Customer Reviews

Encyclopedia of Card Tricks

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a great book in magic. If you ever wanted to learn about magic from the beginer level to advance, then you got to buy this. However, beware; it is hard to understand because the book LACKS picture! Yes, instead of using that time to learn new tricks, you have to spend it trying to figure out what the author means. That is why I gave it 4 stars. If you are a beginner in magic, I recommend you to read "Now You See It, Now You Don't". Afterwhich, the material in this book will be easier to understand

Jean Hugard's "Encyclopedia of Card Tricks" remains one of the most comprehensive and exhaustive texts on card effects even after 60 years of being in publication. A brief summary of the table of contents shows the variety of effects covered: impromptu card tricks, spelling effects, "you do as I do", special cards, special decks (Svengali, Mene-Tekel, Stripper), calculation effects, and miscellaneous card tricks. Hugard describes the effects clearly and accurately, attributes the originator of the effect (if known), and occasionally offers an editorial comment or suggestion. The book is quite literally a gold mine of information, awaiting an interested and motivated magician to mine its contents. I continue to amaze audiences with Stewart James' original handling of "Miraskill" (p. 330). And Kli Ban's "The Spectator Finds Your Card" (p. 348), in which the spectator finds the card I chose, has been in my routine for years. Virtually all effects require no difficult sleight-of-hand. However, Hugard does devote a chapter describing important card sleights. This Dover reprint is one of the best values in magic. With this volume, and possibly the addition of John Scarne's "Scarne on Card Tricks", any magician can develop an entertaining card routine that audiences will enjoy. "Encyclopedia of Card Tricks" belongs in every magician's library.

This book is an excellent source of card tricks. Many new and old tricks are explained. But what is not explained are some of the "normal" hand momements and techniques that are required for new magicians. This book is made for the medium and expert skilled magicians.

This book is great in its completeness and organization. It walks you through most of the card tricks. This book is not geared toward beginners or younger audiences. If you are a visual learner this book is not for you. There are very few pictures and diagrams so you will have to use your imagination at times to visualize what the trick is supposed to look like based on the descriptions.

Jean Hugard was one of the greatest writers on magic. This book collects hundreds of his tricks and contributions from other cardicians. It is splendid--there is no doubt about that. Sure, a lot of the writing has that naive, antiquated quality simply because of the manuscript's age. But still, for the serious card magic student, this book is a must-have. Beginners will have their eyes opened, and experts will smile and nod their heads in approval with Hugard's outstanding trick compilation. The Dover reprint is superb and a great value--quite a few of the concepts here are worth the price of the book by themselves. I have to go now, as I need to learn the amazing Nikola card system at the end of the book!

Excellent book for principles on card tricks. Jean goes through the tricks step-by-step so that they are easy to understand. Once you have done some of the tricks you will be able to use those tricks to perform your own tricks. I have learned tricks that I have never thought were possible.

This book is great! It has so many tricks that can be worked with various decks. The only bad thing, is that sometimes it is difficult to comprehend. I bought this book for $40 in a magic shop, and that is the price in most magic retailers (of course mine is hardcover, which increses the price) but I thought it was well worth it. Now that I see the Amazon price, I think I got ripped off, but it's still worth it. (I guess I'll check Amazon's price from now on, and maybe shop here.) Overall, it is an excellent book, and I used some great tricks from here for magic auditions. That's how great it is!

Honestly - you would be hard pushed to find a single card trick which isn't in this book. They're all here, and they're all clearly described and explained. I use this book mainly as a reference source, so if you are a beginner to card magic, I would recommend something more detailed. Literally hundreds of tricks, but no pictures (which is why I only gave it 4 stars).

The cardtricks book is well written and PACKED with card tricks - more than you could deal with in a lifetime. Hugard has written many books on the subject and you can't go wrong. Another online resource I found and loved is http://www.ellusionist.com - amazing site with card trick movies and a bunch of cool stuff.

I bought this book some 22yrs ago for about $10.00. This is an excellent book for not just the beginner, but for the professional also. The book is well written and easy to understand. I worked at the Disneyland Magic Shop for some 10yrs and recommended this book many times.

I own a Magic Shop now and this is one of the many books that I carry.