Magic For Dummies

About David Pogue David Pogue is a member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians and has performed magic at parties, special events, on TV, and even over the radio for 25 years. He created and taught the beginning magic programs at the New School for Social Research and the Learning Annex. He has been known to mesmerize audiences with his magic tricks while on tour promoting his many bestselling books, including Macs?? For Dummies??, 5th Edition, Opera For Dummies??, and Classical Music For Dummies??. Contributor Mark Levy, magic consultant, has levitated and read spectators' minds for nearly 30 years. His writings have appeared in some of magic's most revered literary sources, including Richard Kaufman's CardMagic, Apocalypse magazine, and Magic.

• Introduction 1About This Book 1Where the tricks came from 2Of handedness 2How This Book Is Organized 3Part I: Becoming Magical 3Part II: Wizardry Anywhere 3Part III: The Restaurant Zone 3Part IV: Pick a Card  Trick 3Part V: Party Time 4Part VI: The Part of Tens 4Part VII: Appendixes 4Icons Used in This Book 4The Process of Learning a Trick 5Welcome to the Circle 6Part I: Becoming Magical 7Chapter 1: All Form, No Content 9The Anti-Gravity Pencil 10The Disappearing Anything 13The One-Legged Leg Vanish 15Fingertip Munch 18How to Get Rubbery 19The Stretchiest Thumb in the World 19The Stretchiest Finger in the World 21The Stretchiest Arm in the World 22Off the Wall 24It’s a bird, it’s a plane  24Social climbing 25The mugger nobody knows 26Chapter 2: The Instant Gratification Chapter 29Two-Card “Sleight of Hand” 29The Tale of the Tightrope Walker 33The Pencil-and-Quarter Double Vanish 37Part II: Wizardry Anywhere 43Chapter 3: The Financial Wizard 45Hard, Cold, Pencil-Breaking Cash 46Sheep and Thieves 49The Vanishing Quarter, Show-Off Edition 52The Big Money Rises 54The 7-Penny Reflex Test 57Don’t Show Me the Money 61Heads or Tails: The Shadow Knows 64Chapter 4: New Uses for Old Office Supplies 67Pencil up the Nose 67Cheapskate Houdini: The Triple Rubber Band Escape 70Stage I: The rubber band jumps 71Stage II: Locked in place 73Stage III: Dueling bands 75The Antigravity Ring 76Post-It-ive Identification 78The Photocopied Card Trick 82Chapter 5: What to Do with Other People’s Clothing 85Give Me a Ring Sometime — and a String 85Walking through Ropes 88Scarf Decapitation 92Give That Purse a Hand 94Chapter 6: Take It Outside, Pal 99The Missing Spray-Paint Marble 99The Ninja Key Catch 102Straw through the Jaw 104The Astonishing Straw-Wrapper Restoration 106The Creepy Little Baby Hand 109The $100 LifeSaver Trick 113The Unforgettable “Cloudy” Toilet Paper 116Part III: The Restaurant Zone 121Chapter 7: Cutlery Is Your Friend 123The Bendy Spoon, Part I 123Bendy Spoon II: The Return 126The Classic Salt Shaker Penetration 129Forks a Lot 132The Three-Mug Monte 134Three-Object Monte, Freakout Edition 137Chapter 8: Playing with Your Food 143A Sugar Substitute 143The Evaporating Sugar 146The Linking Pretzels 149Beans through the Orifices 152Bouncing the Roll 157The Floating Dinner Roll 158Chapter 9: Matches Made in Heaven 163Making an Ash of Yourself 163Ashes through Someone Else’s Palm 165The Three-Matchbox Shell Game 168Weighing the Matchbooks 171The Static-Electricity Test 173Intermission 177A Day in the Life of a Semi-Pro 177Entertainment Weekly 179The Restaurant Summers 179The