I don’t recall hearing about Stack Attack before, but when it came up as a suggested item on eBay, I
decided to take a punt. I’m a big fan of memdeck work and the price was low enough to make it not
much of a gamble (the pubs are still on lockdown here, so I’m not going to spend the money on beer,
am I?). There isn’t any memdeck stuff in the book, but the ideas can easily be applied to full
memdecks if you want to use them that way, I know I will be.
The core idea of the book is a
False False Shuffle (or FFS) where a real shuffle is used in place of a false shuffle to put the
deck into the order you want, while looking like it’s mixing the cards. It’s actually quite a
cunning idea and can be used in far more places than suggested in the book.
After the FFS
is explained the book has nine full routines including patter. For me most are stuff I wouldn’t use,
as seven of the nine routines are gambling demonstration type routines, something that doesn’t fit
my performance style/persona. They are still worth a read though as if you are at all like me, it’ll
spark other ideas that you can use (assuming of course you don’t do these types of routine, if you
do, you are already good to go).
Even though gambling routines aren’t my thing, I do intend
to use one almost exactly as is for an upcoming mate’s birthday where it will fit perfectly. So, as
always, don’t just skip stuff because of the name or the first few lines of the description. You may
be missing out on buried gold. That’s advice for ALL magic books, not just this one!
Although not mentioned in Stack Attack, it strikes me that the FFS as described could, in
conjunction with the Gilbreath Principle, lead to even more mind-blowing effects. Something you may
want to try out if you do pick this book up.
The book is only forty-odd pages long, so a
really quick read, but I’m sure most magicians will find the time well spent. I see Penguin have it
for sale at twenty dollars, that’s several times what I paid for my copy, but having read it, I feel
that’s a totally fair price. I think it’s defiantly worth a look.
Nice little book
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