The Buena Vista Shuffle Club

Book by Matt Baker
Price: £39.75£39.75
17 reviews
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The Buena Vista Shuffle Club is the debut effort from Matt Baker, a mathematics professor by trade and a creative magician by night. Mr. Baker brings his analytical background to his approach to magic, and the results are an intriguing, satisfying array of tricks that are not at all difficult to perform. Instead, most rely on clever principles, gripping premises, and subtle methods to accomplish astonishing results. You'll find over 100 pages dedicated to memorized deck work, which is our favorite section of the book.

One of the most interesting aspects of the book is Matt's creative approach to the format. Between tricks, a fictitious group of magicians discuss the material and jam on the ideas contained therein. It's a blast, and it's a clever exercise that will help you think outside the box with Matt's material.

Highlights include:

- 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).

“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

"I've just finished the first of what I expect to be many enjoyable readings of The Buena Vista Shuffle Club. Matt Baker's charming magic creations hit the sweet spot of being both clever and practical, but the concept and style of the writing make reading his book an entertainment experience in its own right. This is a valuable contribution to the art."Joe M. Turner

"Matt's tricks fool everyone except the smartest guy in the room... and that is because Matt IS the smartest guy in the room! The material in this book is material that you are going to do, and love."Caleb Wiles

Contents of The Buena Vista Shuffle Club by Matt Baker

- Introduction- Prologue- Acknowledgments
- PART ONE: MEMORIZED MIRACLES
A Stroll Down Memory Lane
Routines for the Memorized Deck Connoisseur- Card College

  • Casablanca

Memento
Routines for Both the Memorized and Non-Memorized Deck Connoisseur

  • Location Sensing Device
  • Tilapia

Variations: Part One (Buena Vista Shuffle Club)- Histed Hoisted

Secret Arrangements
An Entertaining Effect that Surreptitiously Stacks

  • Elementary, My Dear Vernon

- PART TWO: AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT
A Bit of Mentalism
Performance Pieces for the Discerning Mindreader- Clue

  • Say Anything

Variations, Part II (Buena Vista Shuffle Club)

  • Foiled by the Origami Test, Saved by the Lemon Law

Coin Conundrums
Pieces of Wonder with Pieces of Eight- Three Coin Monte

  • Hive Mind
  • Quantum Matrix

- PART THREE: POWER TO THE PASTEBOARDS
Casino Chicanery

  • Cheaters Gonna Cheat
  • Banned for Life
  • Subconscious Shuffle Tracking
  • Gilbreath Poker

Mental Math Machismo
Manufacturing a Mathematical Spectator Suplex

  • Triple-Fried
  • Pile Driver

Variations, Part III (Buena Vista Shuffle Club)

  • Avenging Mandelbrot

Major Gaffs
Tricked-Out Miracles for the Conniving Conjuror- S.O.L.

  • Outlier

- Quick Reference Guide

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Customer reviews for The Buena Vista Shuffle Club

Crauwels
Fantastic book. A MUST buy !
Richard
I can not recommend this book more highly. If you use a Mem Deck it is absolutely essential reading. If you are a mentalist there is something here for you. If you like card tricks you will find great routines and wonderful methods within these pages. Basically if you like good magic buy this book.

If this book was twice the price and only included Card College, LSD and Triple-Fried I would have been happy with my purchase.

The only reason you shouldn’t get this book is so that I can fool you with something from it at a later date ü
Christophe
First, Matt is a friend so you would think I am biased. If I thought it was a bad book I would not comment on it at all (and he did not even give me a discount!). I am half way through the material. The first section on memdeck is great. 4 tricks go straight to my repertoire. I have seen Matt perform this material on lay audiences and it kills. All of it is very clever and well constructed. The club "talk" after each trick is a really good idea. I thought it was going to be dull but these "conversations" get your brain going. After all, this is what a good book is supposed to do. Now, I wish he had not published it. I could then be the only one doing "Card College", "Casablanca" and "Tilapia"...
Tiago
As a fan of intelligent and nifty magic and effects, this is a must. The book is engagingly written and has many layers to it. Be it to lay back and enjoy or to use as a learning tool. Matt has a great sense of humor. Above he got me thinking and more importantly playing with the ideas held within the book.
Sarah
This is an incredible book. Not only are the tricks fantastic but the format of the book also makes it a joy to read.

