Regal, David: Approaching Magic ©2008 David Regal Hardcover, 506 pages

Image from Stevens Magic

Comments: (Jeff Kowalk): Over 1000 photographs

Contents (from book, updated Mar 2020):

1 Foreword
5 Introduction

11 A Deck of Cards
11 Flight Attendants: transportation of card or cards
16 The 5280 Opener: Aces to Kings
20 Context: essay on presentation
22 Off Beat Aces: spectator cuts to the Aces
26 Stand-Up Showdown: gambler vs. magician
35 Going and Gone: two phase Ace Assembly with kicker
42 Never There Aces: four Ace routine
48 The Automatic Computerized Deck with Spell-Check: card spelling with Ace changes
53 Goodwill: essay
55 Getting to Know You: spectator participation effect
60 Hidden Powers: four Ace location
63 Right & Wrong: selection changes places with Four Aces
68 King Back: Kings trap a selection with a transposition

77 Conditions & Impact: Essay on maximizing impact

83 Cocoa: a clever Chop Cup Combo set mug and marshmallow cups and balls routine; with DIY mugs

97 Luck: show-piece card routine featuring a Cut-to-High Card, Color-Sensitivity, and Ten-Card Poker deal, using a stacked deck

111 A Hook Up:  IT hookup using a close-up mat and allowing ability to connect and disconnect
116 Not Quite Dead: bill animates with a cup and saucer
124 - The Haunted Pack: the pack that cuts itself

129 Remuneration
129 Visual Magic: essay - the direct is not always the best
131 Consolidation: four quarters vanish in a bill, which becomes a two-dollar bill
136 An Attractive Vanish: coin vanish using a DIY gimmick
142 A Quiet Good-Bye: a silent vanish of four coins
147 Brass-Ackwards: CSB routine
154 Restored Credit: broken and restored credit card
159 The Money Cup: chop cup routine using a wadded dollar bill
165 Strolling Abroad: another CSB routine
173 Laptop Printer: money printing, performed seated
176 Paper Money: portable bill printing

185 More Than a Deck of Cards
185 Illusion vs. Reality: essay, in not having the spectator perform the last move
188 Scratched: mock memory effect using a DIY one-way face up deck
193 Ad Space: spectator select only non-ad card in the deck
197 Character: essay on your character as a magician
200 The Curiously Strong Nest of Boxes: selected card in nested Altoids boxes
203 A Card at a Number: methods to have a card arrive at a number
203 - The Fifty-Fifty Deck
207 - Doubly Stuck: another version but no table needed
209 Satan’s Sandwich: signed card between two Jokers
213 Sanitized for Your Deception: comedy card to moist towelette

221 A Conversation with Armando Lucero: interview

233 Mentalism
233 Window Replacement: reading messages in opaque envelopes
238 Thinking Ahead: predictions on plastic boxes match; uses one-ahead
243 Medicinal Value: comedy card prediction
246 Will the Socks Match?: version of Will The Cards Match
254 Equiv-O-Cash: opener prediction effect based on equivoque
259 One Thing Happens: essay on single effect tricks
261 Hotel 52: equivoque that leads to one specific card
265 Simpatico: second spectator deals cards face down to first selection
271 312: card and envelope effect
279 312.5: same effect with different approach
288 The Impossible Envelope: an apparent cold reading
294 Porn in Your Pants: performer predicts which DVD in which pocket
299 Special Bulletin: a Mental Epic type effect using a DIY cork board
306 The Harlequin Book Test: book test for Romance novels

315 Finding Moments: Essay on confirming moments and discovering new ones

323 Packet Magic
323 Packet Tricks: intro
324 Royal Jazz Quartet: Jazz Aces with a kicker
329 Jewel Thief: using Diamond Pips as the jewels, the magician ends up with the loot
334 - The No-Extra-Card Version
339 The Eye Exam: red-backed cards vanish from blue-backed packet, with a kicker
344 A Progressive Swindle: Aces gather to one pile
349 Oil Slick: Oil & Water plot
356 Not My Last Trick: Black Aces transpose with Reds, then turn blank
362 Raising Kane: sleight of hand Wild Card

369 Self-Working Magic: essay on the myth of self-working effects

377 Liquid Refreshment
377 Amstel Heavy: glass of beer production
381 A Drinking Problem: bottle production
387 The World’s Greatest Invention: the Chinese Egg Bag used for glass of beer production and vanish

399 Our Secret
399 Storytelling and Magic: intro
400 Change For a Five: three card Monte with all cards changing
405 Exhibit A: red backed card becomes the formerly blue backed selection
409 See-Through Monte: Two card Monte as a prelude to a large hole moving from one card to another

419 Scripting: essay, with example of a manipulation act
422 - The Premise
424 - Intent
426 - The Impossible
426 - Method Last
427 - Performers and Collaborators
428 - The End of the Line
432 The Puppy Trick: ambitious card plot with a drawn puppy on a card

445 Three-Piece Band
445 Fear: essay
447 The Power of Love: borrowed ring is lost among three boxes and is found elsewhere
453 A Distant Ring: another finger ring to distant location
461 In Darkness: borrowed finger ring penetrates a rod that runs through a panel
467 Method and Effect: essay - tug of war between method and effect

471 Sleights with Cards
471 A Control: replace the double cut
473 A One-Hand Half Pass
473 - The One-Hand Turnover Half Pass
476 - The Toss Pass
477 - A Double Change
480 - An Isolated Change
481 - A Double Isolated Change
482 - An Oil & Water
488 The Follow the Leader Switch
490 The Galileo Switch
493 The No-Switch Switch
496 A Fan of Herrmann’s
498 Doing Nothing
498 - Ninety Degrees in the Shade
501 - Pulling a One-Eighty

503 In Conclusion
505 With Thanks