Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12790 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-04
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Synopsis
"Street Magic" is a how-to magic book that teaches the real secrets of closeup, under-your-nose, in-your-face magic as seen on television. Magic is one of the longest surviving forms of entertainment and is as popular today as ever, having undergone a huge renaissance recently. This book contains great tricks, as popularised by today's greatest magicians. The book is very accessible, and is fully illustrated in colour with specially commissioned photography.

Customer Reviews

Really Good Starter for 10
This book is ideal for anyone who has never touched magic before and is interested in learning from scratch. I got this book to entertain family and friends and impress the kids. The tricks start from the really simple to some more complex ones that need a little practice (but not much). But don't be fooled in to thinking that they wont impress - even the simplest tricks are really effective. Well worth the money and as the other reviews suggest this book is well illustrated and easy to read.

A good introduction to magic
This book is great introduction for someone starting out in magic. The book is suitable for teens to adults, just bear in mind that good magic means "Practice ", you will have to put time and effort in to learning the contents...but you will be rewarded for your efforts.

This book has a little bit of everything but just enough of a taste to whet your appetite to learn more. It starts with " Auto Magic ", tricks that basically work by themselves. As the book says " ...designed to ease readers into the world of magic by letting them concentrate on the performance ". Next up " The Midas touch " concentrates on coin magic. Here the skill level goes up. This chapter shows basic sleights of hand and some tricks to perform with them. We then have a section called " Top Secret Gadgets "... exactly as it says on the tin. None of these are provided with the book, rather it gives an overview of some staple "gimmicks " that are used in magic. The next three chapters concentrate on card magic, " Hands on Deck ", " Shark Attack " then " Cruising ". With each one the difficulty level goes up. But within those chapters you get a great pot pouri of tricks, sleights, flourishes and how to manipulate a deck of cards. The next chapter " Mind Magic " deals with mind reading and psychological types of tricks. Chapter eight is entitled " Street Scams ", this is full of the type of classic trickery and flim flam that has relieved many a person from their money. The penultimate chapter is " Party Tricks " as the book says... " a selection of crowd pleasing classics for entertaining large groups of party people ". The last chapter is just one trick billed as " probably the best card trick ever "...who am I to disagree, it certainly is an all time classic.

Overall this is a smashing introduction to magic and good value for money. Yes, there are more comprehensive and detailed books and if the magic bug gets you, you will end up buying them as well. A main plus is it has clear easy to follow descriptions and nice colour photos taking you through each part of each trick. I like this book, it is the 1st book on magic I bought and recommend it to anyone, young, or like me, more mature, who is looking to take their first steps into performing magic.

As good as a magic book can be
The main point to buying a magic book like this is to learn how to perform tricks - which is not an easy thing to do on a page - it takes a very clear understanding of the trick itself and an articulate use of language to get the process duplicated by the reader. And this book does just that extremely well. Supplimented by very clear photographs, the main point of the book is accomplished, which again, is to teach you how to perform some magic tricks!

Paul Zenon has also captued the spirit of the subject well here, giving a brief but interesting history to street magic, and generating an enthusiasm in the reader to actually get out there and perform.

I have read a couple of books on magic and have watched a number of DVDs, and I have no hesitation in recommending this book. It is well written, clearly presented and useful.