Magic Tricks

Hands down, one of our favorite books on card magic is Effective Card Magic by Bill Simon (republished as Card Magic For Amateurs and Professionals by Dover). The book is full of wonderful card magic tricks and sleights. And like the title suggest, it’s perfect for anyone interested in the subject.

It will prove to be a great start if you’re just getting into card magic.

Card expert, Arthur Buckley, demonstrates tricks that have left theater audiences amazed, and that card-playing professionals have used profitably. It is not a book for beginners. But these shifts, palms, glides, false shuffles, cuts, fans, steals, and spectacular deceptions will help those with basic card expertise reach new levels of performance.

A cost-effective and proven book for beginners, Royal Road to Card Magic will teach a variety of techniques, flourishes, and effects, while setting up the beginner with a thorough grounding in the theory of the art.

Imagine this, you're holding a lousy hand of poker spread at the fingertips. In a subtle action of riffling the edges of the cards, they seem to magically morph into a royal flush. The cards are visible the whole time and can immediately be handed out for examination.

In this definitive work on card technique, step-by-step instructions teach you the correct methods for the basic manipulations and the more advanced flourishes, and only then allow you to learn tricks.

Offering the most foolproof methods available, Jean Hugard and Frederick Braue explain such basic manipulation as the palm, the shuffle, the lift, the side slip, the pass, the glimpse, the jog and the reverse. They detail various false deals, crimps and changes and the more advanced execution needed for forces, fans and the use of the prearranged deck.

Introducing the card magic and flourishes of Kevin Ho, Smooth Operations is a 60 page book explaining an array of new material for both the curious student and seasoned pro with over a hundred photo illustrations for an enjoyable learning experience.

Step into a world of visual madness and experience the unexpected. Tools, Inventions and Applications for the Modern Card Magician.

Larry Jennings remarked that Aaron Fisher was the most promising young card magician he had seen in the past twenty years.

Johnny Thompson says, "The material in this book is top notch, and I guarantee it will enhance the repertoire of any serious student of card magic immensely."

Magical Mathematics reveals the secrets of amazing, fun-to-perform card tricks--and the profound mathematical ideas behind them--that will astound even the most accomplished magician. Persi Diaconis and Ron Graham provide easy, step-by-step instructions for each trick, explaining how to set up the effect and offering tips on what to say and do while performing it. Each card trick introduces a new mathematical idea, and varying the tricks in turn takes readers to the very threshold of today's mathematical knowledge. For example, the Gilbreath Principle--a fantastic effect where the cards remain in control despite being shuffled--is found to share an intimate connection with the Mandelbrot set. Other card tricks link to the mathematical secrets of combinatorics, graph theory, number theory, topology, the Riemann hypothesis, and even Fermat's last theorem.

Roberto Giobbi's remarkable Card College books have become the groundbreaking course in the subject - an analysis of the art, science, technique and philosophy of card magic. Card College has changed the way a generation of magicians have learned card magic, and changed the way they think about it.

For over a hundred years, the identity of the author of Artifice, Ruse and Subterfuge at the Card Table, known colloquially as The Expert at the Card Table, has perplexed practitioners of magic and historians alike. For many, it is the last great, unresolved mystery of twentieth century magic. That is, until now.

Magicana is pleased to publish the findings of Richard Hatch, the world's pre-eminent authority on the subject, along with sleight-of-hand artist David Ben's profile of the author drawn from the content of the book. Together, they make a compelling case that one man - E. S. Andrews - was the author of this seminal text.

When one enters card magic, the books are endless. Coming across By Forces Unseen is a special moment in any card magician's growth. It is a pleasure to read. Beautifully written and researched by Stephen Minch, you will find many other books mentioned in the references that will advance your pasteboard path. Ernest Earick is a genius. Simply put when you learn the routines in this book your appreciation for sleight of hand will captivate your imagination.The construction of effects and sleights stand the test of time. It is a must have.

Drawing Room Deceptions was one of the first magic books added to our library. With many pages now tattered, it still remains on our top shelf. The discoveries found within represent cunning variations of classical concepts. Guy's ingenious design in constructing effects brings mystery and prestige back to the conjuror.

From the author of Card College, the world's most acclaimed course on sleight-of-hand card magic, comes Card College Light, Roberto Giobbi's first text focused entirely on professional caliber card tricks requiring no manipulative skill.

Eric Mason was not only a brilliant inventor and magician; he was a creative and talented illustrator. In this beautifully designed book, Mason showcases these qualities and offers a collection of original magic that has received acclaim from such legendary magicians as Roy Walton, Fred Robinson, Gordon Bruce, and Peter Duffie, to name just a few.

An excellent assortment of clever and original card magic by one of Germany's finest close-up magicians.

Volume 2 is currentlly out of print. Please email us to be notified when it's avaialble again.

