The World's Best Simple Bar Tricks (Paperback)

by Doug Lansky (Author) "Santiago de Compostela, Spain, has a bar named "Paris" and another named "Dakar..." (more)
Key Phrases: The Setup, Tricks How It Works

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Have a blast with bar tricks that can keep the party going for hours!

Join in the fun by learning the secret of the "healed" broken matchstick...the mysteriously moving cigarette...the miraculous liquid handcuffs...and the "can-you-line-them-up?" three-glass challenge. Here are 50 entertaining and exceptionally easy illusions, brain benders, games, gimmicks, and unnatural phenomena that require little or no physical skill to perform.

Whenever conversation fizzles, the food runs out, or boredom threatens to set in, you can get the good times rolling. All you need are items at hand like coins, glasses, and a napkin...Plus the exciting insider information you'll find in this, the biggest, most entertaining guide to bar tricks anywhere...for great fun anytime!

Each and every bar trick is...

Fully illustrated

Risk-free and safe

Great entertainment for club nights, parties, outings, sporting events

From the Publisher
Levitate an olive....
Pass a dollar bill through a lemon....
Make a coin walk across the table....

Amaze your friends with 50 idiot-proof tricks!

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Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Dell (November 3, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440508266
• ISBN-13: 978-0440508267
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.5 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #448,955 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Preview a copy before buying, September 17, 2001

By	tropic_of_criticism - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

There is a point where simplicity converts to banality, and this book treads that line a little too closely for my tastes. Those new to bar culture may find something to wonder over here, but anyone interested in magic probably won't.

Having said that, I disagree, slightly, with others who've gone so far as to say that the book--and especially its cover--are misleading. The cover describes the tricks as "idiot-proof", and they are. The tricks are well-illustrated and competently explained. As the cover claims, you will learn how to pass a dollar bill though a lemon, and make a coin walk across the table. To be sure, there's nothing in the book that will teach you how to create the image of a levitating olive as depicted on the cover, but the cover is basically honest.

If it oversells the book at all, it does so when it claims the tricks will "amaze" friends. It's best to say, as the back cover points out, that the tricks will help smooth over awkward conversational moments. Because of the lack of anything truly breathtaking, or even much that's subtle, this book is best previewed at a local library before purchase. IIt's probably not a smart impulse buy.

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Bartender's must read, February 12, 1999

By	"carsonlatham" (Houston, Texas & Myrtle Beach,SC) - See all my reviews

This is a fun book well worth the price. If you bartend, your first couple of tips will pay for it.

I learned a few new tricks and enjoyed seeing the ones that served me well during those 'slow nights'.

Of the few books I've seen on the subject, this has the best collection of them. I am in Sales now and guess what, these tricks are still fun!

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not what I thought it would be..., August 9, 2001

By	"tibetsmoke" (San Jose, CA United States) - See all my reviews

I purchased this book hoping to learn a few cool magic tricks I might be able to pull of in a bar. I was immediately interested by the cover of the book, which pictures an olive levitating over a martini glass. From this picture, and from the the words "Levitate an olive..." which also appear on the cover, I assumed there might be a trick inside to make an olive appear to levitate. There is, however, nothing of the sort. The olive trick turns out to be a pretty stupid bar bet that has nothing to do with even the appearance of levitation. And it only gets worse from there. Most of the tricks in this book are, as the cover does advertise, incredibly simple; the problem is most of them are so simple they are completely uninteresting. Personally I am glad I never met the author in a bar while he was researching material for this thing.

My feeling after reading this is that it is a collection of trite gags that will cause the people around you to groan and leave you sitting alone at the bar, buying your own drinks and cursing the day you ever tusted the other reviewers on this one.