These words were uttered by Max Maven shortly after reading David Regal's Close-up & Personal. Fortunately, Regal has escaped prosecution, due not only to his inventiveness, wit and originality in magic, but also to his success as a comedy performer and television writer. Mr. Regal is a popular performer at the Magic Castle, just one of the locations where he has audience-honed the material in this book. Many of these tricks include complete and often hilarious presentations. Among them are effects with playing cards, coins, beads, billfolds, candy bars, marble slabs, Cups & Mice (yes, that's Mice), Shakespearean predictions, Dear John letters and more. Here are just a few of the effects:
A spectator shuffles an ordinary deck, then deals himself a royal flush in spades.
A borrowed finger-ring is openly and honestly placed under an inverted glass. Without a move, the ring disappears from this protected spot and cleanly reappears under a second glass over a foot away. (This trick was used by Paul Daniels on his British TV series.)
A prediction isolated in a small box correctly identifies a mentally selected card.
While the performer and a spectator each holds his own business card, the cards change places.
A pack of cigarettes transforms into one full of gum.
The performer demonstrates his ability to deal the spots visibly right off the cards.
Two signed cards transpose, even though one is stapled to a block of wood.
The date on a coin selected from a large glass of examined pennies is predicted by the performer—and the IRS.
A freely named card appears under a spectator's hand.
These are just nine of the 72 performance pieces included in Close-up & Personal, described with care and detail, along with hundreds of photos. If you seek close-up trickery that surprises, entertains and amazes, you want this book.

264 large-format pages in hardcover.
from Hermetic Press