The Genii Forum

What's your favorite Kaufman book?

I suppose I am limited in any range, considering I only have a few....

My favorite is "Richard's Almanac" and "The Uncanny Scot"

The Almanac is just full of stuff. Filled!
Yet, I really enjoy the magic of Ron Wilson.

-Brad

I have really enjoyed David Roth's expert coin magic, Williamson's Wonders and Gary Kurtz Unexplainable acts

I like At The Card Table and Cardshark by Darwin Ortiz. I also like the Complete Works of Derek Dingle.

A tough, tough question. Do enhanced reprints count, such as Greater Magic? Hard to leave that out. Uncanny Scot and Spirit
Theater are certainly among my five. (The Elmsley newspaper tear, AS DESCRIBED IN RON'S BOOK, is the best, with a big improvement over the desc. in the Elmsley book.) Also loved Steel and Silver, a very classy book. Do I have one left or two? Impossible to choose.

Can't you bozos find something better to talk about? ;)

Glad to see favorable comments for the Ron Wilson book. I love books filled with a performers "bread and butter" routines. It seems to me that those in the Wilson book are proven and polished over time. I also love Spirit Theater. It's just such a fun book, all the great old photos, the interviews with Eugene. It seems to me they must have had a great time with their seances. That sense of fun comes across in the book.

My favorite Kaufman book is John Bannon's Smoke and Mirrors. This book is filled with truly exceptional card magic.

The book that I have found the most useful is The Collected Almanac, but my personal favorite is The Greater Artful Dodges of Eddie Fields.

No doubt: to me, the best is "The secrets of Bro. John Hamman". One of the best buys, I think.

Collected Almanac dollar for dollar is the best book. I was working at Tannen's when it was published and I pushed those bad boys out. I love all the extra stuff that was added. Harry Lorayne should have taken such an approach with the Apocalypse compilation. Show Time at the Tom Foolery runs a close second because of all the work that went into it. I am also very fond of the Sankey books, Expert Coin Magic and Smoke and Mirrors.

I forgot to add Cardshark! GREAT material!!! :cool:

John Bannon's Smoke and Mirrors is my all time favorite book. I'm anxiously awaiting anything new by this genius. I've yet to find any Kaufman book that wasn't at least very good.

MikeM:

John Bannon also has a set of fairly recent lecture notes: "Cardzilla is Coming" which he sold in England a few years back and most recently at a gathering here in Minneapolis this summer. Some excellent new material as well as a few golden oldies! His lecture was one of the highlights of our "Close-up and in the Parlour" convention. I'm not sure about availability...perhaps H&R books?

John Bannon's "Cardzilla Is Coming" is a strong, wonder-full set of lecture notes. In fact, I perform (with permission from John) in my lectures John's version of a Jack Carpenter trick, plus his"Beyond Fabulous," which Richard and I published in THE LOOKING GLASS. John has insight into ways to eliminate sleights or to strategically place them elsewhere in a presentation. Also, one of the great synergistic sodalities of the past 30 years is the Windy City triumvirate of Bannon-Aronson-Solomon.

Mike M. writes that he has yet to find one Kaufman and Co. book that wasn't at least very good.
Mike, I have only two things to say to you:
1) Lim-Tricks
2) Much Ado about Something
Either of these books will burst your bubble of admiration. :eek:

My two favorite Kaufman Books are "Mysteries of my Life" and "Mastering the Art of Magic". Both of these wonderful books have been thought provoking and made me a better magician. :)

Kim

John Bannon is supposed to have a new book in the works...he's mentioned it for the last two years at the A-1 convention.

Richard, would you know anything about this?

John Bannon's "Smoke & Mirror's" without a doubt. That book is full of EXCELLENT material. Underhanded and Fat City are some of my favorites.

RICHARD'S ALMANAC for its diversity, quality, and commentary.

COMPLETE DINGLE for its cool and challenging methods (especially "back in the day").

But my gosh...... :eek: ......no one has mentioned COINMAGIC. That's GOT to be on someone's list.....it's so full of gems it's scary. And all those action illustrations! Thanks and a hat tip, Richard.

ps: did I mention I like the book?

I can not narrow my favorite or best Kaufman publication to only one text. The Secrets of Brother John Hamman is a treasure chest of devious card creations and I don't know what I did before I learned the Pinochle Trick and Protean Twins. I also, believe the Dingle book to be as fine a close-up book on magic that has ever been printed.

I've always been partial to Animal Crackers, but he did win Pulitzers for Of Thee I Sing and You Can't Take It With You. :D

[ August 16, 2001: Message edited by: Michael Edwards ]

Oh, that Kaufman!!!!

And he's not talking about Gerald Lynton Kaufman, either.

I'm kinda partial to the way he tossed the broads at that round table in the Algonquin.

He was quite a Guy with Those Dolls.

Randy Campbell :D
(Michael Edwards is the ranking funny guy on this board!)

I have many Kaufman books, but without any question the one(s) I am proudest to own is the set of Ellis Stanyon's Magic. Fascinating reading in a set of books indescribably beautiful. RK's finest work ever.

Dustin

Originally posted by bradmagic:
What's your favorite Kaufman book?

CoinMagic - it's a capital C Classic but I don't even think of it as a Kaufman book. It's too important and timeless to have been written in my lifetime.

... so I guess I have to say ...

Sankey Pankey - the best looking of the Kaufman books (that I own anyway). It's full of Jay's best thinking and the production values, drawings, writing and layout are just top notch.

The Complete Works Of Derek Dingle - I only do one trick from this book but I wouldn't part with it for anything. It was my first serious "card" book and you couldn't have ask for a better pair of teachers than Richard Kaufman and Derek Dingle.

