The Buena Vista Shuffle Club
The Buena Vista Shuffle Club (hardcover, 264 pp.) is unlike any other magic book you’ve read. It combines original methods, plots, and scripts with “jam sessions” between a fictitious group of magicians who analyze and deconstruct the effects in the book. In addition to nearly 100 pages devoted to effects with a memorized deck, the book also contains blockbuster mentalism, impromptu effects with cards and coins, new applications of underground math principles, and “one degree” touches on classics of magic.
Inside these pages you will find:
An interactive murder mystery based on the game of “Clue”.
A baffling Three Card Monte routine done with coins.
A magician-slaying, radically new approach to the classic 21 Card Trick.
Fascinating new uses for the Gilbreath Principle.
Routines which surreptitiously restore your memorized stack from a shuffled deck.
An impromptu mentalism effect, done with borrowed change, in which the spectators make all of the choices (including the prediction itself!).
A new presentation AND new method for Simon Aronson's classic "Shuffle-Bored".
A re-imagining of Paul Harris’s “The Anything Deck" (which Dan Harlan has called the best version ever).
And much, much more…
"This is Matt’s first book, of which he can be very proud. I hope it is not his last because he has brought a new light to magic. It was a lot of fun to read, and I will definitely be using some of his material. Go out and get this book, I think you will be pleasantly surprised at how good the magic is and how much fun it is to read. Highly recommended."
-Tom Bohacek, Linking Ring Magazine (September 2019)
“Matt Baker creates the kind of 'thinking man’s' magic that I admire. He’s constantly pushing the envelope, so even when you think you might know what’s happening, there’s an extra 'twist' that renders it impossible. Matt’s creativity, combined with his humor and his imagination, make it a pleasure to spend time with the Buena Vista Shuffle Club.”
-Simon Aronson
"The Buena Vista Shuffle Club is an excellent, funny, and personal collection of magic that is a joy to read. Matt's memorized deck work was smart and novel."
-Joshua Jay