Description
It’s So Simple – Fred Kaps
edited by Martin Breese, transcribed by Owen Griffiths
1986, published by Martin Breese
Mint condition!
Please note: While this item is new and unused, it has been sitting in storage for decades, so issues such as rusted staples or bowed pages may be present.
Review by Jeff Busby from Epoptica, March 1987:
Few would argue with the statement that Fred Kaps was one of the greatest magicians of this century. A brilliant thinker, actor, and technician, Fred Kaps as a person and performer garnered the admiration of everyone In this business. It’s sad that he left so little for the younger generations that didn’t have the opportunity to experience Ms charm and magic. This book and tape cassette of a Fred Kaps lecture is one to be treasured, even though it may only give a small idea of the man who was Kaps, to those who didn’t know him.
Over two decades ago Fred Kaps gave a lecture to the Magic Circle in London in connection with their Diamond Jubilee. The tape included with this book is a very clean recording of the complete Kaps lecture pulled directly from the master in the files of the Magic Circle. The booklet contains the complete text of the tape, along with illustrations, additional notes, amplifications, and additional references on the material, so that you can more thoroughly understand the methods for the effects explained.
Beginning with some sage advice about the classic books in magic, and how the most important information in them often goes unnoticed, Kaps delineates on some theories based on the ideas of Dai Vernon. From there, Kaps performs his beautiful Coins to Glass routine from Ganson’s ROUTINED MANIPULATION, following it up with the startling multiple vanish of the four coins used in the routine — explained on the tape and in the book. There’s a simple but very effective vanish of a single coin, using a gimmick you already know — it’s all in the handling; a neat change of a cigarette to a coin; a discussion of secret pockets, including advice on the Topit (we must remember, after all, that it was from Kaps that Michael Ammar received his first inspiration for work with the Topit), and the Invisible Topit — a little-known and very clever device that Kaps used that was originally developed by his great friend Bob Driebeek.
The card worker will be more than satisfied with Fred’s clever version of the Princess Card Trick explained in detail; a neat version of Stanley Jaks’ Supersonic that does away with the stand and seemingly only uses ordinary objects; and a performance of Kaps’ version of Everywhere and Nowhere — published in ULTIMATE SECRETS OF CARD MAGIC as Three Jokers.
I well remember my first meeting with Fred back in 1971. Right in front of my eyes, he took a bamboo hoop and a silk and magically duplicated all of the Reel moves, but without the use of any Reel! It looked like a miracle. That’s in here too. And, if you’ve had the rare opportunity to watch the non-card film that Fred made in the Sixties, you saw his routine using a ring and a piece of yarn, wherein the ring penetrated off and onto the yarn in three phases — a routine that baffled everyone who witnessed it. It’s in this book. There’s other material too: a performance of his Bowl Routine with the Chinese theme, and his cigarette penetration through a silk.
