The Collected Works of Alex Elmsley Book by Stephen Minch
Every card magician alive knows the Elmsley Count. Most learned it within their first year. But here is what most of them do not know: that sleight is arguably the least remarkable thing Alex Elmsley ever created.
A humble Scottish computer programmer with a gift so absurdly out of proportion to his day job that it still does not quite make sense, Alex Elmsley spent decades quietly publishing over 200 unique pieces of cutting-edge magic across different publications, different decades, and different corners of the magical world. Most of it was brilliant. Most of it is now almost impossible to find. Until now.
Before 1991, legendary magic author Stephen Minch took on the herculean task of hunting down every last word that ever escaped Elmsley's pen and pulling it together into one place. The result is The Collected Works of Alex Elmsley: a colossal two-volume set spanning nearly 1,000 pages that gives you the most complete and detailed portrait of one of the finest magical minds who ever lived.
After years out of print, both volumes are back in a beautifully updated new edition. Old images have been sharpened, blurry text reprinted, and the whole package brought into the modern age without losing any of the depth and character of the original release.
Volume 1
The first volume covers the earlier chapter of Elmsley's output and is a masterclass in card magic construction from first principles. The breadth of material here is extraordinary, and the thinking behind each piece is just as impressive as the effects themselves.
Highlights include:
Flight to Witch Mountain is a four-queen assembly with a method so elegant it barely feels like a method. The structure is clean, the moments of impossibility are perfectly timed, and the overall effect is one of the most satisfying queen assemblies in the entire literature.
Twister's Flush is a visual packet effect built around a surprising and original premise. It uses the Elmsley Count in a way that earns the sleight rather than just deploying it, and the result is a routine that plays far bigger than its components suggest it should.
The Thumb Palm Addition is a secret addition technique Elmsley was quietly experimenting with in the late 1950s. It deserves significantly wider use than it currently gets and has applications well beyond the routines it appears in here.
A full chapter on the mathematical implications of the faro shuffle rounds out a volume already packed with sleights, subtleties, and complete multi-phase routines. Whether you are a working performer looking for material to perform or a student of magical construction looking for ideas to absorb, this volume rewards both approaches equally.
Volume 2
The second volume picks up where the first left off and, if anything, turns the dial up even further. The material here reaches into deeper and more ambitious territory, and several of the routines in this volume belong in any serious discussion of the greatest card magic ever published.
Highlights include:
Between Your Palms, which Stephen Minch himself considers Elmsley's second greatest contribution to card magic after the count itself, is here in complete, fully developed form. A four-spectator routine of astonishing structural elegance, it begins with a signed card placed in a spectator's hands at the very start of the routine and ends with that same card being the finale. The journey between those two points is a piece of card magic architecture that very few performers have ever managed to equal.
Point of Departure takes a classic sandwich premise and resolves it in a direction nobody in the room will see coming. The structure is deceptive from the first moment to the last, and the method is considerably more straightforward than the effect deserves.
Face Your Brothers is a three-spectator card location that operates on a principle so counterintuitive it practically defies verbal explanation. You have to see it working in front of an audience to fully appreciate how well constructed it is, and once you have, it is almost impossible not to perform it.
The Homing Card is one of the cleanest and most repeatable versions of this beloved plot in print. The method is efficient, the structure builds naturally, and it plays just as well for lay audiences as it does for knowledgeable ones.
The technique chapter in Volume 2 digs deeper into sleight mechanics, including further refinements on the Ghost Count, the Hamman Count, and additional applications of Elmsley's own counting sleights that open up entirely new categories of packet work.
Together both volumes represent one of the most important magic publications of the past fifty years. Get one or get both, but if your library does not have The Collected Works of Alex Elmsley in it somewhere, there is a significant gap where some of the most important card magic ever created should be.
Purchase options:
Volume 1
Volume 2
Both volumes together for a discount!
Format: Softcover books, nearly 1,000 pages combined
Difficulty: Beginner to Advanced
Best for: Card workers, close-up performers, serious students of magic, and anyone who wants to understand how great card magic is actually built
