Richard Kaufman "The Collected Almanac"

This is a review of the book, “The Collected Almanac” by Richard Kaufman. “Richard’s Almanac” was a monthly newsletter that Richard Kaufman created. It originally averaged 8 pages, and ran from 1982 to 1987, later being bound to a single book in 1992. It’s over 400 pages long, with nearly 1,000 illustrations, and that’s not including the almost 100 pages of introductory pages, in which many routines are described from other books. “The Collected Almanac” has over 175 routines, that use many different props, including (But not limited to) cards, coins, bills, rings, rubber bands, matches, pens, and more. Each of the issues also has a Bull update, in which you will find stories, reviews, routines, and news.

There are far too many routines in “The Collected Almanac” to review them all, but in this review, I will give a brief description of some of my personal favorites.

Visiting Royalty (David Arthur, page xix) – The two black jacks are placed on the top of the deck, and a card is chosen. The black jacks change to the red jacks, and the deck is spread to reveal that the black jacks, with the selection between them, are in the middle of the deck. This is a very good routine, and the method is different than similar sandwich effects.

8/10

Sonic Squeeze (Michael Ammar, page 12) – When I first tried this routine, I realized that while it was a brilliant routine, you couldn’t use most coins, because they created noise throughout the routine. I have used this plot, and created a variation that has become my favorite coin routine. The effect is that you pluck an invisible coin out of the air, and place it in your hand. When you open your hand, the coin becomes visible. You pick the coin up, place it on the table, and pluck another invisible coin out of the air, tossing it in your hand, and causing it to appear. This can be repeated with 4, 5, 6, or more coins

9.5/10

Bi-Way (J.K Hartman, page 17) – An ace travels from the top of a four-card-packet, to the second, third, and fourth positions, and then to the third, second, and top positions, respectively. A good routine worth learning, but not great.

7.5/10

Cut to Kill (Daryl, page 29) – This is a spectator cuts the aces routine. Basically, a spectator cuts the deck into four piles. Taking one card off of each pile, and turning them over one at a time, the magician reveals that the spectator cut to the four kings. Not only that, but the card below each king is an ace of matching suit. A great routine, and my favorite cutting the aces routine.

8.5/10

Preset (Jim Swain/Geoff Latta, page 62) – You show four aces and four kings, and deal the aces on the table. When you turn them over, the aces have changed to kings, and the aces are in your hand. This is an ok routine, but will probably not be added to my repertoire.

7.2/10

Isolated Visitor (Derek Dingle, page 89) – The basic idea of the routine is that you show two black kings and two red kings. You have the spectator stop you anywhere in the deck as you dribble the cards (No force), and hand them the card, while you table the upper half of the deck. You pick up the black kings and place them on the deck face-up, while sandwiching the selection between them. You cut the lower half of the deck, losing the cards, and table it. You pick up the upper half of the deck, and place the red kings on top of the deck. When you spread them, the selection has appeared between the red kings, with no fishy-looking moves. When you turn the cards over, the selection has disappeared from between the red kings. You pick up the other half of the deck, and spread through them, showing that the selection has reappeared between the black kings. This is an excellent sandwich routine, with multiple climaxes.

8.5/10

Audacious Sandwich (Jon Racherbaumer, page 97) – Wow, another sandwich routine. You take the two black jacks, and place them face-up on top of the deck. You have a spectator stop you while dribbling the cards (No force), and show him the card. With no suspicious moves, cuts, or passes, you spread the cards, showing that a card has appeared between the jacks. Placing it fairly on the table, you have a spectator turn it over, revealing their card. This is without-a-doubt my favorite sandwich routine. It is very simple, and very magical. Not only do laymen love it, but it is a magician fooler as well. Even though this routine uses a very bold move, it’s fooled my toughest critic, and a laymen three times.

