It's Monday and you know what that means... Monday Mail Call!

Each Monday (give or take), I use this feature to highlight a few of the things that have made their way in over the past week or so. Packages, purchases, and emails -- oh my!

Kicking off the week, the Gilded Dystopia deck by Joker and the Thief! Or, rather, the full name is Dystopia: Interceptor Gilded Special Edition Playing Cards according to the product page =P. I don't normally buy gilded decks because they're not super useable for magic routines, typically because they handle like crap. Also, they're way more expensive than a normal deck (even than a custom deck). Dystopia's price tag was no different, it was one of the most expensive decks I've ever bought but when I saw it it just called to me.

I ordered this, and the regular Dystopia deck, back in November and they just recently arrived. I forget the cause of the delay, I think it was the gilded version or something but I'm too lazy to go look it back up. I really, really like the gilded version though. The actual back design and faces are the same as the regular deck, but the golden edges are just so nice. And the tuck is a mono-chromatic version of the regular. It just gives off a certain vibe that I can't describe, but it's good!

Next up, the latest release from Organic Playing Cards (@organic_playing_cards), the Snackers Raspberry Flavor deck! This is the newest fruit-themed deck in a now-lengthy run of fruity decks. While not my first deck from OPC, it's my first one with this type of packaging. They've really done great carrying the theme of each deck beyond just the cards themselves.

Also, the arrival of this deck also brings with it my 6th "passport stamp" which means I get to claim an Exotic deck! Luckily enough, I also just won a giveaway by OPC on Instagram and will be receiving an Exotic v2 deck for free too! It's my lucky month (^_^)

Rounding out this week's deliveries, the Trash & Burn Blu deck by Howlin' Jacks Playing Cards. I saw this deck on Instagram a month or two ago (maybe longer) and it was part of a giveaway. I can't recall who's account it was on, but it introduced me to the brand so I went to check them out. They have a handful of decks on their site (howlinjacks.com) and they all look so fun. This deck is one of the best shades of blue I've seen on a deck, and the faces are just amazing. Complete custom pips and courts, and the duplicate card that comes with it is great. I'll take a duplicate card over a blank-faced card any day!

If you haven't been able to tell, I received a few decks this week =P. It's a love-hate type of week when I get multiple decks in. On one hand, hey, a lot of new decks! On the other, I don't have time to play with each of them so they just start piling up. I wonder if that is a signal that I should stop buying so many decks...

Stay tuned for the next iteration of Monday Mail Call, there's a lot more to come!

Oh also, if you'd like to offer suggestions for books, tricks, decks or if you have questions about magic (performing, routines, sleights, etc.), just reach out here.

Lately, I've been working on a couple of different cardistry moves. Nothing that I've created, and things that have been around for years, but new to me at least.

I wanted to write about the practice I've been putting in and some of the tips and tricks I've come up with, but each time I thought about it more, there were other random thoughts that kept coming up. So today's post is less of tips-and-tricks and more of a brain dump of thoughts about cardistry because that's what the world needs more of =P

When I was a kid, I had never heard of cardistry... or "extreme card magic" as it would have been called back then. The only flourishes I knew of were from Royal Road and those were pretty basic themselves.

Fast forward to a few years ago when I started back into magic, I see YouTube clips left and right about all of these crazy cuts and flips and whoozawhatsits. And then, there are also a decent number of magicians in books and on video (DVDs, downloads, and also YouTube) saying how they never use flourishes and cardistry is not magic.

Okay, we can agree, cardistry is not "magic". It's deftness and dexterity with a deck of cards, and it looks pretty cool. Also, though it's not magic, a lot of cardists can produce a four of a kind in a way better display than magicians can... so there's that.

I have gotten pretty good at one-handed cuts over the years. Charlier, Scissor, Revolution, and a handful of others that are combinations and modifications of those that I've come up with. Other than Charlier, the others are purely just flourishes and fidget moves. I do tend to absentmindedly do one-handed cuts nonstop if there's a deck in my hand and I'm busy with other things, but I like to think that it's all helping with overall flexibility of my hands (or... the one hand).

