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Books : Entertainment : Performing Arts : Magic & Illusion
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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.
Diaconis and Graham are mathematicians as well as skilled performers with decades of professional experience between them. In this book they share a wealth of conjuring lore, including some closely guarded secrets of legendary magicians. Magical Mathematics covers the mathematics of juggling and shows how the I Ching connects to the history of probability and magic tricks both old and new. It tells the stories--and reveals the best tricks--of the eccentric and brilliant inventors of mathematical magic. Ma
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Handcuff King. Escape Artist. International Superstar. Since his death eighty years ago, Harry Houdini's life has been chronicled in books, in film, and on television. Now, in this groundbreaking biography, renowned magic expert William Kalush and best-selling writer Larry Sloman team up to find the man behind the myth. Drawing from millions of pages of research, they describe in vivid detail the passions that drove Houdini to perform ever-more-dangerous feats, his secret life as a spy, and a pernicious plot to subvert his legacy.After years of struggling on the dime museum circuit, Harry Houdini got a break that put him on the front page of a Chicago newspaper. He never looked back. Soon Houdini was performing for royalty, commanding vast sums, and exploring the new power of Hollywood to expand on his legend.
At a time when spy agencies frequently co-opted amateurs, Houdini went to London and developed a relationship with a man who would run MI-5. For the next several years, the world's most famous magician traveled to Germany and Russia and routinely reported his findings.
After World War I was successfully concluded, Houdini embarked on a battle of his own. He created a group of disguised field operatives to infiltrate the seamy world of fake spirit mediums. In doing so, Houdini triggered the wrath of fanatical Spiritualists, led by the esteemed British author Sir Arthur
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From one of the world's premier practitioners of classic magic, with years of experience instructing younger readers in the magical arts, comes this new revision of his complete guide to learning and performing fantastic feats of prestidigitation. Acclaimed by the Los Angeles Times as "the text that...young magicians swear by," it's full of step-by-step instructions. More than 2,000 illustrations provide the know-how behind 300 techniques, from basic card tricks to advanced levitation, along with advice on planning and staging a professional-quality magic show.
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The beginner's guide to mental magicNo rabbits. No wands. Just dozens of first-rate effects, illusions, and tricks guaranteed to amaze. Mind Magic & Mentalism For Dummies pulls back the curtain and introduces the secret world of mentalism for the first time.
With this book and the included DVD, budding practitioners have everything they need to master some of the most astounding illusions imaginable from exercising psychic powers and reading minds to harnessing mental energy to control fire and bend metal from across the stage.
- Each effect in the book is presented from three perspectives: what the audience sees, how the trick is performed, and how to present it in a way that thrills spectators, making it the comprehensive, essential guide to blowing your audience away.
- The DVD includes performances of many of the effects outlined in the book to help readers put the information into action
- Provides both introductory-level lessons on the art of performing and a host of great effects that will meet the needs of beginners
Mind Magic & Mentalism For Dummies is the essential introduction to this mysterious art that can seemingly provide readers with the powers of clairvoyance, mind control, divination, and precognition.
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Scores of methods — previously known only to card experts — include passes, palming, false shuffles, false cuts, changes, crimps, jogs, reverses, rear palms, and more. Altogether, 341 sleights and tricks. 318 illustrations show exact position of fingers and hands.
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Vintage deck of 52 cards with miniature cards in the upper left corners and descriptive pictures with meanings on the remaining portions of the cards. Also suitable as a regular deck of playing cards. Includes instructions.
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It?s the hip-hop of hocus-pocus.
Forget about David Copperfield, cruise ship illusionists, and birthday party magicians. They?re so twentieth century. Think cutting-edge magickers like David Blaine and Criss Angel. People starting out in magic today want something edgier, grittier, quick, visual, and maybe a little dangerous. This guide will teach you how to do it!
What makes The Complete Idiot?s Guide® to Street Magic different from other books is the type of tricks and the thematic presentations that readers will actually learn. Out of the literally thousands of tricks that could have been included, only those that have the greatest impact, both visually and psychologically, appear in this book. It includes:
?75 to 100 tricks
?200 illustrations, from how-to shots to photos of street magicians at work
?Contains something for all levels, from easy-to-accomplish tricks for complete beginners to more challenging sleight-of-hand for those who seriously want to pursue the art of legerdemain
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Now in paperback comes Jim Steinmeyer's astonishing chronicle of half a century of illusionary innovation, backstage chicanery, and keen competition within the world of magicians. Lauded by today's finest magicians and critics, Hiding the Elephant is a cultural history of the efforts among legendary conjurers to make things materialize, levitate, and disappear. Steinmeyer unveils the secrets and life stories of the fascinating personalities behind optical marvels such as floating ghosts interacting with live actors, disembodied heads, and vanishing ladies. He demystifies Pepper's Ghost, Harry Kellar's Levitation of Princess Karnak, Charles Morritt's Disappearing Donkey, and Houdini's landmark vanishing of Jennie the elephant in 1918. The dramatic mix of science and history, with revealing diagrams, photographs and magicians' portraits by William Stout, provides a glimpse behind the curtain at the backstage story of magic.
