Is there any card magician alive who doesn't like John Bannon?

Even for sleight-of-hand lovers like me, Bannon's approach to methodology - often hyper-streamlined, minimal moves, deeply clever structure - is irresistible. Few magic creators get as much mileage out of so much simplicity.

Very Hush-Hush is Bannon's latest book, and it exemplifies this idea. A collection of card magic that leans heavily into mentalism, this bunch of effects is one I've found particularly stimulating. For most of the tricks in this book, I had at least one moment of thinking "holy smokes, that's way too clever."

Simply put, if you're a fan of the material in Bannon's past books like Destination Zero and Mentalissimo, you're going to love Very Hush-Hush. This is yet another collection of tightly constructed card magic that manages to be as strong and fooling as it is simple. It's not often I come away from a magic book - even one I love - with more than a few effects I'm eager to mess with or try on audiences. This book is different: there's no less than a half-dozen pieces in here that I'm excited to add to my regular go-to card repertoire, and a few more on top of that I'm very likely to perform in the right situations.

While some effects in here have not-so-minor set-ups that you'll need to do in advance, others can be performed immediately from a shuffled deck in use or will merely require you to secretly arrange a couple of cards at an offbeat moment. Studies of thought-of card revelations, predictions, magic square plots, impossible locations, CAANs, and more adorn these pages, and not a single one is going to bust your knuckles. In fact, some effects have a largely hands-off feel, with much of the procedure occurring in the hands of the spectator. Typical of Bannon, this is magic that puts structure, scripting, and psychology first: expect lots of effective, thoughtful work on the Cross-Cut Force, Ose False Cut, Ouellet Touch Force, Clock Force, Marlo Automatic Placement, and more used to genuinely fooling effect. Mathematical principles are also a hefty feature of this material, but don't let that turn you off: those principles are often very simple, require little-to-no mental gymnastics, and are gratefully well disguised from a performance standpoint.

Here are a few of my favourites from the collection:

PSYMPATHETIC
This is a glorious marriage of the Sympathetic Cards and Magic Square plots, with two equal packets - the Ace through Nine of Spades and Hearts - each mixed in a way that is entirely directed by the spectator. After the mixing procedure, both packets - which previously had barely one match in their order - are shown to perfectly match, card for card. But that's not all: one of those Ace-to-Nine packets is mixed in a different but equally random way by the spectator, leading to a streamlined Magic Square finale that no one will ever see coming and hits very hard. With a semi-small set-up and a completely self-working method, you've got a powerful multiphase piece on your hands that could easily be adapted to larger performance formats with jumbo cards.

CONTRARIWISE
An astonishingly clever thought-of card effect. A spectator peeks at a random, un-forced card in the deck and, in the spirit of true randomness, is asked to think of any card that's completely different than the one they peeked. Even though this is a card they make up in their own head, you're able to nail the thought-of card 100% of the time with no fishing. Numerous extremely clever principles are at play in this shockingly simple method, and I think this would have absolutely fooled me had I seen it performed before learning it.

VICINITY
Similar in plot to Contrariwise but with a different method, a spectator is asked to think of a card in the deck with very little influence and plenty of freedom. The deck is spread through and a card is found reversed in the centre. It's a Joker: not the thought-of card. However, the Joker is revealed to be a placeholder: directly below it sits the thought-of card. A little preparation, careful scripting, and a dead-easy and invisible move get you by here, and the payoff is wicked strong. It looks ridiculously fair and clean every step of the way, and it mostly is.

KARMAHOLIC
After the deck is shuffled, the spectator freely selects a card and loses it in the deck in their own hands; the magician touches nothing in this procedure and there's genuinely no way the magician could know the card's identity. The magician then takes the deck and attempts to "pluck" the selected card from it. Accidentally, two cards are plucked, and neither are the selection. However, their values are combined to create a two-digit number. That number is fairly dealt to, and the selected card is found there. This could not be stronger or more fooling, and what I love most is that the magician genuinely doesn't know what the selection is until the moment it's revealed at the end. This uses a principle Bannon favours in a lot of my favourite tricks of his, and it's just as powerfully implemented here.

PROPHET MOTIVE III
Like Karmaholic, this is an effect that's perfect for those spur-of-the-moment "show me a trick" times; the ones where your buddies hand you their weathered, fraying deck from poker nights and expect you to perform a miracle. Here's what happens: the deck is thoroughly shuffled by the spectator at the outset, and the magician takes one card out as a prediction for later. To be extra fair, the deck is then thoroughly shuffled again by the spectator, who subsequently removes a sample of cards in a way that feels totally random. A card is freely cut to in that sample. The prediction is a bang-on match. Aided by a subtle methodological wrinkle or two, this is precisely how the effect plays out 100% of the time, with the deck almost entirely in the spectator's hands from start to finish (and they'll leave thinking you never touched a single card once). A total fooler, even for many magicians.

ON THE BORDER
From a regular deck, which can technically be thoroughly shuffled, two cards are removed as a prediction: one to predict a value, the other a suit. A card is then selected by the spectator in an exceptionally fair way; the card isn't forced and the selection is totally fair and legitimate. Despite this fairness, the prediction is shown to be 100% correct. The method to this one makes me absolutely giddy: a set-up of moderate heft is needed, but is such that the deck can receive a very thorough top-to-bottom shuffle at the outset (I know how that sounds, but I swear it's true). Just one true "move" is required in the method that's barely a move at all and is completely covered by a moment of built-in misdirection; there's not a chance in hell you'll be caught.

