A superb volume of card magic from the legendary Harry Lorayne

Overview

I've been associating the word "jaw dropper" with Harry Lorayne ever since I saw the incredible Jaw Droppers lecture that he delivered in 2016 in connection with his 90th birthday.  For most of us, it will already ben an accomplishment to be alive at the age of 90.  To be performing and teaching jaw dropping magic at that stage of life is truly amazing.  But if you know anything about Harry Lorayne and his incredible career, you'll already know that the word "amazing" has often been used to describe him as an entertainer.  He's amazed audiences around the world with his remarkable feats of memory and with his card magic. 

According to Merriam-Webster, the word jaw dropper means "something that makes a strong impression because it is so unexpected."  Synonyms include bombshell, stunner, and surprise.  Closely related words and phrases include shocker, thunderclap, marvel, wonder, and bolt from the blue.  That's exactly the kind of thing that Harry himself has often achieved in his card magic routines.  And in his two Jaw Droppers! books, he's sharing his secrets with others.

Harry Lorayne's first Jaw Droppers! book came out in 2015, and it was a hot commodity with magicians.  I wasn't quick enough to get a copy, but I was fortunate to get its sequel Jaw Droppers! Two which was published in 2017.  It was fantastic.  So I was very pleased that the original Jaw Droppers! book has now had a reprint and is now available again, and that's the book that this review is about.



Book Quality

Cover: The first thing that impresses you with this book is the quality of the book itself.  It/s a lovely hard cover book that comes with a quality dust cover jacket, with a retro poster featuring Harry in his younger years on the front, and many endorsements of his books on the inside. Underneath the dust cover is a fine volume with beautiful black hardback covers. 

Printing: This book has been produced by his own company, Harry Lorayne Inc, and everything about it screams quality.  The pages are bound together with the highest quality of binding, making it a joy to turn through the pages.  There are almost 250 pages altogether, so there's a ton of content between these covers, and no space has been wasted.

Sections: The layout and formatting has been done very well.  Between Harry's initial "Foreword" and closing "Last Word" are six sections into which the material has been divided, with around 10 items in each.  The Table of Contents at the start of the book gives a good overview of what's inside, making it easy to return to your favourite parts, and to navigate what's inside.

Format: To ensure everything is easy to follow, each trick begins at the top of a page.  Typically Harry begins by introducing something about the background or main idea of the effect, and then runs you simultaneously through the performance and method.  Each trick ends with some of his "Afterthoughts", where he gives further ideas and tips.

Photos: There are plenty of pictures that accompany the text, with almost at least one or more on every page, to ensure that we can follow specific moves or handling that is described in the text.  What I especially enjoyed about this volume is that many vintage pictures of Harry and his contemporaries are included.  It's a delight to see black and white photos of him in his prime together with his wife Renee, or alongside other giants of magic like Dai Vernon.  There are also some great pictures of newspaper clippings and other vintage advertising material featuring Harry.

Autograph: As always, if you order this directly from Harry himself, upon request he'll gladly include his autograph for you on the front page, along with a short note of well-wishes.  For me that is a personal touch that makes this an even more prized possession among the magic books that I own.



Book Contents

No holding back: There are more than sixty chapters in the book, each devoted to a different trick or utility move.  In the foreword he indicates that one of the things that prompted this book was a desire to hold nothing back, something that he had had done in writing previous books.  But as he approached the age of 90, Harry realized that the "Take it to the grave" cliche was not part of his thinking. 

Honed by experience: What we find inside reflects the results of a lot of fine-tuning and experience.  Those who know Harry will already be aware that he is an entertainer first and foremost.  He's not an academic who sits in an ivory tower, putting celestial thoughts into print that have little relevance for the real world.  He's a tried and tested performer with decades of experience.  Jaw Droppers! is the fruit of his successful career, and represents material that he's worked on and performed for years.

Old and new: Some of the content is material that Harry has published in previous books, many of which are out of print, making this a welcome opportunity to get access to these gems.  But more importantly, it's not just a repetition of old material.  Anything we've seen previously comes only with changes, additions, subtractions, and easier handlings.  Other material represents reworked ideas and routines from other magicians, and throughout the book you'll find Harry acknowledging and tipping his hat to names like Dai Vernon, Ed Marlo, Juan Tamariz, David Regal, Bill Malone, and others.  And of course, there's plenty of original tricks and routines included too, that has never seen the light of day before.



