Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A good introduction to magic, 14 Dec 2006
This book is great introduction for someone starting out in magic. The book is suitable for teens to adults, just bear in mind that good magic means "Practice ", you will have to put time and effort in to learning the contents...but you will be rewarded for your efforts.
This book has a little bit of everything but just enough of a taste to whet your appetite to learn more. It starts with " Auto Magic ", tricks that basically work by themselves. As the book says " ...designed to ease readers into the world of magic by letting them concentrate on the performance ". Next up " The Midas touch " concentrates on coin magic. Here the skill level goes up. This chapter shows basic sleights of hand and some tricks to perform with them. We then have a section called " Top Secret Gadgets "... exactly as it says on the tin. None of these are provided with the book, rather it gives an overview of some staple "gimmicks " that are used in magic. The next three chapters concentrate on card magic, " Hands on Deck ", " Shark Attack " then " Cruising ". With each one the difficulty level goes up. But within those chapters you get a great pot pouri of tricks, sleights, flourishes and how to manipulate a deck of cards. The next chapter " Mind Magic " deals with mind reading and psychological types of tricks. Chapter eight is entitled " Street Scams ", this is full of the type of classic trickery and flim flam that has relieved many a person from their money. The penultimate chapter is " Party Tricks " as the book says... " a selection of crowd pleasing classics for entertaining large groups of party people ". The last chapter is just one trick billed as " probably the best card trick ever "...who am I to disagree, it certainly is an all time classic.
Overall this is a smashing introduction to magic and good value for money. Yes, there are more comprehensive and detailed books and if the magic bug gets you, you will end up buying them as well. A main plus is it has clear easy to follow descriptions and nice colour photos taking you through each part of each trick. I like this book, it is the 1st book on magic I bought and recommend it to anyone, young, or like me, more mature, who is looking to take their first steps into performing magic.
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22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best starter guide to Magic I have seen, 27 Jan 2006
I bought this book in order to entertain my children (7 and 9) and ended up amazing my work colleagues as well.I have dabbled in magic a few times, even bought the Royal Road to Card Magic (which is excellent and still recommended by virtually all magicians) but this has the benefit of fantastically clear photography instead of line drawings, and a much wider range of tricks including some easy to perform mentalist skills that have superb effects. He is genuinely enthusiastic about explaining the tricks to someone who has never done them before, and has really thought about the tips that accompany them, which so many guides ignore The fact that he is left handed but has bothered to photograph all the tricks from a right handed pov shows to me a real dedication to detail (although sinister readers may disagree). All in all a delight to read, and a book to keep rather than read once and leave on the shelf.
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21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A REVOLUTIONARY READ!, 8 Aug 2005
Up until now, I've always found magic books notoriously dull, and although I love learning tricks, I've always been put off by the uninspiring pictures and instructions that you usually get in these kind of manuals. Having just read Zenon's book, I can say quite confidently that 'Street Magic' has managed to completely revolutionise the genre of 'teach yourself' magic. This is the kind of book which has been long awaited by myself and other aspiring magicians, and like me, i'm sure they won't be disapointed!
The book is packed with brilliantly shot photos. These are accompanied by an instructive text which manages to be witty and entertaining, whilst maintaining necessary clarity.
It's a perfect start for amateurs, but it's got more than enough to keep professionals happy too. Surprisingly, there are quite a few big secrets revealed, so with enough practice you can master a couple of Blaine classics. I can't imagine the Magic Circle are going to be best pleased with Mr.Zenon, but this is even the more the reason to get you hands on a copy!
A really brilliant book!
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