Cool Magic Tricks Online

Playing cards of all shapes and sizes have been used for over a century, not only to play games of chance, but also to entertain as magic tricks.  Perhaps the first card game was the “Three card monte” or “Find the lady.” This is the game you normally see being played on the streets of big cities, with street entertainers earning quite a good living from people who try to apply common sense and quick eyes…which doesn’t quite work!

The standard book on magic card games was actually written in 1929 – yes, 1929! – by Blackstone.  Many magic acts were family affairs, with tricks and illusions handed down from son to son. So it is with the Blackstones – Harry Blackstone Sr, (1885–1965) and his son, Harry Blackstone, Jr, (1934–1997). It was Harry Sr. Who wrote the book, obviously! And a darned good book it is. It starts out with “Preliminary sleights,” which teaches you how to do false shuffles, dovetail shuffles, false cuts, the palm, and the glide. Don’t you just love that terminology?
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