Magic: The Complete Course: How to Perform Over 100 Amazing Effects, with 500 Full-Color How-to Photographs (eBook) Kindle Edition

I actually expected more from this book, written by a respected magician, Joshua Jay. I think he tries to provide too wide a swath of magic tricks to touch upon most types of magic, but it lacks a sort of cohesiveness you'd expect from someone as experienced as Mr. Jay. To his great credit, he provides excellent step-by-step instructions and photos (along with a DVD for many of his tricks in the book), but in all honesty, I only found a few tricks that I'd actually use in my ameteur act. It's not a bad book by any means - especially for anyone who wants to dip his or her toe in magic (especially if you are a young person), but if you already know how to perform a dozen tricks already, you may want to pass on this one and look for books/DVDs specific to the kind of magic you want to excel in (cards, coins, mentalism, etc.).

If you could only buy one book on magic, this is the one. The price is a bargain for the information being provided. One of the many great features is a DVD which covers (i.e., presents & demonstrates) about a third of the effects addressed in the book. The quality of the book's language and photos is likewise outstanding. Joshua Jay can be proud of himself and his really wonderful book which is sure to become a classic in magic literature. He hits the nail on the head when he points out that people don't simply want to learn the secrets...but to learn how to perform the magic itself. I am trying to adopt many of the effects myself so I can share them with family and friends. The wonder of magic for me and many others is to allow ourselves to be children again...and Joshua Jay is helping many amateurs such as myself to share that joyful experience with others. Well done, young Mr. Jay!

There are a large number of excellent tricks in this book, particularly for beginners and people who wish to move into intermediate effects. Jay also offers full presentations to put together your own show. There is much to learn here even if you don't incorporate all the magic taught. The DVD is also a great help in learning. If you are interested in enhancing your skills in magic, this is a great place to start. I was very impressed.

This book is so much fun and my nephew loves it! He's learning new tricks all the time and amazing me as to how they're done. You really don't expect amazing tricks from lil kids, but with the help of this book, he's pulling off some pretty great stuff. We are all glad he got us to order this book for him now. It's a wonderful hobby and it has helped him develop his self-esteem and social skills, which were fine to begin with, only now he's reached new levels. Parents, buy this and other magic trick books for your kids if they want them, you won't be sorry.

Bought this for my young son, hoping he'd share my fondness for close-up illusions. (He doesn't, as it turns out, but that's okay.)I went ahead and tried a few of the effects on my wife and son. Some impressed them, some didn't, but that's as much my performance as it is Jay's instructions. But, I think it's worth noting that a large part of Jay's text (and this is a nicely balanced mix of words and pictures) is devoted to telling you how utterly stunned your audiences will be for a lot of the effects included.Well...I was naturally attracted to the card effect he states is the acclaimed choice by the entire profession as the greatest card trick of all time. It's fairly easy to perform, so I tried it on my wife and son (you need two participants to really do it).At the moment where you reveal the effect, my wife (who knows a bit about magic, as she acts as my assistant some times), grinned and said, "But... that can't be!" About three seconds later, her grin shifted to a sly smile, and she said, "You [complete explanation of how the illusion was done]."Maybe I mucked it up in performance, but I really don't think even I am so bad at card effects that "the greatest card trick of all time" would be transparent to my wife, notwithstanding that she knows a little bit about how some illusions are performed.So, go ahead and buy the book, but make your own choices about which effects are good for you to try on others, and which are easy to figure out. (For what it's worth, I actually expected the "greatest" trick to be easily figured out, but I have been doing close-up for almost fifty years, so I am a bad judge as to what will fool the participants and what will not. Except, apparently, this time.)

Detailed explanations for dummies of some well-known magic tricks.

I am truly satisfied with my order, thank you.

This book is great. It was really interesting. I learned a lot of magic. It is a really special book because it gives detailed explanation about the performance, which is not something every book has. This book really inspired me to perform magic. It's amazing what can be done with a deck of cards, or pretty much anything else. Really creative ideas for beginner magicians, with tricks that can be performed at any time mostly without preparation. Waiting for another one to come out!

Most kids magic sets are cheap junk which most of us have seen time and time again. This is on a whole new level as it is a colourful book and comprehensive DVD course on how to do professional magic tricks. My daughter (who is 9) has been impressing family and friends who are still left wondering "How did she do that". Her only complaint is that Joshua Jay seems to assume that it will be boys doing the magic tricks!Some of the tricks are quite straightforward, some involve some practise, others need a lot of practise. But the book sets out a grading system to show this, so you know where to start.To do all the tricks will require some special props, most of these can be found on the internet or if you are lucky enough to have a local magic shop I'm sure they can help.In conclusion, this is a great place to start for anyone serious about magic, and it felt like money well spent rather than wasted.

Purchased as a funny gift for Christmas, this book is definitely to the dedicated. Contains so much information and wonderful pictures to help you along. You do need to buy a lot of extras though, another reason this would be perfect for the more hardcore magician, I just wanted my husband to prove how 'good at magic' he was, turns out he isn't so it worked nicely! Thanks!

I bought this as a present to my 13-year old aspiring magician grandson and he was absolutely delighted, and spent the rest of the holiday engrossed in it - even entertained us with a couple of newly learnt (and very good), tricks. One very good thing about it is that very little "equipment" is used or needed. The area is not my interest, however, looking through its pages, it's presented in an attractive, accessible manner for all levels of practitioners. Beautiful illustrations, glossy paper. I am very pleased with my choice and would heartily recommend it.

Good well explained content.

As this was for a present I only had a cursory glance through it. From my short review it seemed to be just what I was looking for. Although I'm not sure it could really be the 'complete' course in magic, it seemed to cantain a wide variety of tricks and I guess the accomanying DVD is great to illustrate just how they should be done. I'm sure the recipient will love it.