Winner of The Magic Circle's Cecil Lyle Award in 2015 and the Hoffmann Memorial Award 2018, James Ward's The Little Book of Thick explores the immense possibilities of an often-underutilized card magic gimmick—the thick card.

You'll learn how to make your own thick card, as well as locate, position, force, glimpse and shuffle it. James also shares 15 amazing card tricks using the thick card and provides a useful list of resources for learning more about it from legendary magicians like Al Baker, Karl Fulves and Al Koran.

Contents

Four Ace Assembly

After four Aces are lost in the pack, you proceed to produce them one by one, with the spectator successfully locating the final Ace.

Your Biggest Fan

A spectator shuffles the cards, then glimpses one which is lost in the deck. You fan the deck towards the spectator and, while looking away, push one card out of the fan. It's the spectator's selection.

Back from the Future

A remote viewing effect in which you successfully predict a number, a word and—finally—a playing card from a shuffle deck.

Impossibly Thick

After the cards are shuffled and cut, you simply fan through the cards and produce your helper's selection.

Impossibly Thick Revisited

A variation on the above in which you not only produce, but name in advance, a selected card that was apparently lost in the deck.

Finesse-timation

A card is chosen and lost in the deck. Informing your helper that you can often estimate where in the deck a selected playing card is—even after shuffling, and without knowing what the card was—you ask for a number between 1 and 10. After a quick shuffle and cut and, you count down to their chosen number and find their chosen card.

A Glimpse into the Future

A card is chosen and returned to the deck, which is well mixed. Despite the fairness of proceedings, your helper manages to find their own card after you apparently travel into the future, see the end of the trick, and arrange things accordingly.

I'm Magic!

Armed with their own magic word, your helper finds their own magic card!

Business Design

Using your own business cards, you successfully duplicate your helper's secret drawing.

Back to Back

A multi-phased pocket routine with a signed card that ends up back in the deck and magically reversed.

Weight for It

You identify the selection simply by weighing the cards in your hand. A new take on an old favorite.

Great Minds

Both performer and helper cut separate decks that have been well shuffled, yet both manage to cut to exactly the same card—the very same card originally chosen by your helper after which they shuffled it back into the deck themselves.

Stacked Mates

James's simplified take on Steve Bedwell's "Stacked Thoughts" that doesnt require a memorized deck or Faro shuffle. You find the mates of three cards freely chosen by your helpers.

Now You See It

A signed card is lost in the deck. A second person removes a card without looking at its face and you place it into your outside breast pocket so that the back remains in full view. When the cards are shown again, the signed card has vanished. It looks like your second helper has performed a miracle. With a snap of your fingers, however, you remove the card from your pocket to show that its face now reads 'It's Back in the Deck!' The cards are fanned. One card is face down. The spectator reaches in and removes it. It's their signed card!

Inky Fingers

Claiming that you are able to tell the difference between each card because of the amount of ink on its face, have a card freely selected and lost in the pack. With your head turned away, fan the cards, touching the face of each one to feel the ink. Eventually you stop, and name the card out loud before pushing it from the deck and having the spectator confirm it is their card.

65 pages