SYNOPSIS:
Scarne’s Magic Tricks is John Scarne’s large collection of 201 practical magic tricks designed to be performed without advanced sleight of hand or expensive professional equipment. The routines use familiar, easily obtained objects and are intended for informal gatherings, close-up performance, parlor shows, and occasional platform or stage presentation. Scarne streamlined many traditional methods so that beginners could concentrate on presentation and effect rather than difficult manipulation.
The collection covers an unusually broad range of plots, including vanishes, penetrations, restorations, predictions, escapes, strength demonstrations, mind reading, pseudo-hypnosis, rope effects, money tricks, handkerchief magic, matches, cigarettes, rings, pencils, sugar cubes, glasses, bottles, paper, and other everyday articles. Representative items include The Talking Mirror, Coin Through Handkerchief, Ring on the String, The Magic Calendar, The Rope and Bracelet, Houdini Escape Trick, The Disappearing Coin, The Magic Birthday Square, Magazine Mind Reading, The Three Shell Game, Hypnotic Rigidity, X-Ray Ropes, The Floating Table, and Scarne’s Telepathic Sugar Cubes.
Because many methods reflect the 1940s and 1950s, some presentations involve cigarettes, cigars, fire, formal clothing, or props that may feel dated today. The book is therefore best treated as a source of classic principles and adaptable ideas rather than a collection in which every routine should be performed unchanged.
Book Details:
Author/Creator: John Scarne
Publisher: Crown Publishers Inc.
Publication Year: 1951
Subjects: Everyday Objects, Mentalism, Ropes, Money, Matches, Silks, Parlor Magic
Pages: 256
Skill Level: Beginner
Availability: Amazon
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Publisher’s Note (p.5)
Foreword (p.6)
1. The Talking Mirror (p.9)
2. Coin Through Handkerchief (p.9)
3. Smoking Sleeve (p.11)
4. Predicto (p.12)
5. Ring on the String (p.13)
6. The Magical Shirt (p.14)
7. Chalk Penetration (p.15)
8. The Magic Calendar (p.17)
9. Name, Please! (p.19)
10. Cigarette from Nowhere (p.20)
11. Find the Pellet (p.21)
12. Is He Alive? (p.23)
13. The Rope and Bracelet (p.23)
14. Key on a String (p.24)
15. The Magic Toothpick (p.26)
16. Releaso (p.27)
17. Color by Sense of Touch (p.28)
18. Swallowing a Goldfish (p.30)
19. Extrasensory Perception (p.31)
20. The Magnetized Knife (p.32)
21. Houdini Escape Trick (p.33)
22. Solid Through Solid (p.35)
23. The Rising Cigarette (p.36)
24. The Flame Prediction (p.37)
25. The Disappearing Coin (p.39)
26. Initial in Fire (p.39)
27. Sensitive Fingers (p.40)
28. The Liquid Tells (p.41)
29. Drinking Smoke (p.42)
30. Lightning Addition (p.43)
31. The Spiritual Glass (p.44)
32. Crossed Digit (p.45)
33. The Tricky Spoon (p.46)
34. The Talking Cards (p.47)
35. Scarne’s Bank Night (p.48)
36. The Knotted Coin (p.52)
37. It’s in the Ashes (p.53)
38. The United Shreds (p.54)
39. Three to One (p.55)
40. The Dollar That Wouldn’t Burn (p.56)
41. Divination of Age (p.58)
42. Tricks with Sugar (p.58)
43. The Reappearing Match Heads (p.60)
44. Magic Dates and Days (p.62)
45. The Six-Cent Trick (p.63)
46. The Famous Penny (p.64)
47. Mathematics Plus (p.66)
48. Cut and Tied (p.66)
49. Two Minus Two Equals Two (p.67)
50. Up in Flames (p.69)
51. The Knife That Doesn’t Cut (p.70)
52. Stringing a Ring (p.72)
53. Change for a Five-Dollar Bill (p.73)
54. Ghost Match (p.74)
55. A Life-Saving Dollar (p.76)
56. Mind Over Matter (p.77)
57. The Coin Vanishes (p.78)
58. The “Cut-Up” Tie (p.79)
59. In Your Hat (p.80)
60. The Animated Match Box (p.82)
61. Magnetic Hands (p.83)
62. Scarne’s Cellophane Tear (p.84)
63. Dry Water (p.85)
64. Multiplying Dimes (p.85)
65. Scarne’s Coin Vanish (p.86)
66. Time Machine (p.87)
67. Through Stick and Pin (p.88)
68. Cross Your Palm (p.88)
69. Telepathic Coins (p.89)
70. Breaking a Pencil with a Dollar Bill (p.90)
71. Replacing a Button without a Needle (p.91)
72. Spots Before the Eyes (p.92)
73. The Match Box Coin Vanish (p.93)
74. Scarne’s Think of a Number (p.94)
