The Buena Vista Shuffle Club

That's how this book kicks off, and damn if that's not a good hook. It's also relevant, at least to me, because I never heard of Matt Baker prior to this book. I honestly, don't recall how I came across it either. Maybe it was an ad? Maybe someone on Instagram shared a pic? I really can't recall, but I do remember briefly looking up what the book was about and smashing that order button ... as soon as I found a place that had a copy of the book in stock!

The first half of the book's full of memdeck work, stack independent. There are some really clever ideas in here, ones that really take the memdeck concept to the next level. It's not that same old ACAAN stuff, it's interactive and multi-phased. There's work with individual spectators, and with multiple, and I really like that.

The second half of the book is a little bit of everything else. Non-memdeck routines, and even a few coin tricks. Matt also shows off his mathematics background with some number-crunching goodies too. And just when you thought you were done with the 21 Card Trick... lol.

What is really interesting though is Matt's creation of the Buena Vista Shuffle Club, a fictional group of magicians who meet and jam on the routines that were just described. They give feedback on the routines, and present alternate handlings. In their conversations, you can find yourself joining in and your own ideas start forming and next thing you know, you have a deck in hand trying out everything!

Where to buy?

Last I checked, this book was sold out everywhere except for direct purchases on Matt Baker's website for $50 (with free shipping).

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