Alongside the double lift and the pinky break, the cull is perhaps the most important move in card magic. Few people do the move correctly, and even fewer use the move for anything other than secretly sorting cards. That all changes with Close Culls.
Singapore’s Harapan Ong is a leading expert on all things cull, and here he teaches the move in gorgeous, photographic detail. Everyone reading will learn the move. And then he explores new and exciting principles with the cull. Finally, he puts it all together with a collection of extraordinary and offbeat effects. This is a definitive treatise on this underused but critical sleight.
Like all our publications, we have worked carefully with author Harapan Ong to produce an elegant, accurate, and fascinating collection. We treated this booklet as if it were a hardbound book. You’ll notice the quality immediately when you read through it, in both the instruction and the layout. The production values are what you expect from Vanishing Inc: cutting edge artwork, slick design, carefully edited prose, all in an attractive booklet.
We pre-sold the book at The Session 2014, and we sold through our entire stock in under fifteen minutes. Now it is finally available to the magic world.
- The Spread Cull – A detailed explanation of the move
- The Cavorted Aces – A new treatment on the classic Cavorting Aces
- Cull the Police – The age-old robbers plot gets a modern facelift
- Full Deck Oil & Water – A great way to end your oil and water routine
- Two Heads are Better than One – An unusual application of the spread cull
- Slap Me Silly – A handling of Bill Goodwin’s “Slap Exchange”
- The Delayed Cull – A truly extraordinary move to do a cull while showing both sides of the pack
- The Cull Switch – Just what it sounds like … a switch with the cull!
- The Buckle Replacement – One of Harapan’s most prized original moves, finally tipped
- The Princess Card Trick Revisited – A great handling of the classic Princess Card Trick plot
- A Convincing Card Fold – Harapan has combined the cull with a devious card fold
- Cull-our Change – This visual transformation uses the cull and a little something else
- SwitchSand – The spread cull put to an intriguing use within a Sandwich routine
- Scattered Sandwich – A Sandwich routine that is destined to become a classic
- Indicated Replacements – Max Maven’s “Third Degree” given the cull treatment
- The Buckle-llectors – One of Harapan’s crowning achievements in both method and effect
- Utterly Mental Reverse – a direct application of Harapan’s Cull Tap Reversal
“Harapan fooled me so badly with his cull I had to get his book. His cull is about the best I’ve seen and his book contains not only great routines using the cull, but some great original techniques as well. And the puns throughout are hystericull.”Guy Hollingworth
“This is an excellent book for learning the Hofzinser Cull and some clever applications.”Justin Higham
“Harapan Ong, the brilliant young card magician from Singapore, now living in London, a Member of The Magic Circle, has written Close Culls, a brilliant book on one of card magic’s most useful, yet most often neglected, sleights — the Cull. The well-illustrated book contains a chapter on how to perform the Cull which has many useful tips, plus several variations, and 12 good tricks which use the techniques taught. The level is intermediate to advanced, and if you put in the work your magic is sure to improve.”Matthew Field
“I’ve seen Harapan perform some of these tricks live and he completely fooled me even though I knew he was culling. So I bought the book and wasn’t disappointed. It takes a unique look at what the cull is truly capable of and teaches some brilliant tricks along the way.”Stephen Long
