Magic with Everday Objects

by George Schindler, Ed Tricomi (Illustrator)

Over 150 tricks anyone can do at the dinner table - George Schindler shows how to perform dozens of entertaining magic tricks, using as props only those items found on a well-set table - at home or in a restaurant. No sleight-of-hand is required, no experience is necessary. A careful reading of the step-by-step instructions and the easy-to-follow illustrations for each trick enables the amateur magician to give dazzling dinnertime performances. George Schindler is co-founder of the School for Magicians in New York City and he is a past president of the Society of American Magicians.

Genres: Magic

239 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1976

Reviews

[R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had the hardback version as a kid; carried it around for a few weeks, trying out such tricks as "The Satanic Saltshaker". Friends were...well, let's say friends were few.

Learned only recently that one of my uncles, my aged uncles, was a traveling magician's assistant back in the 50s. Appeared in such places as TV variety shows and the Korean War. Tried to get him to spill some of the secrets, but apparently he's still bound to the magician's oath.

Anyways, to this day if I'm at a wobbly table I'll do the Possessed Table trick. It also works at restaurants - you can pretend each table is infested with demons until, abracadabra, you're seated where...well, there's "no demons".

And unlike some, I love being seated near the kitchen.

You get your food faster.

Note: I'm awfully disturbed by the new Jack In the Box campaign that equates a decent hamburger with wife-swapping. What's next? An ad campaign for milkshakes that trades off the imagery of glory holes? Just close your eyes and suck on that straw.... Shudder, world!

[Christopher James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book for starters... The Salt-Shaker ticks was one of the first illusions I did in front of other magicians that voted me into the S.A.M or at the time S.Y.M

[Don Gubler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Become a trial to others with these tricks.