Easier and stronger: When material has been reworked, Harry's goal has always been to make things easier to perform, and make the results more amazing and jaw-dropping for your spectators.  This is a goal more of us should aspire to, and I welcome a book which has the same aim as I do in performing magic: strong magic that isn't restricted to move monkeys.

Harry's favourites: Harry has always had a special love for routines that use four aces, or that involve a royal flush.  This emphasis is also reflected in the choice of content included in the book. On the other hand he's also made no secret about the fact that he doesn't tend to like spelling tricks.  But even a spelling trick can blow people away when done right, and so some good ones are included.  Several tricks are alternative handlings and approaches to the same thing, but overall there's plenty of variety.

Impromptu magic: If you're familiar with Harry Lorayne, you'll already know that he specializes in impromptu magic.  So you won't find magic that requires gaffed or gimmicked cards.  Harry has always proclaimed the virtues of being able to perform card magic with a borrowed shuffled deck.  The contents of this volume reflects that preference, and it's a real strength of the material. There aren't any special requirements you'll have for performing these tricks, and being able to do card magic with a deck handed to you by a spectator is a real boon.

Utility moves: One entire section has nine chapters devoted to Harry's Spread Control, which is a very fine method of controlling three selections.  The applications he offers are various, and will even profit those who prefer to use their own controls.  Other utility moves he covers include his Bottom Stet Overhand Shuffle, the In-Hand False Riffle Shuffle, and more.  But for the most part, each separate chapter in the book represents a different trick.



Sample Performances

To give an idea of the strength of some of the material within, here are a few items from the book that Harry has highlighted by performing them in his 2016 Jaw Droppers lecture.

Startler (p.15)

This is an application of Harry's HaLo cut.  It owes its name to the fact that it produces a most startling Ace revelation. From an apparently shuffled deck, all four Aces are produced almost simultaneously and instantly from apparently different parts of the deck. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYeXhF6RDVI

Powerful Powers (p.127)

Harry considers "Earthly Powers" to be the #1 trick from the thousands of items that appeared in his monthly magazine Apocalypse.  This improved version is arguably the best trick in the entire Jaw Droppers! book.  The effect is a powerful magical location of five thought of cards.  It's best with four spectators, who all remove and remember a card along with the magician.  The five cards are shuffled into the deck, and the deck is slowly reduced in size until only one card remains.  This turns out to be the magician's card, while the top cards of four packets that were stripped off prove to be the other four selections. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gqi9ukNK-6U

Greatest Card Handler (p.216)

This is a cleaned up and easier handling of a routine originally published in Personal Secrets.  Various cards are placed on top of four Aces, and after some cuts and shuffling, the Aces are produced when the name of each is spelled.  As a final twist, the two remaining cards are the ones selected by spectators at the start of the trick.  It's a fine example of how a spelling trick can have life injected into it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgaumLTy0W8

The Card Sharp & The Four Gamblers (p.172)

Harry first published this in Reputation Makers but wanted to come up with a way that it could be done impromptu, and that was easier to remember and accomplish. It's one of the longer chapters in the book, but it contains full patter, and the routine itself offers a wonderful story that lends itself well to an entertaining presentation.  The performance shown here is from Vol 3 of Harry Lorayne's Best Ever Collection DVD series, and gives a good idea of how entertaining the narrative here is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yL-U_HmxKt4



Other Selected Tricks

It would be difficult to select which of the tricks inside the covers of this work are best.  Even Harry himself has often resisted the temptation to name his best tricks, because his routines are much like children: how can you ever pick a favourite?  There are so many in the book to pick from, so the ones below are only a representative example, to give an idea of the solid content offered.

Slide Finder (p.19): This is a four ace location effect.  The magician is apparently searching for cards, and produces four packets, each with an Ace at the bottom.  The spectator chooses one of these four packets, and in the blink of an eye, you produce a royal flush in the suit matching that Ace. 

Blown Further Away (p.95): This is based on the beautiful Neither Blind Nor Stupid routine by Juan Tamariz.  With the help of some ideas by Tom Daugherty, there's no need for any set-up and you can do this impromptu.  Harry also adds a nice ending.

