STARTING FIRES is an introduction to card magic as envisioned by THE NEAT REVIEW. The series offers a playground of material to begin your journey into modern card magic.
Please note: These booklets are in production and will ship during the week of 26th of January 2026. Any orders placed containing these booklets will be held & shipped out that week. If you require earlier shipment of other products, please place two separate orders.
Booklets 1, 2 & 3 bundled together.
"A Studied Display of Real or Pretended Feeling (For Two)"
"Searching, Seeing, Guessing Star Signs"
"One Gestural Thought Reading"
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STARTING FIRES is a series of beginner card tricks, one per booklet, that are deeply fooling, fun and easy to perform and learn.
"My friends and I have created this series of individual tricks with the intent of sharing a hopeful, modern view of magic—how it can be, look & feel. Our offering here hopes to show card magic in a new light, so that it can be seen in new ways and new places." — Alexander Hansford, Author of STARTING FIRES
STARTING FIRES is an unlikely introduction to card magic. This is a beginner card magic exploration as imagined by THE NEAT REVIEW. These routines are:
Easy & approachable,
Unspeakably fooling,
Highly interactive.
Whether you are
— Finding a freely cut-to card from a shuffled deck,
— divining a card someone is just thinking of,
— or watching by as two friends effortlessly find one another's chosen cards,
this series offers a playground of material to begin your journey into modern card magic.
Beginner magic books often leave a bit to be desired. They're hokey, permanently nostalgic, aimed at children, or so full of tricks, sleights and routines that you become overwhelmed.
Commonly, in a book of 50 card tricks, only ONE routine will stand out as something you'd actually add to your repertoire. It's difficult to know where to begin.
Each booklet in the series focuses on one trick, which is discussed and then explained across 30-or-so pages, allowing the true beauty of the routine to shine through. One trick is all you need.
Total beginners and experts alike will glean unique routines from the series, developed through countless tests in casual to professional performances, from bars in New York to close-up rooms at the Magic Castle. There is no sleight-of-hand required for any of these tricks. They are ideal for beginners, while being mostly unknown to the larger magic community, so as a result will fool many of the most knowledgable magicians out there.
Each trick is taught through an abundance of photographs and comprehensive written explanations as to the how, what, why, when and where to do these card tricks.
These routines have been sourced (and significantly updated) from rare and sought-after books from magic, some dating back to the late-19th century.
The booklets have been written to be supremely approachable. The handlings have been updated and streamlined to make the effects as direct as possible, and any complications in handling or wording have been ironed out to make for a wholly unique introduction to the beguiling world of card magic.
Also included in each edition is an introduction to magic in general, an uncommon "welcome" to the sensitivity of honouring the mystery, the collaborative act of magic, and the power of sharing these impossible moments with others.
Details
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Booklet 2, "SEARCHING," teaches how to find a freely cut-to card and star signs
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Booklet 3, "GESTURAL," allows you to divine a freely thought-of card from a fully shuffled deck without ever looking at the faces of the cards
- 01 About Magic
- 02 About your audience
- 03 Commitment
- 04 Set ups and convincers
- 05 Origin of the trick
- 06 The effect, in brief
- 07 The effect, in full
- 08 Method + performance
- 09 recap of the effect + notes
- 10 Booklet 1, "REAL"
- 11 Booklet 2, "SEARCHING"
- 12 Booklet 3, "GESTURAL"
Alexander Hansford
Alexander Hansford founded THE NEAT REVIEW in 2019, after printing a string of limited-run artist books to accompany talks he was giving to magicians worldwide. Across a 14-country lecture tour, from Vienna & Sydney to Beirut & Los Angeles, his books were met with a unique reverence by the magic community. Alexander's long-running collaboration with Derren Brown spans Derren's live theatre shows, including Olivier Award-winning “Underground,” “Secret” and “Showman,” to consulting on the card magic pieces for Derren's “Only Human,” which comes to London’s West-End in late-2026.