The three shell game by Tom Osborn

The Three Shell Game

by Tom Osborn

This is quite a good buy. It should be the more expensive book. It starts with the history then the equipment. Then the moves and it turns out there are a lot of them. It also talks on a bit of the psychology of the shell game. The there are the lessons and I think that's where this book sets it apart. There are ten lessons, I suppose a more modern manual would call them exercises. The lesson a practices to get used to handling the shell. They are unusable for a routine or exhibition. For example the first lesson doesn't use a pea it simply moving the shells around to get used to the hand positions. The next lesson is about getting into and out of position as you reach for the shells. The lesson get progressively more difficult but they build your skills. After the lesson are the routines which is more patterns that could be strung into routines and I think they are more for the actual running of the con than for a magic or exhibition. The ones I read relied heavily on sucker moves (moves that look secretive but are actually to be seen).

I'm really glad I got this book and I think that after the Introduction to the Shells DVD this is a must have for shell workers.

If you found this review to helpful or you thought it sucked let me know in the comments section.