Tarr, Bill: 101 Easy-to-Learn Classic Magic Tricks
©1977, published by Vintage Books, a division of Random House
Illustrations by Frank Daniel
©1992 Dover Publications
Softcover, perfect bound, 221 pages
ISBN-13: 9780486273679
ISBN-10: 0486273679

Comments (Stewart Tame): "Great super-easy, no-sleight-of-hand magic tricks you can do with everyday objects." As I've often found the case with beginners' texts there's some surprisingly strong material here.

Contents: Tarr has rated all effects from one to three stars, with one being the easiest. I have included the ratings with each effect.

9 Preface
11 Introduction: Questions and Answers for the Beginning Magician
20 Terms and Miscellaneous Information You Should Know
20 Presentation
21 Misdirection
22 Patter
22 Finger Palming
23 About Silks
23 About Servantes
24 Notes on Construction

27 Classic Magic Tricks
28 Chinese Rice Bowls ***: Two bowls upside down on table, one turned over and filled with rice, bowls placed mouth to mouth, rice doubles in amount, rice leveled off, bowls placed mouth to mouth, rice vanishes to be replaced by water which is poured from bowl to bowl.
32 The Dollar Bill In the Lemon *** : Magician hands lemon to audience member, borrows dollar bill, has serial number recorded, puts bill in envelope and burns it, lemon cut to reveal dollar bill rolled in center, serial number verified.
36 Chinese Wands *: Two wands with tassels threaded through, short tassel pulled to make long tassel shorten, etc., wands may be completely separated but tassels still mysteriously connected.
40 The Chinese Rings * : Anyone not familiar with the Linking Rings? I didn't think so ...
46 Rope and Bottle Trick ** : Rope inserted into neck of bottle, bottle somehow sticks to it.
48 The Drumhead Tube *** : Tube shown empty and each end sealed with piece of paper, paper broken at one end and silks, etc. produced from inside.
51 The Inexhaustible Hat *** : Tons of stuff produced from hat, hat shown empty at various points, Tarr gives multiple load techniques but leaves actual routining up to magician.
58 The Cut and Restored Turban *** : Length of cloth (about fifteen feet) cut, tied together, restored.
60 Dyeing the Silks *** : Paper rolled and secured with rubber band, white silks go in one end, colored silks come out the other.
64 Card on the Ribbon Penetration ** : Audience member selects card, magician shows envelope and pokes hole through it, ribbon threaded through hole, selected card placed in envelope, sealed, pulls on ends of ribbon, tears open envelope to show card threaded on center of ribbon.
66 The Vanishing Bowl of Water *** : Assistant holds bowl on tray, magician pours water into bowl, covers with silk, picks up bowl under silk and holds it in air, tosses silk into air, bowl gone.
69 Coin In the Box ** : Marked coin appears inside bag inside matchbox, both box and bag sealed with rubber bands.

73 Card Magic
74 You Do As I Do * : Spectator and magician each take deck of cards, shuffle, exchange decks, select card, bury it in deck, exchange again, spectator finds duplicate of their card in magician's deck, magician selects card from spectator's deck, both turned over, same card.
76 The Rising Cards *** : Three cards selected by audience members and shuffled into deck, deck placed in glass tumbler, selected cards rise out of deck one at a time.
80 The Four Aces * : Four Aces laid out on table, three indifferent cards placed on top of each, piles gathered, cut several times, cards dealt into four piles, spectator points to pile, four Aces found in that pile.
84 Reverso ** : Credited to Tenkai. Half the cards obviously placed into the deck face up, deck tapped, cards right themselves.
86 The Lazy Location * : Credited to U.F. Grant. Card selected, placed on top of deck, magician cuts deck a few times, spreads to show reversed card, value of reversed card counted down to find selection.
88 Muscle Reading * : Spectator selects card while magician's back is turned, deck cut to bury selection, deck ribbon spread face up, spectator holds magician's wrist while finger slowly scanned over cards, magician stops on spectator's card.
90 You're the Magician ** : Spectator selects card, buries it in the deck, places deck behind back, takes random card, reverses it, inserts it in the deck, reversed card found directly above selection.
92 The Twentieth Card * : Spectator selects card, magician-without knowing what card it is-makes it appear twentieth down from top of deck.
94 Double Reverse ** : Credited to Nate Leipzig. Deck cut, magician and spectator each take half, each select card and insert it into other's half, deck put back together and spread to show two reversed cards: spectator's and magician's.
96 The Telltale Card * : Initials of selected card appear on spectator's wrist.
98 One-Way Deck Principle
99 Think "Stop" * : Credited to Al Baker. Card selected and returned to deck, deck cut several times, magician deals cards one at a time, spectator thinks "stop" when they see their card, magician stops.
100 Elimination * : Magician writes prediction on piece of paper, hands deck to spectator, spectator deals cards into piles, magician instructs which piles should be eliminated, etc., until only one card left, prediction matches.
102 The Impossible Location * : Spectator shuffles deck, magician cuts into two piles, turns back, spectator takes card from one pile and places it in the other, magician holds up cards several at a time to show spectator, locates spectator's card.
104 On Forcing
106 No-Skill Card Force