Offer 180The Show 181It’s in the Cards 182Part IV: Pick a Card Trick 183Chapter 10: I Could Have Dealt All Night 185How to Shuffle without Really Accomplishing Anything 185You Do As I Do 187The Hands-Off, Mixed-Up, Pure Impossibility 190Aces by Touch 193Dealing to the Aces 195The Envelope, Please 198Soul Mates 200The “Pick a Number” Spelling Bee 203The Shuffling Lesson 207Sleight of Foot 211The Future Deck 215Dream a Card, Any Card 219Chapter 11: The Build-Your-Own-Card-Trick Kit 223How This Chapter Works 223Forces 224The Cut Anywhere force 224The Under the Hanky force 226The Bottom-Deal force 227The Countdown force 228Revelations 230The Geiger Counter 230The Jumping Out revelation 230Feeling by Muscle 232The “Name of the Card Is” revelation 234Slap It! 235The “Above and Beyond” revelation 236The Magic For Dummies Grand Finale 237Part V: Party Time 241Chapter 12: Rope 243The Classic Cut-Rope Restoration 243Ring off Rope 247Escape from the K-Mart Tie 251Chapter 13: I Knew That! 255The Three-Card “Pick by Touch” Test 256The Triple-Prediction Spouse-Clincher 258The Math/Geography/Animal/Color Test 263Divide & Conquer 265The Book Test 268The Great Vegetable Prediction 273The Telephone Trick I: Call This Number 275The Telephone Trick II: Call the Phantom 279Chapter 14: Group Hysteria 281The Torn and Restored Toilet Paper 282You Can’t Do as I Do 285The Strength Test 288The Phantom Photo 291The Late-Night Party Murder Mystery 298Part VI: The Part of Tens 303Chapter 15: Ten Basics of Good Magic 305Don’t Reveal the Secret — Ever 305Don’t Repeat a Trick 306Know When to Start 306Know When to Stop 307Build Up Your Audience 307Suit the Tricks to the Crowd 307One Great Trick Is Worth Ten Not-Ready Ones 308Keep at It 309Act the Part 309Make It Yours 310Chapter 16: Ten Classic Moments in Magic History 311Robert-Houdin Prevents War with a Trick 311Herrmann Pulls a Coin from a Roll 312Malini Produces a Block of Ice 312Houdini Becomes Dangerous 313Blackstone Saves His Audience 313Richiardi Jr Bisects His Daughter 314The Great Tomsoni Capitalizes on His Mistakes 314Doug Henning Comes to Broadway 315Copperfield Changes the Scale of Magic 315You See Your First Magic Trick 316Chapter 17: Ten Dead Magicians Worth Knowing 317John Henry Anderson (1814-1874) 317Harry Kellar (1849-1922) 318Servais Le Roy (1865-1953) 318Howard Thurston (1869-1936) 319Horace Goldin (1873-1939) 319Joseph Dunninger (1892-1975) 320Cardini (1899-1973) 320Slydini (1901-1991) 321Ed Marlo (1913-1992) 321Dai Vernon (1894-1992) 322Chapter 18: Ten Things to Say When Things Go Wrong 323Chapter 19: Ten Ways to Get More into Magic 325Watch Other Magicians 325Read 326Go to Magic Shops 327Watch TV Magic Specials 327Join a Magic Association 328Read Magic Magazines 328Surf the Web 329General magic 329Magic history 329Magic dealers 329Individual magicians 330Current events 330Watch Magic Tapes 330Take a Course 331Perform 332Part VII: Appendixes 333Appendix A: Magic Stores, Publishers, Societies, and Magazines 335Magic Shops 335Book and Video Sources 336Organizations 337Magic Magazines 337Appendix B: Magic Words: A Glossary 339Appendix C: Trickography 345Chapter 1 345Chapter 2 346Chapter 3 346Chapter 4 346Chapter 5 347Chapter 6 347Chapter 7 348Chapter 8 348Chapter 9 349Intermission 349Chapter 10 349Chapter 11 350Chapter 12 351Chapter 13 351Chapter 14 351Chapters 16 and 17 352Chapter 18 352Appendixes 352Index 353