Michael Kras
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The Art Of Astonishment books by Paul HarrisThese three books are probably the best books I own. They care chock-full of fantastic effects... not one a flop. In between, there are also Essays, Interviews, Joke Effects, and Effect Contributions from other magicians such as Harry Eng, Allen Ackerman, Eric Mead, Daryl, Jay Sankey, and many more. The effects are fun to read, and so far, I like every effect I have read. All very bizarre bits of business that really hit hard. Effects with cards, coins, pins, paper clips, toothpicks, rocks, TicTacs, chocolate, pens, leaves, and many more make up the fabulous Art Of Astonishment series! Here are csome of my favourite effects so far:
Reset: The aces and kings switch places little by little. A Harris classic! ****
Screwed Deck: A nearly impromptu version of Paul Harris' marketed effect! A deck of cards is twisted in half, so one half of each card is face up and the other face down. Like a full deck Card Warp without any cover. Great! ****
Tap Dancing Aces: The four aces impossibly vanish and reappear back in the deck of cards one by one! This is really visual and really clean! *****
Illusion: During a Three Card Monte routine, the money card vanishes and appears face up in the face down deck of cards! Impossible and very simple. *****
Hi Ho Silver: A coin and deck of cards go through a time travel experience finding the selected card (among other occurances). Very clean and cool. ****
Bleached Blackjack: A bad hand of blackjack is displayed, and the ink from the bad card is completely erased, and visually reprints as an Ace! All without gimmicked cards! ****
PH Breakthrough: A deck of cards penetrates the front of the card case, and instatly does so again in reverse! Insanely visual and a true fooler! *****
Leaf: A leaf, torn off and initialed, is instantly reattached to the tree. The correct presentation can make this very cool. ***
Flapjacks: A cool four jack production that, unfortunately, is more somthing to play with privately. Lookjs great! ***
Bizarre Vanish: A card vanishes while being held onto by a spectator! Combine this with The Bizarre Twist and you have a perfect routine! ****
Machine Gun Aces: When a deck is formed into the shape of a hand gun, the four aces are fired out like bullets, spinning rapidly through the air! So easy, so satisfying! ****
Million Dollar Mindreader: The magician impossibly divines the name of importance that a spectator is thinking of! Fantastic, and so simple! *****
Las Vegas Leaper: Three cards, under test conditions, vanish from the magician's tne card packet and reappear in the spectator's packet! The magician NEVER touches the spectators cards, nd the spectator counted the cards before the trick even began! I have fooled people badly with this. *****
Arrow Split Arrow: After a card is selected and lost in the deck, an indifferent card, such as a Joker, is removed from the deck. The Joker is whipped HIGH (and I mean HIGH, like, 30 feet) into the air, and comes speedingly back down to the deck. It audibly impales the deck approximately in the centre of the deck, and is shown to have CUT THROUGH the selected card! This is probably the most difficult piece in the books, but it is fantastic and is great for a Street Busking Situation. Can be performed totally surrounded. *****
Pain: I haven't used this, but I thought it was worth mentioning: After a business card is pinned to the table with a metal pin, the magician SLAMS his hand down on the upright pin, impaling the business card and needle onto his hand. I am sure this would make for a very gruesome Business Card Giveaway, and would be very practical for geek magicians. However, I am terrified when I think about trying this, as it could easily result in a bad injury, so I won't.
Cellophane Surprise: A visual and impromptu opened and restored cellophane wrapper on cigarette box. The cellophane seal is broken on the top of a cigarette box. The flaps on the cellophane are opened as well as the box, and a cigarette is removed. Instantly, the cellophane restores to a sealed condition!! There are no extra bits of cellophane. The whole thing can be done with a brand new cigarette box, or even a card box for those non-smokers. I can't begin to tell you how clever the method behind this is. You'll learn it, you'll do it!
Immaculate Connection: An ingenious Linking Card effect with no gimmicks, and the cards are examinable before and after the effect!
The Anything Deck: A homemade version of the marketed Paul Harris effect in which not only in a selected card impossibly named, but a merely named word by the spectator is revealed to have been predicted since the very beginning! KILLER, and so easy once you msde the gaff deckk necessary.
Those are the effects I have learned and mastered so far. There are many more I have read but haven't tried yet. I can't wait to learn more!
Highly recommended! I give these books a perfect 10/10. There is something for every magician in here: Card magic, coin magic, even some geek magic and body magic! Some magic is extremely bizarre, such as Earth Shoes, Peanut Butter and Jellyfish, or McGimmick which I will most like never use but are still fun to read and enjoy the creative thinking behind each effect. Strange pieces of magic in this book that will be enjoyed immensely!
Michael Kras
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