That's The Truth (p.103): Originally published in Personal Collection, the concept was inspired by some ideas from Dai Vernon and Peter Duffie.  I love the fact that this can be done entirely impromptu, and the presentation is particularly good.  Under the guise of using a lie detector computer, this is a very visual and charming way of revealing a selected card.

8451 Plus (p.169): This delightful gambling themed trick was inspired by Ed Marlo's 8451 routine with four aces, but comes with a kicker.  The presentation is how a gambler might follow a "formula" to deal himself the four aces from a shuffled deck, and there's a surprise ending when you reveal that you've also separated the rest of the deck into reds and blacks.

Color Gathering Plus (p. 108): Described by Harry as  "double" four of a kind, this is a strong piece of magic with a series of progrssive revelations. Four Jacks on top of four piles first move to the top of the same pile; then the top cards of each pile are revealed to be Aces; and finally the piles are shown to have arranged themselves as reds and blacks matching the Aces on each. The performance below features Rudy Tinoco, and is from The HaLo Project Vol. 2.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kex30jxNoO8



Other Impressions

Style: As with all things Harry Lorayne, the style is very conversational and easy to read. Working your way through this book is no chore, because it feels like you're having a private session with a master magician as he chats about magic.  As always, Harry speaks his mind, and reading this book really gives you an idea of what he's thinking.

Teaching: Harry is renowned for his ability to put complicated moves into print and explain them in a very easy to read way.    He's a very prolific writer, and has produced multiple volumes in his areas of expertise: memory and card magic.  And there's good reason that he has sold millions of books: he has a unique ability to write clearly and teach well.  This book is no exception.

Patter: As a conversationalist, Harry's explanations include a lot of suggested patter.  Since good presentation is so vital for making magic entertaining, I really appreciate this.  It's one thing knowing the moves, but we need to be able to perform things in a way that is interesting for spectators.  Of course we should customize his suggested patter, but it gives us a good starting point to work from.

Not for complete beginners: Jaw Droppers is a work for intermediate magicians, and rightly assumes a working knowledge of the fundamentals of card magic, like the ability to control cards and perform familiar sleights like the Elmsley Count.   Harry Lorayne has written works for complete beginners, so if you're new to card magic, start instead with his excellent The Magic Book. 

Not for experts only:  While it's not for beginners, the material in these pages is not geared to advanced magicians either, and Harry has tried to keep things as simple as possible. This was important for him personally as very technical moves became increasingly difficult due to arthritis.  The result is that the card handling required for performing these tricks is very accessible for the average magician.  The entrance requirement is very reasonable, and you won't need to do technically difficult moves like perfect faro shuffles or an invisible pass.



Recommendation

Harry Lorayne's written output is already prodigious, and he has more than cemented his place in the history of magic before he began writing Jaw Droppers!  and its sequel, Jaw Droppers Two!  But those of us who enjoy card magic can consider ourselves fortunate that he's decided to share these gems with us.  Trust Harry Lorayne not just to give an amazing performance throughout a lifetime of written work, but a couple of solid encores.  Jaw Droppers! certainly serves as a fine exclamation point on the many fine magic books he's produced throughout his life.

The title of this book really sums up what Harry Lorayne is all about - dropping jaws. While Harry's gifts with the written word are remarkable, to really appreciate his skill, you shouldn't restrict yourself to his books.  Magic is ultimately all about entertaining, and Harry himself often emphasizes the three Ps that you need to master and make your own: Personality, Patter, and Presentation.  He himself was gifted in all these areas, and you really need to see him perform to see why and how.  Definitely check out some of the video clips he has posted on youtube, to see him perform. When in his prime and at the height of his powers, few entertainers could rival him.

Few of us will ever come close to producing the quality of magic that Harry Lorayne did.  But with this book in our arsenal, at least we're in with a chance of producing some of the gob-smacked reactions and astonishment that he's spent his life perfecting.  Thank you Mr Lorayne!

Want to learn more? Jaw Droppers! is available directly from Harry Lorayne (harrylorayne@earthlink.net) and can be autographed upon request):
● Jaw Droppers!
● Jaw Droppers! Two



Related links:
● Harry Lorayne official webshop
● Harry Lorayne performances (from "Best Ever Collection" DVD set)