(sorry if three titles is a lot but my library is 35% Kaufman / 35% Minch and 35% everyone else)

RK - how about some historical prospective or anecdotes on the production of some of these volumes?

[ August 21, 2001: Message edited by: Bill Duncan ]

One of my favorites is the Greater Magic reprint with all the fun extra information especially all the letters from the publisher, author et al.

The Uncanny Scot is another favorite (especially the Card in Wallet routine) and sits on my bedside table as I write.

Finally, the Charles Bertram biograhphy has given me a great deal of happy reading.

Card Shark has been a favorite for a long time too.

Can't forget all the great Burger books too! :)

[ August 22, 2001: Message edited by: Robert Kane ]

My favorite Kaufman books are the ones not yet published . . . .

That's a total lie, but I needed to mask the fact that I'm going of the topic of this thread here. Obviously I am not alone (and obviously not alone on this board) in appreciating the wonderful things Richard has done with Genii these last years. But . . . a plea to RK:

I have been salivating over the prospect of the remaining Larry Jennings books ( . . . TAKES IT EASY and . . . TAKES IT TOUGH) ever since JENNINGS '67 came out. How utterly cruel to hold the rest of the material hostage. I don't know where I expect you to find the time, but please do! Yes, I know when you took GENII over, you warned us that book projects would be on hold for a while. But I'd gladly put up with a couple (or several) late GENIIs if it would help.

In the meantime, all I've been able to do is reread JENNINGS '67 over and over again (which is not a bad thing to do, incidentally).

End of plea.

I regard it as one of the great tragedies of magic publishing that RK wasn't able to do the "complete" LJ project he wanted to do. CLASSIC MAGIC is wonderful, but what might have been . . . . Okay, maybe I am too emotional about such things.

Actually, come to think of it, JENNINGS '67 is high on my list of favorites, if not at the top of it. So not off the thread, after all.

I just came across Lim-Tricks. My goodness Richard, what were you thinking?

My 2-cents worth:
Anything by Eugene Burger
Greater Magic
Collected Almanac
Smoke and Mirrors
Rick

Only two votes for COINMAGIC??

Are you guys serious?? :eek:

[ok.....a reluctant ;) ]

Coinmagic has to be one of the most important books ever published in the field. For the first time in years magicians on a wide scale were exposed to retention techniques and new plots, twists, and concepts that REVOLUTIONIZED the field. It was the first time that David Roth allowed so much material to be released, and his influence was certainly seen in the material given by so many of the other wonderful magicians who contributed. There is not a coin magician around who has not been influenced by this book, maybe even more so than Bobo (am I being sacrilegious here?).

My favorite Kaufman book is also "The Collected Almanac".
So many good things from Brother Hamman:
Pinochle Trick, Signed Card ...
So many good things from Daryl:
Diamond Bar, Universal...
So many good things from Skinner:
Up the Ladder Aces, Sentimental Aces, Satan Deals Again...
So many good things from Sankey:
Airthight, H.P.C.-C.P.H....
So many good things from Jennings:
Searchers, Make me small...
And Bull:
Richard talking really freely...
I simply find "The Collected Almanac" fabulous.

Philippe Nol

I may be in a minority of one, but I still enjoy reading through Folding Money Fooling. I've read the first half of Road Hustler four times, and liked bits of Lifesavers.

This may have something to do with my hatred of card tricks though...

Ian

CardMagic revolutionized magic books forevermore, a quantum leap forward.

I'm genuinely grateful for all the kind comments, but I'm going to punch Bradmagic in the nose for starting the thread.
What was I thinking with "Lim-Tricks"? I thought it was a clever idea and Jeff Sheridan needed some money. End of story.
No one has named "Gaffed to the Hilt," so I will. It is not my favorite of all the books I published, but it is high up there. What a wonderful project: Don England is one clever clever guy and about half of the tricks in that book are true killers.
As far as material goes, my favorite of all the books has to be Greater Magic. Before I touched it, it was great. Adding those 400 new pages was a thrill. My other faves are (in no order): "Complete Works of Dingle," "Secrets of Hamman," "The Collected Almanac," and the Jennings books--the one done, and those yet to come. My choices obviously reflect my personal preferance for card tricks.
I'm glad "The Uncanny Scot" is finally getting some of the attention it deserves. I wish all of you could have seen Ron perform the stuff--it was perfection.

I have mixed feelings about the K&G reprint of Road Hustler. The first half is great, but the second half is an embarrassing conceit. Some of the footnotes are clearly not the work of Robert Prus but of Richard Kaufman, and I think that sort of editorial jiggery pokery is unforgiveable. On the whole I'd recommend reading the original text if you can score a copy.

But as Richard concedes, they can't all be winners. And yet there are many, many great books published by K&G that don't suffer in the way that the Prus book did. I particularly enjoyed the Tomfoolery book, Strong Magic and the other Ortiz books, and the Draun book.

Best,
Andrew

Sorry to disappoint you Andrew, but I did NOT write a single word of text in Road Hustler. The updating was done ENTIRELY by Robert Prus. So much for the "obvious."

Thanks for clearing that up, Richard. I was confused by the rebuke of Jeff Busby (and other comments) which, however deserving, seemed incongruous against the scholarly tone you'd expect from an academic like Prus. Not to mention my expectation that Prus wouldn't have concerned himself with the tedious political affairs of the magic world, beyond those expressed by the 'representative sample' used in the exercise.

Best
Andrew

In the process of updating "Road Hustler," Robert Prus learned a lot about the world of magic and the new material reflects that.