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Peo Olsson Inner circle Stockholm, Sweden 3260 Posts |
Ten years ago Dear Mr Fantasy (DMF) came out. After that mr Bannon published a few small booklets, produced some DVD's, and was featured in a Magazine. Most of this material has now been wrapped up under one roof: High Caliber (HC).I recently got HC, very nicley produced indeed. Mr Bannon's slick card magic is admirable (fractal card magic).
I'm a fan of mr Bannon's work. If you liked DMF you will enjoy HC. Any thoughts or comments?
Pictured to the left my hero and me during FISM 2006 in Stockholm.
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Markymark Inner circle 1686 Posts |
It's a pity that a lot of the material has been out before.
''In memory of a once fluid man,crammed and distorted by the classical mess'' -Bruce Lee
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Vlad_77 Inner circle The Netherlands 5829 Posts |
Quote:
On 2013-09-14 05:33, Markymark wrote: Yet it's a great convenience to have all of these effects now in one book. I have the book and it was a great way to catch up on a lot of the John Bannon material I missed. I wish I had unlimited funds, but I don't, so a book like this is a real boon to me. Did you know that all of Revolutionary Card Technique was originally published in individual smaller booklets? Is it a pity that High Caliber is a John Bannon "RCT?" The Secret Ways of Al Baker - weighing in at over 900 pages - consists of all of his previously published books plus all of his effects that appeared in periodicals and what a treasure it is! I would have to be a collector to get all of Baker's work as it was published or own a time machine. Now to answer Peo's question. I love this book. It's well bound and the paper stock is heavy. For those like me who missed some of the material John Bannon published since DMF, rest assured that John Bannon's writing style is superb. The layout of the book is also conducive to good teaching and learning with good use of white space, clear photographs on the same page as the text, as well as consistency of organization/design. If like me, you are a John Bannon fan and like me, you've missed some or even all of the material published since Dear Mr. Fantasy, this book is for you. If this is your first excursion into John Bannon's magic, it is a fine place to begin the journey as it contains a wealth of excellent card magic; card magic you will do and moreover, dissect the principles to apply to other material you perform. I for one am really pleased that this collection is available in a beautifully bound volume. Best, Vlad |
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M Petersen Regular user 117 Posts |
I was fried by a couple tricks out of this book. VIEW TO A SKILL is an easy to do, fooling version of Miraskill. Had a customer show this to me at TAOM and I have been using it ever since. EINSTEIN OVERKILL is a great version of The Trick that Fooled Einstein. RIVERBOAT POKER is an easy to do gambling demo that can be done pretty much impromptu.
Gabe Fajuri did a great job on John's new book. It is beautifully done and I was glad to see all those paperback books combined into one volume. Add the marketed tricks and tricks from Magic Magazine and it is worth it. The $60 price tag might seem high, but it is representative of a shift in printing costs. $60 is going to be the new standard for hardback magic books, at least, that would be my guess. We are in the process of printing a couple of books and the costs have shot up over the past few months. Marshall H & R Magic Books http://www.magicbookshop.com marshall@magicbookshop.com |
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magicfish Inner circle 7004 Posts |
Just working through this book now. I haven't read any Bannon material since DMF.
This book is fantastic. I love it...and I'm only a quarter way through it. |
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Peo Olsson Inner circle Stockholm, Sweden 3260 Posts |
Here is what Steve Bryant has to say about High Caliber:
"BULLSEYE -- There are few pleasure in magic (or in life) that top an afternoon spent with a deck of cards and a new collection of card tricks by John Bannon. John's latest is High Caliber, a large hard cover compilation of all his published work since Dear Mister Fantasy. To my surprise, as a huge Bannon fan, I was previously familiar with only two of the nine sources, hence there was much new to admire. Stealing from the dust jacket, I concur that John's methods are practical, commercial, innovative, elegant, and thought provoking, all of which makes them the most satisfying of the methods in my overstocked card trick library. There has been much to praise in the magic book world the past two months, with last month's Caveney and Japanese books and this month's Bloom books, all full of material, but it is the material from High Caliber that I will be doing for my friends. Reading these tricks makes you want to go out and find someone to show them to. "Oh, honey ..." John Bannon hits the mark. Let's consider a few that stand out. Fifty-One Fat Chances -- An Open Prediction effect; you bet one dollar that the six of clubs will turn up last, the spec doing all the turning. Self-working. Riverboat Poker -- You demo a real overhand shuffling run-up system to deal yourself four aces for any number of hands. You repeat, but it's a riverboat situation in which players keep dropping out after each round. You get the royal flush to beat the last spec's full house. View to a 'Skill -- You play a game similar to War and keep predicting the outcome no matter what choices the spec makes. Self-working. Mega 'Wave -- A terrific version of B'Wave or Twisted Sisters in which any named queen transposes to a banded packet of blank-faced cards*. Chronic -- A clock trick, or so it seems. But is it? Very, very sneaky. Self-working. Spin Doctor -- It starts as a very clean Twisting the Aces, the ace of spades vanishes in the second phase in a very spooky fashion, and then all the backs