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Alan Jackson Elite user Cardiff, UK 432 Posts |
I have just finished reading The Magic Gourmet by Lewis Jones.
I’ll try to avoid the traditional magic review hyperbole. 154 pages, soft-cover, about forty new effects together with some new sleights. It’s very well written in clear easy-to-understand language, and it’s illustrated with about 100 photographs. Mainly cards, but it also includes coins, rubber bands, business cards, and book tests. And a fuss-free way of working out the day of the week when you know the year and date. Oh, and sugar. The one thing they’ve all got in common is that they don’t need special gimmicks or set-ups (unless you count knowing the top card as a set-up). They are all definitely within the ability range of the average magician. A typical example, (pp23-25) “Any Card, Any Number”. The difference with this is that it is done with a regular deck which could be borrowed and can be shuffled by the spectator. It’s genuinely impromptu. Don’t get too excited: what doesn’t happen is that someone thinks of a card and the card appears at a named number. But it’s very close to this. I didn’t think it would work, but I tried it and it does. There's a neat visual discrepancy. The following day I asked the person I showed it to what had happened and they said (pretty well word for word): “You asked me to name a card, someone else named a number, and the card was at that number”. OK, this isn’t quite what happened but obviously the deviations were just not noticed. It’s dead easy to do. It's an over-used word, but I think Lewis Jones is a genius. Get this book and you'll agree. In short, if you liked Lewis’s Seventh Heaven then you’re sure to like this. If you haven’t seen either, do yourself a favour and get both: you won’t be disappointed. Contact Lewis on lewis.jones@ukonline.co.uk if you’re interested. (Alternatively, wait for a year until they’ve all gone and get it on eBay for a small fortune.)
There are 10 kinds of people: those who understand binary numbers, and those who don't.
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Lynne Kelly Regular user Australia 113 Posts |
I have just finished reading "A Magic Gourmet" and tried out one of the routines for the first time today. I am using Card Shark's Gypsy Deck to great effect - an old looking deck with all the handling of bikes. Lewis Jones' "Over and Out" really suits me as I like routines which give the magic powers to the spectator or the cards themselves. The lack of indices on the Gypsy Deck worked beautifully. When I spread the deck there was a delay between finding one card had indeed become upturned and then revealing the value to match the expectation. The routine has two levels of the upturned card reveal, so the impact could be built on.
This is what I love about all of Lewis Jones' books - which I use extensively - the routines are highly adpatable. I like clever routines that I can then work on to make my own. I have my appetiser with "Over and Out". Now to find the main course and dessert. I know "The Tale of The Miller's Wife" will be in the feast somewhere. I love story telling routines. Lynne |
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