Author: Karl Johnson Publisher: Macmillan + ORM ISBN: 1466833041 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 381
Book Description
A famous magician's journey to find the greatest cardsharp ever evokes the forgotten world of magic where Americans found escape during the Great Depression It has the nostalgic quality of an old-fashioned fable, but Karl Johnson's The Magician and the Cardsharp is a true story that lovingly re-creates the sparkle of a vanished world. Here, set against the backdrop of America struggling through the Depression, is the world of magic, a realm of stars, sleight of hand, and sin where dreams could be realized - or stolen away. Following the Crash of '29, Dai Vernon, known by magicians as "the man who fooled Houdini," is tramping down Midwestern backroads, barely making ends meet. While swapping secrets with a Mexican gambler, he hears of a guy he doesn't quite believe is real - a legendary mystery man who deals perfectly from the center of the deck and who locals call the greatest cardsharp of all time. Determined to find the reclusive genius, Vernon sets out on a journey through America's shady, slick, and sinful side - from mob-run Kansas City through railroad towns that looked sleepy only in the daytime. Does he find the sharp? Well, Karl Johnson did - after years of research into Vernon's colorful quest, research that led him to places he never knew existed. Johnson takes us to the cardsharp's doorstep and shows us how he bestowed on Vernon the greatest secret in magic. The Magician and the Cardsharp is a unique and endlessly entertaining piece of history that reveals the artistry and obsession of a special breed of American showmen.
Author: David Britland Publisher: Running Press ISBN: 9781568582993 Category : Games & Activities Languages : en Pages : 256
Book Description
Walter Irving Scott may have been the greatest card shark ever. In 1930, Scott bamboozled a room full of New York's finest card manipulators by dealing himself winning poker hands from a shuffled deck, one of his many tricks. He liked to say that he "cheated the cheats." His skill with cards was extraordinary and he soon became known as "The Phantom of the Card Table." That's why Gazzo, a magician from England, decided to track Scott down some 60 years later. The two became friends and Scott openly discussed his work with a view to its finally being published. "I don't care what you say," said Scott, "as long as you tell the truth." This is the truth about Walter Irving Scott and other phantoms of the card table who spent years practicing a craft they rarely talk about — cheating at cards. A special chapter revealing master card tricks is also included.
Author: S. W. Erdnase Publisher: Courier Corporation ISBN: 0486156672 Category : Games & Activities Languages : en Pages : 160
Book Description
DIVThe one essential guidebook to attaining the highest level of card mastery, from false shuffling and card palming to dealing from the bottom and three-card monte, plus 14 dazzling card tricks. /div
Author: Jenő Heltai Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform ISBN: 9781725797581 Category : Languages : en Pages : 260
Book Description
For 21st century readers this novel takes us back exactly 100 years and opens a world as troubled and uncertain as our own. Had Heltai been born an American, he would have been part of the Lost Generation, and his unnamed protagonist and main character in his novel would have been considered as a mirror image of F. Scott Fitzgerald's Great Gatsby, namely how somebody of rank and wealth reverts into a penniless nobody. Whether he is seen as a friend or foe of this impoverished nobleman, Mr Selfridge, the 'Magician', is a man who also lives on the edge, but due to his maturity, is more enterprising and more cautious in matters of survival. It is the grey-eyed blonde who completes the trio, and unwittingly fuels the flames of both love and hate, honour and betrayal, and is ultimately the cause which leads the story towards its dramatic end.
Author: Alex Stone Publisher: Bond Street Books ISBN: 0307368211 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 263
Book Description
An exploration of the world of magic that teaches the reader many tricks--including how better to understand the real world. Alex Stone--journalist and part-time conjurer--is here to amaze you. But first he had to amaze his fellow magicians. Fooling Houdini is his fascinating, revealing, and nailbiting account of his attempt to win the 23rd World Championships of Magic, the "Magic Olympics," the largest and most prestigious competition of its kind. Alex Stone managed to qualify for entry and began preparing to astonish people who astonish others for a living. It didn't help his nerves that he was placed on the bill straight after Canadian magician Shawn Farquhar, winner of more magic competitions than anyone in history. Stone's preparations and participation provide his readers with in-depth exploration of the world of magic, and magic's meaning. He spills many professional secrets, arguing that what is important is to ask questions about what lies behind the tricks: how the mind perceives the world and parses everyday experience, about how the mind works--and why sometimes it doesn't, about why people need to believe. As we become more attuned to the limits of our own perception, we become better at distinguishing reality from illusion, at reading the angles and decoding the fine print, he says. We gain intuition and understanding into how people behave. We even learn ways to influence this behavior. This makes us less susceptible to all manner of deception. It is to gain and maintain this sixth sense that Alex Stone--a schoolboy prestidigitator--has continued performing magic well into adulthood. In Fooling Houdini he takes us into that other world, populated by truly astounding characters, and leaves us with a heightened sense of awareness about the supposedly real world.