And then this happened... a few weeks ago I was on my lunch break and decided to hop over to YouTube and one of the recommended videos was TOP 3 ONE HANDED CUTS || CARDISTRY TUTORIAL. "Oh nice, I love one handed cuts!," I thought to myself. The video teaches Skirt by Tobias Levin, Reretrigger by Oliver Sogard, and Shady by Edgar Isaac. After a couple of days of practice of each of them, I can successfully still do a Charlier, Scissor, and Revolution cut =/

What's the legality of cardistry tutorials on YouTube? Or, in books for that matter?

With magic, someone creates a routine and publishes it. It's theirs, and if anyone else dares to make a tutorial on it and sell it (or even give it away for free), they're shunned by the magic community. Though, I'm pretty sure the majority of the same community will flock to the free version but hey, who am I to judge their morality.

Cardistry though, there is no "secret". It's art, as is magic, but is flourishing with cards as protected as... well, I guess also flourishing with cards but to the tune of a story?

I've learned the majority of cardistry moves from YouTube, I'm not going to lie. I never thought about it until very recently that some of these things I'm watching may have been created, and sold, by someone else. I own plenty of books that have "flourishes" in them, but the majority of these are fancy fans and Z-cuts. In the Classic Green Collection, there's a whole section dedicated to Z-cut flourishes too... which I'm also not good at. Did Lennart Green invent these, or pick them up from someone else? I have a few downloads (from Vanishing Inc., mostly) that teach cardistry moves -- they're pretty great, but the overall video quality rivals that of some of the better YouTube videos too so I really wonder, are they just hoping to get a few bucks from sales and know that in a short time it'll be free online?

Oh, and in case you were curious about what cardistry moves I've been working on (and actually trying to get down):

• ATM by Oliver Sogard
• Makitsu by Ladislas Toubart
• Hubble by Chris Ramsay
• Waterwheel by @thevirts
• WATERBEND by Joe Feldpausch

I picked up basic moves back in the beginning of my magic journey, things like the Sybil Cut and the Werm. Though, I tried doing the Werm just the other day for a photo... yeah, I need to practice that one again =P. I also started the Comfy Cut and some card aerials, so I'm widening my repertoire a bit. Oh yeah, I also practiced KTCHING by Dimitri Arleri for about a week. It's quite different from other things I've done and is a little less "flexibility" and more "handling" so I think it'll help with balance here-and-there.

It's Monday and you know what that means... Monday Mail Call!

So far, almost every Monday I'd use this feature to highlight a few of the things that have made their way in over the past week or so. Packages, purchases, emails, and more! Given my current posting schedule of twice-a-week, I personally feel like it's a little over-loaded on the Mail Call content. I'm thinking of either making this feature a bi-weekly type of thing, or upping my posting schedule to three-times-a-week. I don't know if I have the time to swing three posts a week yet, but maybe I'll do a little of both?

There's plenty incoming though, so to kick things off for this week are the Holographic Memento Mori (Limited Edition) Playing Cards! This deck popped up on @cardvolution's Story a few weeks ago and I opened it up in a browser tab on my phone and promptly forgot about it. About a week and a half ago, I saw the tab again and took a look at the deck and really liked it -- honestly, I've never seen anything like it.

Okay, so that's a lie. I actually have the original Memento Mori deck by Chris Ramsay so I've seen this exact deck before. In my hands. Except, different. The Holographic Memento Mori deck is the same design as the original, except the cards are completely foiled. Not just foil stamped or gilded. No, the entire card is shiny! The entire tuck is shiny! This is definitely a collector's deck, so I kind of feel bad for breaking it in but hey, somebody has to do it.

Also, you know the deck's worth it when it ships in a hard plastic case ;)

The next two things I got in are more website-related and not "magic" related. The first is an email from Google: Congrats on reaching 30 clicks in 28 days! It even comes with a little badge and everything:

I had no idea that there were milestones to reach, but this is pretty neat. The summary of it is, in the past month there were at least 30 links to this blog shown on Google's search results page that were clicked by users! Granted, I was probably 29 of them but still.