I can't recommend this one highly enough!
Dave
Awesome -- the first effect in the book could have been a $20 download easily -- performed that on Sunday and was told it was the "best trick they've seen me do" -- great book!
Scott
This was more fun to read than the average magic book. Matt's writing style is bright and engaging and the tricks are wonderful. While the mem deck section was my favorite, don't overlook the 3-card monte routine with coins!
James
The more I read of this book the further up it gets on my list of favorite magic books. Like others have said before me there is something in it for everyone; coins, cards, mentalism, and for me especially mem deck work. The cool thing about a lot of the material in this book is it will fool magicians that are not familiar with it and it’s still good for laymen. It was a win win for me.
Jason
I will admin up front that I have a weakness for magic books written by mathematicians. Not math tricks necessarily but I like the way mathematicians think about magic. I picked this up recently, and it has inspired me to re-learn a stack. I knew Mnemonica some years back, but let it lapse as I was not performing much. Why was I inspired to re-learn a stack? I'd been thinking about it anyway after watching Woody perform, but reading this book really convinced me. I love the format Matt Baker has written in here - you have a whole trick/performance presented in fairly standard format, then there is a 'dialogue' between three magicians who are sessioning through the trick you were just presented. They nit pick and discuss strengths, weaknesses and alternate presentations and/or handlings, and the whole thing comes across so organically, that it really made me smile. The tricks are great, but for me, the writing and accessibility really drove it home!
Eleanor
I can not recommend this book enough! As stated in other reviews, the section on memorized deck magic is reason enough to purchase it. In addition, the other routines give off an aura of creativity and originality. This book is the perfect blend of original ideas and of applying old ideas in novel ways.
Marcus
This is probably the best book I bought this year. Highly recommended!
Gary
This is Matt Baker debut book and what a terrific book it is there is nothing to complicated everything is within the range of a anyone with a little practice. If you like memorized deck magic there are some real workers in here as well as mentalism and coin work and for the price this book is a steal i hope to see more of Matt's work in the near future highly recommended.
James
This book is incredible! Not all of the material is for me, exactly, but the ideas and thinking behind it is awesome! Additionally the section after the routine where the “magic club” is just chatting was a lot of fun. It reminds me a lot of conversations I’ve had at clubs myself. I highly recommend this book.
Barney
I was very disappointed with the advertising for this book. Almost every trick started with a stacked deck. Only a few exceptions. I was expecting the math professor to provide some math-based tricks, but even those requiring mental arithmetic demanded a known stack. Of the two coin tricks, one requires a prop, purchased or constructed.
The claim was it had over 100 pages dedicated to memorized deck work. This is trivially true in a book of well over 200 pages, almost every trick using a stack
I wasted my money by getting a book for card stacks (which I don't use), and almost no math at all (even the famous Gilbreath Principle is weighted down with a stack.)
Barney Sperlin
Gerhard
What an entertaining book to read. Reading magic books can be hard work but the way in which this book is written is very clever. It does have a mathematical flair to it, but I am a fan. Quite a lot of stack work but it's pretty clever and some new ideas for sure. The production value is great and the book is an easy read. If you are on the fence about this one I can heartily recommend it. Oh and it's quite funny as well!
Stoyan
I bought this book especially for the first effect using a mem deck. With no surprise I found more elegantly constructed materials in it. One of my favorite effects is the Location Sensing Device. This book will give you food for thought for sure. It is packed with all sorts of material not only cards.
Gene
The Buena Vista Shuffle Club was a very pleasant surprise of a book. First I met Matt Baker at the I.B.M. convention in Scottsdale AZ. and what demoed from his book was so much fun to watch. And like a bunch of people who attended his lecture couldn't get up there fast enough to buy his book. But the time I could afford to pick up his book (thank you VI) is was so anxious to start learning. My first effect "A stroll Down Memory Lane" which is a Memory Deck effect was a little bit of learning. After a while and a few times going over this effect I was beginning not only to present this effect in front of an audience but to understand what a little bit of work it takes to truly understand good card effects. The next effect "Say Anything" was a wonderful effect to learn. Here you will need to practice not the method because it is easy to learn but when you put this in your show you will a little bit of showmanship to bring this effect to a baffling and mysterious piece of magic. No one regret on obtaining this book.

Community questions about The Buena Vista Shuffle Club

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  • Richard asks: Does he use either of the popular stacks-Aronson, Tamariz, Aragon - or is it his own stack?

    • 1. Matt (creator) responds:All of the memorized deck effects in the book are stack independent: you can use any stack you like. - MB
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  • Morgan asks: Are any of your effects stack dependent?

    • 1. Matt (creator) responds:All of the memorized deck effects in the book are stack independent. - MB
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  • Andrew asks: Does the book give advice for leaning a memory stack?

    • 1. Matt (creator) responds:There *are* actually a couple of pages in the book where the fictional magicians who comprise the Buena Vista Shuffle Club discuss different methods for learning and retaining a stack. This is not meant to be an encyclopedic or authoritative discussion, though. - MB
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  • Pun Yin asks: How many pages for this book?

    • 1. Matt (creator) responds:It's a 264 page hardcover book with B&W photos, a color dust jacket, and gold foil stamping on the cover and spine. Cheers, Matt Baker
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  • Joel asks: How difficult are the tricks? Sleights? I am not very coordinated which is a subtle way of saying clumsy.

    • 1. Matt (creator) responds:There is not a lot of difficult sleight-of-hand in the book, and in fact several effects are completely self-working. However, some of the routines require a bit of mental agility. Being clumsy should not be a big problem, though! :-) Cheers, Matt Baker
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