One of our favorite books on card magic. It features a very well thought out method for the Convincing Control, one of card magic's most ingenious techniques, and looks at variations and applications in a degree that is truly rare in the field. In addition to learning the elegant technique and the numerous variations, you will also encounter one of the best sources for card magic effects on the planet.

One of our favorite books on card magic growing up. Steranko on Cards, as well as Totally Out of Control, were the first books to introduce us to the visual style of magic we have pursued.

This book offers many fantastic sleights and tricks you'll have a lot of fun with.

Pit Hartling is internationally known for his innovations in card magic. He is a FISM award winner and member of the hilarious Flicking Fingers. In this book are "Seven performance pieces with an ordinary deck" including Finger Flicker, a trick recently seen performed by David Blaine on his TV special, Dive of Death.

Widely considered to be the greatest collection of Vernon's brilliant and influential card magic, the original three volumes have been combined into one sensational book with 240 pages of exceptional effects. Complete with over 190 photographs of the Professor's hands, you'll find such Vernon classics as The Notis Stop Trick, Twisting The Aces, McDonald's $100 Routine, Cards To Pocket, The Trick That Cannot Be Explained, Blindfold Poker Deal, Three Card Monte and lots more.

The top card men in the world disagree on many things. One thing they all agree on is that no other book in the history of card manipulation deserves careful study more than The Expert at the Card Table. After one hundred years, it is still considered the foundation upon which modern card magic is based. It contains some of the most perfectly constructed sleights in all of card magic. Even more important are the profound lessons in the real secrets of magic: naturalness, attention to detail, uniformity of action and the psychology of deception. For a century, the methods of S.W. Erdnase have been studied, practiced and written about by countless card experts. One person who spent a lifetime studying every detail of this landmark book is Darwin Ortiz.

Over twenty years in the making, Tom Gagnon is proud to release the beautifully hardbound, oversized format AVANT-CARDS: Tom's first and only large collection of original, baffling, close-up card magic. 

Written by Wesley James, edited by Matthew Field, includes 568 illustrations by Tom, over sixty tricks, techniques, and routines packed into over two hundred pages.

In The Art of Switching Decks, Roberto Giobbi, the world-renowned author of Card College and other modern classics of card magic, teaches dozens of methods for imperceptibly switching decks. More important, he shows that it isn't difficult manipulation that makes these switches totally deceptive--rather, it's psychological principles: principles that allow the reader to apply and modify deck switching techniques to suit any circumstance.

All this is accomplished without the use of special gimmicks or apparatus. The only things required to do these professional switches are decks of cards and your pockets. And along the way, Giobbi explains some very strong card magic.

A virtual encyclopedia on the subject of memorized-deck magic, by the world's leading exponent and one of magic's acknowledged masters. It is a book crammed with magic from the working repertoire of Juan Tamariz, magic that leaves everyone, public and magicians, utterly astounded. It is a book capable of changing the reader's entire approach to card magic, and a work that supports Juan Tamariz's reputation as one of the most important and creative thinkers in magic today.

Dan and Dave's first book reveals over a dozen conceptual palming techniques designed to inspire new ways of thinking about the age-old practice of holding out. Highlights include a method for replacing a bottom palmed card to the top of the deck, a switch loading a palmed card beneath the top card in the action of turning it over, a variation of the Miller Cascade Control that allows for the card to be palmed and a streamlined approach for executing the Diagonal Palm Shift from a peek. Limited availability. Includes a commemorative deck of playing cards.

Welcome to Dai Vernon's legendary annotations for The Expert at the Card Table by S.W. Erdnase. This new over-size book was triggered by the discovery of more than 160 long-lost photographs of Dai Vernon's hands that were taken in 1961 specifically to illustrate this manuscript. It is as close as you will ever get to a personal session with The Professor.

Fred Robinson was a private man but his skill at sleight-of-hand with cards and coins was legendary. He could be found at the Magic Circle on Monday evenings and many well-known names from around the world paid homage to Fred and traveled countless miles to witness for themselves his legendary skills.

I state without fear of exaggerating that Fred was one of the all-time greats; especially with cards. - Dai Vernon

Containing over one hundred and fifty of Herb's most cherished secrets, sleights and routines, most of which appear here in print for the first time. The book, a distillation of one humble man's journey to the essence of his art, is destined to join a short list of true classics of magic.

We are very pleased to announce that The Complete Walton is back in print.

These new volumes have been re-edited, printed and bound to an exceptional standard using the original diagrams. They are beautiful.

Dai Vernon once described Roy Walton as "Truly Brilliant". Read these books and you'll know why. The Complete Walton includes literally hundreds of effects using an ordinary deck of playing cards. The body of work clearly reveals how obsessed with playing cards Roy is, and is a collection you'll be coming back to for years to come.

Both volumes are included. That's over 600 pages covering well over 200 effects with playing cards.