And to wrap things up, the other website-related email I received this past week was from FeedSpot. They're not an affiliate or anything, but I found their site when trying to find other magic blogs to connect with; on Instagram, most external sources are podcasts and YouTube channels... and I like to read =P.

Anyways, yeah. I found FeedSpot and they have lists of blogs from all different sorts of niches and hobbies -- magic included! I filled out the "submit yours" form and bam! Last week, they reached out to let me know that The Babbit's Grimoire will be included in their Top 80 Magic Blogs page. I'm currently holding the #20 spot:

I've already gotten a lot out of FeedSpot too because they let you follow individual blogs and/or entire lists and you'll get digests of the latest posts from each. It's been a great, and easy, way to stay up to date so far. Now I just have to work on moving higher up the list!

It's a short mail call for this week, but that's mainly because I'm out enjoying the wonderful finally-Spring weather (and I hope you are too)!

Stay tuned for the next iteration of Monday Mail Call, there's a lot more to come!

Oh also, if you'd like to offer suggestions for books, tricks, decks or if you have questions about magic (performing, routines, sleights, etc.), just reach out here.

Marvels of Mystery by John Booth, a book published over 80 years ago and hailed to be one of the greatest magic books of the 20th century. Whether that's a true sentiment or not is to be decided by the reader and I've come up with my own opinions on the topic -- which you're about to read!

First though, a little about John Booth. He was a prolific author who had written hundreds of articles on magic for several magic magazines including Linking Ring, Sphinx, Genii, and Magicol among others. Chances are, you've come across material written by him before if you've read any of those periodicals, or one of his 16 published books! Interestingly enough, he was a working nightclub magician up through 1940 when he "left magic" to become a minister. Author's note here, but did he really "leave magic" if he was still publishing articles and books on the subject? Also, and I say this from experience, but can't you have a day job and still call yourself a magician?

The book itself was an accidental addition to my library but I'm glad it found its way in. I had ordered a very different book from eBay and this one arrived instead. The seller didn't accept returns so I was effectively "stuck" with a book I didn't order but hey, a book's a book! Given that the majority of it is not card magic I likely wouldn't have ordered this one myself, but it did give insight into so much of the world of magic that I have otherwise not been privy to.

I was surprised when I saw that the introduction was written by Mrs. Harry Houdini. Mainly, I didn't know she went by that name given Harry Houdini itself was a pseudonym and Weiss was still his legal name. Bess Houdini, or Weiss, stayed true to the love of magic and held on to not only the name but also continued working with other magicians such as Booth. Though, I'm not sure how great of a starting quote this is:

Perhaps in the 1940's the verbiage came across as better. To me, "this unusual book" doesn't reach out to me as being all that great. Though she did go on to say "countless thousands of individuals on three continents may think they know Mr. Booth, Master Magician -- but do they?". Ah wait, that doesn't change too much, it still inspires an almost negative connotation to the mystery in our hands. Perhaps that was the intention?

Mickey Mouse Magic

Yes, Mickey Mouse Magic. No, not anything having to do with performing magic at Disney Land or magic that's specific for children. Chapter Five kicks off with a routine that's named Mickey Mouse Magic.

I want to set the stage really quick before I talk about this one. Timing is, as usual, everything. About a week, maybe two, before reading this book I was watching one of the latest episodes of Penn & Teller: Fool Us and one of the performers was Bobby Torkova. He presented a very beautiful performance of a classic in magic that he called "How to Make a Flag." Penn, during his judges-review piece, referenced it as a "silk dye routine" which it very much was, and he also dropped the name Al Baker. Now, I know Al Baker, but I don't know any silk magic beyond the use of a thumb tip -- and even that's a big guess. But yeah, such a beautiful routine that honestly fooled me completely because that's just not where I've studied. I highly recommend you watch the performance (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgXV_P4Jpkg).

