Hello all,

I'm looking for recommendations to PURCHASE a book or dvd on sleight.

The only magic I perform is thread work with common everyday objects. I have little or no experience with sleight, or objects like coins and cards, and in fact I avoid them.

Specifically I have an idea for a trick, where I would need to perform a swap, (one object to a different object) both being about the size of a matchbox. *****NOTE: The purpose of this description is so that YOUR recommendation for me will be more accurate!!****

A book/dvd that only teaches sleight for cards, may not contain useful information for me so I have included the 'swap description' for the BEST possible recommendation. It is NOT my intention to attempt to "fish secrets" for a specific trick.

I reiterate, I WANT TO BUY A BOOK/DVD on sleight. If you know of one that teaches excellent technique for swapping objects in this fashion, THAT is the book/dvd I am interested in.


Book/dvd recommendations ONLY please.


Thanks all!

It's difficult to make a recommendation when we don't know exactly what you have in mind. But you might want to take a look at both volumes of The Art of Close-up magic by Lewis Ganson or Sach's Sleight of Hand.

The three books I recommend to every beginner:

Royal Road to Card magic (all the card sleights you will ever need)
13 steps to mentalism
Hugard's magic manual (to get all the other sleights)

You have a whole collection of magic for your whole life in these 3 books.

"The Magic Book", by Harry Lorayne. Doc Eason got his start in magic with it!

You might want to look into Bill Tarr`s "Now You See It, Now You Don't!: Lessons in Sleight of Hand". Also "The Amateur Magicians Handbook" by Henry Hay is a worthwile study in regard of sleights.

All the best,
Sven ^^

I agree with the Bill Tarr book. Easy to understand with good illustrations.

Micheal Ammar is a great teacher of close up magic.

I recommend Amazing Magic with Everyday Objects DVD. You can get it on Elmwood Magic for about $6-it's on sale now but I'm not sure how long it'll last. Good luck!

Modern Coin Magic by J.B. Bobo has a number of excellent switches in it. Anything you can do with a coin you can also do with any other small, flat object.

Performing a Vernon Change Over Palm first (to convey the idea that your prop is the only thing in your hand) before using a Shuttle Pass to openly perform the switch is a deadly combination.

Each of these two moves were printed in many books and DVDs, but generally not the same works. I would suggest you to purchase The Encyclopedia of Coin Sleights DVD by Michael Rubinstein where you get several variations on both moves. The DVDs are about coins but you are led to variants which can, in turn, lead you on how to use these moves with other props than coins.

You would furthermore learn other moves which may lead you to other ideas... Now don't expect learning effects there. This is for you to come up with. Now if you need help on that you may want to get through Dariel Fitzkee's Trick Brain which teaches how to design effects and using different props for known effects