New issue now online!

FASDIU — Although I've long been familiar with Paul Cummins' card material through his From a Shuffled Deck in Use booklets, which are excellent tomes full of practical miracles, finally seeing him do this material was a revelation. For that reason I recently attended his lecture in Indianapolis (part of an extended journey through the Midwest for Paul), and I was more than rewarded. Paul is often photographed in (and indeed lectured in) a suit and tie, hence I had anticipated a mild-mannered corporate style of magic. Rather, Paul is a magic bartender who knows great lines and great sight gags with a deck, who had us laughing throughout the lecture and who had us laughing loudest when he had fooled us with something incredibly bold. Of course, as it is with Doc Eason and Tom Mullica and other top magic bartenders, some very precise sleight of hand is going on to produce all these laughs and mysteries, and Paul is one of the best I've encountered at teaching the fine points of what he is doing. Plus it's all real world stuff that he uses all the time to entertain real people, not something merely novel that he dreamed up to take out on a lecture tour. He's a nice guy, he does great magic, and this is a must-see lecture. Go! You will definitely come away with material you can use.

August 2007

Big news! As faithful readers know, I spent a week in Hollywood last September attending the various activities surrounding the 50th anniversary of It's Magic!, Milt Larsen's internationally famous hometown magic show. After months of discussing where best to present the overwhelming amount of material collected, we've decided that online is the best option, and there has never been a better online repository (modesty, modesty) than The Little Egypt Gazette. Although I retired that journal some 10 years ago, we've decided to bring out a Special Edition large enough to do the story justice. Just click on the image at the left or click Take me to the Gazette, and you will be off and reading. (WARNING: Most of the content is generous and requires high speed internet.) Meanwhile, don't overlook this current sheet's discussion of the Paul Cummins lecture tour or his and Doc Eason's wonderful book Fusillade. (In order for us to launch this special edition early, some of you may have missed our July installment. Don't overlook it for an incredible Mac King/Peter Studebaker item and my chance encounter with NBA superstar Nick Anderson.) Enjoy, and I hope to see many of you soon at MAGIC Live.

Take a card. Take a LOT of cards.

SO MANY SPECTATORS, SO LITTLE TIME — A few years ago I took my first shot at doing a Multiple Selection routine, after studying methods by Doc Eason, and trying one which should have been dead easy. I bombed. Just as I was proudly showing the third spectator his 4 of clubs, the seventh spectator insisted that the 4 of clubs was his card. Somehow I had gotten terribly off in my selection bank, and I could see no way to recover. Only later did I realize what went wrong: I had accidentally left a stranger card, an extra 4 of clubs, in the deck, and both specs had chosen the 4. This is too bad, because the routine is a killer way to not only entertain but involve a large group of people with nothing but a shuffled deck. Fusillade by Paul Cummins and Doc Eason, two real-world practicioners and students of the routine, is an ideal was to begin to learn it. Not only are there excellent methods for the selection process and the subsequent revelations, but extensive thought on the psychology of what you are doing, what to do if you need to throw in extra selections, what to do if things go wrong, and what to do if they go incredibly right. In Doc's case, that was a card landing in a lady's cleavage, and this book will teach you what to say if that happens. It's worth the $20 for that alone. Available from either Paul's or Doc's web sites.