The Boy Who Cried Magic by Andi Gladwin. Full Review

Hello, welcome to Real Magic Review. My name is Steve Faulkner and today I'm going to be reviewing the Boy Who Cried Magic by Andy Gladwin. Before I do that, can you please like and subscribe and check the bell icon? It really does make a huge difference. And this is sponsored by cardmagiccourse.com. That's my own online card magic course that I still add to every week when I upload the live sessions that we have. It's a brilliant way, by the way, of learning, um, even if you're established, you know, to come into the live sessions, but if you can't, you can watch them afterwards and to listen to discussions about magic and different, you know, different issues and challenges people are having with certain moves I do teach. I've got three different cameras teaching on the live sessions as well. So they're uploaded every week and they happen every week, nearly every week. And then of course you've got the stuff that I add to the course as well as that. So cardmagiccourse.com, have a look at it. It's me teaching you to be good at card magic. We've over 200 videos and all that. I've got to go on about it, don't I? But you know, it's got to happen. So, uh, this is a book. Now I've done the interview with Andy, so there's quite a lot of information on there. So I'm not going to go, I just already recorded a review of this. I went through every trick and it went on for about half an hour and I just thought, you know what? It kind of ruins it. You don't want to tell people about every trick, but I'm going to go through what I like about it. First of all, there's this thing, isn't there, where this was a book that was hyped and I don't mean that in a bad way, but it had this amazing trailer, this one shot trailer that Vanishing Inc did, which was their most expensive trailer ever. And you can see how good it looked. God knows how many takes it took, but it looked amazing. And it had a trick in it and one of the most difficult tricks in the book, you know, in the middle of it as well. Uh, so you, you've, you've got that, you've got the fact that Andy is Vanishing Inc and it's his first book of his own published material, his own material that he's published. And again, there's pressure, no doubt on him for this to be good, but there's expectation for everybody. Um, there's the fact that he, you know, he writes about studying magic and focusing on magic is astonishing essays work. So he, you know, he has demonstrated his knowledge and said that this is, you know, this is the book after all that knowledge. I've distilled it down to these 16 routines and 15 techniques, I think. Uh, and this is what I think is, is, is it straight from my repertoire? And what I think is the best of what I do. So should be good. And is it, well, I think if you've seen the interview, you'll kind of know that I like it, but why do I like it? So I love, well, first of all, the introduction really got me straight away because it was written, the stuff he said was this stuff I agree with. And I know that's quite egotistical and stuff. I like it because I agree with it, but it's something that I've experienced. And I think that non-performers sometimes when they write magic books and don't get me wrong, I love them. I love books that really geek out. And the people may have never done it on stage or done it in Walkabout, but you kind of, I love the thinking and I know that people have written up routines about performing them and I still enjoy learning them. And that's a different thing. But this is what claims to be in the beginning, um, stuff that from his repertoire that you can work with. And I think, and you know, I know with Andy's knowledge, there's a danger of how do you, how do you whittle that much down? And again, we talked about it in the interview, but how, how do you not include stuff that you just love? And, and, and he has full credit. He has taken routines and really streamlined them, which I wasn't expecting so much. I wasn't expecting how commercial they were going to be. And, but then when I read more of the introduction, he, he, he's got this bit about making magic bulletproof, which is almost the first principles of magic, which again, we've talked about the, where you, you boil it down to what makes a magic trick actually work. You know, how can we empathize with that member of the audience and see what they see and make sure it doesn't go on too long and it doesn't get too self-indulgent. And he really, I mean, the, the, after the introduction, he's got the closeup professional closeup magic, but he does say this is for the sort of professional closeup magician. Okay. So, and the first bit is, you know, closeup magic. I think it's called, I've read this book twice and, and, um, closeup card magic. I thought it was, but then I was just like, I kind of overthought it for now. It's not, it's something else. Yeah. So some card magic, cause that's what it is. Um, I suppose it's all a bit, well, no, it isn't all closeup card magic. So, Ooh, don't have to dig deep for that one. Um, so it's, I think my favorite out of these I'm so tempted to go through them all cause they're all really, I couldn't, it was really hard for me to find a favorite for the closeup ones, but I think I love perfect order. Perfect. That's