Artanis Bottom Deal by Joe Artanis
It took us two years to track down a copy of these elusive instructions to the bottom deal. Gary Plants, the man with the best bottom deal alive, wrote "The Artanis bottom deal is probably the closest thing in print to the type of bottom deal that I do."
The really cool part of this ebook is that you can study the bottom deal audio-visually: hear, see and read. Artanis explains verbally how to do the bottom deal, you can study 12 photos that capture every stage of the bottom deal, and you can read a set of instructions. The electronic format allowed us to further improve the audio-visual experience by combining everything into a slide show. The slide show includes an audio track for the slides where Artanis gives instructions. And the end of the slide show is a flip book where the 12 photos are shown in sequence quickly following each other to produce an animation effect.
[Note: Make sure to view the PDF in full screen mode (CTRL-l in AdobeReader). The sound and flip book animation can only be experienced in the full screen mode.]
1st edition, 1958, Sid Weissman, New York.
word count: 1419 which is equivalent to 5 standard pages of text
review:
5 stars
An unusual release including a series of photos and a 78 RPM Recording describing the sleight. Issued by Sid Weissman. Available at your magic dealer's shop. Price $5. According to information supplied to me, Artanis is a gambler and is not a magician. He is reputed to be one of the greatest card dealers and this release bears this out. With the packet you receive a set of mimeographed directions which explain in complete detail each of the twelve fine glossy photos of Artanis' hands in action with a deck of cards. Actually they are step by step photos from the time the deck is picked up until the bottom deal is consummated. By beveling the packet of photos slightly, and then riffling them you can actually see the mechanics of the sleight in movie-action. For those who find it difficult to follow through on a sleight from the written text, a two-sided record is provided which explains in clear, concise language exactly how the sleight is to be done and points out every detail of each of the 12 photos. Between the two, I can't see how you can miss mastering the bottom deal providing you give it the necessary practice. For those who want to know how this Artanis deal compares with other methods, all I can say it that the author made his living with this and other gambler's sleights - so it just has to be perfect! We're looking forward to Artanis' second deal and any other sleights that may be published from time to time.