Book Review: Limited by Daniel Garcia

From the brilliant and creative Danny Garcia, Limited (MSRP: $25, Murphy's) teaches a compilation of his close-up moves and tricks. The material here, which is for experienced magicians, is excellent. Much of it has already been published and taught on Garcia’s Project DVDs.

Garcia Project

If you have studied Garcia's Project DVDs, you already know much of the material in this book. However, I find that the step-by-step instructions and detailed photos do make the moves easier to learn than when watching Garcia's DVDs. Much of this material will takes lots of practice.

Ego-Slip is a bold and deceptive control that quickly switches the selected card for one that's out-jogged in the middle and brings it to the top of the deck. Garcia’s One Point Production is an insanely assertive move. I've seen this on video and know that Garcia makes it work, but in print, it reads like something that would be impossible.

Employing the "Ego-Slip" and "One Point Production," White or Wheat offers a stunning sandwich card effect. Two jokers or aces are cleanly placed down onto the table and examined by spectators. A selected card is returned to the deck and left jogged out. The jogged card is pushed flush into the deck and the selected card is shown to be between the jokers.

More Ego

I liked Garcia's Ego-Change, a card change that resembles the Cardini change. Nacho Mamas Triumph is an offbeat triumph style trick that ends with a surprise.

In Math, two quarters meld into a half dollar. Personal Safe offers a great coins across routine that involves a spectator's finger ring. The borrowed ring seems to attract coins as they vanish from the magician's hand and reappear in the spectator's hand. The final phase is a stunning transposition where the ring vanishes from the spectator's hand and is found in the magician's. This one is reminiscent of Paul Gertner's "Familiar Ring" routine.

Clipping and Tripping

Clip-Trip offers psychic-bending with a paper-clip while Stretch is a ring on rubber band routine. Like the popular "Mis-Lead," Butter Bill is a straw through dollar bill routine with no gimmicks.

Garcia also teaches you how to steal a card from a closed card box, a move that's employed in Time Line v. 2.0. On the Rocks is a cool coin through glass penetration. Here you slam the bottom of a glass onto a coin that's held in your hand, and the coin is then found inside of the glass.

The explanations are detailed and feature excellent pictures. If you're ready to try and learn Garcia's material, this book is a great introduction.