BOOK REVIEW BY DAVID SUTHERLAND CARNEYCOPIA IS BACK IN PRINT!!

Well this is exciting news for the start of 2024!

CARNEYCOPIA BY STEPHEN MINCH

BOOK DETAILS: 266 pages (Hardcover), Publisher: L&L Publishing, Published in 1991. Written by Stephen Minch and Illustrated by Kelly Lyles. BACK IN PRINT!! Available at: www.browsersden.com

John Carney is a name you should know. He is one of the finest sleight of hand performers in the world and The Magic Castle has awarded him more awards than anyone in their history. For an excellent article about John, check out www.magicana.com and read Jamy Ian Swiss’ Take Two #68.

John’s other books include: Carney Knowledge; The Book of Secrets; Magic by Design; and Sleights & Insights. All of these are considered modern classics.

The Introduction is by Michael Skinner, Mike Caveney, and Stephen Minch. Without rehashing the thoughts of each of these gentlemen here, let me just say that their consensus is that John Carney possesses a high degree of skill; has created entertaining and lighthearted presentations with direct methods; and has a desire to always be learning.

John Carney’s Secret Philosophy is next and it should be read and re-read before forging ahead to the tricks. Also keep in mind that this philosophy is just a starting point.

Carneycopia begins with Current Classic which John describes as “a fancy name for a few, practical, sponge ball moves.” It should be noted that not only are they practical, but also extremely deceptive and highly visual.

Predictable Surprise entails the magician writing a prediction on a napkin and placing it writing-side down. Someone chooses a card and it is left protruding from the pack. The napkin is turned over and the prediction is seen to be correct. The deck is then riffled at the napkin and when the napkin is lifted the card is found underneath.

In Straggler a card is selected and the deck wrapped in a cocktail napkin. When the performer snaps their fingers a card penetrates the napkin, but it’s not the selection. Another snap, another wrong card penetrates. A third snap and a stream of cards penetrate the napkin, leaving only one trapped inside…the selection.

Final Trace is the conclusion of the deck-and-napkin trilogy. Another card is selected and lost in the deck and the deck is wrapped in a napkin. The napkin is then crumpled into a ball - the deck has vanished. The napkin is then lit, burns briefly, and the flame tamped out. The charred napkin is rubbed against the magician’s forearm and the name of the selected card appears in ashy gray writing on their skin.

The performer shows a glass and a half dollar. The coin is dropped in the glass and it visibly penetrates the bottom. The glass is inverted and the coin dropped onto the bottom, again it penetrates. The coin then penetrates the bottom a third time. The glass is then wrapped in a napkin and penetrates the table. This is Soft Glass.

Chill Pack is the startling and instantaneous production of a deck of cards. John uses this to open a series of card effects.

Poor Man’s Card Manipulation is a great parlour piece using a few cards and some select manipulation moves sequenced into a visual and entertaining routine. The performer removes some cards from a deck and they are squeezed out of existence and then rapidly reproduced from thin air. This is something that would be right at home with any of the effects from Naypes.

Ethereal Pack is an Ambitious Card gone wrong with a Joker showing up on top of the deck and on the bottom. Then the deck is slapped and all the cards vanish except the selection. This trick slaps.

Streamlined Cylinder and Coins is John’s take on the Ramsay classic where coins vanish one at a time and appear underneath a small cork disk residing in a small cylinder on the table. 

Side-Pocket Transpo has two cards clearly shown, front and back, and one placed in the performer’s pocket. The one in the hand changes places with the one in the pocket.  This is all done with regular cards.

Trans-Essence is another solution to the aforementioned transposition effect.

Inscrutable is a variation of Derek Dingle’s Regal Royal Flush. The magician claims to know the position of every card in the deck. This is done tongue-in-cheek since the audience can see the performer peeking at the cards prior to naming them. A face-up Joker is then arrived at and shoved into the middle of the deck…it then appears on top. Jokers show up three more times and each time the performer places them aside on the table. The final Joker is turned over and waved over the others on the table. All four Jokers have become Aces!

Half Dollars in the Mist is John’s take on the original John Ramsay plot. The performer shows two half dollars, takes one and makes it invisible and hangs it in the air. The same is done with the second coin. Both hands are seen clearly empty as the coins disappear. The invisible coins are removed from their skyhooks, and with a gentle shake, become visible again.