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72 spectacular and entertaining tricks: card locations, coincidence tricks, mental magic with cards, tricks with double endings, tricks with two decks, predictions, tricks with borrowed decks, trick poker deals. Easy-to-learn, clearly illustrated, these tricks produce spectacular effects with a minimum of practice. 42 illustrations.
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Productions, Vanishes, Transformations, Restorations, Teleportations, Escapes, Levitations and Prediction tricks.
Try a free sample. A complete encyclopedia of magic tricks. And, of course, well illustrated.
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The hottest magician in years takes us behind–the–scenes of his hit A&E show and offers secret tips to 25 illusions you won't see anywhere else.
Criss Angel is poised to take the magic world by storm. He had his first 1–hour special on ABC in '01, headlined Madison Square Garden's annual Halloween special a year later to an audience of 60,000, performed in front of 75,000 people in Times Square, had two subsequent 1–hour specials on the Sci–Fi channel, he's received countless magician awards, and he currently has a groundbreaking show on A&E called CRISS ANGEL MINDFREAK, the first weekly magic show in over 40 years, that consistently wins its timeslot. MINDFREAK – the book – will be an extention of the show, which uses a specific topic each week – like 'Buried Alive', 'Bullet Catch', 'Building Walk', or 'Levitation' – to delve into the history of each subject, and see if Criss can't break new ground by doing something no one has done before. We are also going to try and include secrets in the book – clues to be dissected by readers – that relate back to magic he will perform on the show, where the book will be heavily promoted.
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From risqué cabaret performances to engrossing after-hours shop talk, Trade of the Tricks offers an unprecedented look inside the secretive subculture of modern magicians. Entering the flourishing Paris magic scene as an apprentice, Graham M. Jones gives a firsthand account of how magicians learn to perform their astonishing deceptions. He follows the day-to-day lives of some of France’s most renowned performers, revealing not only how secrets are created and shared, but also how they are stolen and destroyed. In a book brimming with humor and surprise, Jones shows how today’s magicians marshal creativity and passion in striving to elevate their amazing skill into high art. The book’s lively cast of characters includes female and queer performers whose work is changing the face of a historically masculine genre.
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97 mystifying tricks done with ordinary objects that can be borrowed from the audience. Make coins appear or disappear; matchsticks jump into the air; classic cups and balls; pierce balloons without bursting them; plus tricks with dice, rubber bands, eggs, safety pins, pens and pencils, more. 185 illustrations.
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A famous card expert 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. Over 300 photos.
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The Trick Brain was created as a tool to help magicians develop new tricks. It teaches you how to create the mechanics of an effect with the understanding that how an effect is accomplished is not as important as the effect itself.
The Trick Brain is no mere book of tricks. It incorporates one of the most amazing ideas ever developed in magic. Dariel Fitzkee reduces all magic tricks to only 19 general, basic effects. Then he examines all the possible ways of combining any of these effects. He shows how to develop new tricks from old and how to evolve new plots and methods.
Then, you are introduced to The Trick Brain--an ingenious system, devised by Fitzkee, that actually creates new effects... tells you what you will need to develop... actual things to use--and finally... how to do the trick--even suggesting alternate methods!
Use this astounding system to create original tricks and original shows, or use it to revise old tricks.
“The Trick Brain was definitely ahead of its time. It formalized a way of brainstorming, teaching the process… Whether you use Fitzkee’s actual steps or just use them as inspiration, The Trick Brain lets you appreciate the way magic is created and definitely starts you thinking in new ways.”
-Jim Steinmeyer
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Clear instructions for 101 tricks and problems, many based on important math principles. Calculations have been concealed; tricks are carefully streamlined for quick understanding and flawless performance. Master such number phenomena as Lightning Calculations, Giant Memory, Magic Squares, nearly 100 more. 98 illustrations.
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This book presents the study of magic as a special technology, rather than as an arcane mystery. It unfolds the intricacies of the magic. According to the author, it should have real physical results. The basic tool to learning the art is to gain control of the mind. It offers a broad overview of the theory and practice of various kinds of ritual and ceremonial magic, outlines the basic principles that constitute a magical act, and describes the qualities and abilities that distinguish an individual as a true magician.
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In a biography woven from equal parts enchantment and mystery, master illusion designer and today's foremost magic historian, Jim Steinmeyer, unveils the astonishing secrets behind the enigmatic performer Chung Ling Soo, the "Marvelous Chinese Conjurer" — a magician whose life of intrigue and daring remains unparalleled to this day. He learned his art during a revolutionary era in show business, just as minstrel, circus, and variety saloons were being stirred together and distilled into a heady new concoction: vaudeville. Soo's infamous death in 1918 astonished the world: he was killed during a performance of "Defying the Bullets," his popular act in which he caught marked bullets on a porcelain plate. After his death, the deceptions began to unravel. It was discovered that he was not Chinese, but rather a fifty-six-year-old American named William Ellsworth Robinson, a former magicians' assistant, and the husband of Olive Robinson. But even William Robinson was not who he appeared to be, and for the first time, Jim Steinmeyer has uncovered the truth behind Robinson and the magic world's most glorious deception.