Prestidigitator – Brian Caswell

Prestidigitator is my legacy, a 350-page beautiful quality hardback book bound in buckram book cloth. It contains new ideas that occurred to me only recently, many of the other effects I’ve come up with over the years, and details of pretty well all my published work.

I’m probably best known for ‘Trilogy’, a trick which was recently declared a ‘Fooler’. Prestidigitator extends the Trilogy concept to four and five revelations. For myself though, if I had to face the scrutiny of Penn and Teller, I would perform the first trick that I describe in this book.

And it is a book full of tricks – effect and method – more than seventy items in nine chapters. Although the book doesn’t shy away from sleight of hand, the emphasis is on concealed subtleties, little known principles, unsuspected gaffs.

• Mentalism
• Impromptu card tricks
• Tricks with the double decker
• Stage magic
• Rope magic
• Other props
• Variations on existing effects
• Card tricks with preparation
• New concepts

For stage performers there’s a chair test, a memory erasing routine, a comedy effect, a version of ‘Touching on Hoy’, a spectator hallucination effect.

For close up performers, you weigh cards with your bare hand, genuinely name buried cards by a sense of touch, divine chosen cards over the phone, call number totals without seeing anything, have a spectator name his own unseen card twice in a row.

Examples from the book

ANOMALY – Weirdly, a spectator finds you have written down the names of five playing cards that you were thinking of, on the backs of five different cards that she happened to be thinking of.

UNSIGHTED – A deck is examined. Three spectators freely choose cards, bury them in the pack and place the deck in an opaque bag. You see nothing of this. Turning round, you place your hands into the bag and slowly name all three cards without seeing anything at all.

THROW OF THE DICE – Six colored envelopes. You predict which envelope they will choose, but more significantly, you predict the number on a die thrown in their mind.

MIRACLE – A spectator thinks of seven playing cards. When you turn them over they find letters of the alphabet written on the backs. The cards spell the word miracle.

THE BORROMEAN RINGS – Three ropes knotted into rings appear to become somehow magically linked. Spectators examine the structure minutely, but strangely, find themselves unable to name any two of the rings that are in fact linked together.

“When it comes to creators who never fail to impress me, Brian’s name is right up there! He has created game changing routines like Trilogy and Cataclysm, effects that I still perform to this day. Brian’s effects are clever, strong and commercial and when he told me he was writing a book my first thought was it’s about time and my second thought was I want the first copy! This book is full of gold and should be in every magician’s library!”
– Peter Nardi

“I was fortunate enough to preview this remarkable book and it’s absolutely full of ingenious ideas that are sure to inspire. It’s a treasure trove of knowledge that will resonate deeply with anyone passionate about the art of magic and mentalism.”
– James Harrington (Mind2Mind)

“I’ve worked with Brian Caswell for a long time. In fact it was Brian who originally suggested the Ninja Plus gimmick all those years ago. Several of his tricks have been in my working repertoire for as long as I remember. This is a reference work I’ll be going back to again and again.”
– Matthew Garrett

“Brian has provided effects for every aspect of my work – for stage, for cabaret and for close up. I’ve lost track of how many times he’s come into rehearsals and fooled me with a trick. It was an honor to do the illustrations for this book.”
– Dean Maudsley, Sleight of Hand Artist

“Brian Caswell’s creations are incredible; his effects have been in many of my performances and Trilogy is a mind blowing closer that I continue to use.”
– Michael J Fitch