The most valued section of my library is reserved for books by professional magicians, especially those who realised that there’s more to magic than card tricks. The magical GPs who could turn their hand to whatever you could throw at them and they’d have a working solution. Pat Page, Billy McComb, Karrell Fox to name but three.



Well, now there’s another book to join them and this one is extra special for one specific reason. The three mentioned above had both craft and talent and rose to the top echelons of their profession. Charlie Frye also has talent and craft, not just in magic but also the disciplines of the juggler and of the clown, the latter, I think, being the most challenging.



It’s very difficult for someone at the top of their profession to talk about it and not reveal something useful to the listener. Being so deep into striving for excellence and the love of what they do, they can’t help it. 

For that reason if you are serious about performing magic I will always recommend that if you have a choice between buying either of two magic books, acquire the one by the working pro.

As someone who thinks there are far too many card tricks and not enough card magic, I’m happy to say that the two sections on cards both fall heavily into the ‘card magic’ category, all with engaging hooks, entertaining plots and in most cases a touch of the absurd, the Greek tragedy being particularly appealing to me, FASDIU. Warped and Fryed has been in my repertoire since Charlie first taught it to me a South Tyneside convention many moons ago.



The chapter on ACAAN is worth many times the price of the book and goes into minute detail covering all possible outcomes and how to deal with them. Even if you were never to attempt the Charlie Frye version, you will learn so much that can be used in other card tricks. While Charlie uses Mnemonica, pretty much everything can be applied to Aronson and others. This is a masterclass.

There’s three versions of Coins To Glass going from close-up to parlour, routines with jumbo coins and Matrix. And that’s only up to page 46.



Four routines with dice, eleven tips, tricks and routines in the Going Mental section. A delightful routine for the Ball and Vase (you might also like to check out Karrell Fox’ routine in his book, Clever Like a Fox).



There’s excellent work on the Cups and Balls and Mr Frye has an aversion to the false explanation ruse from the Vernon routine. Eggs and Colour Changing Knives follow on with the Frye treatment and the book concludes with a section on Eccentricks, various fun gags and stunts that will bring a gasp and a laugh from your audiences. 



Interspersed throughout the book you’ll find some short essays on things that should be talked about but rarely are. The book concludes with a biographical section, Around the World in 40 Years. Far too often the essays and biographical sections are overlooked by those just looking for tricks. More often than not you’ll come across a piece of advice, a story or a reference that will solve a problem you’ve had or lead you in a new and beneficial direction. Don’t ignore them.



You’ll be delighted to know that all of the many excellent photos are on the same or facing page of the text. There is no page turning needed. This makes it so easy to follow along. I take my hat off to layout designer, Stina Henslee. Thanks are also due to cover artist Thomas Sciacca, Richard Faverty and Beckett Studios for the photos, Gabe Fujari and Rich Bloch for the copyediting, Mike Vance and Mike Close for the proofreading, the author for the cartoons and Jimmy Carrol for the caricature.



Lavishly produced by Squash Publishing, 298 pages. Hardbound.



Sleightly Absurd by Charlie Frye now sits in the most valued section of my library and has my highest recommendation.