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Summary: My first Magic book.
Review: Bill Tarr has written a good book to help you get started with sleight of hand. (I prefer this over self working magic). Though it does take a lot of practice, but can be performed any where. He has text and scetches to help start you on your way to performing magic. It is where I learned the Shell vanish and color change. Buy it, you will be happy you did.
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Summary: A brilliantly complete, illustrated book - a must buy
Review: Bill Tarr has written a very comprehesive, very enducational book on all aspects of sleight - balls, coins, cigarettes, cards, etc. He shares his vast knowledge in a reader-friendly, easy to follow way with great illustrations for every trick. If want a career in magic or just want to learn how to impress folks at the local bar with what you can do with a cigarette, this is the book to own.
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Summary: Excellent intro for aspiring card-tricksters
Review: Ever wanted to fool around with those clever card tricks at a poker table, or make that coin disappear to your niece or nephew, but just never had time to learn the ropes? Then this is the book for you. Tarr focuses on "sleight-of-hand" as shown in the title, which is to differentiate the practices depicted in this book from the more gear-intensive stuff you'll run into at magic shows. The advantage is obviously that it's low-tech and more skill-dependent, so you don't need too much equipment to wow friends and family. Techniques are taught pictorially so there's a minimum of sifting thru jargon and material that's tough to visualize. Best of all, you don't need any background in the field, making this the perfect beginner's item. A good way to nourish that magic-fancy you've always had.
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Summary: Excellent book BUT beware.
Review: First let me say I do recommend this book. It has some good tips at the beginning (although you'll find that same wisdom in any good magic book), and the drawings are excellent (although as someone else said at times hard to follow). However I would like to add one warning. The reason I gave this book 3 stars rather than five is that it is VERY sparce on explanation. For example, to explain the classic palm on page 92 it shows an excellent picture then says "Difficult to do well, but it does give you the freedom to use your fingers while palming a coin. Sharply milled coins work best." In other words he may as well have not explained anything. I HIGHLY doubt that if you've not seen the classic palm explained elsewhere that you will be able to develop good technique from one simple (albeit beautiful) sketch.
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Summary: Good book
Review: Good book for learning fundamental sleight moves. As I've said in other reviews, you usually don't appreciate the moves shown in magic books until you see the moves in action from a professional. This book has clear instructions for manipulating balls, cards, etc. and has a lot of illustrations. The tricks in this book won't necessarily make anyone's eyes bulge out in amazement, but you will need to know these fundamental sleights if you want to eventually do more amazing sleight of hand tricks. I would recommend adding books like this and Mark Wilson's Course in Magic to your bookshelf.
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Summary: It's ok but not good
Review: I bought this book hoping on good lessons in sleight of hand, the concept was good, but the drawings were so close together you really couldn't tell what they were doing and they were sketches which made it harder, i myself was not too impresed.
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Summary: The best book on sleight used by pros fit for the amatuers.
Review: I had already bought a book by Tarr, and got this. This is the best book on sleight of hand i have seen so far. it gives good illustrations for the tricks. It also gives billiard ball tricks, many used by Raymond Crow, as well as many other tricks used by Lance Burton, and all of the tricks will make you the star at the dinner table.
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Summary: It was perfect for me becuase I am a ametuer
Review: I just started learning magic and after I read this book, trick by trick, I could do sleight of hand any where, on the street, at the dinner table you name it!
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Summary: Really good trick book, very well illustrated
Review: I really dont understand why some people here didnt give good scores for this book. It is really amazing the number of ilustrations that this book have. And all of them are very good, very real and practive. I dont like magic that you need some apparatus to do it, so, I really enjoy this book, and if you try hard, you can amke really good stuff. All card magics (as the others) are based on your had skill, so there are no tricks, only hand tricks like making a card vanish... it is really cool. Another good book is Modern Coin Magic by J B Bobo... all kinda coin vanishiment is here.
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Summary: Getting Started
Review: I recieved this book for Christmas and I really like it. The book shows some good techniques for doing some very interesting sleights. The only thing I would change would be the sketches. Overall the pictures are pretty good, but the sketch style makes some pictures difficult to figure out. It is worth the time and effort.
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