13 351

Chapter 14 351

Chapters 16 and 17 352

Chapter 18 352

Appendixes 352

Index 353