I've been into cards for a couple of months now and I know a few slights but which book/video/DVD do you guys suggest to learn a lot about card magic from? I really want to be a good card magician.

greetings Niels

What books and videos/DVDs do you own so far? I remember I started with the Royal Road to Card Magic in 1994 and I have never regretted picking up the book. Even now, I look through the book every once in a while to see if I missed something over the years. That book is a great one to start off with, as I'm sure a number of people here at the Café will attest to.

An excellent video for starting out is Basic Card Technique by Richard Kauffman. It covers a lot of basics and more advanced stuff. Well worth the investment. When you progress, start getting Michael Ammars' Easy to Master series.

Everyone will recommend these books:

The Royal Road to Card Magic
The Expert at the Card Table
Card College 1-4

All are great.

Royal Road to Card Magic

OK listen to me!!! I will tell you this now and you can thank me for the rest of your magic life. Only learn one sleight at a time. Then once you master it, find a trick that soley uses it. Add it to your rep. Then learn a different one. Then learn a trick that uses that sleight or maybe uses the two sleights you know. "God I wish someone told me this".

Keep learning to perfection each sleight at a time. Learn all the basics that way. Then when you get to harder ones find a trick you want to do and learn the hard sleights through learning tricks that need them. Trust me on this. You pile 10 sleights to learn. It will take you FOREVER to master it. Then you might put it down awhile, then pick it later and still be sucky. And you'll be sitting around knowing all these sleights but you can't show anyone because you don't have them down. And if you pick up a lot of sleights early you're going to get tired of practicing magic fast, never be able to perform, always have to practice for hours, and have nothing to show for it.

Trust me now and you will be thanking me for the rest of your life. ONE at a time, mastery, trick, then move on.

Get one of the http://www.ELLUSIONIST.COM videos. They are GREAT! They teach street-style card magic mainly, but they do teach some other stuff like levitating. For beginners, the learning street magic one is best. For intermediates, get the Ninja video. It is great.

Also download a few of the free trick videos especially the Las Vegas one and the Ninja preview. Hope this helps.

Florian

Also try this website: http://www.gregorylee.org/magic/learnmagic.htm

Hope this helps too
Florian

Thanks everyone. This helps me a lot.

greetings niels

I do not agree with Trow on the Ellusionist stuff. I feel strongly that your hard-earned cash is better off spent elsewhere and because this tread is specific to one topic, I will not comment on my opinions of Ellusionist products in general. To answer your question, this is what I would get:

1. The Royal Road To Card Magic
2. Card College Vol 1 (get the other books later)
3. M. Ammar's Easy To Master Card Miracles Vol 2 (on DVD)
4. G. Wilson's Double Take (it's only on VHS)
5. A few extra decks of cards (I know you already have some)

I think this will cost just over $100.

Royal Road might be dated and a bit dry at times, however, it is a hall of fame card book, and considered an invaluable resource for any card man. Every magician owns a copy.

Card College is easier for the beginner to read and is the perfect compliment to Royal Road.

Card Miracles 2 is just great. You will learn some of the most famous card routines ever in a clear and concise manner.

Double Take is outstanding for learning the doubles.

I'm new to magic as well and I find that I practice my Elmsley count and doubles all the time.

I will have to put my vote in for the Card College series as well. It is very comprehensive and also doesn't just cover technique, but the psychology and theory behind the different moves. After it shows a certain sleight and its variations, it then applies it to an effect, so you get an idea of how it works in handling. It is what got me started.

Encyclopedia of Card Tricks (few moves but lot of tricks)
Royal Road to Card Magic
Card College series

In my opinion, the three things are Royal Road To Card Magic, Card College Series and The Easy To Master Card Miracles series. If you learn the stuff contained in these, you're well on your way.

You should definitely start off with RRTCM and then move onto either of the other two.

I'll have to agree, The Easy to Master Card Miracles are very good. They show very good tricks, where almost no sleight is needed (good for beginning).

I also recommend Daryl's Encyclopedia of Card Sleights, which provides an enormous variety of sleights. They are well explained and there are also examples given, where you can use the sleight you just learned.

I recommend The Magic Book by Harry Lorayne (although it's not just card magic). He teaches a few basic sleights in great detail and gives a selection of effective tricks based on them.

My vote goes to:
Card College
Royal Road to Card Magic and
Expert Card Technique

They will all work well but if you can find a mentor to show them it is the best. For the videos:
Jeff McBride's Art of Card Manipulation is the best I have seen.

I'm about halfway through Royal Road to Card Magic, so far so good apart from the tricks used for the sleights learned aren't all that great. For that I say Encyclopedia of Card Tricks.

jean hugard

I am in the same boat. I just expanded my horizons to card work. Books have helped me out a ton but a lot of what little skills I now have come from carrying around a deck of cards and practicing my sleights and flourishes while I watch TV or something like that.

Look at any of Michael Ammar's books or videos or Brad Burt's videos

Get any of the Karl Fulves self-working card books. They are a good investment.

Card sleights are all good and fun, but if you want to learn actual routines, there are tons of books and videos out there.

The following are just a few of the names in books and videos that have great stuff:

James Swain
Guy Hullingworth
Harry Lorayne
Darwin Ortiz
Martin Nash
Dai Vernon
John Bannon
Daryl Martines
Juan Tamariz
Lenart Green
Bill Malone
Paul Harris
Frank Garcia

Most of their routines require advance sleight of with cards, but that's the fun stuff.

I would recommend searching for any of their books or videos and try to learn those routines. If you don't know some of the sleights then go to any of the books mentioned above and learn the sleight that you need. I think that's a much better way to learn and you'll have more fun.

1. Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic, Mark Wilson
2. RRTCM, Hugard and Braue
3. Card College, Giobbi
4. Easy to Master Card Miracles, Ammar

Andre