My usual hunting grounds for effects and books, are the local shop, and the endless ocean that is the internet. Lover of this art that I am, I can't just visit a library for a non magical research project-without checking on just what magic books my library has. And, naturally, I find the goofy cartoon illustrated magic books for dummies-and, other books for the hobbiest, some by Bob Longe-who always seems to manage to publish books with tricks that have already been published ad nausiem. Thanks Bob. There are other texts worth looking
at so far as the history of magic. But, so far as a book of tricks, I was quite thrilled to see this book by Mr. Severn. It was not not the usual rehashing of 'ancient mysteries' for the amateur-accompanied by ridiculous cliche cartoons that NEVER amuse me-no- there are ideas and presentations in this book that are quite refreshing, original-and worth spending time with.
For example, there's a version of rising card here-except it's done with a pack of gum. An effect with a rope, where a fish suddenly appears mid air-(plastic or cardboard fish).Tricks with a toothbrush, metal clickers, plates,bills, and, instructions on how to make a chop cup using paper cups and a a couple of bills.
Maybe a better example of the thinking here, is an effect called 'magic spaghetti'. You show a fork, normal-and soon enough, spaghetti appears wound around the end. It's yarn, but it's the perfect visual equivalent.
Two card effects which caught my attention are called 'jumpers' and 'tell my fortune'. The former has a joker popping up to interrupt the trick-and ends with the joker and selection changing places with a pocketed card. The latter, has a spectator choosing a card which guesses the magician's fortune-which is a glass full of pennies that matches the spectator's chosen card.
Nothing in this book is daunting-but for a book of this kind, the ideas are novel-more so than other books of this kind, geared towards the 'hobbiest'. It is always a joy to read new takes on principals, and ways to dress them up that might not have occurred to me. One thing I wish, is that publishers would cease putting out books without checking to see that the content has already been covered many many times already.
THIS book, is not 'one of those' books. It's 'light' reading, but has, I think, usable effects-and original, creative premises.