This only scratches the surface. Dozens of effects await in these pages, and there's nary a dud in the bunch. Some are naturally stronger than others, but there were very few that didn't compel me to at least grab a deck and try them out. You'll even fool yourself with some of them.

The book isn't perfect: another pass from an editor would've ironed out a few kinks (there's one part where two consecutive paragraphs repeat the exact same information, for instance), and Bannon's extra-casual writing style can feel a little excessively lax at times (I lost count of the number of times the word "whatever" colloquially appears, and he literally introduces the Cross Cut Force as "my favourite force, lol" almost every time it is mentioned).

But none of those quibbles impede the exceptional material in Very Hush-Hush: a goldmine any Bannon fan owes it to themselves to have on their shelf.

Buy it at Squash Publishing: https://www.squashpublishing.com/products/very-hush-hush

Thank you for those trick descriptions! I attended a Bannon lecture in the mid 1980s at my local magic shop right before he moved to Chicago to work in law. It was a memorable experience. This book is another Bannon must have.

Just as Leo, I too attended some Bannon lectures in the 80s, but I did not become a real fan of his work until some 10 years later.
I think the material in his books (and DVD/downloads) could be for everyone, his style perhaps not. I say that because I truly believe that is a good thing. Imagine we all had the same performing style...

Truthfully, you cannot go wrong with the material in this book, I have not yet tried out everything, but Michael's description above prompted me to put it on top of my book stack.

By the way, I thought I read somewhere that Mentalissimo is going to be published again. Any info on that?

Completely with you! One of my favourite things about Bannon's material is what he calls the "pain-to-glory" ratio: the level of power he's able to milk out of such simple, streamlined methodology. In a world full of over-complicated methods, I think more magic thinkers should be like Bannon.

Mentalissimo is indeed being reprinted, as is Destination Zero and - allegedly - Dear Mr. Fantasy. The first two are already listed as coming soon on the Squash Publishing website.

His site says those books are Coming Soon. I attended his lecture at Al's Magic in DC when Smoke and Mirrors was published. When he did Tattoo You I knew I had to buy the book.

I checked with the publications, and Mentalissimo and Destination Zero will be available sometime in July. Dear Mr. Fantasy would be around October / November this year.

Curious if folks would recommend Very Hush Hush or Mentalissimo as a first John Bannon book?

I'd recommend Mentalissimo first. But Hush Hush is great too.

I'd go with Dear Mr. Fantasy as a first Bannon book.

I just performed Karmaholic on myself three times in a row.

Every time I found my selection, I just sat there and smiled.

I love how John Bannon thinks... so clever!

“Karmaholic” is basically a reworked version of “Dead Reckoning,” from “Dear Mr. Fantasy,” and one that doesn’t require that trick’s large stack. I love “Dead Reckoning” and prefer it because I love the idea that the performer doesn’t even know the number dealed down to. But this is a nice variation to know as a more impromptu version. (As Bannon notes, it’s also similar to “Dawn Patrol,” which I also love, but can’t do due to inability to faro shuffle!)

I love the semi-impromptu nature of Karmaholic, but I totally agree that the effect of Dead Reckoning is stronger. In fact, it's probably tied with Dawn Patrol for my favourite Bannon effect. But in a pinch, when I don't have the rather lengthy set-up for Dead Reckoning in play and want to perform a similar impossible location, Karmaholic will be my go-to.

As far as Dawn Patrol, you should check out his self-working variant Mousetrap from Destination Zero (it's also published in a back issue of Genii, I believe). It's a similar effect that's also quite fooling, but doesn't require a faro at all!

I don't have "Dear Mr. Fantasy", but I do have "Destination Zero", which has SECOND RECKONING.

How does that compare to "Dead Reckoning?"

Do you prefer one over the other for any reason?

To me, Dead Reckoning feels a bit cleaner, more direct, less procedural; particularly in the selection process, which feels hyper fair. The selection process in Second Reckoning gives off a bit more of a "math" vibe in performance for me, whereas numbers and counting don't really factor into Dead Reckoning (even though the underlying principle is in fact somewhat mathematical).

One benefit over Dead Reckoning, however, is that Second Reckoning can be performed from a shuffled deck in use. With Dead Reckoning, there's a hefty set-up that is not possible to get into on the fly; you'll need to sit down with your deck and work it all out in advance.

I think you are mistaken.
Second Reckoning is performed with only half the deck, but not any random group of 26 cards. It is exactly the same set as defined in the method of Dead Reckoning.
So to perform Second Reckoning from a shuffled deck, you would first need to separate and remove exactly the right 26 cards. This is basically what you need to do for Dead Reckoning; except in the latter case you use the whole deck, secretly divided into two halves.
The crucial detail here is that both effects involve the spectator silently spelling the name of their card. Which means both require a specific group of cards for the effect to work.

BUT the Automatic Placement principle used in both effects, can be used in other ways that don't require a divided deck.
EG The 32nd Sense, uses a handful of coins to count to a random location.
And Mousetrap uses the AP principle to create a sandwich effect.

Available copies of this book are dwindling out there. Don't be the guy struggling to find a copy six months from now.

Thanks for the great review.

I promised myself I am done buying magic books. Well....that theory is out the window now!