I just recently picked up the new "Paul Curry" book. There was a great review in Genii by Jamie Swiss, and I was anxious to get the book.



At first I was disappointed... many of the effects were from the 40’s and didn’t fit my style of direct magic. But I was determined to give this a fair chance... and I have been patiently reading through the various effects.



There are many gems in this book... and some are little subtleties, that upon first reading, one might miss.



An example, is to have a card selected, control it to the top, tell the spectator that you found the card... lift off the top card (selected card) peek at it... and miscall it as another card. When the spectator claims that you missed his card, you then blow on the back of the "misnamed" card or make a magical gesture... and then turn it over to show that it magically changed. (You could also double-lift in the beginning... turn it down... take it off and misname it again... and then reveal it to be the selected card.



This doesn’t seem like much... but it adds to the magical moment in this effect... and the spectator thinks it changed in your hand by blowing on the card’s back. (You could also put it in the spectator’s hand... and affect the change... and this would be very strong.)



The birthday trick is also in this book... and I first read about this in Michael Skinner’s book. This is a nice mathematical puzzle that gets a good reaction. There are gems in this book... but they must be patiently mined!!!

Hi Barry! I've read other effects that involve, "misnaming" the card and know how powerful they can be on the spectator!



In Dai Vernon's, "Ultimate Secrets Of Card Magic", a large segment discusses the Psychological influence of, "misnaming" and the strong effect it has on the audience.



I think your, "find" is a terrific one that will definitely make your magic very memorable!



Good Job!

Misnaming can be very powerful indeed when used judiciously. For any just starting to use it, keep in mind you should have already established that you aren’t just a big liar.



Don’t use it blatantly too often. It can be used as the effect or it can be used as a subtlety to enhance a different effect.



Juan Tamariz uses it at times to great dramatic effect but not magical per se, and at other times very slyly to enhance the effect of magic.



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Publisher, AM/PM...About Magic, Performing Magic

Agreed.

There are some real gems in the Curry book. His version of the walking knot is very clever.



I recently saw Mark Mason lecture. He uses the miscall very effectively in locating a card someone has merely looked at. It's on his most recent tapes. It's killer.



JR

Another vote in favour of the Curry book, which I rate very highly indeed. Personally, I don’t think Curry ever wrote a word on magic that wasn’t worth reading.



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http://www.ian-rowland.com. The most amazing cards in the world and the famous Levitating Cat.

I agree the Curry book is very good.





don

I think the Curry book is an excellent investment. If it did nothing else but gather all of Curry’s work between two covers it would be well worth the purchase price.



There are some very powerful effects in these pages.



My personal favorites are



LINKED,

A PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS &

PROBABILITY ZERO.



The thinking displayed can and has been used for achieving other effects with business cards.

My own favourites are the lucky charm presentation for Out of This World (which doesn’t use a full deck) and the photographic coin presentation. I’ve used both on and off for years after reading his book Special Effects. For the coin one I use ESP rather than playing cards.



A superb mentalist version of Probability Zero appeared in Magick, I once used it on the radio.



Have a good Xmas,

Paul

The Walking Knot effect that was done by Doug Henning on one of his specials was a Paul Curry idea.

Best thoughts,
John

This was my first magic book purchase in fifteen years and what a good one it was. There is so much useful info in this book.
So far my favorites are OOTW and Out of the Past.
I'm sure there will be many more.

Jeff

I would have to agree with you all. Having recently bought this I've been thoroughly impressed by Paul Currys subtle approach in many of his effects. Incredible that such simple direction can change the course of an effect.

My one disapointment is that I can not demonstrate more Paul Curry effects in sequence due to many requiring stacking. But it does leave enough material for years of new routines.

I second what JR said about Mark Mason's use of the idea.

I personally didn't care for the Curry book a whole lot. It might have been that it was hyped up a bit to me.

It wasn't bad at all, just not quite what I was hoping for.

But after hearing some of the things said here, I am sure I will grow more fond of it if I comb through it instead of browse.

Loved a lot of the thinking in the book. And I'll always bow to the master of OOTW.
Greg

A lot of this material has been published before, but if you haven't come across much of Paul Curry's creations before, then having them all in the one book makes this one of my better buys in recent years.

I agree with the above posts. A great book. Glad I picked it up!

Ooh, yes. One of my favourite books.

I love Touch, Houdini's Legacy, and the masterful Circle of Fire.

I feel humbled reading the book.

Special thanks to Stephen Minch for publishing it.

Another vote added for the Paul Curry book.

One great routine has you take out a stack of business cards, number them 1-9, then turn them face down and mix them. A spectator chooses any of the cards, and you number it 1; same for 2, 3, through 9. When the cards are turned over, the spectator has somehow matched all the numbers -- that is, the card he desgnated as 1 has your number 1 on the other side; the 2's match, etc.

What a great trick!

Jerry

I was thrilled by this book. The effects just begged to be lifted from the page and performed. I had to put it down and gather props while I read. It was also cool to see the seed thought behind Dean Dill's box. A masterful rope move!!