75. When a Break Is Not a Break (p.95)
76. Disobeying Gravity (p.96)
77. A Cigarette Production (p.97)
78. The Famous Belt Trick (p.97)
79. Houdini’s Coin Vanish (p.98)
80. Strip Tease (p.99)
81. Ring Levitation (p.100)
82. A Drink on the House (p.101)
83. A Cigarette Changes to a Dollar Bill (p.102)
84. Stick Through Hat (p.103)
85. Classical Rope Trick (p.104)
86. Spin the Coin (p.105)
87. Roll Your Own (p.106)
88. Vest Through Coat (p.107)
89. Animated Cigar Band (p.108)
90. Salivary Repair (p.109)
91. The Unstickable Pin (p.110)
92. Flexible Pencil (p.111)
93. The Non-Burning Shoelace (p.111)
94. The Match from Nowhere (p.112)
95. Fourth-Dimensional Knot (p.113)
96. Rope Through the Neck (p.114)
97. Cut-Up (p.115)
98. He Knows Your Number (p.116)
99. Color-Changing Shoelace (p.117)
100. Changing Checkers (p.118)
101. Sleight of Foot (p.119)
102. Transposed Colors (p.120)
103. Dead or Alive? (p.120)
104. From the Spirit World (p.121)
105. For a Change (p.122)
106. Finger Waves (p.122)
107. Slate Telepathy (p.123)
108. Arithmetical Matches (p.124)
109. Gravity Defied (p.125)
110. Watch-It (p.127)
111. Divination of a Sum (p.128)
112. Burning Sugar (p.130)
113. Telephone Mind Reading Experiment (p.131)
114. The Twice-Lit Match (p.131)
115. Knots That Are Not (p.132)
116. Pendulum of Fate (p.133)
117. Melting Coin (p.134)
118. Hopping Rubber Band (p.135)
119. The Literary Glasses (p.136)
120. The Chameleon Handkerchief (p.137)
121. Impossible Escape (p.139)
122. The Traveling Signature (p.139)
123. Sour Dollar (p.140)
124. Obedient Handkerchief (p.142)
125. The Elusive Marble (p.144)
126. Color Discernment (p.145)
127. Under the Table (p.146)
128. Shirt Off (p.147)
129. The Self-Tying Handkerchief (p.148)
130. Magnetic Bottle (p.149)
131. Mind Reading De Luxe (p.150)
132. Pencil and Loop (p.151)
133. Sympathetic Twins (p.152)
134. Hypno-Magnetism (p.153)
135. Runaway Loop (p.155)
136. Shifty Number (p.155)
137. Coin Through Elbow (p.157)
138. Mysterious Dollars (p.157)
139. The Ventilated Hand (p.158)
140. The Money Tie (p.160)
141. The Diving Doll (p.161)
142. Scarne’s Egyptian Bead Mystery (p.162)
143. Scarne’s Magic Ball of Yarn (p.163)
144. Loop the Loop (p.164)
145. Clipped (p.166)
146. Jack’s Beanstalk (p.167)
147. Paper Tears (p.168)
148. The Stretching Finger (p.170)
149. Scarne’s Indestructible Handkerchief (p.171)
150. The Magic Birthday Square (p.173)
151. Under Two Hats (p.175)
152. Scarne’s Fire Trick (p.176)
153. Scarne’s Miracle Prediction (p.177)
154. Magical Liquids (p.179)
155. Telepathy Par Excellence (p.181)
156. The Devil’s Handkerchief (p.182)
157. Scarne’s Bean Trick (p.183)
158. The Turnabout Bill (p.185)
159. Color Separation (p.186)
160. Magazine Mind Reading (p.187)
161. Test of Strength (p.188)
162. Sitting Tight (p.189)
163. Hindu Magic Papers (p.190)
164. Ashes of the Phoenix (p.192)
165. Miracle Slate (p.193)
166. The Flying Glass (p.195)
167. Behind the Napkin Ball (p.197)
168. The Vanishing Fountain Pen (p.198)
169. The Uncrushable Glass (p.200)
170. The Melting Half Dollar (p.201)
171. Coin Divination (p.202)
172. Magic Key Rings (p.203)
173. Roping a Handkerchief (p.205)
174. The Astonishing Match (p.207)
175. Three Shell Game (p.208)
176. Blowing a Knot Out of a Handkerchief (p.210)
177. Human Magnetism (p.211)
178. The Mystic Fortune-Telling Cards (p.213)
179. Hypnotic Rigidity (p.216)
180. The Self-Restoring Ribbon (p.218)
181. Serial Reading (p.220)
182. Matchless Matches (p.222)
183. Air Knots (p.224)
184. Pulse Control (p.225)
185. Blindfold Cigarette Test (p.226)
186. Mnemonics (p.228)
187. Match Antics (p.230)
188. Liquid Suspension (p.231)
189. Scarne’s Changing Cigar (p.233)
190. X-Ray Ropes (p.236)
191. Squash (p.238)
192. Smoke without Fire (p.239)
193. The Floating Table (p.240)
194. Reproducing Sponges (p.242)
195. Handkerchief Penetration (p.243)
196. Scarne’s Non-Burning Bill (p.246)
197. Scarne’s Telepathic Sugar Cubes (p.248)
198. Color-Changing Cube (p.250)
199. Ring Around the Pencil (p.251)
200. The Magic Bag (p.252)
201. Scarne’s Names from Nowhere (p.255)
