Book Review: Fandango - Part 1 by David Forrest

Fulfilling a periodic inclination, in his “Fandango” booklet, David Forrest releases a set of good close-up effects, mostly with cards. I particularly liked his “Seal the Deal” where a previously used deck of cards is found completely sealed in its box - an impressive “back in time” plot. There’s some commercial close-up material to be found here.

In Missing the Aces, you attempt to cut directly to a previously selected card but fail to do so. Instead, you quickly find all four Aces and then, the selection is found reversed in the deck.

I like the psychology in this effect. When you fail to find the selected card, the audience lets their guard down, which makes the production of the four aces even stronger (it appears impromptu). And the reversed card at the end is icing on the cake. This one is strong.

In Card Sharp, a selected and signed card is found clipped to a Sharpie marker. This one is a lot like Jay Sankey’s “ Paperclipped,” but the clipped card is not shown at the beginning. This one is good.

As mentioned earlier, the most interesting effect is Seal the Deal. You talk about how you can cheat at cards and open a card case, remove an ace and show how you might “muck” it - stick it into your sleeve so you can retrieve and use it later.

When spectators look again, the entire deck is sealed in its box as if it just came from the factory. And if you like, you can open the box and show that the ace that you took out earlier is missing. The brilliant method is quite intriguing.

A rarity, a non-card trick from Forrest. In Brunch at Tiffanies, a borrowed ring is enclosed in a card case. Suddenly, a borrowed coin switches places with the ring - the coin is found in the box and the ring in the hand. And there’s a powerful second phase that makes the two objects switch places again, which occurs when spectators aren’t expecting it.

The rest of the book explains a couple of sandwich card effects, which, in the hands of Forrest, go beyond typical sandwich tricks. In Monterrey Jacks, the four Jacks trap two selections while one pair reside in the deck and the other in the spectator's hands. The final sandwich effect, Royale with Threes (a play on a line from the movie, “Pulp Fiction”) offers a sandwich with a four of a kind production. Both are solid effects.

This booklet is for intermediate and advanced card workers who have already mastered fundamental sleight of hand. Forrest walks through the effects and expects you to already understand and know the moves.

-Wayne N. Kawamoto

MSRP: (US) $20

Dealers can purchase from Murphy's Magic Supplies, Inc.