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Lee Asher's Card Magic & Playing Card History Timeline
$29.99
https://www.leeasher.com/store/lee-asher-card-magic-and-playing-card-history-timeline-book.php
The Hype:
CENTURIES OF HISTORY IN ONE PLACE
This hand-picked timeline chronologically takes you through centuries of playing card magic history, culture, and innovation. You know the story, but do you understand the logic and relationships between the elements of magic and playing cards? This book and bonus video may be just what you've been missing. This historical compilation contains hundreds of citations from various publications, newspapers, periodicals, interviews, etc. allowing you to understand better how playing cards and card magic are linked and related.
There is NO sleight-of-hand taught in this book but don't let that stop you. It's a selection of eye-popping, hand-picked citations about playing cards and card magic that takes us from ancient Egypt to modern times. As a sample, here are two interesting facts about playing cards and magic that you'll immediately tell your friends and family about.
1. When you say the word 'deck,' you invoke Shakespeare. In 1593, William Shakespeare coined the term deck in his play Henry VI. In a line by the character Gloster, he remarked, "But, whiles he thought to steal the single ten, The king was slily finger'd from the deck!"
2. Ben Franklin did card tricks. Well, at least one card trick. In 1749, Benjamin Franklin printed the first card trick in the thirteen colonies called "The Impenetrable Secret." We find advertisements for it in his newspaper, The Pennsylvania Gazette.
Cool, right? That's just the beginning. Do you want more awesome conversation starters like these? This brand new 100-page timeline book and bonus video talk is for you.
My Take:
Long, long ago when I was just getting interested in card magic, a friend showed me a video that just destroyed me. It was called the Asher Twist and it looked absolutely impossible. All these years later, it is still one of my favorite routines and Asher is still one of my favorites.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGNAfBQwz4M)
So when I was asked if I would like to review his new book, I did not hesitate to say "Of course" and after perusing it, I am so glad I said yes.
A quick look through the book lets you know it is not the standard magic book you are used to. It is composed of a number of citations (quotations from or reference to a book, paper, or author, especially in a scholarly work). It has the feel of a book composed of footnotes. Lee has taken the entire history of the playing card and laid it out in chronological order. And, it is not only the cards themselves that get the full story but you are also treated to the evolution of paper making and printing technology (Yep, Gutenberg is mentioned.)
There is so much I didn't know or even thought about. Lee had laid out the entire history and each citation has where it came from. This is one of those books that, as you read it, you will be looking things up online. There is only so much each citation can tell you and you want to go further of a lot of them. You will find out things that intrigue you.
A couple that caught my eye were the history of USPCC (the history and the former name of the company) And did you know that there were variations of the Si Stebbins stack published years before he was even born? Learn about the first references to a force, a pass and the double lift. These are not nearly as recent as you might have thought.
This is a thoroughly research and laid out history that, if you are into real magic history (or even if you are not) should totally engage you for a couple nights of reading. The book is a smaller format of paperback and features many illustrations both in color and line drawings.
I almost forgot the best part. Lee recently gave a lecture at FISM on the subject. When you buy the book, you get a link to a video of the lecture. This is the same lecture he presented at FISM but it was filmed on a different day. I found this 44 minute video both very entertaining and informative and plan to rewatch it soon.
Although there is just tons of interesting trivia in here, the one that really caught my attention was a citation involving Cardini. Were you aware that his preferred brand of cards used in his act came from Walgreens? I occasionally drop into a Walgreens to check out the cards they have on sale and sometimes find a prize but this Cardini tidbit was beyond my imagination.
To put it simply, I loved this book. It should be a must have for anyone who is a serious student of magic history (or even just has an interest.) The size is small (5X8.5, 104 pages) so it can be finished in an evening but this is one that will keep you coming back for more. It is also obvious just how much work went into compiling this book. So thank you, Lee, for taking the time effort to make this available to the magic community.
Highly recommended.