A new book was recently published for lovers of card magic. Cards against reality is the first book of swizz magician Lorenz Schär. The name might not ring a bell to most of you but if you are anyway serious into card magic you have encountered some of his earlier contributions. Schär material has been published in Steve Beams Semiautomatic serie, he has attended the spanish Escorial card magic cathering for almost a decade and has also been invited and performed at 4F convention in Buffalo. But most of you are probably familiar with his contribution to Denis Behr's Conjuring database where he is one of the main contributors.

The book contains about 50% of new sleights and concepts and rest is routines. The highlight for most will definately be the "Longitudinal Slide Shift". It would easily sell tons of copies as single move download. The move is truly a game changer when it comes to passes. This pass was originally invented for stand up performance, but it works equally well in close up and also sitting on a table. It doesn't rely on the mechanics of classical pass and the thinking is totally different. Because of this the pass avoids totally the common "dipping motion" that is typical with most passes. Because of this the shift can be done quite slowly and angles are also really really good.

Satisfriction is a chapter devoded to controlling single or multiple cards with jogs. Some of the stuff here are rather clever since they allow magician to easily keep the jogs in place even if the deck is turned end for end.

From the trick section the highlight is Schär's closer; "Coincidencia Banal". A triple coincidence routine done with just one deck. The routine is inspired by the work of Juan Tamariz and Pit Hartling. To my knowledge this is the first published version that has Hartlings blessing on using his ending.

Here are what some other card magicians has said about the book.

Magicians: If you want something very good to read for the New Year I recommend „Cards Against Reality“ by Switzerland’s Lorenz Schär: An excellent (and beautiful) little book full of well thought-out, strong and innovative effects, sleights and ideas.
— Pit Hartling

Lorenz has been an excellent "brainstorming partner" in the past few years. Now he decided to release some of his ideas and whereas you're a card magician or not, you should jump on this book, because it is the perfect example of how good magic is made out of hundreds of little touches, subtleties, thoughtful technique and clever thinking.
— Pierric

I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed everything in the book - the material is fantastic, and I must tell you that in every routine I learned at least one move, subterfuge, or ruse that was entirely new to me!
— Jack Carpenter

Cards Against Reality is one of the best well structured and very well defined books regarding magic I have read in a long time. You are to be congratulated!!!— Howard Hamburg

The book is okay, but the profreading is epic.
— Steve Beam

The book is available only directly from the author www.lorenzschaer.ch/book 45$ + shipping

Are all of the 50% of 'new sleights and concepts' (seems excessive!) then used within workable routines; that are subsequently contained within the book?

Or are they (like many similar books I've read over the years) just someone's latest moves/brainfarts put into print; which overall, have the depth of a grain of sand?

Sorry but holding multiple jogs, in order to control multiple cards, just smacks of non-commercial filler.

Some of the moves are thought within the context of routines, some are clear improvements of certain common sleights and some are sleights that many people could find usefull in their toolbox like a deceptive false shuffle or way to get a control of named card from a really shuffled deck.

All of the routines in the book are for real world. Some more commercial than other. I certainly don't claim them all to be amazing, but that is just my taste. For example there is follow the leader style routine in the book that is very well structured and has some really clever thinking in it, but I personally have never cared about the follow the leader as a plot. But I do understand that some do and if people like Tamariz and Ortiz perform ot for laymen regularly, it could be a great premise but I just don't care for the plot personally. I feel same way about Acaan as well. To me it is not worth performing but most magicjunkies do anything to get their hands on yet another version.



People like Armando Lucero, Howard Hamburg and Tom Gagnon disagree with you... All use jogs to fry laymen and magicians, with one or more cards. But what do they know...

Most stuff in satisfriction chapter can be applied to one or more cards.

I do this professionally and have done for over a decade and especially with the rise of Internet and popularity of Fool Us it has become increasingly obvious that more and more laymen are aware of some of the basics like "you have two cards in there" and "you placed your pinky above my card". The later I heard 3 times on my last gig of the year for 20-25yr old youngsters. Boy I was glad I used something else as my method of control.

Armando Lucero talks about magician having a toolbox of sleights that they can comfortably use. You don't need to use every tool from there every day or not even every week but when the time is right, you are usually glad that you had that special tool there when you needed it.

I use a Thick Card as a control.

It's more convincing than ANY sleight.

Plus laymen aren't aware of it.

As I guessed then, only SOME of the (50%) 'new' moves are used in routines. The rest are indeed then brainf@rt filler.

Sounds like we have a new Marlo in our midst.

I accidentally liked your post. Apparently you can’t unlike a post. Shame.

There are a lot of people in magic, myself included, who like to have difficult, esoteric new moves to work on.

Now, before we get weighed down with any "commercial" this or "laymen" that, I'll point out that I have a polished 25 minute formal card magic set that I do for the paying public in real venues. I also have my walk around set.

But I still like having things to work on because, and here's the rub, I really REALLY love magic. Even when there's no one to applaud.

Things aren't pointless just because you don't like them.

Good luck with your 'thick card'. Gaffs aren't for everyone though; some of us are purists.

And if there IS a new Marlo in our midst then look forward to Card Magic moving to the next level as a consequence, because what might seem esoteric to you, might spark off the next big wonderful idea in someone else's head.Our art isn't advanced through wearing blinkers.

@korttihai_82
Thank you so much for the advertising and the kind words!

The core of the book are five Routines, all of which are used by me in my professional repertoire. One routine is suitable for stand-up, two for close up and with two of the routines I have closed formal close-up shows in the past. The first three moves and principles are rather utility sleights (a pass, a false shuffle and a exploration of plunger controls), so I took the liberty of not inventing tricks just to put the moves into a routine.

@ Merc Man
Thanks for your interest! Actually I almost named the book "Marlo'esque Brainf@rts," but unfortunately the publisher was against it. Joking aside, I think our definitions of commercial magic do not match and I think you would not be too happy with the book. So I wouldn't advise you to buy it.

@jbadman
thank you for sharing so many cool ideas with the community! Your stuff is inspiring!

Everyone who wants to know more about the content: https://www.conjuringarchive.com/list/book/2092
And here: https://www.lorenzschaer.ch/book

If you have any questions about the book, just write me an email: zaubern@lorenzschaer.ch

No need, to repeat everything written above. Just finished reading and I love it. I think this book deserves here much more attention.

For me, its next to Ryan Plunketts Distilled the most interesting book I have read this year.