BOOK REVIEW BY DAVID SUTHERLAND TOTALLY OUT OF CONTROL BY CHRIS KENNER IS BACK IN PRINT!!
Well this is exciting news for the end of 2023!
In 2021, I endeavoured to learn as many items in this book as possible. You’ll see why shortly.
TOTALLY OUT OF CONTROL BY CHRIS KENNER
BOOK DETAILS: 183 pages (Hardcover), Publisher: Kaufman & Company, Published in 1992. Written, illustrated and designed by Chris Kenner and Homer Liwag. BACK IN PRINT! With all the issues of Magic Man Examiner included in the new edition!! Available at: www.browsersden.com
Ok strap yourselves in for this one. I’m going to brag a lot during this and some of you may not like it, especially if you’ve yet to visit the special place and have never met the special people I’m going to mention. If it makes you feel better, I’ve been interested in magic for forty-four years and have never been to The Magic Castle, The Magic Circle, Mike Caveney’s Egyptian Hall, John Gaughan’s workshop, Owen Magic Supreme (RIP), the Chicago Magic Lounge or Musha Cay and the Islands of Copperfield Bay. But hey, at least I have a head start on my Bucket List.
Chris Kenner was working alongside Michael Close, Eric Mead, Homer Liwag and others at Illusions restaurant in Carmel, Indiana when word about his novel version of Ring Flite* reached David Copperfield. In 1992, Chris joined The Magic of David Copperfield crew and would, in a short amount of time, become the Jim Collins to Copperfield’s Houdini. He has been the Executive Producer for the most successful illusion show of all time for at least the past two decades. Oh yeah, and he likely started the Cardistry movement with the release of Sybil and created one of the early versions of Fingertips Coins Across also known as Three Fly; both are in this book.
The Introduction is by David Copperfield who says that the first time he met Chris, Chris showed him Shadow Coins. David also mentions Magic Man Examiner magazine which Chris had just started producing at the time and the complete run of which is included in the newly released version of this book.
The Prelude is by Chris himself and this was done purely for practical purposes as he mentions that “the book has to be in the printer’s hands in two hours.” He says that he makes his living doing magic and that he has been fortunate to perform both close up and stand up magic for the past four years, six nights a week. The material in this book is the result of many years of problem solving to make the magic as simple and practical as possible.
This book starts strong with a linking rubber band effect called Missing Link. The handling is a little knacky but if I can learn it I’m sure you can too. It looks as clean as can be, with all the fingers on each hand spread wide apart and yet two linked rubber bands are clearly displayed.
Hellbound is Chris’s version of Spellbound that starts with the classic change of a silver coin to a copper coin and back again, there is a clink sound confirming the spectator’s suspicions that the magician has two coins, however they are shown to both be silver and then both are changed into copper coins. Once I can master the Himber move I’ll be doing this quite a bit.
Chris would often perform Three Fry immediately following Hellbound. Not to be confused with Three Fly, this trick involves the vanishing of three silver coins. They are then reproduced and changed into three copper coins. To do this one you’re going to have to, as Kainoa Harbottle says, “just palm the damn coins!”
Perversion is Chris’s version of James Lewis’s Inversion, a “trio of magical surprises” he calls it. The spectator peeks at a card and it immediately reverses itself in the middle of the pack. Again it is placed face down in the middle and again it turns face up. The card is then left sticking halfway out of the deck face down and the entire deck turns face up around it. Are hard-core moves required? Yes. Is it an impressive trick? Yes. Did Chris Kenner himself show me this trick at The Orleans Hotel in Las Vegas where I was attending Bill Smith’s Collector’s Expo the same day that we got to tour David Copperfield’s International Museum and Library of the Conjuring Arts? Also, yes. Is this the bragging I promised would happen at the beginning? You betcha!
Travlrs1 as you might expect is a version of Travellers. Three Aces vanish one at a time and join the leader Ace in a squeaky clean fashion. The final Ace vanishes and joins the others while they are under a spectator’s hand.
Four for Four is a card switch that you might want to try if you want an alternative for ATFUS.
Diet is a version of Cannibal Cards. Four Kings “eat” two indifferent cards and since they ate too much the four Kings become four Eights.
Aftershock is a killer coin assembly wherein four coins convene under a single card, one at a time. When it is time for the last coin to travel, the other three vanish from under the card and appear in the performer’s hand!
In Ten City, is bubble gum for the eyes…two black Tens touch faces and become the two red Tens. The red Tens are flipped face down on the deck and one turns into a black Ten. The other black Ten flies out of the deck and is caught by the performer. Then, with a wave of the hand the two black Tens change into the two red Tens.
Long Gone Silver is a beautiful vanish and reproduction of three silver dollars.
Menage et Trois is Three Fly. Without leaving the audience’s sight, three silver dollars fanned at the left fingertips vanish one at a time and appear at the right fingertips. This was Chris’s favourite effect to perform in his close up set and he performed it ten times a night for five years at Illusions. And yes, I asked Chris to show me this one and you can imagine how great it looked!
I started performing Silk & Silver after reading about it in The Vernon Chronicles Volume One in the late Eighties. It’s a beautiful routine that Fred Kaps enjoyed performing so much that he popularized the trick. However, even Kaps realized that it had a certain flaw. It lacks a real ending. Cloth and Pence takes care of this. A handkerchief is folded into a pouch and three silver coins are dropped within. A spectator even verifies their existence (the coins, not themselves). The cloth is whisked away and the coins have vanished, the magician’s hands are also empty. Then the cloth is refolded and the performer produces two coins and drops them inside the pouch. A spectator mimes grabbing an invisible coin and tosses it towards the pouch where a coin is heard to land inside.
