Card Stories

Card Stories is charming, stimulating, and worth your attention.

— Max Maven

Card Stories is a practical book about card tricks, presentations, and creativity. Every trick is described with a complete, fully scripted presentation, as well as a behind-the-scenes look at the evolution of the trick. Not only will you learn strong tricks with memorable presentations, but you’ll gain insights that can help bring your own creations to life.

The tricks feature simple, direct plots that every spectator can follow: Ambitious Card, Card to Mouth, the Collectors, Card through Table, Cannibal Cards, and more. Most tricks can be performed at a moment’s notice, even with a borrowed deck. The handlings are streamlined and require only average card handling ability.

The presentations frame the tricks with stories that interest and touch the audience and helps spectators remember you. The stories use familiar plots: childhood and comic-strip heroes, cannibals and technology, kings and crooks. And more. The stories provide logical reasons for every action, and emotional hooks that make even blasé spectators sit up and take notice.

Delightful stories combined with strong magic. This book is for anyone who wants to learn more about the art of framing their magic with creative verbal presentations.

— Eugene Burger

With every trick is a description of the history and thinking that led to its development, from initial concept to finished product. There’s enough information here to help you get started creating your own tricks and presentations.

This approach is not limited to cards; for instance, there’s a complete close-up act that starts with a card trick, continues with any number of ‘prop’ tricks (such as Tenyo’s Zig-Zag Cigarette, Twister, Soft Coins, etc.), and ends with a sleight-of-hand trick of your choosing. The evolution of the routine is as interesting as the routine itself: it was devised as a result of trying to answer the question, what happens when you present a trick with a fax machine story?

Card Stories has garnered much praise from the magic community (see reviews below) and has even been translated into German and Spanish. Get Card Stories today. It can truly change the way you think about magic.

Reviews

“Delightful stories combined with strong magic. This book is for anyone who wants to learn more about the art of framing their magic with creative verbal presentations.”

—Eugene Burger

“If your goal is to entertain laymen with a deck of cards, you will find much of value in Card Stories. I recommend it.”

—Mike Close, Magic, Dec. 1996

“Mr.Frailich has forgotten more about magic than most of us will ever know. His skill as a magician is only surpassed by his generosity to share. I have had the privilege of not only attending his lecture, but also to learn from him one on one. The sleights he uses (and he has an arsenal) to achieve an effect are never for arrogance, but rather as a line which is the shortest distance between two points. In other words, if an intricate move is required, you can rest assured it was necessary. I hope you get to sit down with him one day to have the opportunity to learn from a true master of the art. Don’t wait, put your order in now!!!!”

—Al Grose, Oakville, Ontario

“Great book for magicians in search of alternative presentations.”

—Gary Kurtz

“Card Stories is charming, stimulating, and worth your attention.”

—Max Maven

“Card Stories offers effects that are simple, achieved by methods that are direct, and presented with wit and charm.”

—Robert E. Neale

“Focussing on ‘stories’ that should underpin any modus operandi is the next important step in R&D for card people.”

—Jon Racherbaumer

“These are the kinds of tricks I like to do… Makes good reading and makes good sense.”

—Howard Schwarzman

“… [a] thought-provoking book… new and interesting stories and presentational approaches… much useful fodder for the thoughtful reader.”

—Jamy Ian Swiss, Genii, Nov. 1996

“… an exceptional book of card magic you can do and that your spectators will love. Highly recommended as a lesson in entertaining with cards.”

—Phil Willmarth, The Linking Ring, July 1997

“… I enjoyed Card Stories — the tricks are good, and the stories are amusing and interesting.”

—Wittus Witt, Germany