Birds of a Feather by Arthur H. Buckley

Card Control by Arthur H. Buckley
Page 160 et seq.

Personal Comment: Meh, really forgettable. The effect that is. The method is so bold, that some might actually find some use for this.

Difficulty: 2/5

Simplicity by Arthur H. Buckley

Card Control by Arthur H. Buckley
Page 161 et seq.

Personal Comment: Experiment No. 11 in the list of 40 card tricks. You can hardly go more basic than this. It has spawned many, many horrible version and some really great ones. Read it, learn it and understand what makes this routine so great and why simplicity is sometimes best.

Difficulty: 1/5

The Lost Aces by Arthur H. Buckley

Card Control by Arthur H. Buckley
Page 155 et seq.

Personal Comment: As I said in the video... this is the grandmother of pretty much all ace productions. And it is a good one in a way. What Arthur H. Buckley has offered is nothing but the bare bones of a routine, but I think that is the beauty of it. It basically forces you to create a presentational frame. Sure there are much better versions out there. And rightfully so. If nothing had happened since this was published it would be a poor testament to the creative output of magicians.

Difficulty: 3/5

Card And Pocket Mystery by Arthur H. Buckley

Card Control by Arthur H. Buckley
Page 197 et seq.

Personal Comment: I would do it differently. But this was 40 years before I was even born. So who am i to judge. Reading through Card Control gives me a strange vibe of a bygone era. I like that. The trick is basically another transposition, but a good one, as the audience is involved. About picking the second card... I don't like it. Why is the spectator ask to count down cards on the table? The answer is strictly related to the method. And that should not be. But overall... tweek it here, tweek it there and you got a nice little trick.

Difficulty: 3/5

Transposition by Arthur H. Buckley

Merry Christmas everyone!



Card Control by Arthur H. Buckley
Page 150 et seq. second method

Personal Comment: I love reading old magic books. Somehow most of the effects are pure in some way. Just single effort instead of the efforts of generations of thinking magicians. The above effect is very basic and a great opener to a card magic set, I think. And it is really cheap to get the book. Order it the paperback Dover book and you will be happy. Of course you could do this effect with three selections, but this 1-2-3 to 3-1-2 order is easy to understand even when you are drunk. The method is straight forward and not a lot of subtleties and convincers are thrown in. Sometimes that helps the effect.

Difficulty: 1/5