The Mind and Magic of David Berglas by David Britland, David Berglas

Details: As Revealed to David Britland, the most eagerly-awaited book of the decade, three years in preparation, The Mind & Magic of David Berglas is an enlightening account of over 50 years of miracles from the renowned, legendary man of mystery, David Berglas. Here are his adventures on radio, television, in live shows, corporate shows, with stage illusions and consulting on major motion pictures.

Most amazing of all here are his secrets. As carefully recounted and explained by David Britland, here are David Berglas’ techniques for his amazing phenomena, including his commercial Magic Square Routine, Newspaper Prediction, Blindfold Routine, ESPacology, chair Balance Routine, and many, many others. Here are the remarkable Berglas effects, almost all explained here for the first time, including The Vanishing Piano in a ballroom, the Picture Post Challenge, the Box Over Regent Street, The Ten shilling Note. Here are the routines from his popular one-man show, Man, Myth & Magic. Here the explanation of his publicity-generating television appearances and even his unique approaches to impromptu magic. Here is his method for Think of a Card and the secrets of the famous, whispered-about deception which has become the “holy grail” of card workers, The Berglas Effect – Any Card at Any Number.

Contents:

11 Introduction by Uri Geller
13 Introduction by Paul Daniels
14 Foreword by Jim Steinmeyer
17 David Berglas (David Britland)

53 The Book, 53

59 The 1950’s
59 1. The Picture Post Challenge
72 2. Cresta Run
75 3. The Vanishing Piano
79 4. Magician’s Choice
86 5. Musical Mindrcading
91 6. Do-It-Yourself
98 7. Tricky, the Dog
104 8. Riddle of the Sands
109 9. Regulite
113 10. Predicting the FA Cup Final
116 11. Ten Shilling Note
124 12. Underwater Magic
128 13. Teleportation
132 14. Box Over Regent Street

139 The 1960s
139 15. Coin in the Bottle
147 16. The Beach in South Africa
151 17. Revues
152 – The Post Office Sketch
154 – The Estate Agent Sketch
161 18. Card on the Window
165 19. Magic Fingers
168 20. In Town Tonight
172 21. Robby the Robot
178 22. Whales, Cats, Plants
182 23. Turning the Clock Back
189 24. Rocking Horse
199 25. Creda Cookers
204 26. David in the Lion’s Den
207 27. Blindfold Drive
212 28. English Electric
218 29. Identikit
225 30. Casino Royale
236 31. Vitonette
242 32. The Table Levitation

253 Opus 13
253 33. Opus 13
259 Palmistry
260 An Interesting Problem with Numbers
261 Memory & Mathematics
267 The Mexican Mat Dance
270 Russian Roulette
272 It’s All Done by Hypnosis
276 The Clock Mystery and Lie Detector
279 The Chair Mystery
282 34. The Albert Memorial

287 The 1970s
287 35. A Tilting Ship
291 36. Coloured Discs
297 37. The Press Club Prediction
300 38. Uri Geller
310 39. Cunard International
314 40. Chair Balance
320 41. Blindfold Routine

332 Man, Myth & Magic
332 42. Man, Myth & Magic
332 The Hendon Classic Show
334 Introduction
334 Are You Sitting Comfortably?
338 Shall We Open the Box?
338 Number Three is ESP
342 Coincidental Colours
342 3 or 4 Words of Hundreds of Thousands
342 Can You Solve this Puzzle?
344 Memories are Made of This
349 A Touch of Black Magic
349 Seance
349 This Glass Contains Spirits
352 The Powers of Darkness
354 Spirit Message, Modern Style
355 Seeing is Believing
358 Voodoo. Witchcraft or…
358 The Monk Transposition
362 Part Three
364 Would You Make a Reliable Witness?
368 Your Finger on the Pulse
371 Shock Tactics
372 Razor Sharp
373 Put Your Best Foot Forward
374 Finale
377 Questions and Answers
379 Variation: The Mechanical Band Opening

383 The 1980’s
383 43. Time and Light
387 44. Pear in a Bottle
390 45. Synchro Time
393 46. Mini Metro Launch
397 47. Contact Mindreading
403 48. The Knight’s Tour
408 49. Pickpocketing: The Watch Finale
419 50. The Newspaper Prediction
424 The Newspapers
424 The Proof
425 The Performance
426 Choosing the Page
426 Tearing the Paper
429 51. ESPacology
437 52. Matchmaker
443 53. Sweetings
448 54. Mathemagic
448 Add Infinitum
450 Method 1
450 Method 2
451 Method 3
452 Today’s Date
455 Cryptomania
457 55. Magic Squares
465 Constructing Magic Squares
466 The Personalised Birthday Square
470 56. DRUM

478 The Mind of David Berglas
478 57. The Mind of David Berglas
480 The Christmas Show
481 The Watch Steal
486 Christmas Card Prediction
487 Hot Foil
488 Christmas Card Prediction Finale
490 The Series
491 Breaking the Chain
494 The Quizzing Glass
497 Te Bah Pla and Name Discovery
500 Drinks Prediction
501 Quartered Magic Square
507 The Human Calendar
511 Epilogue

518 Berglas on Cards
518 58. Think of a Card
524 59. Think of a Card Plus
527 60. The Berglas Effect
527 Any Card at Any Number
529 Jazz Magic
531 A Foundation for Miracles
533 The Bridge
535 Expect the Unexpected
536 The Psychology of Numbers
537 On Stage
538 Pointing the Effect
538 A Different Presentation
539 Sheer Devilment
540 An Interlude
541 In Conclusion

