Customer Reviews

Miss Charming's Book of Bar Amusements

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

 

 

Although many of the "amusements" are amusing - they are also logic tricks that we did in the 3rd grade. Such as moving matchsticks around to form a shape in less than 2 moves....the book just doesn't provide enough of the "cool" tricks that I expected from the description.

Also, and my biggest complaint, is that many of the tricks use the assumption that I can palm coins, dollar bills, and other items with no effort. If I could palm items, I probably wouldn't be reading this book to learn tricks.

I have very fond memories of once spending several hours at a bar where the bartender took joy in entertaining his various customers with witty tricks and brain teasers. Since then, I thought that this was a lost art.

Fortunately Cheryl shares my wonder and enjoyment of this unique form of entertainment, and has now provided us with a unique manual which I hope bartenders the world over will use to reaquaint themselve with this artform.

I highly recommend this book to any bartenders, bartenders in training, or just folks who want to show their favorite bartender a trick or two.

I met Miss Charming 11 years ago while on a cruise, her magnetic personality drew people of all ages to her bar. The tricks she performed using common bar items were always amusing and on occasion, amazing. I would see grown men shake their head in wonderment. I just got her new book, and we have been experimenting with several of her "amusements". I have found it both entertaining to read and written in a manner that even I could follow her directions. I highly recommend this book to anyone who entertains, it is great for ice breakers both at a private party and while out on the town. What better way to meet people than to trade fun tricks. Miss Charming says she has over a 1,000 bar tricks, so I am sure we will all be looking forward to her next book as well. Enjoy!

I've made my pre-publication order, but haven't received my long anticipated book yet so this is a review of the content rather than the text because I have seen the tricks performed by the master herself. Miss Charming is the type of bartender that picks up a following and I have been following her career for some time now. While her skill at mixing and attentiveness to the other side of the mahogany are unsurpassed, it is her personality and ease with people that make the bar experience so nice. She is particularly adept at just starting up a bar amusement right in front of a new client and they are great amusements and tricks. This book will be a real practical and fun guide for professional and home bartenders alike. Even Teetotalers will enjoy these tricks.

Miss Charming has the perfect sense of humor that every bartender in the world should have! The book is witty, light hearted and just down right funny.

Miss Charming tells a story about each trick in the book which in themselves are great, and then goes into explaining exactly how each trick is performed.

I spent a whole evening reading the book and trying out the tricks. Some of them are so easy it's scary to think that people actually fall for it, others take a little bit of practice, but fear not, Miss Charming will walk you through each step of the way!

On a flight to Tokyo recently, I had half the flight crew and everyone sitting around me enthralled for an hour as I did some of the tricks I had learned, talk about a way to make time go by quick and make a few new friends!

Miss Charming has been doing bar tricks for over 19 years and is considered one of the foremost experts...ok, I think she is the foremost expert in bar tricks!

Now get out your dollar bills, your shot glasses, and your match sticks because you are ready to start baffling and amusing your friends! Be sure to pick up a copy of "Miss Charming's Book of Bar Amusements" and keep behind the bar right next to your bartenders bible.

This is a great book for begining bartenders,but seasoned bartenders like myself have alredy seen 99% of these tricks.

I was hoping to learn a trick or two for a party I was going to. Just a coulpe impressive tricks/conversation starters. However, most of the tricks in this book require quite a bit of set up beforehand. They are not exactly tricks you can preform with the items found at any bar. Many of them require a certain brand of matches, or you to start the trick with a new book of matches minus two that you you have prepared ahead of time. Then if someone wants you to repeat the trick you have to have another book with two matches also removed. I had hoped to learn the tricks and be able to use them when I went out to the bar, But with all the prep work in the tricks this would not be possible. If you were a bartender this may be an interesting book for you but for the public there isn't much to learn from this book.

Though written with enthusiasm by an author obviously passionate about her craft, I found the collection of tricks oddly balanced between the entirely mundane to the astoundingly expensive, to the possibly unsafe.

The book is divided into six sections. Each deals with a broad category of tricks that essentially represent garden variety magic. You'll learn how to do some manipulation of money, matches, glassware, paper, and various odds and ends commonly available at bars. The instructions are clear, as is the focus. The author is trying to effortlessly convey tricks that, in the main, can be done while a bartender is about her normal business. The instructions and illustrations make it easy to learn these simple tricks. As such, it is doubtless a valuable resource.

However, serious magic students, and even more experienced bartenders, will dismiss this work as little more than fluff. Some of the amusements even run counter to standard bar flare theory, suggesting a "trick" when the pretended act can actually be done. A handful of the "amusements" call for the creative use of fire and/or extremely flammable chemicals, which would seem potentially dangerous in a bar filled with alcohol. Many are so obvious one wonders just how impressive they'd actually be. Little attention is given to the creation of an aura of magic--showmanship, if you will--which is made even more necessary in the absence of extraordinary illusion. Fortunately, the audience for the tricks in this book will likely be those who are at least a little inebriated.