Magic Tricks

I thought I would chime in with another review.


A Clever title and an artful dust jacket makes for a good first impression. “Resigned to Miracles” by Sweden’s Peter Gröning is the latest offering from Stephen Minch’s Hermetic Press, and it’s a good one. The book is lavishly illustrated by the talented Tony Dunn. I counted almost 120 illustrations.

Here's what’s in it.

Front and center is the fusion effect, where two signed cards are fuse together, back-to-back. Peter Gröning has come up with a diabolical method of obtaining two cards with genuine signatures, whose identities are unknown to everyone but you. In a section titled Concept, Peter provides the reader his thinking and psychology behind the method. Here, he also provides information on how and when to use these secret signatures.

From there, the book is broken up into three main sections.

The first section, titled Resigned, provides you with four different approaches Peter has created for the Fusion effect; Resigned, Half Resigned, Resigned in Color and Resigned by Remote Control. Each has it’s own unique feature. This also is where you’ll obtain those secret signatures. Half Resigned for instance is designed to obtain one spectators signature, with the second being yours. Leaving the spectator a souvenir with your name on it.

In section two, Resigned Accepted, Peter provides several very visual effects in which to use the secret signatures. All but one uses cards. The one that doesn’t, shows how the concept can be applied to coins. The effects in this section, that really resonated with me include; Bit by Bit, Fade In, Gifted and Bizarre Assignment.

Bit by Bit involves the face of a card, which is signed on it’s back, becoming blank, then disappearing, only to be found in a sealed envelope that has been in view the whole time. Gifted involves the production of a ring size box from a card case in which you just removed the deck. The appearance of the ring box is a prelude to a signed card to box effect. It occurred to me that if you used a Jack, you would have a Jack in the Box. Bizarre Assignment is a cool melding of two classic Paul Harris effects, Bizarre Vanish and The Bizarre Twist.

The last section includes a few effects that don’t use the Resigned concept. It includes one of my favorites from the book, along with those listed above. It’s called Torn Between two Worlds. A card is torn in half, with each half being signed by a different spectator. The cards then become fused together, back to back. This could be a nice lead in to another effect using torn cards.

The writing is clear, with plenty of details. Peter’s personality shines through, with sprinkles of humor through out. No stone seems to have been left unturned. Peter covers all the nuances, subtleties and psychology for each effect in the book. You can tell he’s lived and breathed this concept a long time. For me, this was an enjoyable read. It’s one of those rare books that sparked a lot of ideas. I could see using this concept for some type of spirit writing or invisible ink idea.

Some gaffed cards are required for several of the effects. All are easy to obtain or make. In general, I would say the material in this book is beyond a beginner in magic.

“Resigned to Miracles” is a small, but deadly book you’ll want to have in your arsenal. A Big Thumb’s Up.