Ben Daggers was not a name familiar to me before Vanishing Inc announced the forthcoming publication of his debut book. I'm so glad his work was brought into my life, because through The Elusive Illusive, I've found a gold mine of fresh, thoughtful, economical, and powerfully designed material for close-up and stand-up situations.

Ben is a worldly person and performer, and that comes across in his work, driven by creative curiosity and a refreshing attention to detail. His book - as usual, gorgeously designed and rendered by Vanishing Inc - is just over 200 pages and features over a dozen fully-developed performance pieces and intriguing new techniques, most of which use cards with a handful of exceptions using coins. While many of these pieces readily fall into the intermediate-to-advanced category, there are also a few that are startlingly easy, requiring only the most basic of sleights or favouring an attitude approach in place of difficult moves.

Let's go over a few of my personal favourites!

TRIBUTE
Full disclosure: I hate most gambling themed magic. I don't really connect with it, and I personally don't think many audiences care all that much about it unless they themselves are hardcore card players. So I was pleasantly surprised to find that I not only love this effect, but can also see myself using it. Where Tribute succeeds is in its economy, its built-in surprises, and the fact that it flirts with the magical and impossible versus feeling like a dry display of skill. In this trick, the magician shuffles and cuts the deck in fair ways, then shields his eyes with one hand and uses the other to attempt to stack the deck in the spectator's favour for an imaginary two-handed game of Poker. After a one-handed shuffle and Charlier Cut, two hands are dealt, with the spectator getting Ace after Ace. Once it's clear this is headed for a four-of-a-kind, the rug is pulled: the magician fails to deal the fourth and final Ace. He then reveals he's kept it to himself all along, concealed within the hand shielding his eyes, to complete his own winning hand: A Royal Flush in spades.

That's it, that's all! Simple, punchy, startling, and fun. The audience's entry level for what is technically a Poker demonstration is low, and the structure isn't overburdened. Ben's method is clever, thoughtful, and allows for a variety of fair-looking shuffles and cuts; including a built-in use for the one-handed shuffle, which delights me as someone who has spent waaaaaay too much time perfecting it. Now I have a legitimate use for it!

SOFT CENTRE
I've often been confounded by fake centre dealing demonstrations. I've never understood why a magician would perform an illusionary version of a move that, while difficult, is highly possible to learn and execute. Ben seems to share this perspective, because Soft Centre is centre dealing demo that begins as plausible before quickly becoming unfathomable and, finally, impossible. A named card is cut into the centre and dealt out via an apparent centre deal, then the magician follows up by centre dealing the named card's mate as well. Next, one quick glimpse through the riffled deck allows the magician to deal out another dozen cards of the same colour in quick succession, culminating in the remaining cards of that colour dealt out as a group in one shot. I really love the build here, and once again, Ben favours an economical structure versus a long-winded one. Sadly, it'll be a while before I'm able to perform this as written; Soft Centre uses second dealing in much of the method and it's better served by a strike second rather than a push-off, the latter of which is my second deal of choice. But if you've got a solid strike second in your arsenal, you'll have a tremendous piece at your disposal with this.

HANDS OFF ACAAN
Ben's structure here is just excellent. A deck is shuffled in groups by multiple participants before being reassembled and place in a stemmed wine glass, isolated from touch. A card is named by one spectator, and a number from 1 to 52 is named by another. Then, with the help of audience members, the named number is dealt to by removing single cards from the top of the deck in the wine glass. When the number is reached, the card at that number is revealed to be the freely named one. The method here is simple but contains multiple rich subtleties and psychological beats that really amp up the impossibility and apparent fairness. I can absolutely see myself using this in a more formal performance setting, and I wouldn't be surprised to see this become an ACAAN of choice for many performers.

DROP SHUFFLE
This is one of the main reasons I purchased this book, and it doesn't disappoint. Ben has devised a full-deck false mixing procedure that very effectively fools both the mind and the eye. With a careless attitude, small clumps of cards are cut from the top and bottom of the deck in alternating fashion and tossed into a pile on the table. It's a totally chaotic display; some cards even fall face-up in the mix seemingly by accident. The cards are gathered and straightened to complete the shuffle, but nonetheless, a full 52-card stack has been retained. The technique here is not especially difficult to do, but the real practice will come in establishing the rhythm and attitude, which are the true keys to making this false shuffle deceptive. This won't be ideal for every performance situation - you need a decent patch of table surface for it - and the loose, rough-around-the-edges aesthetic may turn some magicians off, but I absolutely adore Drop Shuffle and will be adding it to my arsenal.