With the stage set, let's circle back to Mickey Mouse.

The first paragraph of the effect introduction has a very familiar line:

Oh my... could it be the same trick that I had just witnessed? Spoiler alert -- it was! While Torkova's routine dyed silks to the design of an American flag, the routine in Marvels of Mystery creates one with the picture of Mickey Mouse on it. The colors of the silks and ending design are different, but the stages of the routines are identical. I read through this routine twice with fascination just to see how it could be done. It sounds pretty straightforward, but practice is definitely required.

I do really love the introduction patter:

Half of the trick's explanation, like all the ones presented in the book, is "patter" and then a rundown of how to perform that actual routine itself. There's a decent amount of talking involved in the routine as it's described in the book. However, I point you back to Torkova's performance if the same routine where not a word was said. I, personally, have been trying to find ways to let the magic speak for itself and talk less (I'm... a talker) but I have trouble with seeing it work out. It's really great to have resources like this to see the same trick performed in two very different styles and both be just as magical as the other.

Unfortunately, I'm not a fan of how the trick is presented in the book. Don't get me wrong, the trick itself is great. The patter and performance is spot-on. But by the time I got to this chapter (the 5th, remember) I've already formed an opinion on Booth and the purpose of this book and honestly, it was reinforced here too.

The trick uses what is called a dye tube. Booth spends a lengthy paragraph talking about his custom made, of brass, dye tube and his "Mickey Mouses" silks were custom painted for him by W. C. Dornfeld. A lot of the tricks presented in this book require one or more apparatus to be purchased -- though his are, more often than not, custom made and are better than what you can buy. At least he gives the dimensions and material; if you're a professional magician who's going to perform this type of thing, I could see you investing in a custom made one for sure. Luckily, he ends the routine description by letting us know that Davenport and Co., in England, sells this Mickey Mouse Trick... sadly this was 80 years ago and it doesn't look like it's available by them anymore.

All of that said, now I want to get ahold of Al Baker's material to compare!

Chapter Three

Have you ever been angry at a book before? Or the author of the book for something they put in it? I'm pretty sure I have in the past, but my most recent recollection is Chapter Three -- Patter Pets of Marvels of Mystery.

Why did Booth include this chapter? Just to have extra material printed in the book? To write down the tricks because they haven't been published before? I... have no idea, but I'm actually quite upset that he did.

Why though? Well please, let me explain!

There are three tricks outlined in Chapter Three:

• The Incredible Glass Penetration
• The Coin in the Bottle
• An Amazing Slate Prediction

As the quote above says, per Booth's opinion, these three tricks are either too well known or easy to purchase so he doesn't need to describe their secrets in this book. Again, so why include them?!

The first trick, The Incredible Glass Penetration, starts out with this effect description:

The rest of the trick description is sample patter you could use when performing it, assuming you don't like the patter that comes with the trick when you purchase it. But that's it. There's no explanation as to how to perform it.

He does give credit to Messrs. Massey and DeMuth for creating and marketing the trick which helped me locate "The Penetration Frame" / "Glass Thru Glass", but that itself wasn't the easiest to track down. Perhaps Booth didn't have permission to print how the trick was done, or information about the gimmick itself? I still, really don't get why he included these tricks.

What's really fun though is that while I was reading this chapter and verbally announcing my annoyance, my older son asked me what's up and I explained that I'm reading a magic book that just said, "here's a trick that's so well known, we're not going to tell you how to do it" and then read the effect description. He said to me "oh I know how to do that!" Man, if ever did I do a doubletake. Of course, I asked him how he knows and he says "here, you want to see?"

Two minutes later, he takes two cards from the deck sitting next to me and slides them into this plastic frame that has a sheet of glass in the middle. He takes a pencil, jabs it through the center of the two cards and then removes them from the frame. Sure enough, the glass in the middle of the frame is still intact and my cards are... punctured. He learned the routine and got the gimmick from the FAO Schwarz Ultimate Magic Set that he got for Christmas (go grandparents!) and just happened to read that one a day or two earlier. Like I've said, timing is everything!