change to different backs. Just four aces, a blank-faced card, and simple moves. Montinator 5.0 -- A crazy game in which the spec must select one red-back queen labeled "Queen" from among three blue-backed jokers labeled "Joker." But suddenly you have three queens and only one joker, and all three queens are the wrong ones. All this and so far I haven't mentioned my favorite chapter, from 2011's Bullet Party. Those of you following my Magic Monday summers know that I continue to perform tricks from that book, and the book is now only one chapter of High Caliber. To repeat my original assessment: Drop Target Aces allows you to bury aces repeatedly, dribbling cards atop them each time, until only four cards remain--the aces. Flipside Aces allows you to prove the aces are buried amongst the indifferent cards, until you reveal that they were separate all along. Box Jumper updates a recently popular Simon Aronson trick, allowing a chosen card to transpose with a memorable boxed card; key to the method is a dead-easy new Convincing Control. Fat City Revisited is a two-phase sandwich effect; both its "normal" opening phase and its most offbeat second phase feature new techniques and the freedom to tell the audience what you are going to do just before you do it. But my favorite is Question Zero: from a shuffled deck, a spectator merely thinks of one of five truly random cards, all five are lost in the deck (even the spec has no idea in which order the five were returned), and yet the magician locates the selection. September 2013 update: Question Zero is still one of my favorites. Hardback, 306 pages from Squash Publishing, clearly illustrated with photos by Jessica Bannon, with design and layout by Gabe Fajuri. $60. *The transposed queen in this trick is replaced by a "smoke and mirrors" card per the patter. Note that you could very easily have it replaced by a card found (or not yet found) from a prior trick, even a signed card. I'll be heading in that direction."
Pictured to the left my hero and me during FISM 2006 in Stockholm.
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mlippo Inner circle Trieste (Italy) 1227 Posts |
In my opinion John Bannon is a contemporary genius...
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magicfish Inner circle 7004 Posts |
Quote:
On 2013-09-25 03:14, mlippo wrote: He certainly puts out some wonderful stuff. |
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Peo Olsson Inner circle Stockholm, Sweden 3260 Posts |
Got an e-mail from John Bannon:
"Thanks, Peo. I am glad to hear High Caliber is well-received. BTW, I deliberately did not add new material because it seemed like an undesirable marketing tactic. Best regards. John"
Pictured to the left my hero and me during FISM 2006 in Stockholm.
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duanebarry Special user 883 Posts |
I like that. It's very fair to his faithful fans who've bought all his booklets over the years.
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owen.daniel Inner circle England 1048 Posts |
I just picked up this book, and have spent part of the afternoon flicking through its pages.
I already own three of the manuscripts included here, however there is still plenty of material that I was unfamiliar with. I have been performing some of the effects from Six Impossible Things, and Mega Wave for some time, so can attest to the quality of the material from those two booklets, and from my cursory reading this afternoon that level of standard is carried out throughout the rest of the chapters. My one major disappointment with the book, however, has to be the number of typos and sentences that I have spotted that simply don't make sense. These are not numerous enough, or severe enough, to hamper ones understanding, however they do slow one down a bit whilst trying to fathom the text, as well as simply seeming a bit unprofessional for a published book... what's more, given that these are in fact republished write-ups it seems all the more inexcusable! All the same; seems like a good book; if you like Bannon's material, and don't have the included booklets, then this is a must. If you already own some of the contents, then I guess its up to you as to how much you value obtaining the other items! |
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fonda57 Inner circle chicago 3078 Posts |
Also includes the stuff that was on dvd, Royal Scam and Duplicity and Spin Doctor.
I have not come across any typos or sentences that don't make sense. The tricks that are written in third person do, however, take a little getting used to, the style I mean. |
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bugjack Inner circle New York, New York 1624 Posts |
I wonder why he didn't include the bonus effects on the three marketed tricks as well as the bonus item, "Chain Gang," from the first BBM disk.
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John Bannon V.I.P. 152 Posts |
Thanks, everyone for the kind words.
I am unaware of any typos in HC--we took great care and had it edited several times to clean up the carryover issues. There may be one or two that slipped through the cracks. I am aware of one description error that, amazingly, eluded all of us and all of you (at least the vocal ones), and I'm not telling. I think it's a byproduct of the way we read magic books--once we "get it," we fill in the rest. Anyway, if you find it, send me a PM and I'll try to bribe you not to tell anyone. Lol. BTW, Chain Gang, Party Of One and the others were not included in HC because they had not yet been given written treatment and "published." Big Blind Media and I just released a DVD on examinable packet tricks, Fractalicious. The special guest this month is none other than the "auteur of awesomeness," himself, Owen Packard. Check it out; the guy's a genius. Thanks again. John
"And although this art is so wonderful, still it is held in no honor . . . The reasons are various, it seems to me; first, the art is concerned with useless matters; second, it is practiced by men of low degree."
