On the Other Side of the Mirror by Cushing Strout

Details: In the tradition of Eugene Burger, Robert E. Neale, Ariel Frailich and others, here is a collection of card tricks that will entertain your spectators as much by the magic as by the interesting presentations with which they are clothed. The tricks are based primarily on prearrangement and most requite no sleight-of-hand; the ones that do require only minimal skill. The tricks use ideas from the likes of Stewart James, Jim Steinmeyer, Jack Avis, Alex Elmsley, Henry Christ, Aldo Colombini, and many more.

The trick plots are multiple and varied. There are predictions, revelation, and forces based on zodiac signs, a spectator’s birthday, a do-it-yourself murder mystery, fortune-telling, lie detection and more. There are interesting variations on tricks such as “Further than that”, “the Lie Detector, ” “the Clock Trick,” “The dead man’s hand” and other classics. There are story tricks based on learned pigs, Sherlock Holmes and Alice in Wonderland.

A unique feature of this book, is that many tricks have been adapted to make use of unusual decks, such as Tarot cards, fortune-telling cards and Alice in Wonderland cards, in addition to ordinary playing cards. There is even a book test with a Holmesian theme, complete with a Sherlock Holmes book and a Sherlock Holmes deck of cards.

On the Other Side of the Mirror is a thoroughly enjoyable collection of entertaining close-up card magic suited to beginners as well as to experienced magicians who want to add something a little different to their repertoire.

Contents (from book ToC):

7 Introduction
9 1. Variations on “The Nine Problem”
13 2. Invisible Setups
17 3. The Queens Cast a Spell
20 4. Further Than That and the Lie Detector
24 5. The Left-handed Clock
27 6. Taking Another Look at the Dead Man’s Hand

30 Conjuring with Classics
31 7. Six Napoleons
33 8. The Bohemian Scandal
35 9. Holmes Meets Endfield
39 10. On the Other Side of the Mirror
48 Postscript

• Publisher: I Saw That
• Pages: 48
• Location: Toronto, Canada
• Dimensions: 5″x8″
• Date: 2005
• Binding: softbound

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