Magic Tricks

I wasn’t familiar with Congreave’s “Curious” series of books and decided to take a chance on this one.
The book is very thin despite boasting a sizable contents. Not bad because you don’t have to deal with any fluff but also kind of made me feel I purchased a $55 pamphlet. The book can easily be finished in a day although it took me around a week due to my lack of enthusiasm of the contents therein.
While there are certainly some clever ideas in this book, almost every, if not all the tricks are either heavily gaffed or require gimmick cards. This isn’t an issue if I felt that the juice was worth the squeeze. The trick 50/50 is exactly as it sounds in that you predict whether the spec is thinking of the AS or QH. Even this trick requires some prep and arts and crafts.
Highlights of this book include “visible prediction”, “drawn transport”, and “Thanks to Dave”. These tricks made me nostalgic of the old Sankey type material. Although these tricks also require prep and/or gimmickry.

I felt bad giving this book less than 4 because I feel my qualms with material is a result of a differing taste and style, rather than inadequate effects. If an effect requires 25 jokers or blanks then it better be the holy grail of its plot. Instead I found most of the routines in this book could either be accomplished in different or more economical, or they simply didn’t interest me personally.