Rick Carruth, Editor - Magic Roadshow
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   | Family Magic I and II by Edward Glassman-
A Book Review by Rick Carruth, Editor - Magic Roadshow Edward Glassman, Ph.D, has become my friend. That's a good thing.. especially since he possesses a wealth of magic information and I am constantly seeking magic information. Edward considers himself an amateur magician... which is misleading... since some folks associate amateur with beginner or neophyte. In reality, in Ed's vernacular, amateur simply means that he is not a paid professional. Understanding Ed's background, you understand why he doesn't have time to be a 'paid' professional. Edward received his Ph.D in 1955 from the Biology Department at Johns Hopkins University. He then served as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Biology Department of California Institute of Technology and as a Postdoctoral Fellow of the National Institutes of Health at the Universities of Edinburgh and Zurich. During his 29 years as a professor at the University of North Carolina he published over one hundred research articles in the fields of biochemistry, genetics, alcohol, neuroscience, teaching, and creativity. Edward was also a Guggenheim Foundation Fellow and visiting professor at Stanford University, as well as Visiting Professor: University of California... Visiting Fellow: Center For Creative Leadership, Greensboro NC, and Visiting Scientist: Stanford Research Center. In addition, in the early 1990s, Edward wrote a weekly column on Creativity at Work for the Chapel Hill Newspaper, plus many guest columns on Business Creativity for the Triangle Business News, a weekly published in Raleigh, NC. Combine all of the above, plus a lifetime interest in magic, and you have FAMILY MAGIC I and II. Edward wrote the Family Magic duo originally as a way to leave his magic for his children and grandchildren. But, being a renaissance as well as an extremely educated gentleman, there is no such thing in Ed's world as a 'simple' manuscript any more so than there are 'simple line drawings' in Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks. Some folks, because of their intellect and training, turn the mundane into the extraordinarily fine. FAMILY MAGIC is extraordinarily fine by any standard. One look through the pages offers the reader a glimpse into the mind of a highly organized author. Edward can imply that the books were created for his 'family', but it's obvious that his family includes a world of amateur, advanced and semi-professional magicians, as well as anyone wanting to share magic with their loved ones. Each book is aimed toward a different aspect of magic, primarily card effects. Book I includes an assortment of effects with paperclips, rings, coins, currency, and the ever-present banana. Book I does require a basic knowledge of a few card sleights such as a cross cut force, double lift, key card control, and a top and/or bottom card slide. Edward goes to lengths to explain and teach any sleight used and to make the reader comfortable, regardless of their skill level. I'm also very impressed with the depth of instruction Edward goes into to explain not only how the effect works, but why it works as it does. You are constantly challenged to use your head for something other than a hat rack... (aren't we all guilty of that one..) I admire the creative process Edward involves in each effect, steering the reader toward both developing his or her own method and encouraging them to really -think- about the effect and how it works. Truth is... you can read ten magic books and learn dozens of effects and still not be a better magician. It's our ability to be creative that separates us from other primates. And, having been a renown professor and writer for many years, Edward's professionalism and teaching skills constantly flow throughout books One and Two, as you are both challenged and gently questioned as to how you could take the same effect and creatively improve upon it.. For years I have encouraged the Magic Roadshow readers to take simple effects and creatively expand them into something entirely new and exciting. Edward has accomplished this to perfection in books I and II. ( It's a fact great minds think alike, your editor mumbles tongue in cheek...) Although I was familiar with several of the effects in Book I, Edward constantly added unexpected twists, catching me off-guard and creating a nice 'Wow' moment. "The magician helps the impossible and the improbable to happen. We enjoy the spectacle. Creative magic mystifies and shocks us. Yet, if we know how the magician does a trick, we often no longer enjoy it, and we respond by feeling bored. Thus, the entertainment value seems predicated on newness and surprise; in other words we need more than showmanship; we need shock & awe as well." Edward Glassman Ph.D Book II is not a continuation of Book I. Book II is loaded with what Edward refers to as 'No Hands Card Tricks'. Many of the effects actually take place in the spectators hands, beyond control of the performer, and without previous arrangement or manipulation by the performer. Edward quite rightly refers to these effects as 'Automatic Mechanical Self-Working Magic'. Again, the performer uses various methods of discerning a key card to effect the reveal. Some effects require a bottom glimpse or knowing the top card before the spectator begins the trick, but the over-all result is that the spectator is, in some cases, more mystified than if the magician had actually handled the cards him or herself. Actually, ten or more effects are well suited for performing over the telephone, blindfolded, or from another room. I have a friend who performs several similar effects on radio shows prior to performing in