Versa Switch is John’s original method of secretly adding cards to a packet, with the intention of switching all of some of the initial cards for others. This was inspired by a move of Ed Marlo’s. 

Kings and Aces Change Places is the title of the next trick and whoever can guess what happens wins a fist bump from me the next time I see you. Method-wise, only the Kings and Aces are used.

In Fruit Cup a dollar bill is borrowed and a corner torn off for the lender to keep. The bill is crumpled into a ball, placed into the performer’s hand and made to vanish and reappear underneath an inverted coffee cup. Some cup and ball moves are done with the balled bill and cup until finally a lemon appears under the cup. When the lemon is sliced open, inside is the borrowed bill with the missing corner.

For Natural Selection, a card is signed, returned and shuffled into the pack. The magician springs the cards in the air and plucks the signed selection from the falling cards! Showstopping potential? I think so. Also, no palming involved.

In Australian Aces, a spectator shuffles the deck then freely chooses four cards. The performer deals a pile of cards behind each of the selections using the value of the selections to determine how many cards are dealt. The four piles are turned over to show an Ace on the face of each. The effect’s title suggests the method used to accomplish this feat.

In the review of Impossibilia, I mentioned the sound of silence that sometimes follows the end of an effect. One of my earliest times experiencing this was after performing Wired (the next trick in the book) during my 1998 show Grandfather’s Attic and again during my 2008 show Real Illusions. Wired is the prediction of an amount of change a spectator has in their pocket. The performer holds a folded, stapled index card in plain sight the entire time and yet the value of the change is written inside. Powerful stuff.

Have you ever seen the Sympathetic Cards, Queen’s Soiree or the Electromagnetic Aces? If not, think of the trick as Matrix but with cards in place of coins and two large cardboard covers in place of playing cards. You can see Danny Rouzer perform this on The Magic Palace.* In fact, that’s where I first saw it performed while sitting in front of my parent’s Zenith TV at 7am when I was a youngster. But I digress. John’s version of this classic is called Bull Session and he uses a handling that is considerably improved from the original methods. John suggests following this trick with a Card Stab using the materials already in play from this routine.

Suicide Match is the nearly-impromptu animation of a box of matches, wherein the box mysteriously opens and a single match slithers out of the drawer.

Seconds on Jack Sandwich strikes me as an almost prophetic creation wherein the two red Jacks are placed face up on the table and a card is selected, noted, and lost in the pack. The performer makes a gesture over the Jacks and a face down card appears between them - the selection. The card is placed back into the deck and the deck is dribbled onto the table, the Jacks are tossed through the stream and when they land a face down card is seen between them…the selection has been caught mid-flight. See what I mean about prophetic?

In The Logical Bill Trick the performer shows a dollar bill front and back and his hands empty. The bill is folded and a half dollar emerges from within. The bill is opened and folded again and a second half dollar appears. This happens a third time and when the bill is unfolded it has changed into a hundred dollar bill. This trick originally appeared in Carney Knowledge and John considers it one of his best creations. The explanation provided here clarifies and simplifies several elements found in the original publication. David Regal’s Consolidation in Approaching Magic, would pair well with this one.

How fair does this sound? The performer writes a prediction on a piece of paper and sets it aside. It remains in view the entire time. They then shuffle a deck and start dealing cards into a face down pile on the table until someone says stop. The prediction is read and the card stopped at is turned over…it matches. This is The Slide to Home Prediction.

There are hundreds of methods in print for the effect of three coins penetrating a table and landing in a glass held below it. However, in his younger years John devised his method and it beats most methods in terms of directness and fairness of appearance. If you have ever wanted to perform this effect then have a look at To The Sticking Point.

Bullet Train is John’s version of Cards Up the Sleeve, the classic plot first explained by Robert-Houdin in 1868. John’s version uses only the four Aces. One by one they vanish from the hands and travel up the sleeve and under the coat.

Quarter Spin is John’s masterful version of Coin in Bottle which can be done at close quarters (pun intended, sure) with a borrowed quarter and a Perrier bottle. The bottle can even be produced if you wish.

