Drawing Room Deceptions (Expanded Edition) by Guy Hollingworth
When Drawing Room Deceptions was first published, it became one of the fastest-selling magic books in history. More than twenty-five years later, it is still one of the books serious card magicians recommend to each other without hesitation. Now it returns in an expanded edition with a striking deep red cover, gold accents, and an entirely new chapter that makes the most beloved card magic book of its generation even more valuable than before.
Guy Hollingworth wrote, illustrated, and designed every one of the 311 pages himself. Victorian-inspired typography. More than 150 hand-drawn illustrations. A book that reads as beautifully as it teaches, and that teaches some of the most original, elegant, and technically demanding card magic ever committed to print.
The routines inside are the reason serious performers keep coming back to this book decade after decade.
Waving the Aces is Guy’s stand-up handling of Vernon’s Twisting the Aces, refined for larger audiences and refined in every technical detail.
Ambidextrous Interchange is a transposition routine of astonishing technical ambition. The kind of thing that makes experienced card workers stop and go back to the beginning.
The Cassandra Quandary is a prediction effect so well constructed that it inspired variations by Joshua Jay and Luke Jermay. The thinking behind it is as interesting as the effect itself.
The Triumph features Guy’s personal in-the-hands false riffle shuffle, which is worth studying on its own merits entirely apart from the routine it anchors.
Card Under Box is a three-phase routine designed specifically for performances with limited table space, a practical and often overlooked consideration that Guy addresses with characteristic intelligence.
The Reformation is Guy’s approach to the signed torn-and-restored card, using no gimmicks whatsoever. It is technically demanding. It is also the cleanest version of this plot you are likely to encounter, and it is worth every hour it asks of you.
The new expanded chapter, written more than a quarter of a century after the original publication, brings something genuinely rare: Guy’s own updated handlings, refined tips, and the lessons that only come from decades of performing this material in front of real audiences. The routines do not just look the same in his hands as they did when he first published them. They are better, and now you can find out why.
Drawing Room Deceptions is not a book you read once. It is a book you return to at every stage of your development as a card magician, and it has something new to offer every time.
Format: Hardcover, 311 pages, 150+ hand-drawn illustrations, Victorian typography, new expanded chapter
Difficulty: Advanced
Best for: Serious card workers, close-up performers, and anyone who wants to understand what genuinely great card magic looks like
