Magic Review: A New Angle (book) by Ryan Plunkett & Michael

In here you'll find rabbits in hats and aces up sleeves.
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Magic Review: A New Angle (book) by Ryan Plunkett & Michael

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Title: A New Angle
Creator: Ryan Plunkett & Michael Feldman
Publisher: Magic Inc.
MSRP: $ 45
Skill Level: Intermediate to advanced
DVD Run time: 155 pages

Type of effect: New tricks with a stripper deck

Manufacturer's Write Up: A New Angle is filled with magician foolers, hard-hitting practical effects for laymen, and off-the-wall new ideas to springboard your own creativity. Many of the effects are all three of the above. That's because the authors have dusted off a secret weapon that you probably already have buried in the back of your magic drawer:

The Stripper Deck (AKA the Tapered Deck, Shaved Deck, Wizard Deck).

Written by Ryan Plunkett and Michael Feldman, photographed by James Murphy, designed by Heather Wood, edited by Susan Palmer Marshall and Pedro Nieves-Bosque, with a foreword by Lance Pierce.

By combining subtleties, sleight of hand and new ideas with this nearly forgotten tool that every serious magician already owns, Ryan and Michael will show you how to unlock mind-blowing effects you never thought possible. They invite you to work through the material proposed and search for your own angle in other overlooked places.

What is in the book? What’s it about?


“A tapered deck is not just for getting control over a single selected card. It’s not just for removing the black cards from the red, or the face up cards from the face down. It can hide any number of cards in the deck, up to and maybe even beyond half the deck. It can give you control over a selected block, create a break for you, simulate other gimmicked cards, unshuffle the deck, offer you a glimpse of the card, and much more. In this book, we’ll explore this wide variety of options.”
Ryan and Michael

I know what you’re thinking… hard back forty five dollar book about the stripper deck? Why? You can just buy the Encyclopedia of Card Tricks and get over 40 tapered deck tricks for $13.

Well… you’ve never seen a tapered deck book like this one, nor seen tricks like these.

Trust me.

Why is this book cool? It’s a collection of thoughts, principles and techniques regarding the tapered deck you’ve never even considered.

And this is one of the exciting things about magic in general. Once in a great while someone (or ‘someones’) comes along and forces you to look at something old in a brand new way.

Why is a stripper deck cool? Because it’s a gimmicked deck that does more than one thing – most gimmicked decks (gaff decks) only do one thing. You carry the entire deck around and it only does one effect.

So you can use it as a gimmick, but at any time you can simply do a NORMAL card trick with it. In other words – a tapered deck is cool because you can turn the “heat” on and off.

But, even more than that… Ryan and Michael are not just giving you some “new effects” – these are new – everything.

I watched Ryan perform a few of these tricks, and even though “I knew” it was a tapered deck and even though “I knew” the strip out move to watch for… Ryan still blew me away – probably MORE SO because I knew what to look for (or at least I thought I knew what to look for).

Like me, the tapered deck was probably one of your first gimmicked tricks you ever got.

And like me, you’ve probably since left it at the bottom of a drawer.

Are you ready for something exciting? Are you ready for a new angle?

In this book the authors discuss the misconceptions associated with tapered decks.
You’ll get a chapter about the cut of a deck and how to make your own deck with a card trimmer.

In the book you get 23 plots PLUS a whole lot of extras that either continue where the previous trick left off, or take it in a new direction. In the write up you get the perfect combination of technical and humor – plus you’ll never get lost. In other words, you won’t re-read a section in confusion asking, “What did I just read?”

Plus, the imaginary spectators are always named “Leah and Rachel.”

Did I mention 23 Tricks? (Here are a few I pulled out)

Collect Yourself – three spectators select cards. The cards are lost. The deck is shuffled. Then the aces appear with the selections in-between them.

Shuffleupagus Redux – How about you shuffle the cards – show them shuffled and then place them in the box and hand the tuck to your spectators to shake (they’re in there!) but when the tuck is re-opened and the cards are spilled out – the deck is in new deck order.

Twin Peeks – this effect allows you to know the identity of any card your spectator peeks at as you riffle the corners.

Color Shift – a color changing deck routine

Trick Play – you fan 12 to 15 cards for a spectator and have a spectator “think” of any card – the spectator does and when the cards are spread again, only one card is reversed – the spectator’s thought of card.

There are other contributions from:

Nathan Colwell
Frank Fogg
Brian O Neill
Lance Pierce and Harapan Ong

Overall score: let's toss out the traditional score of 1-10 and make this something that we all can appreciate and understand.

__X__ Very Satisfied
_____ Somewhat Satisfied
_____ Neither Satisfied or Dissatisfied
_____ Somewhat Dissatisfied
_____ Very Dissatisfied
_____ No Opinion

My thoughts: I love books, I love hardbacks even more. This new addition to my library will be loved for years to come. You’re going to want to read this with a stripper deck in your hand – if you haven’t picked up a new one in a while – add one to cart along with this book.

Video review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjfQuSeK0JM" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Playing Card & Magic Reviews / https://www.youtube.com/magicorthodoxy
I give away FREE DECKS on INSTAGRAM every month https://www.instagram.com/magicorthodoxy/
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