Like Booth, my son stuck to the code of magicians and didn't tell me how the trick was done though...

Aged Material but also not new at the time?

How many magicians today appear before the audience wearing a pair of white gloves? Gentleman's Gloves, to be exact. Honestly, if I could perform Gentleman's Gloves to Milady's Bouquet though, I probably would. The effect itself sounds awesome -- you come out with a dashing pair of gloves, suavely slip them off and toss them into the air where they change, feet above your head, into an attractive bouquet of flowers. Hot damn!

That is quality visual magic. But that's not what people tune in to see anymore. That, or magicians just don't perform it anymore, so folks don't see it. Maybe I should become a stage magician and bring back some silk flowers! According to Booth, I could score a set of twenty-five large size spring flowers in various colors, complete with silk outer leaves for greater durability, for about two dollars and fifty cents from my favorite dispenser of conjuring paraphernalia. Oh, and don't forget the white cotton gloves for fifty cents.

The routine's a decent read because I've learned some very crafty ways to conceal things. My mind's been churning through ideas for cards with these approaches, though I haven't come up with anything really usable yet. Maybe one day!

There are several routines in this book that are like this though. They are great magic but have kind of fallen out over time. Maybe young magicians learn them to learn sleight of hand and some basics, but soon leave them to do other things. The ones in this book aren't exactly the easiest to perform though, and they tend to have a stronger magical appeal than some of the modern related ones (like making a wand turn into a bouquet of flowers).

However, there are also several routines in this book that I'm pretty sure have much better methods nowadays. Or at least I've seen performances with similar effects that are much stronger than what I see in the book. For example, Mind Controlling Matter sees a magician pour water into a cup (sorry, a goblet), and as the spectator then holds the cup, the water instantly turns into blue ink. Neat, sure. But to me, my first thought is "there was something in the cup and/or water that led to a delayed chemical reaction." And, well, that's exactly how it was done.

I'm sure folks even today would be shocked by it for sure, but stuff has advanced so much that I also think that most people would jump to a similar conclusion. The effect could be used in more subtle ways like multi-color changing liquid, covered by a cloth or something. I don't know, not my cup of tea. Oh, or, speaking of a drink, what about changing water into wine, or beer, or any other actual drinkable liquid? That "stronger" effect I was talking about - taking it one step further. Instead of using poisonous acids and turning a glass into, well, ink why not turn it into wine and let the spectator take a sip as a convincer!

Interestingly enough, when I came to the section about swallowing razor blades, I immediately thought of the Tarbell Series. I don't know how or why I remembered that trick being described in that specific book, but I did. I also knew that Tarbell was published at least a decade before Marvels of Mystery so I was wondering why Booth would print someone else's content without giving reference. And here's where that interesting part comes up -- turns out, the razor blade trick from Tarbell's book is actually from John Booth himself! Cross-referencing the two books side-by-side, the content in Tarbell's book (printed earlier) is much more informative than Booth's, and it also includes just about everything that Booth included too. Perhaps Booth simply wanted to publish it as his work too, opposed to it being contained in a collection of hundreds of other routines.

Though the razor blade trick was actually Booth's, it was published well before Marvels of Mystery came out, so we weren't really getting any new information there. Chapter Three also provided us with no good information. Many other tricks in this book were also referencing other tricks that already existed but the spin was Booth was using custom made gimmicks to perform them better. Let's be clear, the same thing happens today even in card magic. A trick that's been out for decades will be republished by someone who fully references the original source, but they are selling it as their own trick because of some tiny new nuance that they've added. Yay.

Takeaways

I'm not a stage magician or anywhere close to knowing much about the magic domains related to it. I've skimmed through one or two of the Tarbell books, but other than that, Marvels of Mystery is as close to it as I've gotten.

