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Magic of Milt Kort, The

Minch, Stephen

Hermetic Press

(Based on 1 review)
Another quality production from Hermetic Press. Milton Kort is a legend of sorts, a magician who has seldom traveled outside the Detroit area, who rarely performs at magicians' conventions or lectures, yet a man whom the professionals and greats in magic came to see, men like Paul Rosini, Dr. Daley, J.B. Bobo, Charlie Miller, Cardini, Dai Vernon and many more sought out Milt Kort and shared secrets with him. Buy why? Milt was a pharmacist by trade, not a professional magician. The answer lies in the word love. It was his great love of magic that drew magic's greats to him. Magic has been Milt's abiding passion from childhood, and he always did it for the love of it, for the fun of it, not for the money or the fame in it. And fun and mystery are what his book, Kort, is about. Well, there was one other reason they came. Milt often fooled them with devilishly clever tricks of his own invention. These tricks are in great part what Kort is about. They all fall within the realm of close up magic, Milt's main love, and they use such mundane items as playing cards, coins, dice, balls, razor blades, eggs, handkerchiefs, pens and toy elephants. What happens with those items, though, is anything but mundane. Using skills and techniques mainly in the range of the average close up enthusiast, Milt Kort offers 46 of his most baffling and entertaining tricks and routines to his fellow hobbyists and lovers of magic. Professional magicians can use Milt's magic, too - but there is one rule, Kort's First Principle - Have Fun. Kort is 376 pages in hardcover, copiously illustrated by Sandy Kort.

Reviews

Stephen

Dec 03, 2015

This is a great book that teaches over 50 tricks using cards, coins, handkerchieves, dice, razor blades, gimmicks, impromptu tricks, close up, and stage.

The book is divided into 3 sections. One on cards, one on coins, and one on other objects. In between each trick taught is a little story that involves a personal experience with magic or other magicians. These alone are worth the price of the book.

The first section of the book (Kort Cards) about cards is great overall. He teaches 20 some tricks and sleights. They use for the most part un gimmicked cards with either minimal or little set-up. He has a section of the chapter devoted to his favorite card plot, the odd backed card plot. My favorite card trick is probably Security Express that uses the classic sandwich plot and is a magician favorite. You take the four aces and sandwich them between the two black jacks and they vanish to only reappear between the two red jacks and you are left completely clean with no extra or gimmicked cards.

The next chapter is Kort's Coins which obviously focuses on coin tricks. Their are a nice 16 coin tricks. However I do have an issue with this chapter. At the end their is a whole section on Okito box routines. One Okito box routine in particular uses four different Okito boxes which some aren't even on the market. So unless you have these special boxes you can't perform them. It isn't a "problem" but something to consider. With that in mind he teaches a very visual Okito box routine that doesn't even use a box of any sort, I know different, where they pass through your hand. He teaches a really neat and fooling vanish with a handkerchief and different applications of the vanish.

The third chapter is on tricks using different objects such as dice and razor blades. The first seven tricks are dice tricks that utilize a switch he invented. Which is very clever. This chapter was probably my least favorite because of the fact that a big portion of it they don't even recommend because it is manipulation with razor blades. With that being said there are many other gems in this chapter.

Overall it is a good book, well written and clear instructions. Stephen Minch did a good job honoring one of magics lost greats. It has a lot of funny and nice stories in it. I think it deserves a rightly earned 4 stars.
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