What is Five Times Five? This volume, the first in a projected series, is an attempt to bring to the world of magic sense of the changes in the world at large—the notion of a "global village." Ideally, in such a situation, a worldwide cross-cultural intimacy of thought and technique in our art would be available with ease to anyone who wished to study it.

In the United States, we have had minimal exposure to the great close-up magicians who have such an impact and achieve such renown in their own countries. Our tendency is to dismiss a magician with a foreign name we don't recognize, and this unfortunate habit is proven over and over out by the sales of books and videos which feature their magic. They always sell in fewer numbers, which thereafter discourage most publishers from undertaking such ventures in the future.

Richard Kaufman has been routinely astounded by the close-up magic from other countries, and hopes to bring some of that sense, and some of those wonderful routines, to you in this series. The country Richard has chosen to initiate the project is one whose magic is widely appreciated around the world: Japan.

The five men in this volume offered me a choice selection of their best material, and it was not an easy task to narrow it down to the twenty-five items which fill these pages. They reflect Japan's sense of "preciousness" about close-up magic, and the desire to build effects and routines around short and unusual plots. Richard has tried to balance this with some Western-style card and coin routines, at whose construction the Japanese excel.

There is to all of them, however, a unique flavor that makes each seem fresh and different from our perspective.

Contents include:

Four by Four
Four From Nowhere
Propelled Chinese/Silver
Fabric Through Pasteboard
The Knotted Letter
Ambitious Clip
New Era Moving Pips
Match Transposition
BoxBack
Pieces of the Future
Stanley Collins Meets Corinda
The Mystery of Width
Cocktail Bill Penetration
The Talisman
Illusion Box
Appearing Deck
The Card Machine
The Joker Takes a Ride
Soft Spots
Lie Detector
My Little Kaps
Imprisoned Rising Card
It Doesn't Fit!
The Perfect Assistant
The Flowing Pips