First things first: The title is pretty misleading. Since this was written about 50 years ago, the term 'close up magic' meant something different. What is called 'close up' in those days would probably translate into 'stand up' in our times.

On to the tricks themselves. This covers a bit of everything, from silk magic to money magic, mentalism to transpositions. The only thing that isn't here is card stuff (which is a good thing). There are many tricks in the book (probably over 30, but I didn't count). Many of them are good and can be used in the real world. I even found a version of the torn and restored napkin that I am planning on adding to my repertoire.

There is only 1 main con. Many of the tricks are applications of props. If you have these props (and many of them are outdated and not sold anymore), then that's good, but if you don't have them, that's a big chunk of the book that you can't use.

In conclusion: It's an OK book, has many strong parts, but the reliance on tricks with hard to find props is a major downfall. Would give it 3.5 stars if I could, but I can't, so I'm rounding up.