109 Mental Magic
110 Second SIght With Cards ** : Magician allows various people to select cards, blindfolded assistant names them, requires some memorization.
112 Numbers, Numbers * : Spectator takes last four digits of their phone number, performs some computations on them, adds their birth date, gives total to magician, magician divines their birth date.
113 Table Divination * : Credited to Walter B. Gibson. Seven objects on table, spectator mentally chooses one, magician taps objects one at a time, spectator instructed to mentally spell name of object one letter per tap, magician ends on selected object.
114 Fingers That See * : Three poker chips with a hole through the center passed out for examination, spectator selects one and hands it to magician behind back, magician names color.
116 The Great Telephone Trick * : Spectator selects card, calls friend of magician who tells them what card they selected, magician never touches phone or cards.
118 One Ahead ** : Anyone not familiar with the one ahead principle? I didn't think so.
121 Magic Squares * : Tarr gives the method for generating a magic square of N squares per side where N is any odd number 3 or greater.
122 Finding Hidden Objects * : Magician leaves the room, spectators hide object in room, magician finds object, requires confederate.
124 X-ray Eyes ** : Magician can apparently see while blindfolded, several methods given.
127 Super Memory *** : Deck of cards shuffled, cards called out one at a time and recorded on blackboard, magician stands on stage so that blackboard not visible, numbers called out, magician names cards at those locations instantly.

133 Close-Up Magic
134 Vanishing Small Objects
134 Paper-Fold Vanish **
135 Han kerchief Vanish *
135 The Coin Pull *
135 Silk Pull *
135 A Cigarette Pull *
137 The Rising Cigarette * : Cigarette balanced on end on matchbox, cig levitates two inches or so.
138 Ring On String ** : Spectator thread metal ring on string and holds ends, covered with hank, magician removes ring.
140 The Phantom Cigarette ** : Magician rolls imaginary cigarette, lights it with box of matches, magician suddenly puffing on real cig.
141 String and Straw Trick * : Credited to Joseph Kolar. String threaded through straw, straw cut in half, string intact.
142 Paddle Trick * : Small fish shown on both sides of a wooden paddle, they jump to the other end, etc.
144 Paddle Variation #1 * : Four rubber bands around wooden paddle, four pennies materialize under bands.
144 Paddle Variation #2 * : Same as above, pennies and rubber bands removed from paddle, shown blank on both sides, spectator's name appears on one side.
145 The Great Matchbox Escape * : Matchbox cover threaded onto ribbon, removed under cover of hank.
146 Squash * : Shot glass of liquid displayed, magician covers it with both hands, squeezes, glass vanishes without a drop being spilled.

