15 years in writing, rewriting, updating and more, this huge book describes hundreds of cons, scams and cheats that infest our world today. Join Simon, Freddy the Fox and his nefarious gang of chums as they take you by the hand and lead you towards enlightenment. This is not a book of magic tricks but a collection of the exact techniques used to separate you and others from your hard-earned cash.
It's a roller-coaster ride through bar bets, street hustles, carnivals, Internet fraud, big and small cons, card and dice games and more. You'll even find the exact frauds that the NYPD regard as the most common and dangerous today! You'll also learn top tips on how to avoid each and every con! The inside information has come from Simon's lifetime of experience in the field along with additional information from both sides of the law. Top FBI expert Bruce Walstead added fabulous information to the carnival section!
This isn't just a "here's how the con works" book. No, instead it guides you through the set up, the talk, the sell, everything about the con and how you can get suckered into one. Don't say you can't be conned; if you think that, you could already be half-way towards being so! There's no preaching from a lofty perch here, just a fun, ripping ride through a world that so few know about. You'll meet wild, eccentric and larcenous characters, you'll learn how they work their money-making deeds and all without having to risk a penny of your own money.
Magicians who use gambling routines will find this an invaluable resource to make them seem more real. You'll learn how to think, act and talk like a cheat.
With beautiful sequential art by Alan Wassilak, hundreds of photographs from Simon's collection along with others from Carl Mercurio and Simon's own fun style of writing, this is a book you'll find impossible to put down. It is full of deeply disturbing material that you may find hard to believe but people are being taken each and every day by these schemes. Don't be one of them. Learn well and you'll be able to avoid them.
Neither the publisher or author can be held accountable for any reader who tries these schemes to make money themselves. They will, however, be happy to pity them for their idiocy. Great con men are not made, they are born!
Hardcover, 456 pages, Large, 8 1/2 x 11 format
Full-Color Dust Jacket, Acid-free Paper
Gold-Foil Stamped Cover
Illustrations by Alan Wassilak, Hundreds of Photographs
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The name Bob Ostin has long been synonymous with creative close-up and card magic, but until now the true depth and breadth of his original effects and methods has remained hidden. No longer! This landmark volume, The Magic of Bob Ostin, will ensure the author his deserved place in history as one of the pre-eminent creators of the 20th Century.
Those who prize commercial, practical magic have long praised Bob’s earlier work, Fingertip Fantasies, as a classic in the field. Yet despite that book’s deserved status, and Bob’s underground reputation as creator par excellence, he has remained something of an unknown to the magic community at large. Well all that is about to change! In an era when so many are striving to ‘invent’ tricks that are fresh, novel and commercial, it is a genuine pleasure to see a master at work. Bob Ostin has been devising cutting-edge magic for over half a century and the material he created fifty years ago is as ingenious, practical and fooling as the new material he developed last week!
Always thinking, and more importantly always thinking outside-of-the-box. Bob is constantly working on new magical ‘problems’ as he likes to think of them and inevitably he works out a brilliant yet practical solution, resulting in a ‘worker’ that will happily do double-duty and fool the boys at the local magic club as easily as it will stun a lay audience.
One of the definitions of genius is someone who creates (music, literature, art and in this instance Magic!) something that would never have been created had that person never lived. Such a definition surely fits Bob Ostin. Even a cursory glance through this volume will be enough to convince the casual reader of Bob’s creative talents; the more diligent student will be amply rewarded by learning tricks and routines which simply seem… impossible! Water that turns to beer, origami men that take on a life of their own, cards that just melt through one another… Tricks with cards, coins, dice, rubber bands, chop sticks, liquids, matches, paper, plasters, numbers, photographs, torches, fruit, cars – the list is almost endless! Think of any object you like and chances are Bob has a trick (or two!) with it.
Containing virtually all his published output from the past 50 years, this book includes the material from his limited-circulation lecture notes, rare manuscripts, dozens and dozens of magazine contributions, the full instructions for every single one of his marketed effects as well as the many gems that have remained hidden in his notebooks - until now. This book truly is a truly is a lasting and worthy record of The Magic of Bob Ostin A Lifetime of Magical Inventions.
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A complete guide to performing magic for children. New York's top kid show magician, Featured on television, in newspapers, and magazines, shares his secrets of success. Featuring six never-before published routines, 27 secrets of funnier routines, 7 essays, plus 21 tips to keep parents from talking during your show! All this and more allows you to work more, and make more money!
-Turn your show into non-stop laughter with the techniques you'll discover only in this book.
-Learn the psychology behind children's behavior and how to apply that to a successful show.
-Unlock the top 10 keys to performing memorable children's magic.
-Get the secrets to making parents laugh too, so you get hired again and again!
-Discover simple steps that make kids demand you for their party.
-Understand the differences in performing for different aged children.
-Six steps to getting the most entertainment from a child volunteer.
-Solving the tip 19 problems of performing for children.
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The effects in this book have been designed form the inside out. In each case, Christopher began with some concept drawn from nature or metaphysics that he was strongly attached to. Then, like a magnet invisibly organizing iron filings, the concept acted as a nucleus around which technique, method, and devices gathered to produce the form of the effect.
In this manuscript, Christopher applied this empirical perspective to the classic effects of magic and found that many of them expressed principles found in nature or archetypal ideas from the human imagination. This Inside-Out perspective allows the performer to get deep into the heart of an effect, and truly understand it. Once that is achieved the performer can truly amaze the audience with effects that appear to be a natural extension of the performer's mind and body.
Inside-Out is certainly not the only perspective that can be applied to finding/creating magic and mental effects. Simply looking or a cool way of showing off one's dexterity with coins or cards can lead to entertaining and recognizable magic. What adopting the Inside-Out perspective can do is add another dimension to our enjoyment of the magic of nature and the nature of magic.
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This is a comprehensive depiction of Don Alan's theories, handling, and presentation of the Chop Cup. It's his way of doing it, not merely a replication of a single performance.
THE REAL WORK on how Don loaded, got the laughs and set up for doing his classic routine. This is the first time all the subtle work has been published.
The 28 pages, with fabulous photos and drawings of "The Complete Don Alan Chop Cup" is all you could ask for and MORE.
