In my whole life, (quite long), I have bought a lot of books. I have also bought a lot of magic books. I have never returned a book to a store and asked for my money back - until I bought this one. Not only is it a bad book, but it is actually distasteful. It is very reminiscent of his performance which I saw on a TV talk show - his only object seems to be to denigrate magicians, which he did by performing magic very badly. Even Valentino was more entertaining than this man and his book. Avoid it.

I was startled by this book. IT IS GREAT. By far, the best magic book I have ever read. I am now searching for another copy to give as a gift.

The guy who wrote this book likes to drop names such as Andre Kole (world-famous prop builder) and David Copperfield (not the Dickens' one) as "friends and consultants". He also states he worked on stage with live cougars, that once his audience doubled in laughters as he blotched a levitation number, and that his son likes to illustrate - thus he did the illustrations for this book.

Well, guess what. I am only prepared to believe the latter two.

This book is a hodge-podge of "exposures" in any and every branch of illusionism: you get stuff like "snuff a candle 'hidden' behind a bottle" right to "how to make the Space Shuttle disappear". And you know what? In many many cases he doesn't get it right.

The explanations usually go like: "Then of course in the specially designed crate you have an invisible wireless two-way communication device, and an undetectable set of scuba diving gear...". Come on! Maybe I'm not the best expert in the field, but it doesn't take much to understand that in the real world things just don't work this way!
Actually, I'm amazed that he didn't try to sell the "Copperfield flies on hidden supermagnets" theory, as it ranks in the same cookiness range.

He does in fact get right the usual small tricks your uncle Ben used to do at the dining table - simply because they're printed and spelled oud everywhere already.

Bottom line: get some serious "how to" book instead of this, and please someone tell Kole, Sigfried & Roy and Copperfield that this guy is badmouthing them.

This book disrespects magic by focusing on exposure. It reveals tricks in a way that destroys the illusion for the audience. It does not explain how to present the magic effectively, being designed to sell books more than promote the art. This book is useless for magicians and disillusioning for the audience. Before you buy this book, ask yourself, "Do I want to have the feeling of wonder I have for magic removed by crass explanations?" If you want to learn about magic there are much better places than this.

Expose? I would say not, educational, for sure!

Worth the money, sure, why not.