I would love to say that the contents of this book are outdated and there are better methods that exist today. However, the card routines in the book such as in Ne Plus Ultra Cards to Pocket and Three Card Revelation are actually still quite usable. While I do know of handlings that could be better, I honestly can't say I've ever seen or heard of a card revelation through a crystal before. I've ordered one to join the club though! If you're interested, I picked up this 2in crystal ball for just the purpose =]. Other routines that aren't card related, I really can't say one way or the other because I just don't know ... but they sound pretty outdated to me.

There are many great, though dated, reviews of this book and yet it does appear to have quality content. For me personally, I feel like it's a glimpse at both magic history and at the other vast areas of the magical world and I am glad I have read it. Even if you're a hobby-magician that focuses specifically on one type of magic, I recommend giving Marvels of Mystery a read. Except Chapter Three.

It's Monday and you know what that means... Monday Mail Call!

Each Monday (give or take), I use this feature to highlight a few of the things that have made their way in over the past week or so. Packages, purchases, and emails -- oh my!

Kicking things off, I received the book The Memory Arts by Sarah & David Trustman. This book is all about well, the art of memory. I was so excited to dive into this book that I pushed aside a lot of other things I was working on to go into it and holy crap, it's amazing. Look, I know that I need to actually finish the book first before I can give it a proper review, let alone put some of its teachings to practice but hear me out...

It starts off with giving a history of "the memory arts." I've known of the idea of a "memory palace" since as long as I can remember, heck, I've practiced it myself since I was in high school. But to learn that it's been around for thousands of years?! I really want to find some of the reference books that The Memory Arts calls out because it feels like there is a very rich story here and I would love to know a lot more about it.

After the history lesson though, we get into Sarah and David's shared memory palace and get to embark on a journey through different locations, each picture we can associate in our mind. Using these, we're then shown how to recall things, like playing cards. This is where I'm at in the book already. In one week, I'm already to remember 20 cards in just a few minutes and can recall them in any order, at any location, or recite what their location is when called upon. Next up, the full deck! Also mind you, when I say 20 cards, I mean I shuffle the deck, memorize them in a few minutes, do a few exercises and then start all over with a new shuffle.

There's a lot more to this book than just memorizing a deck of cards though; however, I want to get this lesson down before moving on. Reading up to this point was easy, but now I need to actually "do things" so it might take a little while before I finish the book. Once I do though, I'll be sure to let you know how it turned out!

Next up is this month's delivery of the "High Quality Kings Wild Cards". I have two subscriptions with King's Wild Project right now, the No. 13 Club (Standard Edition) and the Table Player's Club, so I get decks every month or two except the tucks don't really say which deck they are, so I had to go to my inbox to figure out which deck this was =P

This is the February Table Player's! I want to say that the tuck looks like a standard deck of cards, but to be honest it actually gives more of a cigarette pack vibe. The muted tones, but the all-around foiling are clean and right away I feel like it does in fact belong at a card table. I have too many opened decks on my desk right now so this one's going to have to wait a few days before I pop that cellophane, but I'll take some pics as soon as I do!

Last but certainly not least, the Dystopia Playing Cards by Joker and the Thief! I ordered this deck (or... six of them) back in November when they were released, and it took them until March to finally get here. I remember seeing at least one email or post or something from J&T saying there were production delays but hey, they're finally here!

This deck is a tribute to Mad Max: Fury Road and is all hotness. The level of detail on the tuck and the cards themselves is unbelievable. They really knocked this deck out of the park -- well worth the wait!

I'm super excited to get through The Memory Arts and put everything to practice. This will be one of the things that I devote a lot of my time to because I really believe that having that extra advanced skill in memory will pay off huge -- and not just with magic! If you follow me (@gbabbits) on Instagram, you'll be sure to see the Dystopia cards a lot soon too, and maybe even a sneak peek at the Table Players ;)

Stay tuned for the next iteration of Monday Mail Call, there's a lot more to come!

Oh also, if you'd like to offer suggestions for books, tricks, decks or if you have questions about magic (performing, routines, sleights, etc.), just reach out here.