FLIP THE BOOK OVER.
Yes, that’s right. The book is printed in such a way that you have to actually flip the book over to read the other half of it. On one cover the book is called Out of Control and on the other it’s called Totally Out of Control.
So halfway through the book, yet right next to one of the covers is a trick called Print Shop. You show that your business cards have your logo but not your contact information. With a wave of your hand you fix the problem and now your card has all the pertinent information on it.
Twin Peeks is a clever, moveless, two-card location with which you’ll have fun fooling people. Is that vague enough?
Twister is a streamlined and practical combination of Twisting the Aces and Brother John Hamman’s Underground Transposition (popularized by Paul Harris as Reset).The Aces start face down then turn face up one at a time until they’re all face up. Then each Ace transforms into a King and then they all return to being Aces.
The Deep is an excellent, palms up, Coins Across involving no extra coins or gaffs. Having a copy of David Roth’s Expert Coin Magic nearby would be helpful since it contains a detailed description of the main technique required for this routine.
Upon turning the page, one finds Kenner’s version of Nate Leipzig’s classic Cigar and Purse routine, entitled Into The Woods.
Sybil is next, followed by the Five Faces of Sybil and as I mentioned this is likely the flourish that started the Cardistry movement. You should try it out and see if you like it, because if you do, there’s a lot more where that came from!
Bad Credit is Kenner’s take on Roy Walton’s Collectors and is based on Royal Collectors in The Complete Works of Derek Dingle. Four Kings are placed face up on the table and three cards are selected. The Kings are then placed into the card box and then the selections go into the deck. Amazingly, the selections appear between the Kings in the box! I will learn this. Oh yes.
3, 2, One is a production and vanish of three silver dollars, with some very clever moves thanks to Ramsay, Himber, Rosenthal and Stone.
Paint by Numbers was inspired by Dingle’s Rollover Aces. The four Kings are lost in the deck and the cards are shuffled face up and face down. The close up mat is flipped over so it is rubber side up and four Royal Flushes are “painted” onto the mat; an impressive display.
Must be 21 to Enter is a version of the 21 card trick that will fool both magicians and laymen. This might be good to have in your back pocket the next time someone forces you to watch them perform the original.
S.W. Elevator is a visual ambitious card. First the selected card is inserted into the deck, sticking out halfway and with a riffle the card appears on top of the deck. Offering to show how that was done in slow motion, the card is inserted into the lower half of the deck and visibly it moves up to the middle and finally to the top. If your pass and S.W.E shifts need work this may be the motivation you’ve been looking for. You bet I asked for a live demonstration of this one as well!
Card tricks are not allowed at Cardistry conventions so you’ll have to perform Sybil the Trick elsewhere. Four cards are set aside as a prediction. A card is selected and lost in the pack. A number from ten to twenty is named and the deck is cut (I’ll let you guess how) and this produces a small packet of cards. When the packet is counted the number of cards matches the number just named and the last card in the packet is the selected card! Not enough? The values of the four prediction cards are added up and they total the number previously named.
David Roth’s Coins Across is a classic. Chris has streamlined the handling. To find out how check out O.O.S.P.C.A. According to Chris, this version is “perfect for table-hopping and small groups.” The routine is almost angle proof and “if you have the basics of coin magic mastered, you can perform this routine almost immediately.”
For the H&R 2021 virtual holiday fundraiser show, I performed Bruce Cervon’s A Matter of Psychology from Ultra Cervon. This was Bruce’s take on Larry Jennings’ Ambitious Classic. 5 Speed is Chris’ version and you can watch it online.** A card is selected and lost in the deck. The Ace through five of spades are removed and ambitious effects are performed with the Ace, two and three. As a finale, the three transforms into the selected card.
3-D Ropes is the last trick in the book. A rope is cut with a knife and the ends tied together, when the ends are pulled the knot visibly melts away. The rope is then cut into three pieces and instantly the magician restores them into one single, solid piece! A very strong and highly visual fooler that, Chris said, a lot of people overlook…
The illustrations are by Homer Liwag who was also snatched from Illusions by David shortly after Chris (actually on Chris’s recommendation). The first thing he would design for Copperfield would be The Blade.*** The illustrations are very well done and also included are several humorous cartoons some of which are a commentary on magic at the time of the original publication.
In all, this is a compilation of some highly creative and clever magic produced by two highly creative and clever individuals. Please note, that in the new edition of Totally Out of Control there will be a BONUS 80-PAGE SECTION featuring the entire collection of Chris and Homer’s magazine Magic Man Examiner!!!
To round out the bragging for this article, who should show up as Chris is showing me these aforementioned miracles than Homer himself!! That’s right in the span of 24 hours I got to talk to the Dream Team that is Liwag, Kenner and Copperfield!!!.
Here endeth the bragging.
Until next time… read your books.
*Watch it on YouTube, search “The Magic of David Copperfield XV: Fires of Passion”. It’s right after Metamorphosis (aka Passion’s Prisoner aka Cocoon).
**Search “Chris Kenner Five Speed” on YouTube.
***On YouTube search “The Magic of David Copperfield XVI: Unexplaned Forces”. It’s right after the Floating Table.
Buy Totally Out of Control from Browser’s Den: www.browsersden.com