Author: Alex Livingston Publisher: Rebellion Publishing Ltd ISBN: 178618608X Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 368
Book Description
Never stake more than you can afford to lose. When failed magician turned cardsharp Valen Quinol is given the chance to play in the Forbearance Game—the invitation-only tournament where players gamble with secrets—he can’t resist. Or refuse, for that matter, according to the petty gangster sponsoring his seat at the table. Valen beats the man he was sent to play, and wins the most valuable secret ever staked in the history of the tournament. Now Valen and his motley crew are being hunted by thieves, gangsters, spies and wizards, all with their own reasons for wanting what’s in that envelope. It’s a game of nations where Valen doesn’t know all the rules or who all the players are, and can’t see all the moves. But he does know if the secret falls into the wrong hands, it could plunge the whole world into war…
Author: Jean Hugard Publisher: Courier Corporation ISBN: 0486156532 Category : Games & Activities Languages : en Pages : 480
Book Description
Definitive work on card technique: everything from basic manipulations to advanced flourishes; also a wide variety of tricks. 318 illustrations.
Author: Derek DelGaudio Publisher: Vintage ISBN: 0593081110 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 257
Book Description
Truth and lies are two sides of the same coin. But who's flipping it? A thought-provoking and brilliantly entertaining work of nonfiction from one of the world's leading deceivers, the creator and star of the astonishing theater show and forthcoming film In & Of Itself. Derek DelGaudio believed he was a decent, honest man. But when irrefutable evidence to the contrary is found in an old journal, his memories are reawakened and Derek is forced to confront--and try to understand--his role in a significant act of deception from his past. Using his youthful notebook entries as a road map, Derek embarks on a soulful, often funny, sometimes dark journey, retracing the path that led him to a world populated by charlatans, card cheats, and con artists. As stories are peeled away and artifices are revealed, Derek examines the mystery behind his father's vanishing act, the secret he inherited from his mother, the obsession he developed with sleight-of-hand that shaped his future, and the affinity he felt for the professional swindlers who taught him how to deceive others. And once he finds himself working as a crooked dealer in a big-money Hollywood card game, Derek begins to question his own sense of morality, and discovers that even a master of deception can find himself trapped inside an illusion. A M O R A L M A N is a wildly engaging exploration of the fictions we live as truths. It is ultimately a book about the lies we tell ourselves and the realities we manufacture in others.
Author: Michael Kardos Publisher: Grove Press ISBN: 0802165672 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 255
Book Description
A down-on-her-luck female magician is drawn into a dangerous criminal scheme in this “hopelessly addictive” thriller (Megan Abbott, Edgar Award–winning author of Give Me Your Hand). At twenty-seven, magician Natalie Webb is already a has-been. A card-trick prodigy, she took first place at the World of Magic competition at eighteen and has never again reached such heights. Now she lives alone in a New Jersey apartment with her pigeons and a pile of overdue bills. In a desperate ploy for extra cash, she follows up on an old offer to write for a glossy magazine and pitches the editor a seductive topic: the art of cheating at cards. But when Natalie meets the perfect subject for her piece—a poker cheat who dazzles at sleight of hand—what begins as a journalistic gamble soon leads her into a dangerous proposition with the highest of stakes . . . “Truly gasp-worthy.” —Library Journal, starred review “[A] delightfully surprising thriller.” —The Florida Times-Union “If you haven’t read Kardos yet, Bluff is the perfect place to start!” —Lisa Scottoline, New York Times–bestselling author of Someone Knows
Author: Karl Johnson
Author: David Britland
Author: S. W. Erdnase
Author: Jenő Heltai
Author: Alex Stone
Author: Harry Lorayne
Author: Alex Livingston
Author: Jean Hugard
Author: Derek DelGaudio
Author: Michael Kardos