TRIUMPH FOR TWO
Ben's handling of Triumph is certainly not easy, but it has lots going for it in its approach to audience involvement. A deck is legitimately mixed face-up and face-down in chaotic fashion by spectators, and the cards are then divided in half, with the magician keeping one and a spectator getting the other. Both count their cards to make sure they have an equal amount, then the magician proposes a contest to see who can sort their cards out the fastest. In half a second, the magician reveals he's impossibly already done before the spectator could even start. After a bit of cheeky byplay where the magician looks at the still-mixed condition of the spectator's half, he then puts the magic in their hands, allowing them to sort their cards out in the same magical way. At first I was turned off by the plot - effects where the magician accomplishes something that the spectator can't do feel a little smug to me - but I was won over by the ending where the magician turns it around and empowers the spectator. This effect utilizes a full-deck cull, but it's made easier by separating the cull into two parts. Ben also teaches his own cull handling which is worthy of study.


BABEL COINS
A highlight of the book that I'm never going to use! Why? Because Babel Coins is essential Ben's handling of Wild Coin that hinges on an extremely clever, playful, theatrical hook that simply isn't my style, involving small bottles of elixir that, when sipped by the performer, change the language the performer is speaking in. Those bottles of elixir are also used to change a few coins into another world currency one by one before they all change back to their original state. This piece is clearly very personal to Ben as an individual, and others may find ways of tailoring it to their own personality. I probably won't, but in spite of that, I deeply admire Babel Coins for its tight structure and its inspiring approach to playful plot and premise; a running theme in Ben's magic.
___________________________________________________

There's plenty more great material to be found in The Elusive Illusive, which is both a strong capture of Ben Daggers' singular creative voice and a strong collection of performance-ready effects that will certainly find a home in many a sleight-of-hand worker's repertoire. I love what I've sat down to learn so far and there are other pieces I can't wait to tuck into and work on.

Highly recommended.

Thanks for that review. I'm currently debating between either this book or the Feldman one for my final year end purchase this year..

My pleasure! As someone who owns both books, I'll offer this: The Pages are Blank is a good read with lots of interesting card material and theory in it, but much of it is exceedingly difficult in ways that sometimes, to me, feel needless; sleight heavy for the sake of being sleight heavy. I enjoy it as an aspirational read and it gave me some fun knuckle-busting stuff to challenge myself with in practice sessions, but I probably won't use 95% of the stuff inside for audiences. Most of the effects inside - Triumph, transpositions, Ace cutting sequences - are plots I already have well-honed methods for, often easier ones to boot, that Feldman's won't replace. The real centrepiece of Feldman's book is his gorgeous deck switch, but it's only practical in more formal performance situations where you have not only a table to sit behind, but one that you can rig up some not-insignificant apparatus to.

There's certainly advanced stuff in The Elusive Illusive too, but even the hardest stuff feels - to me - much more within grasp and the sort of thing I'd more readily work on with the goal of adding it to my performance repertoire. The plots and framing devices feel fresh and more suited to my own performance style, and the payoffs of the effects mostly feel worth the extra effort to master, say, a full deck cull or strike second deal.

I'm inclined to say I prefer Daggers' book to Feldman's, but that's purely a matter of personal taste!

Thanks again. I am leaning toward the Elusive Illusive right now. Great to hear your thoughts.

Another standout piece I've got to add to my review!

ILLUSION OF CONTROL
This is the sort of effect I think is about as strong as card magic gets. A card is selected (let's say it's the Ace of Hearts) and lost in the deck. The magician claims they're able to use card control to move that selected card to any position in the deck with a single shuffle. A number is named by a spectator, and the magician gives the deck one shuffle before dealing to the named number to find, amazingly, the selected Ace of Hearts.

But that's not all! The magician remarks that, if they're able to control one Ace, they should be able to control the others. The deck is spread widely across the table so the magician can sight the remaining Aces' positions in the mix (and they are genuinely scattered throughout the deck!). The cards are gathered, three more positions in the deck are freely named, and the deck is given three consecutive shuffles to apparently reposition each Ace one by one. Then, the magician reveals those three Aces in dextrous fashion from each of the named positions. The effect concludes with an impossible ending: the deck, previously seen to be well shuffled throughout the routine, has been returned to perfect new deck order. The magician has ended by controlling every single card in the deck.

A full-deck setup is required for this piece, and you'll need to be pretty proficient with doing multiple perfect Faro shuffles and second deals under fire, but the payoffs are well worth the manageable effort. One of my favourite elements of this effect is that there are numerous implicit convincers where the audience will see a fully shuffled deck in advance of the big surprise climax without needing to over-prove it. This has "closer" written all over it. I will absolutely be using Illusion of Control.

I was very close to buy this... But I guess it will wait till next time.

It's now on sale with a little difference in price in different stores.

Hi, Ben Daggers here.

Thanks to Michael for the very kind words, and sorry that I only just saw this.

If anyone has any questions about the book I'm very happy to answer them here!