For Transplant, John takes Vernon’s Picking of the Pip and adds an extra bit to it. The performer shows a four of diamonds and places it face down on the table. He removes the middle pip from a three of diamonds (thus changing it into a two of diamonds) and adds the pip to the four on the table creating a five of diamonds.

In A Polite Penetration, a borrowed bill is formed into a ring and suddenly four quarters are poured from the bill (an impressive feat on its own). The quarters are stacked on a spectator’s hand, covered with the bill-ring and the stack is tapped with a pencil. The quarters suddenly penetrate the person’s hand and all can be examined.

Slow Fade to Red is a bit-by-bit colour changing deck routine. By waving your hands over the cards, one blue-backed card turns red, then another, and another…then a packet and finally the rest of the deck.

Hot Slot is John’s take on Dr. Hiroshi Sawa’s Slot Machine. While talking about a trip to Vegas the performer shows a nickel, quarter and half dollar. Their fist represents a slot machine and they place a nickel inside. Using a wand as a handle it is poked into the fist, they pull on it and the nickel vanishes; same with the quarter. However, when the half dollar is inserted and the handle pulled a stream of silver dollars pours from their hand!

Sanverted uses just the four Aces. The red Aces, no matter how many times they’re placed beneath the black Aces, magically appear on top. One red Ace is tabled and the effect is done with the remaining red Ace which is also tabled only to find that the magician still holds the two red Aces and the black Aces are now on the table. As you may have noticed, this trick combines the Ambitious Card with The Last Trick of Dr. Jacob Daley. I showed this to someone twenty years ago, ran into them recently, and they recalled me showing them this trick.

Minch states that he is reluctant to add to the literature devoted to the Oil and Water plot. However, John’s Oil on Troubled Waters is a pared-down take on the effect using only six cards and moves that are convincing and straightforward. The ending results in the spectator-shuffled-deck separating into reds and blacks!

In Calligraphic Cash a borrowed bill is signed by the spectator and then their bill is placed in the magician’s hand. When the hand is opened, the bill has transformed into an ink cartridge and the pen is unscrewed to reveal the signed bill! Why have I not learned this in the past thirty years? I have no good answer. 

Everywhere, Nowhere and on your Face is John’s pairing of the Hofzinser classic and the Card on Forehead. A card is selected and lost in the pack and the performer attempts to find the card while holding the deck in one hand. The three cards he finds are not the selection and he drops them on the table. Upon picking up the three cards he mentions that they look like the spectator’s card and names the card. Then, the three cards are turned around to show that all of them are the spectator’s card. The performer puts the three cards face down on the table and asks the spectator to find their card. Upon turning the cards over, all three are once again indifferent cards and the selection is on the performer’s forehead.

The final trick in the book is a close-up version of the Bullet Catch, entitled The Thirteenth Victim. When no one volunteers to play the part of the victim, a tiny voice is heard and the performer’s hand now looks like a face complete with two little eyes. Think of this as Coins Across done with bullets. Three bullets are “loaded” into the performer’s right hand, the hand/gun is aimed at the face and when the gun hand is opened the bullets are gone and then three bullets are slowly dropped out of the mouth of the other hand onto a saucer. The hand puppet is now convinced to swallow one of the bullets causing it to vanish. The puppet hand starts to cough and suddenly a loud bang is heard. Looking up at the performer, there is now a bullet between their teeth! With this reworked version of the Marbles Trick from Sach’s Sleight of Hand, now you too can perform a non-threatening version of the infamous trick.

I hardly need to tell you that this book is well written. You could Duct tape half dollars over your eyes and throw a Thumb Tip at your shelves and you’ll hit a book by Stephen Minch. Each of the effects in Carneycopia is thoroughly, meticulously described. You just have to put the time in and then, put in even more time.

John Carney loves magic and has devoted his life to it. Before you attempt any of the effects described, sit down, take your time and absorb what he has to say in the Philosophy section. Then revisit his words every so often. This will be time well spent. Trust me.

Until next time… read your books.

*The Magic Palace can be found in the Exhibitions section of www.magicana.com and it is here that you can search for Danny Rouzer. (Beware, you can spend hours watching The Magic Palace. I have.)

Buy Carneycopia from Browser’s Den: www.browsersden.com