Random Acts of Magic – David Acer

Reviewed by Eric Rose

David Acer (pronounced “David Acker”) is a funny man. Very funny. He is also a funny magician and comedian (pronounced “successful entertainer”). Random Acts of Magic is his third book of his own material with some notable submissions from his magic-savvy friends like Barry Julien, David Sanders and Jay Sankey. Acer’s first two books, Natural Selections and Natural Selections, Volume II, have a wealth of real world magic – mainly cards – that come from a performing restaurant and comedy club magician. Both of the books are must-haves for people who want accessible material with proven results. Random Acts of Magic is a worthy successor to these books and goes beyond the original volumes by including Acer’s Confessions of a Road Warrior articles from Genii magazine. At 350 pages, Random Acts also stands as Acer’s biggest work to date.

The book is broken into three chapters. The first is about 200 pages and dedicated to cards, the second is almost 100 pages of non-card material and the balance is the Genii articles. Now, not every trick in the book is new. Some are re-handlings of Acer’s previously published work like “Changes” and “Bespectacle.” “Changes” is moderately improved, “Bespectacle” pumps up the finger ring on glasses “Rink” from Natural Selections to make it an impromptu stunner. The new material, and previously unpublished work is strong and practical. “Photo Finish” is one of those tricks that make you say “Why didn’t I think of that?” “Mad Card Disease” is an example of how you can use almost nothing (apparently just four quarters of a cut up card) to entertain at a table. The non-card tricks are equally useful, including Barry Julien’s “Unburnt” which is a pretty-darn-close-to-impromptu match trick.

The key to Acer’s success is his use of humor with the audience and he treats the reader to that same sense of humor. The card chapter is called “Extrovert at the Card Table.” The non-card work is in “Magic by Mister Direction.” There are several laugh out loud lines that caught me off guard. My favorite was his revelation about Max Maven/ Phil Goldstein’s secret third identity in Maven’s trick “Over Easier.”

I mentioned that the Natural Selections books were great because their magic was “accessible.” Random Acts of Magic is no different. Acer is more focused on effect than method and most of the tricks are within the reach of the intermediate magician or hobbyist. The descriptions are clear and the photo-illustrations are well done. If you have seen either of the Natural Selections books, then you’ve seen the layout for Random Acts as well. The layout works and Acer has wisely stayed with it. As long as you aren’t worried that some of the material is repeated from previous sources, this book should be a welcome addition to your library. Recommended.