Scarne on Card Tricks

by John Scarne

This marvelous treasury of card magic presents the exact details of 155 professional card tricks — none of them requiring sleight-of-hand dexterity — assembled by the world's number-one card wizard, John Scarne. An authority on gambling and card tricks, Scarne won renown for teaching professional gamblers how to sharpen their skills and avoid being fleeced. For this collection of mystifying and effective maneuvers, he assembled an exciting series of original effects and classic card tricks, reworked to eliminate the need for sleight-of-hand.
Simple instructions and clear diagrams illustrate Houdini's "Card on the Ceiling," Blackstone's "Card Trick Without Cards," Carlyle's "Piano Card Trick," Milton Berle's "Quickie Card Deal," and dozens more. Also included are Scarne's "Drunken Poker Deal," "Knockout Card Trick," and others from his repertoire — tricks that have fooled some of the world's leading magicians.
Scarne presents all tricks with advice on accompanying patter, offering helpful suggestions about the kinds of words and gesturers that give performances a professional gloss. Anyone can learn these tricks, and this single volume contains everything a would-be master of card magic needs to know.

Genres: Magic, Nonfiction

336 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1974

About the author

John Scarne was an American magician and book author who was particularly adept at playing card manipulation. He became known as an expert on cards and other games, and authored a number of popular books on cards, gambling, and related topics.

Reviews

[Cameron Copper · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are looking to get into card magic and want a nice reference of tricks that can be accomplished without sleight of hand, this is a great book to own and read.

If, like me, you are looking for more challenging material or material that can supplement a routine this book has a few gems in it that can be useful. As Harry Lorrayne is fond of saying, not every trick needs to be an absolute knuckle-buster to be able to confound the witnesses.

As you read this book, because the tricks are self-working, you will find ample opportunity to monkey with the patter or the performance to add handlings picked up elsewhere.

A fun book to read and one I'm glad that I will be able to reference in the upcoming years.

[Ryan Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book easy read

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another must have book. Even if you do not normally do card magic, this like the Royal Road, belongs on every magicians shelf as a invaluable reference source.

[Abdelghani]

to read this book