Hello,

I recieved John Bannon's "Dear Mr. Fantasy" book earlier this week and have been reading thoroughly. Apart from being the best book I've ever bought, and having more usable card tricks than any other source I have, his theories and thoughts are almost identical to everything I believe in with card magic. It was very inspirational to find a magician who emulated what I want to be with card magic.

Being my first Bannon source, I did not know what to expect. Mr. Bannon expresses his ideas about the terminology ("Magician" for example) and the negative connotation he likes to avoid. Mr. Bannon also surprisingly tells a little story of how he handles requests for performance. He says that when he is at a party and someone asks him to do a trick he will at first decline. If they ask again, he will agree to now that he is convinced they truely want to see. He also stated that sometimes he will simply say, I'd love to but I didn't bring a deck of cards. On that note, if someone obtains a deck or brings a deck the next time, they show dedication and it is more convincing that this person is serious about seeing your card tricks. In other words, what I interpret Mr. Bannon's statements as, he doesn't like to force magic on anyone. This is exactly how I am and how I have always been. Although I was never able to find a card style that fit the,"Hey Ron do a card trick for us" moment. Fortunately thru a lot of research I was happy to discover Mr. Bannon and his work and will be a better performer because of it.

Just to make this a more interesting thread not all about my new revalation, I would be interested to know when and if this happened to any of you and who it was that inspired?

Thanks,

Ron Slater

I must agree with you. I have recently purchased ths book and found it incredibly insightful. Not only is there great new material, there are interesting thoughts on some classics. I have learned much more from this small, inexpensive book than I ever could have imagined.
Most of all I loved the way some of the tricks were presented in a story format by a third party. That made reading the book much more enjoyable. And that spelling trick blew my mind!!!
Two Thumb Tip's up!

I'm glad you agree, and YES, his patter is wonderful. He doesn't use typical stories or boring and nonbeleiveable mumbojumbo with his presentation. Everything he says makes sense and relates to what he is about to show. The biggest thing I love about Bannon's effects in this book is that each "trick" comes off as an "experiment." I love that factor. The spectators are seeing an experiment (where most of the time they are participating a lot) and then are fooled badly by some of the most clever principles Iv'e ever came across.

P.S. How much fun is he poker trick, I mean seriously!

Ron

Ron, I to have this book. It is a great source for insight as to how to perform card effects. The tricks in this book are great.

I do have one complaint (if you could call it that). That is in one particular card effect, "Dead Reckoning", I believe. He mentions that he shuffles the cards at the beginning of the effect. He names the shuffle but he doesn't describe how to do it. If either of you guys could help me out on this shuffle I would appreciate it.

Thanks, edh

Being a huge John Bannon fan, It hurts me to say that I was a bit disappointed in his Dear Mr. Fantasy.

I have all of his other books and I feel that he really didn't bring much new and interesting to the table on this one.

I liked all three of the ace assemblies in theory but I feel that they lack in practical application. Plus, I really expected more than new themes on old tricks from someone as creative as Mr. Bannon.

I felt the best trick in the book to be the gambling trick wherein the spectator draws his and the performer's cards from pairs put on the table. Great Trick !!!!

I got nothing out of his rehashing of old tricks like Dr. Daley's last trick or his versions of tricks invented by other magicians. I'm always unhappy when magicians put out books with substantial sections devoted to other peoples tricks. They seldom (as, I feel in this case)ever do more than just change a few minor details and I end up feeling like I'm reading filler material.

Other than the gambling trick, I didn't really find anything here in the league of his past efforts (I think "The Return of the Magnificent Seven" is probably one of the best card tricks ever invented)

My biggest complaint about the book would have to be the writing style. I'm sorry but I don't want short stories in a magic book. Again, the word "filler" jumped into my head.

I will continue to anxiously await the next Bannon release considering the contributions that he has made with his other works, I can't fault him for one (in my opinion) let down.

Shriek of the Mutilated !!!!! One of his best. Try it once, you'll use it forever.

The short stories were tricks man....and pretty amazing ones at that.

The book is well written. I don't care for the style he uses in some chapters where a dialog takes place between him and the observer. The Power of Poker, where the spectator selects his hand by choosing between a pair of cards each time, is a puzzling trick but it has one flaw. You do it only once as a bet and of course you win that time. Well, you beat him on a 50-50 proposition- not exactly a miracle.
The jewel in the book is an almost self working effect called Degrees of Freedom. It uses the Hummer Parity Principle (CATO) which I have always been fascinated by. I developed a number of original effects with that principle which I may publish in the future. What Bannon (and others by his account) contributed was a very visual and baffling procedure to not only give the illusion of mixing the cards more thoroughly, but restoring the original orientation/parity of the cards without dealing them into two piles and turning one pile over as is customary. He does that with a topological procedure, which takes an array of cards (5 by 4) and with the spectator's direction, folds the rows and columns onto one another in what appears to be a series of random uncontrollable and disorderd mixes. It is to my mind a thing of beauty. It is so deceptive that you may easily fool yourself with the procedure. This effect will be part of my repertoire and worth the price of the book in my opinion.