Life, Death, and Other Card Tricks by Robert E. Neale

[swamy]

Where can I get the book titled "Life, Death, and Other Card Tricks by Robert E. Neale".I checked "HERMERTIC PRESS" web site and it is not listed there.

[Scott Fridinger]

It has been long out of print.

[Joe Naud]

Amazon has one for only $153.94.

[swamy]

Got a site on review of the book :

http://www.mylovelyassistant.com/index. ... ay&rid=106

"When this book came out in 2000, it was well received but not a big seller. I believe that is because it focused on theatrical presentation and not wild and crazy new tricks. It is like the difference between a good drama and a good action movie. This is the type of book that shows one how to take a ordinary card trick, put some dramatic direction into it and turn it into a moving and amazing presentation."

[Alton]

Glad I bought my copy when I did!

[Don Knox]

One on ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/LIFE-DEATH-OTHER-CA ... dZViewItem

[Cugel]

It certainly has become an odd little classic, with camps equally divided. On one side the guys who think it's brilliant and will never sell it. On the other, the guys who think it's brilliantly bad and will never sell it.

I have a friend who, at some point during an all night card session, will get it down from the shelf, crack it open and read the patter for the Titanic card trick story and have everyone in stitches.

[swamy]

The book being out of print has any relation to the declining reading habit ? It appears that there there is a heavy requirement of reading as the book contains more than 400 pages focusing on presentation.

[Silly Walter]

This book is crap. I can't believe anyone would actually think it would be entertaining to recite one of the many painfully embarassing presentations from the book to a lay audience.

[Gordon Meyer]

Silly bear. Tricks from this book are in active use by pros, who live-or-die (no pun intended) by entertainment value. Survivor, The FIve Gifts of Life, and Thirteen at Table are examples.

That said, I agree it's not a book for everyone. (What book is?) It's certainly one of my favorites, but if you don't like it, I bet there are other things we can disagree about too. That's life.

[Bill Duncan]

Walter,
Certainly the presentations aren't for every, or even most magicians... but I dont recall anything from the book that was any more embarrassing than the lines I hear from magicians who think the stuff in LD&OCT is silly:

Not that hand, the clean one!

Have we met before? Then how do you know its me?

These ____ are exactly alike, especially this one

A simple fact of life is that some folks can make this stuff play, as written, for some audiences, and some/most folks cant. Bill Malone and Mike Skinner both managed to pull off the Rub-a-Dub-Dub cups and balls for adult audiences.

Audiences love story deck tricks like Sam the Bellhop, and Diamond Jack, and while we like to think Sam is so popular because of the expert handling Malone has added, there are lots of folks who feature it or other story tricks without much manipulation and get solid reactions.

The similarity between what we like to do, and what our audiences like to watch is often coincidental.

[Cugel]

Silly bear. Tricks from this book are in active use by pros, who live-or-die (no pun intended) by entertainment value. Survivor, The FIve Gifts of Life, and Thirteen at Table are examples.

That said, I agree it's not a book for everyone. (What book is?) It's certainly one of my favorites, but if you don't like it, I bet there are other things we can disagree about too. That's life.

Which pros?

[Chris Aguilar]

Which pros?

Top... men.

[Bill Duncan]

Eugene Burger for one...

[Cugel]

Check. Who else?

[Bill Duncan]

I don't actually keep track... I know Eugene does because he teaches one of the items in his lectures.

What difference does it make? Most of the people who perform card magic are NOT pros, and any book that inspires magicians to think about how to present their magic is a worthwhile read, even if they never use ANY of the material.

Neale's book offers both useable methods for a large variety of tricks, and intersting ideas on how to present card magic. In order to be inspired you have to think. You don't have to agree...

[Gord]

I don't mean to sit on the fence here, but you can put me in the "Pretty Good" camp.
I thought it was crap and good for nothing until I saw Burger perform a piece from it. The moment he mentioned the book I thought "Did he read the same book I read?"
I read it again, and realised there is good stuff in it. Can I see myself performing any of the routines as written? Probably not. (I rarely do anyway.) But is there good, solid stuff in there? Yes indeed there is.

Gord (Not a professional, nor do I play one on TV.)

[Cugel]

I don't actually keep track... I know Eugene does because he teaches one of the items in his lectures.

What difference does it make? Most of the people who perform card magic are NOT pros, and any book that inspires magicians to think about how to present their magic is a worthwhile read, even if they never use ANY of the material.

Neale's book offers both useable methods for a large variety of tricks, and intersting ideas on how to present card magic. In order to be inspired you have to think. You don't have to agree...

It makes no difference. Merely that someone said a lot of pros who "live and die" on their material use the Neale stuff. I was curious to know who. This is a magic discussion forum, after all. Discuss.

[Alton]

Jeff McBride has a piece he adapted from it. And you can see it on one of Eugenes tapes to boot. The Gifts of Life is the name of it if memory serves me.

Also at one of the first Kostya Kimlat lectures back when he was Greyhounding over the US (he was in Pekin, Illinois at the time lecturing for the Peoria Ring), he had an adaptation of one of the pieces as well and he used in his lecture. We discussed it afterwards but that has been a few years back.

Alton

[Gordon Meyer]

Merely that someone said a lot of pros who "live and die" on their material use the Neale stuff. I was curious to know who. This is a magic discussion forum, after all. Discuss.

In reality, I said material from the book was in use by pros who live or die by the entertainment value of their shows. I didn't say "a lot," because I certainly don't keep count of such things.

David Parr is another pro who uses Neale material in his act, but I'm not sure from which of Neale's books the tricks are from. (Certainly the one Parr co-wrote with Neale, but perhaps Life, Death, and Other Card tricks too. I'm not keeping track of that, either.)

[Marco Pusterla]

For whatever is worth, I perform regularly two items from this book (slightly changed to suit my style) and I've performed at least a third one regularly in the past... I think it's a good book but a book to be studied, not something you simply parrot like you can do with the latest DVD...

[Bill Duncan]

Fan of LDAOCT will be happy to know that there's another Neale book in the works, from Hermetic Press. It will be called This Is Not a Book, and should be out this summer.

Those who don't care for LDAOCT will have something new to complain about, so everyone has a reason to be happy.

:)

[swamy]

This book will be of great help for those who would like to do presentations related to various domains.

[Silly Walter]

Jeff McBride has a piece he adapted from it. And you can see it on one of Eugenes tapes to boot. The Gifts of Life is the name of it if memory serves me.
Alton

I love Jeff and I love Eugene but that stupid ass 5 gifts of life trick was one of the worst pieces of [censored] I have ever had to sit through. I can't imagine a lay audience watching it and thinking "Oooh that's magical". More like "That sucked ass".

Just my opinion !!!!!!

[dvertucci]

Check. Who else?

David Parr

[Cugel]

That's not surprising.