149 Miscellaneous Magic
150 Ring On the Rope Mystery ** : Length of rope tied between magician's wrists, wooden ring held in one hand, covered with cloth, ring penetrates onto center of rope.
151 The Paper Tree * : Making a tree out of a rolled up newspaper.
152 Comedy Flower Growth * : Running gag for stage in which flower grows several feet taller every time magician waters it.
153 The Cornucopia Vanish * : Paper rolled into a cone, silk stuffed inside, paper unrolled to show silk vanished.
154 The Magic Mouse * : Wax mouse seems to come to life in magician's hands, crawling up arm, etc.
155 Snip-Snip * : Long strip of news paper folded, cut below fold, unfolded to show shorter but still one piece.
156 Wand From Purse * : Wand removed from purse too small to contain it.
157 The Vanishing Wand * : Wand rolled in paper, torn in half to show vanished.
158 Production Tubes ** : One tube smaller than the other, larger shown empty, smaller passed through it, smaller shown empty, tubes nested, load produced.
160 Instant Silk ** : Magician shows empty, quickly separates them and silk appears.
161 Super Instant Silk ** : Same as above but magician holds pile of confetti in hands, silk appears in burst of confetti.
162 The Rising Pencil * : Pencil in neck of bottle rises and falls on command.
164 Gloves to Bouquet ** : Magician removes gloves, tosses them into air, they visibly transform into bouquet.
166 Vanishing Gloves ** : Magician removes gloves and causes them to vanish.
168 Flowers From Nowhere ** : Magician produces a large bouquet in each hand.
170 Silk Through Glass ** : Two silks placed in glass, hank placed over mouth and sealed with rubber band, magician pulls bottommost silk out through bottom of glass.
172 The Restored Necklace ** : Necklace openly cut and beads dropped into glass, beads poured from glass to another glass, then into a paper bag, bag torn open and restored necklace pulled out.
174 The Stamp-Album Trick ** : Pages of album flipped to show empty, stamps poured into paper cone, vanished, album flipped to show stamps arrayed on pages.
176 An Easy Production Box ** : Title says it all.
178 The Penetrating Silk ** : Magician holds ends of silk and visibly pulls it through wooden pole, microphone stand, rope, etc.
180 Continuous Cigarette Production * : An endless stream of cigs is produced, each one dropped into hat as it appears, details on how to adapt gimmick to handle ping pong balls, crushed aluminum foil wads, etc.
182 Two-Hand Instant Knot * : Knot tied without letting go of ends.
183 Snap Knot * : Rope snapped several times, knot appears in the end.
184 One-Handed Knot * : Tying knot with one hand.
185 Chalk Mark Through Table * : Chalk mark made on one hand penetrates through table to other hand, which was previously shown clean.

187 Quick Tricks
188 The Rising Ring * : Ring on wand rises, alternately, the wand can rise instead.
188 Wood Through Steel * : Matchstick impaled on safety pin penetrates the other bar of the pin.
189 The Indestructible Handkerchief * : Safety pin snapped through hem of hank, moved back and forth without ripping.
189 The Clinging Wand * : Wand sticks to hand, defying gravity.
189 The Rising Matchbox * : Matchbox placed on back of hand stands up as magician makes fist.
190 Ralph Read's Tapping Pencil * : Pencil held vertically taps on table.
190 Steel Through Steel * : Two safety pins mysteriously unlink.
191 The Rising Match * : Match pokes out through hold in lid of box, rises when drawer opened.
191 The Divining Stone * : Stone on string swings in answer to questions.
192 An Easy Coin Vanish *
192 A Unique Way to Reveal a Chosen Card * : Ashes on forearm.
193 The Broken and Restored Match * : Match under hank broken, restored when hank removed.
193 The Invisible Lasso * : Knot in silk seemingly jerked by invisible thread held in other hand.
194 The Rolling Cigarette * : Cigarette rolls on table at magician's command.
194 Twin Matches * : Match torn from book, lit, split into two lit matches.
195 Pulse Stopping * : Magician stops and starts pulse at command.
195 The Standing Pencil * : Pencil on magician's hand rises to an upright position.

197 Stunts
198 Clipped * : Paper clips on folded bill link when bill is snapped.
198 Relit * : Candle or match relights after being blown out when lit match touched to smoke.
199 How To Draw A Perfect Star *
199 How to Float a Needle On a Glass of Water *
200 The Presliced Banana * : Banana peeled, slices fall off as peel removed.
200 How To Empty a Bottle Faster Than Anyone Else Can *
201 The Rising Arm Trick * : Push against wall for thirty seconds, then step away from wall.
201 Room For One More * : How man pins can fit in a glass of water filled to the brim without overflowing it?
201 Cutting a Pear the Hard Way * : Pear suspended on burning string above knife.
202 The Mouse * : Napkin folded into "mouse" which scurries up magician's arm.
204 Shadography : The art of making shadows on the wall.
209 Chapeaugraphy : Many hats formed from one simple shape.


212 The Great Magicians Past and Present
212 Robert Houdin
212 Carl Herrmann
213 Alexander and Adelaide Herrmann
213 Harry Kellar
213 Howard Thurston
214 Chung Ling Soo
214 Harry Houdini
215 T. Nelson Downs
215 Max Malini
215 Nate Leipzig
215 Harry Blackstone
216 Cardini
216 The Contemporaries
218 Books of Special Interest
220 Glossary




Abundantly illustrated, easy-to-follow guide shows beginning and veteran prestidigitators how to successfully perform over 100 tricks, including The Inexhaustible Hat, The Cut and Restored Turban, The Chinese Rings, The Rising Cards, Steel Through Steel, Fingers That See and dozens of other remarkable feats—each graded according to difficulty.