great. If you know, whack your pack by, uh, by Paul Harris, he's got a version of that, which is really, really nice as well. Um, perfect order is, uh, is a triumph routine. They choose a card, uh, and then you tell them what their card is and they've chosen one of the face down cards when they've triumphed, when they're genuinely shuffled in as well. So if you know, try and face up, face down, you do a shuffle that makes it look like they're going face up, face down. They actually are this time. Um, and you tell them what the card is and then you spread the deck and say all the rest of the hearts are face up. Now with triumph it's in the heat. And he does sort of mention this. You think it doesn't need anything else and it kind of feels like a different trick as well, but it's just a fairness. Well a lot of triumph actually need the table. This doesn't. Um, I mean, it kind of helps with it I think, but you can do it without a table, but it's got a really, it's a really nice routine and I know this because I performed it when I couldn't perform it very well. Uh, and it went down really, really well. The bits in it that seem very difficult are well covered by scripting and, you know, the bits we were looking through and doing a certain thing. You can kind of almost take your time with it and watch him do it. He's got a video somewhere, Google it of him doing it. Um, so I really like that there's wacky phone, which is the wacky pack thing, which uses a kind of the phone in a really nice way and it's like a challenge trick. Uh, but I, I again perform that pretty much straight away. It's got a consecutive doubles, which are going to be quite difficult for some people, but we'll talk about the kind of difficulty level in a minute. I'm sorry. I keep looking down cause I'm looking at these tricks. Um, ghost is the one he did on the trailer. Have a look at it. It is, it is actually that trick. It's a, it's an amazing trick. It's a sandwich trick, um, with a sort of vanishing of two cards, which is challenging. It's got like this double cold thing. We talk about that in the interview as well. I keep saying we talk about stuff in the interview because I want you to go and watch it cause it's, it's really good. Um, pocket mule is his version of, um, the smiling mule, which doesn't feel like the smiling mule, but it's kind of the same trick, but the reason I like this is because I always have an issue with a smiling mule, which is beautiful that there's a gag and a trick that happened exactly the same time. Not the main trick, but there's a gag and sort of a magical thing, but I always had trouble with separating. He's done that in this trick and given it a very different feel, but kept the essence of the trick. Um, fireworks is a, um, a multiple selection with three cards to end up between, uh, four aces. But then you've got this really, really nice and not very difficult vanishing of the four aces as they go into the deck to find the cards. And then you do the collector's thing where they found the free cards and then you separate the two. There's a magical moment where they think they're holding all of them and the selections have disappeared again from the aces or the Kings or whatever you want to use. Um, and then that you turn the cards in their hand into the selections again, one at a time. It's an interesting trick because I'm reading it. And actually I found this with loads of this stuff. It reads quite long, but when you do it, it's really quick. This is a bit long and it felt like, is it going to be piling on too much to the effect? But it really isn't. And when I showed it to someone, it didn't once feel like, Oh, another effect, another effect. It really did work. It's got a real sort of circular, um, feeling to it. And I love that. I think my favorite out of all those is probably the fireworks trick and well worth learning and well doable as well. Then we've got card technique. Okay. Loads of stuff on the master push off. If you know Andy's master push off, he's, he's lectured this for years. It's his way of doing it, of dealing, uh, pushing off two cards. It's really hard. It's a really good challenge. I'm loving learning it. I enjoyed learning it in written word more than I did on video. It got me more into it for some reason. And then he's in, in the next chapter at the card table, we've got loads of ways of using it. So it's really motivating. So I'm, I would almost have a look at that in the card at the card table chapter and go back to the master push off because that will give you the motivation to learn it. There's some, there's some great routines in, in that, which we'll talk about in a minute. And then he's got loads of techniques, uh, shuffles and cuts. I'm not going to go into them all, but they're really good. There's a way of, uh, cutting like four packs onto the table that look like you're, you're cutting them, but you're actually uncutting them. That's why it's called the undo cut. But you know what I mean? It's super fair. You just do it and it looks like they're completely mixed up. Um, he's got a shuffle that, that gets to the same thing as well. Um, the car, he's got some really nice techniques on the car, which actually make that, that bit wet from when you call cards, you know, multiple cars to going