Matt Schulien was one of the founders of the Magic Bar scene in Chicago in the 1930s. (For further information on the history of that subject, see my two-part historical essay in Genii , November and December, 1993.) Matt was a saloon-keeper even during Prohibition, and following that bizarre era he established the Schulien's which still exists today in Chicago, where you can see Matt's son and grandson perform (along with a number of other Chicago closeup magicians) much as Matt himself did every night at table side.
This book is a fabulous romp through the eminently practical and useable repertoire of a performer who knew that magic was just a specialized form of adult play.
Matt said that all you needed to do good card magic was "a force and a steal," and with his choice of tricks, it's hard to disagree. Here you'll find his Card in Matchbook,
Card in the Glass, the incredible Card Under the Tablecloth (a staple of Eugene Burger's repertoire) and, of course, his legendary Card on the Wall, which a spectator once described to me after having seen Matt perform it more than 40 years before. That is magic at its most memorable.
178 pages
Published in 1994
Product Code: THE8OOJ172
