Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic is a tutorial for people who want to learn the delightfully baffling art of performing magic for entertainment.

This book covers the gamut of the magical arts from close-up tricks to stage illusions. The book begins with card magic. Careful study of this section of the book will make the reader well-versed in card tricks of all kinds, from self-working card tricks to those requiring sleight-of-hand. Shuffles, card forcing, the double lift, and the glide are fundamental. The use of double-backed cards, double-faced cards, short cards, and giant cards are delineated. Do you want to learn how to do card flourishes? Let Mark Wilson be your teacher.

There are lessons on money magic that cover both coins and bills. "The Coin in the Ball of Wool" is a classic. Lessons on rope tricks range from cut and restored rope tricks to rope escapes. I particularly like Wilson's "Comedy Cut and Restored Rope." In the section on silk and handkerchief magic, Wilson explains how to make a universal pull that can be used to vanish any small object (button, coin, ring, and the like), as well as a small silk handkerchief.

What if someone says, "Do a trick," and you don't have any magic props handy? Wilson comes to the rescue with a section on impromptu magic. There are tricks with rubber bands, tricks with paper clips, tricks with Lifesavers, tricks with matches, and more. My favorite is Wilson's "Sucker Torn and Restored Napkin."

In the section on mental magic, you will learn to do mind reading and make inconceivable predictions. In the section on sponge ball magic you will learn to do transpositions and impossible penetrations. In the section on billiard ball magic you will not only learn the classic palms, vanishes, and flourishes, but you will be treated to the complete "Mark Wilson Billiard Ball Routine" exactly as he presented it in thousands of performances both in theaters and on television.

No magic book would be complete without describing a favorite routine for doing the Cups and Balls. Mark Wilson's book will not disappoint you. There are unique productions, mysterious flights, and a Lemon Surprise, in Wilson's treatment of this classic effect.

Do you have access to a sewing machine, a woodworking shop and, perhaps, a machine shop? Then pay special attention to Wilson's sections on make-at-home magic and magical illusions. A whole bunch of tricks that others pay lots of money for (from tens of dollars to thousands of dollars), you can build for yourself. Yes, you can make the Vase of Allah, Afghan Bands, Utility Cone, Stamp Album (Svengali Book), Cut and Restored Paper (Clippo), Magic Card Frame, Double-Walled Bag, Bunny Box, Production Box, Square Circle, Allakazam Hat, Magic Table, Black Art Well, Dove Pan, Foo Can, and Lota Bowl. Just read the text, gather the raw materials, follow the diagrams, and do the work required to make it yourself. And, yes, you will even learn from Mark Wilson how to make stage props for big effects, such as, the Arabian Tent Illusion, the Haunted House Illusion, the Magical Mummy Illusion, the Tip-over Trunk Illusion, the Farmer and the Witch Illusion, and the Suspension Illusion.

One of the best features of this book is the way it is illustrated. First, tens of thousands of still photographs were taken. Second, selective judgments were made for clarity of illustration. Third, the 2,000 best pictures that survived Step Two were transformed by artists into line drawings that best capture the elegant simplicity of each move and sleight.

As an educator, I especially appreciate the pedagogical technique employed by Wilson throughout this book. Each trick is presented, first, as the impression of it as wrought by the magician and as experienced by the spectator. Second, Wilson lets you in on the secret. Here you learn about the up-front props and the behind-the-scene preparations for each trick. Third, Wilson deals with the actual performance and presentation of the trick. The focus in this step is on methodology. Fourth, Wilson suggests ways to turn each trick's props, preparations, performance, and presentation into real magical entertainment. By repeating this paradigm for each effect, Wilson's students are moved skilfully along the path that leads from awareness, through understanding, all the way to mastery of the ancient art of performing magic for entertainment.

Mark Wilson says that the key to mastering the art of magic is practice. Practice with the props. Practice doing the preparations. Practice your performance and presentation in front of a mirror. Okay, Mark uses the cliché, so I'll say it, too -- "Practice Makes Perfect." ( )

Ask a magician what book you should pick up first when you want to learn magic, and the odds are good that he'll say 'Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic'. Ask him what book has been most useful to him over the course of his career, and he's likely to give you the same answer.
Wilson was the first magician to be the star of his own TV show. He went on to successfully tour the world - he was the first Western magician to tour China when Nixon opened it up in the late 60's.
He also knows his magic. This HUGE volume includes a wide variety of effects, from self-working to stage illusions, from cards to coins to silks to... well, just about everything. You could build a whole career on the effects in this book, and I suspect that many have.
If you're seriously interested in pursuing magic as a hobby or career, there is no other book I could more heartily recommend. ( )

Complete course in all aspects of magic