into when they're on top, just a really nice, even more fair way of doing it. And I'm a big, um, coal fan. And then he's got these finesses. Um, the two favorites of those for me were the, there's a tilt finesse, which is really good in it. A subtlety that makes it tilt look amazing. And I'm not going to it, but it just looks like you can show them that it's gone halfway. And some of the tilt finesses don't quite make sense, do they? Uh, even though I use them all, I think they're great, but this one really, really is good. And I've never come across it before. And the, the brilliant, really, um, bold thing is, you know, the brownie thing where you, you do an ambitious card and you say, we're not going to bend the card and put it into the deck. You do that, but then put the deck on the table or in their hands. And then a couple of seconds later it pops up. So the card pops up in the hand. It's almost gives it a haunted deck feel, which is, which I think is really nice. I've played with it and it actually does work. It's a thing you've got to play with it quite a lot, um, to get it really solid, but really, really, really nice. Um, Oh, and the fan change as well. It's a beautiful color change, which is very knacky using a half fan and a little bit like that window change. Um, that I remember learning, but even more knacky, but, but very, very cool and a very clean finish. Okay. At the card table, I'm not good. I can't go into the every trick. I pretty much have, but at the card table, my favorite, I'm going to take three of my favorites. There are five routines here from the center is a center dealing routine where you talk about how difficult the center deal is. We've seen these routines before and then you're actually not doing one, but you make it look like you're doing, doing center deals. But with this one you're doing something that actually isn't that, I mean, it's easier than the set center deal, but it's still challenging, but you can call the cards before you deal them. So you look at the cards and go right now, I'm going to know, I'm going to tell you exactly what cards I'm going to deal. So you're telling them what cards you're going to deal before dealing them out in the center, which is great. And then you spread the deck and there's four face up aces there spreading the deck and you go, right, I'm going to, I'm going to send a deal those one at a time now. Um, and which is, it just looks so good and I've played with it and I can't do it yet properly, but I'm kind of getting there and I think that's one I'd love to take out because like all of these at the table stuff, they're gambling routines, but they're not, people don't have to know the card games to be able to do them. So, so I like that about them. I don't like, you know, cause most people don't know the rules of poker. They might be a couple of them, but it's too, I want, you know, we're going to do a gambling demonstration with a four aces or the four Kings or something like that. Um, red black to the future is a call to the colors routine. If you don't know what a call to the color of the routine, just Google it. But it's a Marlowe idea I think originally, but with the cards all done face up. So it gives it really magical feel. It's almost like if you, if you've ever seen Leonard green do the, and it's not this, but the snap deal when they're face up and you see this, these kinds of reds and blacks go down. It's reminding me of that. It's all very, very fair looking. Um, so again, for me added a little bit of magic to it. Um, and the castle Jack's routine was, it's brilliant. It's a three stage, it's a whole act really. It can be, and he says you can split it into three bits, but it's got this classical assembly in it, which is like an ACE assembly, but all happens stand up and it all happens in the glass. So the ACEs or the Kings or whatever you want to use, go back to the glass rather than in this T formation. So it kind of works on stage desk and it's got kind of a memory man routine based on a Joe Gibbons idea, which I think is pretty much the same as the Joe Gibbons. He does credit very well in this and it ends up with a traveler's, which is very bold, um, but, but incredibly powerful. And he's, he's a great technique, which is, which is just, again, it's stream. It feels like a lots in there, but it's streamlined the whole thing. And that's the kind of theme of this book to me. Um, the standup car magic is there is a last chapter. Um, I think my favorite of this, which I'll go with him. There's a version of shuffleboard where he does his presentation of Simon Aronson shuffleboard, which he doesn't go into how to do actual shuffleboard. Um, but you can find that in, uh, I think it's in bound to please, but it might not be, but one of the Aronsons, but don't quote me on that. Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm wrong. Um, but you just give me, you'll be able to find out, but he does it with an iPad. And that's pretty much a self-working trick. The standup car magic stuff is we'll give you a respite from the other stuff. This is easy stuff that is more about presentation, the method. So he's, he's got this silent movie presentation where he gets someone up and there's a whole silent routine where they're just following instructions from, from a board. You're showing them the instructions on the board, which is similar to shuffleboard really, but very, very different way of doing it. Um, and I liked this, uh, supersonic, which is a really nice three person. Well, you and two other people routines. So it creates a really nice thing. You get two people on the stage and they do the trick to each other. They both pick a card out of each other's packs and they both find it. And then you, you're doing the same with a spectator from the audience that's still in their place. And it gives this, it's, I like tricks that they might be card tricks, but they're working wide and long. So if you're on stage, you're creating that whole space. And again, he has worked on stage a fair bit. He's done stuff for standup. He's done my own show, um, in Sheffield. So we know that he's got, and he does this stuff for the session. So he knows a feel of how to fill a space. And, and, and I really felt that that out of those standup card magic ones, I think supersonic and thought experiment, uh, are the ones that I would take out there. Thought experiment is, he said one of his favorite things out of the book. He didn't say it was favorable. And I said, you know, if there's one out there that stands out, and I think it was because it's so old, you know, it's Edward G Brown. Uh, he hasn't really changed it much. He's just taking it from glasses to being just in decks, but it's a thought of card card across and it's beautiful. You know, you get someone and you say, you know, here are the cards, have a look at these group cards, think of one. And actually if, if anybody else is around, you can think of one too, if you want. And then, um, the cards, the thought of cards has moved across to a different deck. So again, it plays very wide and it played very wide when he did it at the session. Um, but you've got this added thing of, did you think of one, a different one? And that's already also moved across. And I love that. And it's sort of, it sums up that what the book does to me is it's taking classic ideas. This book is unashamedly based on classics. And we talked about the idea of standing on the shoulders of giants, but not being scared to go. Actually, that bit doesn't work for me. We can streamline that. I'm going to make this quicker, you know, and he does that with all of these things. And you're left with, you know, this book is his distillation of all that he knows, but you're left with tricks that have been distilled from their originals as well. We're still, um, a real in service of those original tricks. You know, these tricks aren't changed beyond recognition. They're these classic ideas and it's a real education. This book as well. You can, you know, when you read the, the, because he knows his stuff, the crediting is amazing. You know, everything is in there. This is where this came from. And there was an idea, I'm not sure what this, but this was claimed by this person. And I felt that reading those bits was really enriching for me. I like to know where these tricks come from so I can go back and explore myself. And it, and it, it did that. And it did it with, with, and it honored those, those early creators as well in a way that I thought was that was really commercial. This is a really good card magic book. It lives up to the hype. Um, it lives up to, I don't think anybody's going to get it and go, well, that's a bit disappointing. And it's readable. It's not that, you know, it's not this kind of huge tones, which you kind of go, Oh, you know, great to have, but I've been through this twice and I'm still studying it. And it feels like it's a doable thing. It is slightly, it's a difficult, it's not knuckle breaking. There's some stuff you'll be able to do quite quickly, but it is slight of hand card magic other than the standup stuff. And one of the, um, on the table routine, which is cut stop and shuffle or something like that, which is fairly self-working, but most of this stuff, you've got to, you're going to want to sit at your, your close up mat, put some music on and get to work. And that's my favorite thing to do. And this is a perfect book for me because of that. So, um, the boy who cried magic is available to all this stuff will be in the information down below. Do have a look at that. Um, please like, and subscribe, um, check out card magic course.com do watch the interview with Andy. It's a corker really, really gave, gave an insight to how he thinks not just about this is about my book. It was about magic and about our approach to magic and inspired a lot of people that have emailed me and told me. Uh, so again, really, really liked it. Think you should get it. I'm not affiliated again. I don't get anything, but it's good to spread the word of good car magic and let me know how you're getting on with it. Uh, take care, like, subscribe, press the bell icon, going to see car magic course, go and have a look at it. Just go look, tell everybody you have a look at it. Even if you're not going to sign up and I'll get on Google and I'll do all right one day. Uh, take care. Merry Christmas. If this goes out before then, if it doesn't, I hope you had a good one. And if you're watching it next year in March, Christmas, all right, lockdown and that, but there you go. Take care. Bye.