Ben Harris – Friendly Fire

Friendly Fire is an exciting collection of almost 30 effects， routines and essays from the contributors to Ben Harris' New Directions Magazine published between 1985-87.

What exciting times these were. The masters like Marlo， Andrus， and Lorayne where at the top of their game and the new faces like Sankey， Sanders and Harkey were just emerging. And， New Directions captured a lovely slice of these changing times. We've even got Mike Gallo's ORIGINAL NO GAFF REVERSE MATRIX! Do you remember the excitement and torrent of creativity that spurned?

Exciting card， coin and dice magic awaits you inside. Full routines， flourishes and handlings across a whole range of interests. Contributors include: Jerry Andrus， Ian Baxter， Sixten Beme， Steve Dusheck， Mike Gallo， Ron Hadley， David Harkey， Harry Lorane， Ed Marlo， Jon Racherbaumer， Jay Sankey， Richard Sanders and more!

ENJOY AND EXPLORE
    * A bundle of early Jay Sankey items ( 4 effects， 2 essays)
    * A stunning item from (the then) new kid on the block: David Harkey
    * Mike Gallo's Original No Gaff Reverse Matrix
    * Creative card material from Lorayne， Marlo， and Racherbaumer
    * Novel and creative magic from Sixten Beme and Steve Dusheck

Illustrated with both original illustrations and new photographs. Includes rare performer photographs of many contributors.

CONTENTS:

JERRY ANDRUS
Bizarre Shuffle: A very strange shuffling procedure that is both mystifying and very funny. In Jerry’s hands this was liquid and smooth.

IAN BAXTER
CrackerJack Stack: A multi-phase die-stacking routine with a mentalism twist and a striking vanish of five dice.

SIXTEN BEME
Clean Guillotine: A method for chopping off the tip of the finger that will fool anyone， magicians included.

STEVE DUSHECK
Quandary: Is it a silver coin or a copper coin? Neither， it’s pure gold! A real worker’s routine that Steve has been using for decades!

MIKE GALLO
Original， No Gaff， Reverse Matrix: Mike Gallo’s now famous version of the Reverse Matrix. Inspired by Gertner’s classic， Mike eliminated any extras. Seriously， just 4 coins， and four cards are used. This is a lesson in direct and powerful coin work.

RON HADLEY
Flipping Triumph: Ron cleverly applies a Looy Simonoff move to the Triumph Plot resulting in a stunningly tight routine. Neat and sweet.

Matchbox Load: A beautiful approach to secretly loading a coin (or folded card) into a matchbox. This is straight from Ron’s pro performances from the mid 1980s.

Two Quick Routines: Two approaches allowing you to put Ron’s wonderful loading technique to use.

Spread-action Palm: Ron applies some “Marlo-esque” thought to Harry Lorayne’s take on Le Paul’s Spread Pass.

DAVID HARKEY
Heat Vision: In 1987 David was a new kid on the block and I was thrilled to be able to publish his revolutionary material in both New Directions， and later， Simplicities. Here is his amazing “Heat Vision” Routine!

HARRY LORAYNE
Simple Lie Detector: A special treat here. I was to contributed to Harry’s magazine and books over the years， and to have him return the favor with a contribution to my little magazine was a thrill indeed. This is a simple， but effective， Lie Detector Routine. Presented， of course， in Harry’s own words.

ED MARLO
Olram’s Hallucination: The origin of the ’effect’ per se， can be found in The Jinx No 1， October 1934. It was an Eddie Clever concept. The method to be described here eliminates the Second Deal and the Palm. A modified gimmick is used， and the deck is encased by elastic bands. Also， the three selected cards are produced from different pockets. Five non-gaffed handlings then follow.

The Upward Kick: Ed takes on Ben’s notoriously tricky “SuperFlip” flourish and makes it a whole lot easier. Not to stop there， Ed then teaches 3 effects with the move!

Flexible Bottom Lift: A flexible multiple lift technique that works off the bottom of the deck.

DANIEL McCARTHY
Spectator Cuts The Aces: Based on Marlo’s “A Problem Posed” (36th method， New Tops， March 1962) this lovely handling convincingly allows four genuine cuts.

Dr. BILL NAGLER
Ultimate Aces: Bill describes an easy and effective Ace Cutting Routine with a surprise finish. The method is novel—it uses a Devano Deck.

JON RACHERBAUMER
Shaded Cards To Pockets: A novel look at this plot taking cues from Duffie and Marlo. Two cards repeatedly fly to two different pockets.

JAY SANKEY
Back Spin Special: This created a massive amount of interest when originally published in 1986. A coin is “back-spun” across the table and it magically cuts the deck—locating a previous selection.

JAY SANKEY/BEN HARRIS
De-Crease: This startling Torn & Restored Card handling grew out of a week-long session at a magic convention in Nashville. Highly visual， crease free， and with a great “sound”.

Geller Card: The precursor to Ben’s gaffed card version (1988). This non-gimmicked card bending “moment” is completely hands free， and requires careful “timing” more than any great skill.

JAY SANKEY/RICHARD SANDERS
One For Fifty One: An entire deck and a single card magically transpose under the most-visually compelling conditions. Mind-boggling， and a sign of what was to come from the young Sankey/Sanders team.

ESSAYS

    * Finn Jon: Magic/Photography/Chess
    * Jay Sankey: A Look At The Willing Suspension of Disbelief
    * Jay Sankey:The Value of Material Fiction
    * Craige McComb Snader.， Jr: Miracle Workers Unite