543 Final Thoughts by David Berglas
543 Mystery and Imagination
544 Style and Image
545 The Impossible or Too Impossible
546 Reaching an Audience
547 The Television Medium
549 Creating Mysteries Off the Stage
551 Opportunities and Personalities
552 Decision to Retire
555 My Family
557 With Many Thanks
558 A Final Story

560 The Man in the Glass

562 Index

• Publisher: Hahne
• Pages: 566
• Location: Burbank, CA, USA
• Dimensions: 9″x10″
• Date: 2002
• Binding: hardbound

David Berglas has had a long and distinguished performing career. He was a pioneer in the performing of magic on television. He was also one of the first to use magic in corporate shows and sales meetings. He is a master at staging high profile publicity stunts. He has been very successful at protecting his secrets. Austin Powers may have the mojo, but Berglas is the real International Man of Mystery. Most (but not all) of Berglas’ secrets are now revealed in The Mind & Magic of David Berglas. The book is the result of two-year collaboration between Berglas and writer David Britland and it is massive. The trademark of any Berglas routine is an intense desire to fool the audience deeply. Mr. Berglas accomplishes this through psychology, audience management, high cunning, low cunning, nerves of steel, and balls of brass. Anyone with an interest in mental magic, television magic, corporate magic, or promotional stunts will want this book in their library.

David Berglas was born in 1926. His father ran the family textile business, which had factories throughout Europe. Because of this, David became a world traveler at a young age. His first encounter with magic was through an uncle, but the bug really bit when he saw a performance by Ken Brooke at a meeting of the Bradford Magical Society. Berglas worked in the offices of his father’s textile factories, but the job was uninteresting to him. Eventually, work was found as a cabaret performer, and he generated some publicity with a stunt in which he was blindfolded and located an object hidden in London. (This stunt was called the “Picture Post Challenge” and is explained in the book.) In the early 1950s Mr. Berglas began performing on radio, and he developed many routines that made use of the auditory nature of the medium. Because of his radio appearances he quickly became a household name. This lead to a move to television, and Mr. Berglas was the star of many television series that aired throughout Europe. Corporate work also developed, and in the 1960s he added motion pictures to his list of credits, serving as a performer and a technical advisor. Many of you may remember seeing David Berglas in Casino Royale, a movie notable for the chaos involved in its production. Mr. Berglas retired from performing at the end of 1993. He is a Past President of the British Ring of the International Brotherhood of Magicians, and a Past President of the Magic Circle. Berglas was the Magic Circle’s President for nine years, and under his presidency the club acquired a permanent home, The Centre for Magic Arts.

The Mind & Magic of David Berglas is organized chronologically. Highlighting the magic of the 1950s are some great publicity stunts, including the aforementioned “Picture Post Challenge,” the “Cresta Run” (a blindfold bobsled run), “Underwater Magic,” and the “Box Over Regent Street.” Also included in this section is Berglas’ method for making a grand piano disappear in a ballroom surrounded by mingling guests. Magic from the 1960s includes methods for Bob Hummer’s “Card on the Window,” and “The Table Levitation.” The latter trick is one of Berglas’ most famous and memorable presentations, but it is not completely explained. This section also contains stories from the production of Casino Royale. The highlight of the 1970s section is the detailed recounting of David Berglas’ one-man show Man, Myth & Magic. This was a long show, running to three hours with two intermissions. It featured some classic Berglas routines, including the “Chair Routine,” the Newspaper Prediction, and “The Berglas Effect,” also known as “Any Card at Any Number.”

The section on magic from the 1980s includes the Berglas routines for Contact Mindreading and The Knight’s Tour, his Pickpocket routine, and routines from the television series The Mind of David Berglas. The final chapter is titled Berglas on Cards, and includes information on the Think of a Card trick and the Berglas Effect. Mr. Berglas then adds some final thoughts on magic on television, style and image, creating the impossible, and creating mysteries off the stage.

The Mind & Magic of David Berglas is not a book for the beginning or intermediate magician. Much of what is explained here requires masterful stage presence. The $150 price tag will keep away the merely curious. For the experienced mentalist, the magician with aspirations of performing on television, and for the stand-up performer who would like to learn how to turn a pocket trick into a routine that plays for 1000 people, this book is invaluable. If you were planning on purchasing the book to learn the Berglas Effect you should know that there is not a straight line, clear cut method. The trick is an example of jazz magic, and requires an enormous amount of resourcefulness and flexibility on the part of the performer. Sometimes you get a miracle. (If you’re lucky, somebody important will be there to see it.) Sometimes it’s not quite as miraculous. When everything goes right the audience goes nuts, and that reaction is worth the risk. I’m a little disappointed that Mr. Berglas has decided to hold back information on a few of his most famous effects (including the “Chair Routine” and the “Table Levitation”). There are enough clues scattered throughout the book that a clever reader will probably be able to make an informed guess, but to me the definitive Berglas book should have been definitive. In the wish list department, I’d like to see a companion video released. There are some routines in this book that I would love to see performed (for example, the Pickpocket routine in which four stolen wristwatches appear linked together in a sealed box).

The book is illustrated with serviceable line drawings and contains many photographs of Berglas through the years of his career. David Britland has done a fine job capturing the flavor of a Berglas performance. The descriptions of the effects strive to give the reader the feeling of being in the audience at one of Mr. Berglas’ shows. This approach is necessary because this material is personality driven; in order to appreciate the effects you have to understand Mr. Berglas’ performance style.

The Mind & Magic of David Berglas is a tribute to a performer who established himself as a miracle worker. The price tag is steep, but the information is valuable. Use the guidelines I offered above to determine whether this book is for you. (Also, be aware that this is another limited edition. Only 1000 copies are available.)

(Michael Close – Magic Magazine, November 2002)
Text Source: michaelclose.com – click for details
Contents: magicref.net – click for details

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