The Card Classics of Ken Krenzel by Harry Lorayne

As the name suggests this is a classic of card magic. Michael Vincent called it “a post-graduate course in card magic” which suggests that it is all knuckle busting, finger flinging stuff (and to be fair, some of it is pretty heavy ), but there is a lot of great stuff in here that is attainable by everyone and the section on the Classic Pass is commonly regarded as some of the best coverage of this move.

“When Ken Krenzel performed the material in this book for me I knew then and there how good it was, and what a great contribution it’d be to the art I love -. Card magic It took all my persuasive powers to get Ken to agree to let me write, teach and publish all the material he’d performed for me. I’m so glad that he finally did agree. What an awful loss it would have been to anyone who does, or wants to do, card magic , to the magic fraternity, if I had not persuaded him, if he had not agreed. Yes, it was some time back. And if anything can be said to have stood the test of time, passed the test of time, it can be said of the ideas, effects, routines, in this book. They are as fresh and stimulating, as clean and precise, as intriguing and clever, as exhilarating and important, today as it was then, and have been through the years. And, you’ll fool (and entertain) magicians and laymen with them now just as you could have done, or did, back then.

Over eighty items broken down into nine exciting sections. I’ve heard and read, many times, that there is no better handling and description of the Classic Pass than there is in Section Seven of this book. Along with eleven other passes, including the Mechanical Reverse, which has become a standard of card handling,

The KE Pass (beautiful, and so easy to do), The One-Card Middle Pass, The Dribble Pass, and more. The Eerie Spin-Out which, if you’ll forgive a rusty platitude, is worth the price of the book even if you paid five times the established price As I say in my Last Word, you’ll use it for the rest of your life;. there’s no way you can put a price on it.

You’ll find easy-to-do sleights like The Natural Double Lift, The Pressure Hideout, The Invisible Reverse Transfer The One-Card Double Lift is an exquisite fooler So is The Optical Sandwich, The Miracle Multiple Peek and, oh.. – The Magic Bullet There’s One-Hand Stop -! the spectator ‘stops’at his own card, The Impromptu Haunted Deck and The Front Tilt – and Force-Eps, The Fan Steal, The Squeeze Steal, The Broadside Steal.

Do you like to practice Well, Section Eight includes Bottom, Center, and Second Deals -?. Ken’s handling, my teaching (if that means anything to you) I’ve added my two or three cents with an idea or two of my own . and with my inevitable Afterthoughts I could go on and on, but I will not I’ve had so many calls, requests, for this book through the years, but it was not available Are not you lucky -.. it is now “-! Louis Falanga

256 pages.

Contents:

vii Foreword (Harry Lorayne)
ix Foreword (Ken Krenzel)

13 Section One
13 The Natural Double Lift
16 The Natural Multiple Lift
18 The Natural Multiple Lift Plus
19 Stop Me
22 All the Way
24 One-hand Stop
26 The Drag Lift
31 The Pressure Hideout
33 To Indicate the Future
37 Spectator Sympathy
41 Two-card Fan Lift Switch Reversal Palm

45 Section Two
45 The Invisible Bottom Reverse
49 The Finger Stab
52 The Invisible Reverse Transfer
54 The Direct Reverse
55 Magnetic Aces
57 Get the Message
59 At Any Number
60 Three Transfers
62 The “One-card” Double Lift
65 A Card Sandwich
66 The Four-ace Trap

70 Section Three
70 Turn Blue
72 The Optical Sandwich
74 Mental Matrix
77 The Peek Corner Crimp
79 The Magic Bullet
83 The Ultimate Tunnel
89 Variation of to Catch an Ace # 6
91 The Princess
94 KK’s HHH (Hand-heel-holdout)
100 Kaleidoscope 10-hand Poker Deal

105 Section Four
105 The Impromptu Zig Zag
109 The Impromptu Sympathetic Ten
113 The Multiple Cop Progressive Aces
117 Mechanical Spell
120 Mechanical Poker
122 KK’s Handling of the Panoramic Shift
125 The Panoramic Shift Add-on
127 The Panoramic Plunger
128 The Miracle Multiple Peek

135 Section Five
135 The Pivot Pop-out
140 The Eerie Spin-out
144 The Impromptu Haunted Deck
146 Rip-off
148 Instant Appearance
150 Cut Propulsion
153 Ken’s Riffle-shuffle Stack
156 The “Strange” Riffle Shuffle
159 The Tilt Sandwich
160 The Front Tilt

164 Section Six
164 Ken’s Kolor Finesse
168 The Purist’s Mini Hofzinser
173 Force-eps
174 Force-eps Royal Marriages
177 Down-down-down
182 The Card Catch
186 Fan Steal
189 The Squeeze Steal
192 The Broadside Steal

197 Section Seven
197 The Classic Pass
204 The K-E Pass
207 The Mechanical Reverse
209 The Vanishing Collectors
212 The One-card Middle Pass
214 One-card Middle Pass # 2
215 One-card Middle Pass to the Top
216 The Block Cover Pass
218 The Block-cover Pass Immediate Spell
219 The Block-cover Pass Two-card Control
220 The Dribble Pass
222 The Dribble Force

226 Section Eight
226 The Fingertip Bottom Deal
229 The Thumb-grip Bottom Deal
231 Slow Motion Bottom Deal
233 A Middle Deal
235 The One-hand Middle Deal
238 The Surefire Second Deal

243 Section Nine
243 OMM Handling
245 The Slip Shuffle
247 Last Card Push
248 The Instant Drop-switch Get-ready
250 The Floating Cut

254 Last Word