SYNOPSIS:
The Secrets of Brother John Hamman is Richard Kaufman’s comprehensive record of Brother John Hamman’s card magic, collecting the sleights, packet tricks, full-deck routines, transpositions, gambling demonstrations, visual changes, and original principles that made Hamman one of the most influential card magicians of the twentieth century. The book contains more than 140 indexed entries across 252 pages and was written and illustrated by Kaufman from Hamman’s work.
Hamman’s material is especially known for strong plots and deceptive structure rather than flashy technique for its own sake. The book teaches the Hamman Count, double-deal concepts, packet turnovers, switches, controls, reversals, false displays, and numerous routines built around cards changing identity, transposing, multiplying, traveling to pockets, matching, or assembling. Well-known items include The Two-Card Trick, Acey-Deucey, The Multiplying Kings, Thought Cards Across, The Invisible Card, The Homing Card, Universal Card, The Mystic Nine, Wild All the Way, Final Aces, The Marx Brothers, Ladies’ Man, and Five Kings Royal.
The book also reflects Hamman’s broader philosophy that the spectator’s experience matters more than technical exhibition. In his foreword, he stresses understanding why an effect works on the audience rather than merely memorizing mechanics.
Book Details:
Author/Creator: John Hamman
Publisher: Richard Kaufmann and Alan Greenberg
Publication Year: 1989
Subjects: Cards
Pages: 252
Skill Level: Intermediate
Availability: Out of Print
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Front Matter
• Introduction (Gene DeVoe) (p. 9)
• Foreword (Bro. John Hamman) (p. 10)
Techniques & Effects
Instant Double and Triple Turnover Technique (p. 11)
• From a Deck
– The Longitudinal Convex Bridge (p. 15)
• From a Packet
Dead Man’s Hand (p. 18)
• The Double-Deal Switch
Double-Deal Card to Pocket (p. 20)
The What and Where Tests (p. 24)
• Double Lift from the Bottom of a Packet
The Two-Card Trick (p. 26)
1 2 3 4 5 Peek Thought (p. 28)
Deck in Parvo (p. 31)
Acey-Deucey (p. 34)
Bro. Hamman’s First Twist (p. 34)
• Block Pushoff
Bro. Hamman’s Second Twist (p. 38)
• The Undercount
• Small-Packet Reverse Fan Display
Bro. Hamman’s Final Twist (p. 41)
• The Hamman Ascanio Count
• Flustration Count
Watch Me Like a Hawk (p. 44)
• Undercount Variation
The Signed Card (p. 47)
Triple Cross (p. 51)
Kings Through the Table (p. 54)
Flight of Four (p. 57)
Sealed-Room Mystery (p. 61)
Thunderstruck (p. 64)
Peek Look Think (p. 66)
The Chinese Miracle (p. 68)
• The Chinese Shuffle
• Chinese Shuffle to Si Stebbins Stack
Three Guesses (p. 71)
• J.K. Hartman’s Secret Subtraction
Opposite Pockets (p. 72)
Magic Box (p. 75)
Four-Pocket Mirror (p. 77)
The Disobedient Cards (p. 81)
The Final Shuffle (p. 84)
Two-Shuffles Harry (p. 87)
The Pesky Cards (p. 89)
The Twins (p. 93)
• Gemini Count
The Pinochle Trick (p. 97)
The Magic Cards (p. 99)
The Jacks Come Back (p. 101)
The Knavish Deuces (p. 103)
• Double Flustration Count
Revenge on the Pink Panthers (p. 106)
Kangaroo Card (p. 109)
Eight-Ball Queens (p. 114)
• The Two-as-Four Count
New Hue (p. 116)
• The Lollapalooza Hand
• The Lollapalooza Switch
False Witness (p. 118)
• Arthur Findley’s Tent Vanish
Pickpocket (p. 121)
The Doppelganger Card (p. 124)
The Multiplying Kings (p. 127)
Thought Cards Across (p. 129)
Billy the Kid (p. 134)
Stun-Sational (p. 136)
Micro-Macro (p. 138)
Micro-Macro (With Regular Cards) (p. 141)
The Invisible Card (p. 145)
• The Countback
Houdini Escapes (p. 150)
• The Braue Reverse
Seeing with the Fingertips (p. 153)
Devilish Miracle Retold (p. 155)
• Countback Variation No. 1
The Transparent Cards (p. 157)
• Countback Variation No. 2
The Adventure of the Spotted Seven (p. 160)
• Larreverse
The Skipping Jacks (p. 163)
• Countback Variation No. 3
Flash Poker (p. 168)
• The Flash Change
Spectator Outdoes Magician…Almost (p. 171)
Magician Versus Gambler (p. 175)
• The Poker Palm Shift
• Countback Variation No. 4
Up the Down Sleeve (p. 180)
Go Fish (p. 183)
• The Rolling Control
Blind Chance (p. 185)
Cream Rises to the Top (p. 189)
The Aces and the Jaxes (p. 191)
The Underground Transposition (p. 195)
• The Veeser Concept
