Big Book of Magic Tricks (Dover Books on Magic)

207 Pages·1994·70.51 MB·English

by  Karl Fulves

(

Big Bool{ of

Magic Tricl{s

I(arl Fulves

DOVER PUBLICATIONS, INC.

New York
Copyright
Copyright © 1977 by Karl Fulves.
All rights reserved under Pan American and International Copyright
Conventions.
Bibliographical Note
This Dover edition, first published in 1994, is an unabridged and
unaltered republication of a work originally entitled The Magic Book: A
Conjurers Collection of Dazzling Effects for Parlor and Platform, published
by Little, Brown and Company, Boston, in 1977.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fulves, Karl.
[Magic book]
Big book of magic tricks / Karl Fulves.
p. cm.
Originally published: The magic book. 1st ed. Boston Little,
Brown, © 1977.

ISBN 0-486-28228-7

1. Conjuring. 1. Title.
GV1547.F83 1994
793.8-dc20 94-16495
CIP
Manufactured in the United States of America
Dover Publications, Inc., 31 East 2nd Street, Mineola, N.Y. 11501
To Don Nielsen,

a friend for many years

and one of the true creative minds in magic

Contents

Preface IX

Acknowledgments XI

The Art of the Impossible 1

l.
2. The Hand Is Smarter than the Eye 19

3· Closeup Magic
41
4· Card Magic 61
5· Coin Magic 81
6. Rope Magic 101

7· Mental Magic 121

8. Comedy Magic
141

9· Gambling Secrets 159

10. Ultimate Impossibilities 179

Preface

To say it straight out, this book deals with the art of
deception. There is deception in government and poli­
tics and diplomacy, but magic is the art of hannless
deception. The principles are the same and include
everything from misdirection to mind conditioning, but
the goal of magic is to entertain, and that does seem to
make it profoundly different from other fonns of de­
ception.
In choosing the "how-to" material for this book, I
wanted to include effects, routines, swindles, and stunts
that required little or nothing in the way of apparatus,
special props, sleight of hand, or elaborate preparation.
Most of the routines are easy to do, yet produce a strong
response in spectators when properly presented.
Each chapter represents some of the best non­
sleight magic of its kind. There are tricks with cards,
coins, rope, and mind reading, as well as tricks with
string, dollar bills, ordinary drinking glasses, matches,
and even paper clips. There are spectacular tricks like
"Predicting the Super Bowl" and "How to Deal a Royal
Flush," as well as subtle proposition bets that take you
behind the scenes of the gambler's craft and explain why
you can't win.
The art of deception, the real secret of magic, lies
in fooling the mind. As S. Leo Horowitz pointed out:
"The truth is that it's quite incorrect to state that magic
is deception by means of the hands. Magic is deception
by means of the mind. The hands come in as accessories
after the fact."
THE MAGIC BOOK r> ix

Acknowledgments

The Hilliard quote that opens chapter one of this book
is taken from his monumental thousand-page tome
Greater Magic. The Hilliard book, Evans's The Old and
the New Magic, Christopher's Panorama of Magic, and
a number of standard reference works were used in the
construction of the first chapter. It should be empha­
sized that many questions about the evolution of magic
remain unanswered. It is not the purpose of this book to
settle all of the historic puzzles, from Egyptian wall
paintings to the true nature of Pinetti's rivalry with Tor­
rini, but merely to relate, in somewhat condensed form,
what appear to be the best-known facts in these areas.
Allan Slaight originally suggested the tie-in be­
tween "Build Down" and the follow-up gambling
routine "The Ten-Card Deal." The version of the deal
described in chapter nine was based on a stratagem de­
vised by Daniel Dobson.
A trick similar to Scarne's "Card Through Glass" in
chapter ten was developed by Bob Hummer and ap­
peared in print some years ago.
Some tricks in this hook appear without credit to
particular magicians. In most cases it is because the basic
effects and methods are known, but their authors are
unknown. In some cases the routines are my own; my
name does not appear because I could find no good
reason to parade my own name through the pages of this
book.
The most difficult items to trace were bets and
techniques that are associated with gambling. The pe­
rimeter of secrecy that surrounds magic is as nothing
compared to the private fraternity of professional gam­
blers who shun publicity of any kind. Thus, although a
THE MAGIC BOOK 0 xi