Review of Days of Wine and Magic by John Derris:

85 Pages, $40 . . . is it gem or is it rubble?

Effects/Methods

Well . . . it's a book, so there are many effects and other things. Basically, you're getting a retrospective journal of notes, ideas, thoughts, anecdotes, etc. collected by John Derris from his days of hanging out in a wine bar with several other magicians.

The Problems

Of course I can't spill the methods due to the ethics of it all. But even if I wanted to, I'm not sure that I could. Many, many of them were vague, unclear, unillustrated and downright confusing. Even the "clear" ones often lacked detail. Here are some examples of where the explanations fell short:

Page 21: The linking rubber bands trick is taught (two rubber bands that are actually linked together can be handed out). He then mentions a version done with wedding rings that link permanently and can be given away as a souvenir. It's said in a tone that implies that the same method for the rubber bands would work. However, that's obviously not the case, and no method is given.

Page 22: Requires you to "paint" a beard on a photo of yourself in such a manner that it looks like an actual photograph of you with a beard. No tips, explanations, or details are given about the type of paint, how to use it, etc. . . . Nothing.

Page 35: An 8 Card Brainwave type of effect that sounds like a great effect and has a very clever presentational hook, but again . . . confusion and lack of needed details.

Page 38: A Monte effect that is brilliant, but the typos and description of the handling make it almost unlearnable in some places.

Page 47: A book test that doesn't really add much to the genre other than a confusingly written explanation.

Page 51: Another 8 Card Brainwave that adds nothing to the idea to use Jumbo Cards.

Page 52: The pins through coin effect advertised in the product ad copy. It's a great effect, but no method is given other than "use such and such gimmicked coin, and switch the coin at the end." That's the method given. No details on the switch or how to cover it, where to hold out the extra coin . . . nothing. Based on what I read, I saw no clear/clean method for doing the switch.

Page 54: This effect requires you to go to a "chemist" and get a tube of "lip salve." I'm assuming that something like Chapstick will work for this and that John Derris is writing this as if it were the 1940s.

Page 58: Another big claim in the ad copy is Koran's finish to Scarne's ball routine. The effect is amazing. However, the method is this . . . and I quote: "[The Gimmick] was available fifty years ago but a magic friend told me recently that Stevens Magic in the USA are now producing this item." That's the method given in the book. I looked on Stevens Magic Emporium's website and searched for the name of the gimmick given in the book . . . nothing.

Page 63: The coins to rice mentioned in the ad copy. This is a clever method and idea and relatively well explained. But it requires you to do some super heavy duty machining, and there is a note at the end of the explanation that says "manufacturing rights reserved." I get that it means you can't make a bunch and sell them, but does it also restrict you from paying someone to make one? This is something that you'll likely not have the tools nor the ability to make yourself.

Page 67: A two coin routine (mentioned in the ad copy) where a coin penetrates a ring. The overall concept was pretty clever. However, the last paragraph of the description made almost no sense, and based on reading it I could not reconstruct the handling required to hand out the last coin. It was very unclear.

Page 68: In this routine, an object vanished in a T.T. needs to be hooked up to a gimmick after it has "vanished." The method: "To do this, I put something in my right pocket, loosen the T.T. . . " (emphasis mine.) He puts "something" in his pocket. What the heck does that mean? What does he put in his pocket? Why? How does he justify it to his audience? Etc.

Page 78: Here a story is told about Jay Marshall and a simple puppet he would make "on the fly." Then Derris says that "With Jay's superb talent there followed a routine that would have got him a second booking at the Palladium." Ok. Great. What's the routine? You showed us how to make a puppet out of a golf ball, handkerchief, a button and some rubber bands. Big deal. What's the routine?

Page 79: This effect is one of the most magical effects I've ever heard of. It's an effect by George Davenport "explained" by Derris. The method? I quote: "What you were seeing was his outstanding skill with a Topit vanisher . . ." Based on the effect as written, I do not see a clear way to use the Topit. Lack of Clarity abounds.

There are so many more examples of this type of lack of detail in the book. It's 82 pages. I only started taking notes on page 21. There are plenty of other examples on pages 1 through 20.

Some Highlights

There were some fun anecdotes, a few pages of Derris's favorite one-liners (many of which I found very funny - many of which I also found completely lame), some clever ideas on how to make an effect a little bit different and more interesting, and other things. I liked the idea of the chocolates/sponge ball routine as well as the snooker ball/sponge ball idea, but again . . . very little details were given. On page 45 you'll find a clever idea for your stand up/stage-ish show that's a fun bit of business, but it will require some construction, and again, there are details missing that make parts of it unclear.

Page 56: Here (and the next page) you'll find a couple of thoughtful essays about Elmsley's and Lewis Jones's use of bridge sized playing cards in magic.

Ad Copy Integrity

It's hard to rate the ad copy integrity on this. It basically mentions a handful of effects. However, many of the effects mentioned were poorly explained and were very much lacking in the needed details and information required to learn the effect. I've already mentioned a few of these in the above "problems" section. Another one I should mention is the self-folding bill handling. The description as written made the effect as described impossible. It was written very poorly and cannot be done as explained. I'm not necessarily doubting that it can be done, but the method to do it is not found in this book.

Product Quality

For $40, a) I would expect more than 85 pages. b) I would expect more thoroughly written explanations. c) I would expect that the advertised effects would have workable methods that went beyond, "I think you can buy this gimmick somewhere." Add to this the many confusing descriptions, the typos, the incorrect image shown on one of the effects that made it more confusing, and so many more things, I just can't really say that this is a quality product.

Final Thoughts

There are a few things in this book that are thought provoking and fun to read, but I would not have paid $40 for them. There are also many great effects in the book, but alas, not very many descriptions that actually teach you what you need, to do the effects. If the book were advertised as miscellaneous "loose" effects that require you to come up with your own methods, then maybe this one would get a "grubble" status, but as it is I just can't justify $40 bucks for what you're "getting."

Final Verdict:
1.5 Stars with a Stone Status of Rubble.