G. Cardano on card tricks, De Subtilitate, 1554 www.johnbannonmagic.com |
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motown Inner circle Atlanta by way of Detroit 6127 Posts |
This ones on my list for this year.
"If you ever write anything about me after I'm gone, I will come back and haunt you."
– Karl Germain |
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Jamie D. Grant V.I.P. as seen in Ripley's Believe It or Not! Twice! 2413 Posts |
I don't think I've ever had an experience with John, via his books or in person, that wasn't awesome. The 10 Card Poker Deal (Power of Poker) from Dear Mr. Fantasy is one of my favourite effects ever. I'm looking forward to picking this one up!
TRICK OF THE YEAR: Industrial Revelation, BOOK OF THE YEAR: The Approach, The AIP Bottle, and my new book Scenic 52, can all be found over here: SendWonder.com
Kindness takes practice. My TEDx talk |
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smullins Special user United States 678 Posts |
Quote:
On 2014-01-05 15:08, Jamie D. Grant wrote: Can't agree more. The guy is incredible. |
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Poof-Daddy Inner circle Considering Stopping At Exactly 5313 Posts |
It is the only "Must Buy" book on my list for this year (next month probably) but I truly wish they would release a companion card set for the many effects that use different backed cards. (just like the ones that come with the individual dvds).
Cancer Sux - It is time to find a Cure
Don't spend so much time trying not to die that you forget how to live - H's wife to H on CSI Miami (paraphrased). |
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Poof-Daddy Inner circle Considering Stopping At Exactly 5313 Posts |
Drove an hour and a half to my closest brick and mortor today and bought it. Spent the last couple days going through various decks I own to put the needed cards together (as I am already at least familiar with several fractal effects) My sets are ok to nice (but would love to see a companion card set come out for the book - aftermarket, with all the supercool backs he provides with the individual effects) I would be in that buying line for sure
So far, I have carefully placed away the paper dust jacket and bought a "school book" - bookcover to protect it) I have read about a third of the way through (skimming, as I have made my sets and am familiar with some) I have got to say...It is a great read, easy to understand the moves required to perform. John Bannon continues to Baffle me as to how he can make an idea come to life as such breathtaking effects (to us as well as laymen) by means of achievable slights to almost any level of performer. I remember years ago, my mentor in magic Doc Jon Deems (R.I.P. Brother) taught me strangers gallery from my VHS tape of IMPOSSIBILIA and gave me a set of the "Original DB's - not the mass marketed R or B Bike with 3 other color backs" I loved performing that effect so much (just to use those cards). Doc Jon told me, "You will NEVER go wrong with anything by John Bannon" and to this day - John Bannon Proves him right. Whether it's a dvd and packet trick or a comic type book with the same trick - it's a means to an end - ENTERTAINING THE CRAP OUT OF YOUR AUDIENCE. I have been doing magic semi-professionally for 20 years and this book contains 10 years (half my career) of probably the best packet tricks to hit the market in that entire time. I find it refreshing to see that Liam thinks very much the same way as John and truly adds to the Fractal sets as well as card magic in general. He has become "one to watch" in his own rights. Enough rambling - lets review 1) Bang for the Buck -- 11 out of 10 -- You will find many effects that you cant help but add to your working set. $60 for this book (would buy you about 3-4 of the 40 effects taught if you bought then as standalones (The Royal Scam, Duiplicity, Spin Doctor...they add up fast) 2) Ease of Understanding -- I will openly admit, I am a visual learner DVDs over books for me normally. That being said, I am learning from this book without any problems. It is well written and understandable, but mostly, (for me and others I'm sure) The moves for the most part, are moves / slights we all do on a daily basis. This is not knuckle busting stuff that makes your eyes bleed just reading it. Its - do this slight, flip top card, do that slight...amaze, simple as that (with a little work) 3) Quality of effects -- This is not like a 10 effect dvd that you will absolutely use one of the effects in your act and possibly 2 others (once in a while) Everything in this book is VERY usable. Not 3 nice packet tricks and a bunch of filler. This is the real deal. The stuff you will always have on you for when your buddy says "show us a couple tricks" 4)If you are on the fence, buy the book and thank me later. Don't worry too much about the cards, he even tells you in the effect (The Royal Scam for instance) how to put together a set using only R&B bikes and how to make them stand out as "different". (and if you are like me and have a bunch of different deck types, rainbow decks... you will be surprised to see what you can throw together. Beyond that even, If you can split cards and make your own gaffs you are limited to your imagination. *****but maybe if we all close our eyes and wish loud enough, they will come out with a "High Caliber Card Set" (wouldnt be hard as many of the effects can use the same card set as another)****** a boy can dream Thank you for the book Mr Bannon as well as the many fond memories I have made through the years entertaining people with your wonderful effects.
Cancer Sux - It is time to find a Cure
Don't spend so much time trying not to die that you forget how to live - H's wife to H on CSI Miami (paraphrased). |
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boxjumper Veteran user 362 Posts |
Enjoyable read. Love Bannon's magic. 51 Fat Chances is one I now perform and it's great. Great book.
BJ |
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