that city. Callers and listeners alike are mystified, and attendance at his performances rise accordingly. I got my start in magic by purchasing a book by my hero, John Scarne. He was perhaps the greatest card technician of the 20th Century. (I know that's debatable, but there were some serious cardmen who were witness to Scarne's phenomenal talent who swear it's true...) He published SCARNE ON CARD TRICKS in 1950 and devoted the entire book to reworking card effects by Dunninger, Cardini, Dai Vernon, Francis Carlyle, Cliff Green, Russel Swan, Nate Leipzig, Thurston, Houdini and other famous magicians and card experts to the point where each effect could be performed without sleights. Edward's book Two constantly reminds me of the thrill I felt performing Scarne's card tricks. Knowing that it's possible to completely confound a friend or family member as they hold the deck or as I perform a slick self-working effect is the height of satisfaction for me. I know you will be personally amazed and entertained with Edward's masterworks just as I have. " Speculation insists that one reason we obsess over a magician's magical tricks hides a secret wish for the supernatural to really exist to solve our problems or to insure prosperity in a way that sidesteps the reality that often yields undesirable outcomes. Everyone knows that magicians deliver faux-magic based on rational methodology. After all, magicians cannot subvert the laws of physics, biology, chemistry, or geology, or control supernatural forces. hence magicians deceive, pretend, misdirect, circumvent, distract, and lie to produce breathtaking magic tricks." Edward Glassman Ph.D I highly recommend FAMILY MAGIC I and II to anyone interested in the art and skill of magic. Just as I would expect an esteemed professor to guide me through the complexities of math, science, art, and sociology, I was honored to have one guide me through the science and art of Magic. FAMILY MAGIC I and II can be purchased on Amazon as a 'two in one'; both books combined into one big book. The combined book contains over 220 pages of magic and 105 diverse effects. I've included one of the telephone effects below. to give you a brief look at one of the many effects you can perform like an expert from day one. ---------------------------------- .: Pick A Card… Over The Telephone THE TRICK Consider this cool telephone trick. I call a friend on the telephone and explain that I intend to do a magic trick over the telephone. I ask her to shuffle and divide a deck into 2 equal piles, choose a card from one pile, note it, and place it on the bottom of the other pile; this is her Chosen card. I ask her to slowly deal and call out the cards on the top of the pile that contains her Chosen card. She calls out the first card and I stop her, apologizing because I made a mistake. She puts the card back on top. I request that she cut the deck completely. I now ask her again to deal and call out the cards from the BOTTOM of the deck, and to lay each called-out card face down on the table. She deals the entire pile and I ask her to do it again. She starts over and I suddenly ask her to stop. I tell her the identity of her Chosen card and that it is next to be turned. She turns over the next card, revealing her Chosen card. PLEASE GUESS HOW YOU THINK YOU MIGHT ACCOMPLISH THIS CHICANERY? Please answer the following questions about this particularly interesting trick: Why did I ask her to divide the deck? Did I really make a mistake when I asked her to deal and call out cards the first time? Why did I ask her to cut the pile? Why did I ask her to deal and call out the cards from the top? Why not lay the called-out cards face up? How did I know the identity and location of her Chosen card? Congratulate yourself if you generated a reasonable plan to do this trickery. The wizard thanks you. I did the trick this way. THE SECRET.... To do this telephone trick I needed a way to create a Key card on the telephone. By asking her to deal and call out cards from the top, and then pretending I made a mistake after she told me the identity of the top card of her pile, I made that card my Key card and wrote it down to not forget it. The rest of this mechanical, self-working trick played out as described above. I first asked her to divide the deck, so we wouldnt have to wait while she called out all the cards in a full deck. The first time she dealt the cards from the top of the pile, I listened for my Key card, and knew her Chosen card was the next card. I wrote down her Chosen card. Then when she dealt again, I stopped her when she called out my Key card. I then told her the identity of her Chosen card and predicted it would appear next. It did. This great telephone trick baffles, amazes, and delights. WOW. MAGICAL PRINCIPLES.... TELEPHONE TRICKS Telephone tricks take the idea of the magician did not touch the cards one step further; the magician not only does not touch the cards, he does not do the trick in the same room, city, state, or country as the spectator-volunteer. In some regards, I find this idea decidedly eerie. Yet it works. This magic startles, astonishes, and entertains everyone. Adapt telephone tricks like this one to your computer: communicate using email, webmail, Skype, instant messenger, etc. I know about 10 telephone tricks, all of which are in my book: Family Magic I & II (order from Amazon or my website http://www.offbeatbooks.net). KEY CARD People do not expect the creation of a Key card as part of a telephone trick, thus, this telephone trick baffles & bewilders even more than usual. MECHANICAL, SELF-WORKING TRICKS This automatic trick works itself once the magician starts it. A Card Trick © 2010 By Ed Glassman Taken from his book... "Family Magic I & II: 101 Easiest Tricks For My Family"  |
