Paul Gertner's Steel and Silver by Richard Kaufman
First place at FISM. First place at the $20,000 Las Vegas Desert Seminar Sleight-of-Hand Challenge. First place at the SAM Close Up Competition. Five appearances on Penn and Teller: Fool Us, fooling them twice. Three appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Two appearances on That's Incredible.
That is Paul Gertner's track record. And somehow, against all logic, he has decided to explain everything.
Steel and Silver is the complete, documented record of Paul Gertner's most treasured and closely guarded close-up routines, written by one of magic's most celebrated authors, Richard Kaufman, with a foreword by television legend Johnny Carson and an introduction by David Williamson. This second edition is not simply a reprint. It includes a new and deeply personal essay by Gertner himself, looking back on the material some thirty years after the book's initial publication, reflecting on how the magic market has changed, how he has adapted and refined his work over that time, and sharing ideas on how to build new effects and stage a close-up show at a professional level.
What is inside covers the full range of what made Gertner the most decorated close-up competitor in modern magic history.
Twenty coin routines, including the legendary Reverse Assembly and That's Ridiculous. Sixteen card routines, including Paul's Opener and Unshuffled. A brand new Chop Cup routine called Tea Party. The $20 Bill in Hourglass. The Steel Balls and Cups. A Triple Giant Die Production. The Ring on Hourglass. And much more besides.
These are not workshop ideas or theoretical constructs. They are the exact routines Paul Gertner has performed on the biggest stages and in front of the sharpest audiences in the world, over a career spanning decades. Illustrated throughout by Ton Onosaka, this second edition hardcover is exactly the kind of book that earns a permanent place on the shelf and gets better every time you return to it.
"I don't know how he does it." Johnny Carson
Format: Hardbound, second edition, 220 pages, illustrated by Ton Onosaka
Foreword by: Johnny Carson
Introduction by: David Williamson
Difficulty: Intermediate
Best for: Close-up, stage, coin workers, card workers, and serious students of the art
