Breath by Mat Parrott
An Exploration in the Gilbreath Principle
Norman L. Gilbreath first wrote about his discovery of the Gilbreath Principle in 1958. It was a revolutionary concept that had the potential to create a new wave of magic. The ability to hand a deck of cards to a participant, have them shuffle, and still be able to produce miracles was astounding. Especially when it was all self-working, hands-off, and ungimmicked. Unfortunately the magic community never tapped the full potential of this principle, leaving it to be forgotten apart from for the studious

BREATH is an exploration into the power and strength of the Gilbreath Principle. It explains the inner workings on the concept and goes on to describe the method of over 20 different routines. Unlike previous work on the principle, Breath goes beyond playing cards with multiple routines utilising a vast variety of items.

Every routine is self-working, but don’t let simplicity fool you. The ease of methods found in this book help you create a better performance that is often completely hands off.

By the end of this text you will have a greater understanding of the Gilbreath Principle and be able to develop your own routines.


“A must buy text for any magician interested in self-working, high-impact magic”
– Alan Rorrison


“If you like oddities that are self working and happen in the spectator’s hands then definitely check this out. A really interesting look into a really interesting principle.”
– Ben Williams


“This is a great resource for an underused and complex principle that Mat has made simple to understand and given plenty of ideas to boot.”
– David Jonathan


If you want hard hitting, self-working, hands off magic, this is the book for you.

The contents include:

OUT OF BREATH: Out of this World style routine
LIQUOR IN THE FRONT: A hands off Blackjack cheating routine
POKER IN THE REAR: Four Royal Straights are shuffled and perfectly produced
UNNAMED POKER ROUTINE: Royal Straights are produced from a shuffled deck
THEIR TELL: From a shuffled deck the magician reveals the value of every card in the participant’s hand
REVELATION: The magician is able to reveal a chosen card from a shuffled deck
POKER PREDICTION: A deck is shuffled and a poker hand chosen. A sealed envelope contains a prediction about the hand.
D.A.I.DO: Do As I Do style routine
WHAT’S IN THE HAND: Cards are taken from a shuffled deck. No matter how many cards there are the magician can name every one.
PREDICTION TWENTY-ONE A blackjack hand is taken from a shuffled deck. An envelope contains the matching cards.
DOUBLE POKER PREDICTION: A poker hand is taken from a shuffled deck. An envelope contains a matching hand.
PERFECT PREDICTION: Similar to What’s in the Hand, with the use of more deception.
MULTI-PHASE ROUTINE: A multi-phased routine utilising previous methods
IT’S OKAY: An idea with a very mixed up deck
ESPECIALLY BAD NAME: Zenner cards are randomly mixed and two perfect hands are created
ESPREDICTION: A deck of Zenner cards is shuffled. An envelope contains a matching hand of five selected cards.
TURN TO PAGE 394: A book test
MONEY ON THE MIND: Bank notes are mixed up and an amount of them selected. The magician has a prediction as to how much the participant has
SCRABBLE SELECTION: Letter tiles are mixed up and several selected. The magician has a prediction of the word a participant creates from these
SMASH AND CRACK: A game is played using multiple eggs
MINTAGE: The magician is able to tell the date of a randomly selected coin from a selection