9.8/10

Rubber Ringer (Bill Kalush, page 120) – This is a two-phase rubber band and ring routine. In the first phase, you stretch out a rubber band between your fingers, and quickly move the ring through the rubber band, linking them, and unlinking them just as quickly. In the second phase, you clearly attach the ring to the rubber band, and slowly, while pulling on the rubber band, the ring is seen to unlink. It’s hard to explain what the routine looks like, but trust me when I say that this is one of the most visual routines in the book.

8/10

The Signed Card (Bro.r John Hamman, page 125) – You remove an unidentified card and place it face down on the table. You also remove the four aces, and have a spectator select a card from the deck. Clearly showing the four aces, you very fairly place the selected card on the bottom of the packet. Telling the audience you are going to make their selection disappear, you clearly show the four aces, one at a time, placing them on the table. After showing that the selection has disappeared, you show that there are no extra cards among the aces. You take two of the aces, and sandwich the unknown card between them. Turning the aces face up, you very cleanly remove the unknown card, turning it over, showing it to be the selected card. The card can be signed, and there are no duplicates used.

9/10

The Pinochle Trick (Bro. John Hamman, page 130) – This is a neat little trick. You comment on how in the game Pinochle, a Pinochle is a Queen of Spades, and a Jack of Diamonds, while showing both from a four-card packet, and dealing them to the table. You say that a double Pinochle is when you have another Queen of Spades and Jack of Diamonds, while showing that those are the other two cards, and placing them on the table. You then pick up the cards, and say that it’s ok for someone to have one Queen of Spades, or two Queen of Spades (While showing these cards), but if someone has three Queen of Spades, and one Jack of Diamonds, that’s not double Pinochle, while you show that the four-card packet has now changed to being three Queen of Spades, and one Jack of Diamonds. You then pick up the packet, and show that they are all Jack of Diamonds, while once again, talking about Pinochle. At the end of the effect, you show four aces, while commenting on hundred aces (A hand in Pinochle). When you read the patter for this effect, you’ll see that it doesn’t make much sense, but it is a good effect, and is similar in plot to the Jumping Gemini and Twins effects.

7.5/10

Airtight (Jay Sankey, page 137) – In this effect, you take a deck of cards, and have a spectator sign one. Losing the card in the deck, you take out a balloon from your pocket. Slapping the deck against the balloon, you show that the deck has been sucked inside of the balloon. You blow up the balloon, and use a bulldog clip to clamp it shut. You shake the balloon, shuffling the cards inside, You apparently reach inside the balloon, and pull out a card, showing it to be the spectator’s card. This is a very good effect, but even though I bought the effect separately (Balloons included), I was never able to get the deck inside the balloon. Normally, I would give the routine a 9 or 9.5, but since I could never actually do the effect, it gets a still very good score of:

8.5/10

Choice Flesh (Max Maven, page 188) – The magician removes four kings, and sets them on the table. Three cards are freely chosen from the deck by a spectator. One card is remembered, while the other two are given to the magician. The deck is put aside, and the spectator places the card (No force) back with the other two. The magician interlaces the three cards face-down with the four face-up kings. Making a magical gesture, the magician shows that one card has disappeared. Making another magical gesture, the magician shows that another card has disappeared. There are only five cards left, the kings and a face-down card. The face-down card is removed and shown to be the thought-of card. To be honest, at first I thought this effect was merely great. That is, until I performed it and heard screams at the end. Don’t overlook this effect. It’s very strong, and at the end, you are completely clean. Another plus is that the spectator never has to tell you his card. There are absolutely no forces, no duplicates, and the entire routine is impromptu. I truly believe that this is one of the strongest effects in the book.

9.8/10

Really Here! (Jon Racherbaumer, page 223) – Four Kings and four Queens are shown, and placed into four sets on the table. Picking up two of the piles, the magician shows that the four Queens have come together. When the other four Kings are shown, they have changed into the four Aces. I like this effect, but find it more of a magician fooler (The aces at the end throw off magicians), than something to perform for laymen. Also, it requires a 10-card setup, making the routine far from impromptu. It also takes up a lot of table space (Not too much, but more than most routines). Overall, I would say that while it’s a good effect, it’s one to show to your magician friends, and is best left out of your show (Unless your show’s audience is all magicians).

