Professional Magic for Amateurs

by Walter B. Gibson

This book is for the amateur magician who wants to learn (and start performing) well-known tricks that professionals use. Fifty easy yet effective tricks are presented, offering a well-rounded repertoire on which the beginner can draw while developing further interests and skills.
"To explain how magic is done is one thing," Mr. Gibson says in his introduction, "To tell how to do it quite another." In this volume you will be taken through every stage of each trick — an overview, how the trick appears to the audience, the mechanism behind the trick, and finally the presentation details that allow you to perform the trick in a completely professional manner. By carefully following the few simple yet essential tips the tricks will soon be yours.
Emphasis is on tricks that can be performed informally with a small group of friends. There are card tricks of both the setup and impromptu kind, there are tricks with string, handkerchiefs, tumblers, and mental magic where the purpose is "to deceive the mind rather than the eye." A final section on well-known stage illusions shows how the same performance principles are carried to magic on a higher level.
With this book the beginner will be able to perform professional tricks within hours, while even the more advanced magician will find new tricks and new ways of doing old ones. The author draws upon a lifetime in professional magic for his tricks. Not only is Mr. Gibson well known as one of the best writers about magic; he was also long associated with Houdini, the Thurstons, and other great magicians of the past.

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Walter Brown Gibson (September 12, 1897-December 6, 1985) was an American author and professional magician best known for his work on the pulp fiction character The Shadow. Gibson, under the pen-name Maxwell Grant, wrote "more than 300 novel-length" Shadow stories, writing up to "10,000 words a day" to satisfy public demand during the character's golden age in the 1930s and 1940s.

Reviews

[Nick Wellings · Rating 3 out of 5]

From parlour tricks and curiosities, to card tricks, mentalism and stage magic, there's good material in here. The stage tricks are probably well out of the reach and budget of most readers (such as the vanishing of a car) but could be something to aspire to, I suppose! Descriptions are clear and helpful.

Bonus stars awarded for the illustration, one of which (the "glasses glasses") I consider one of the funniest pic in existence (but then, I have a dumb sense of humour.)

[J]

Sleight of hand and a good patter take more practice than you might realize. But these tricks are good starting points.

[Rue Baldry · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting historical object in its own right, as well as an insight into how stage conjuring works, and a how-to book on some simple tricks.

This book was published in 1947 when magicians were all men and their assistants were generally women, in skimpy (for the time) outfits and high (for the time) heels, everyone had a fabric handkerchief, cigarettes and matches in their pocket, and dinner parties all included glass tumblers, linen napkins, and a few party tricks with dessert.

As I wasn't actually trying any tricks out, their explanations did get a little repetitive, but I took away a sense of how illusions are constructed, and a good feel for misdirection and prestidigitation and sleight of hand and the showmanship which makes 'magic' out of mathematics.

The last chapter explains how a few large scale stage tricks of the time were achieved, which was really interesting, and summoned a vision of large casts, glamour, show girls and stage hands. It's not all done with mirrors, you know, but some of it is!

I wonder what Gibson would have made of television, YouTube and street magic?