101 Greatest Magic Secrets Exposed [Paperback]

Herbert L. Becker (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Citadel (November 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0806521546
• ISBN-13: 978-0806521541
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,005,529 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Plain wrong!, September 18, 2002

By 

Fabio Rossi (Milano, MI Italy) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 101 Greatest Magic Secrets Exposed (Paperback)

The guy who wrote this book likes to drop names such as Andre Kole (world-famous prop builder) and David Copperfield (not the Dickens' one) as "friends and consultants". He also states he worked on stage with live cougars, that once his audience doubled in laughters as he blotched a levitation number, and that his son likes to illustrate - thus he did the illustrations for this book.

Well, guess what. I am only prepared to believe the latter two.

This book is a hodge-podge of "exposures" in any and every branch of illusionism: you get stuff like "snuff a candle 'hidden' behind a bottle" right to "how to make the Space Shuttle disappear". And you know what? In many many cases he doesn't get it right.

The explanations usually go like: "Then of course in the specially designed crate you have an invisible wireless two-way communication device, and an undetectable set of scuba diving gear...". Come on! Maybe I'm not the best expert in the field, but it doesn't take much to understand that in the real world things just don't work this way!
Actually, I'm amazed that he didn't try to sell the "Copperfield flies on hidden supermagnets" theory, as it ranks in the same cookiness range.

He does in fact get right the usual small tricks your uncle Ben used to do at the dining table - simply because they're printed and spelled oud everywhere already.

Bottom line: get some serious "how to" book instead of this, and please someone tell Kole, Sigfried & Roy and Copperfield that this guy is badmouthing them.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Title not entirely true to content, November 9, 2006

By 

Mark R. Hassed "Deep Thinker" (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 101 Greatest Magic Secrets Exposed (Paperback)

A mostly interesting book with ideas for some fun magic but are these the "Greatest" secrets? I think not. In fact this is a pretty standard and not very detailed how to book of magic. The tricks are covered in many other books and in greater detail.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Somewhat disappointing., May 11, 2006

By 

D. MCGUE (Mililani, Hawaii) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: 101 Greatest Magic Secrets Exposed (Paperback)

Explained many tricks, but many others were not addressed. Wish it could have been more comprehensive.