7.5/10

The Fifth Card (Bruce Cervon, page 255) – The magician shows the spectator five cards, one at a time, and has him merely think of one. Placing the cards in the spectator’s hands, the magician makes a magical gesture, and has the spectator count the cards. There are only four. The spectator names the though-of card, and the magician, taking the cards back, goes through the card, showing that the thought-of card has disappeared. Reaching into his pocket, the magician pulls out the thought-of card. This is a very simple routine, but it plays strong, due to the fact that the spectator only thinks of a card, and doesn’t reveal its identity until the end of the effect.

8/10

Duck Soup (Roy Walton, page 276) – The magician makes a written prediction, and then shuffles a deck of cards (Or the spectator can shuffle). The magician takes the cards, and deals eight cards onto the table in two rows of four. The spectator takes one card from the first row, places it on any other card in the second row, places these cards aside, and repeats this, this time taking a card from the second row, and placing it on a card from the first row. The spectator gives the magician three of the four remaining cards, who places them back in the deck. The magician shows that the four cards put aside were two pair. The last card is shown to make a poker hand of a full-house. The spectator reads the prediction, which says that the spectator will choose a full-house. This is a good effect, but there are several downsides. First, it is not impromptu (Unless you cull the cards in the middle of the effect. Second, it requires a lot of table space. Finally, I feel that the effect just isn’t very strong. Even so, it’s still an ok routine worth looking at.

7/10

The Magic Cards (Bro. John Hamman, page 289) – The magician brings out three red-backed cards, set them aside, and bring out a blue-backed deck. A spectator cuts the deck, and the magician takes three cards from where they cut to, and set them on the table, face-down. The magician takes the three red cards, and drops them on top of one of the face-down cards. The magician picks up the cards and shows that the three red cards are kings, and that the blue selected card is also a king. The magician repeats this with the other two tabled cards, and each time, the red cards change to match the value of the blue card. This is a very confusing routine for the spectator. They are clueless as to how the cards could keep changing. Very strong, and instant reset (Almost).

9/10

The Poker Palm Shift (Bro. John Hamman, page 296) – The magician removes five cards from the deck, and shows them to the spectators. The magician then does a move, which is so fast, no one can see it, “The Poker Palm Shift.” The five cards have transformed into a full house, Tens over Aces. The magician discards one card and takes one from the deck (It’s draw poker), showing only five cards. “The Poker Palm Shift” is repeated, and this time the cards change into five aces (Hmm…and no wild cards?). A card is once again discarded, and another card is taken. “The Poker Palm Shift” is repeated, changing the five cards into a royal flush in diamonds. This routine will take a lot of practice. The routine isn’t very technically demanding, but it takes a lot of practice to remember the order of the moves. Even so, it’s worth it, because this is one of the best gambling demonstrations I know, and if you can cull cards, you can do the set-up right under the audience noses.

8.6/10

There are many more effects in “The Collected Almanac” worth looking at. These are just a few of my favorite effects from the book, which I use most. As you have probably realized, most of the effects I listed use cards. The reason for this is not that all of the routines use cards. In fact, only about 50% of the material uses cards. However, many of the non-card effects require a lot of gaffs or gimmicks, or use several props, which are not likely to be with you at a moments notice. Since I personally do close-up magic, and since most of my routines are impromptu, most of the effects I have listed as my favorites also are impromptu, or the set-up can be done in front of the spectators.

Overall, “The Collected Almanac” is a very good book, and is one of the (if not the) best you could buy. If you think about it, most DVDs or videos cost $30-$35, plus shipping, for about 6 or 7 effects. Out of those, you are not likely to use more than one or two. “The Collected Almanac” contains nearly 200 routines, and while some of the routines aren’t practical or particularly strong, you will surely find at least one or two DOZEN routines that you will use. And while the book is out-of-print, you should be able to find one for about $45, less than 50% of the cost of a DVD. Do yourself a favor and buy, “The Collected Almanac”

10/10

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Shane Wiker

Copyright 2004