I'm on the road a lot. I have the Paul Harris's books, Slydini and the Royal Touch by Cellini. None of them have let me down. Cellini's book is the one that if you are going to busk, and I mean really go out and busk, then you need to buy this book and read it. It is, without a doubt, the top book on street performing, and it is done with Cellini's charm. Which is a major part of learning what you need to know.

He is someone that has walked the walk. Don't reinvent the wheel. Just learn from the best.

A friend of Cellini's, Shawn Greer has some of his books ready to go. He takes Pay Pal on his site. I would suggest to anyone to go up and just get the book. You will make it back the first day out... After reading the text.

You can check out Shawn's magic selections at: http://www.idealmagic.com/html/magic_items.html

Have fun and enjoy.

I'd love to see David Groves, authentic journalist that he is and all, make a review of Royal Touch for a respected magic magazine -- and then compare it to his own book. Ha!

Maybe I can give a bit of perspective to all of this.

Yes, the English version of the book does have a lot of typos and plain incorrect English. This is the result of something that I have seen in a number of cases -- European hard-headedness. There are a number of Europeans who think that because they can speak English well, they can write it perfectly. This is seldom the case, even at the Doctoral level.

Instead of having a writer who is a native English speaker read proof on the copy, the figure that they are close enough, and they put out the book. This is the very reason that Ted Lesley, whose spoken English is excellent, has me proofread every document that goes on his web site. I translate most of his material for him anyway. Likewise, I do not write my own notes or instructions in German. I have Ted or Borodin do it. It keeps me from making mistakes similar to the ones in The Royal Touch. It would not have cost the publisher one red cent to have someone with some expertise proofread the English copy. I certainly would have done it. I'm sure Cellini would have, as well.

This said, the material in The Royal Touch is no less valuable or usable because of the mistakes.

Regarding comments made about the odd format. It's not odd if you are in Europe. That is basically A4 paper, bound. Different from our 8 1/2 by 11, but standard over there. The Harbin book was the same size.

Regarding comments that some have made about the money going to the artist, and someone chasing lectures for another man's greed. Who is supposed to pay for the layout, typesetting and printing? Do you have any idea how much it costs to do this? You have to pay the money up front. The printers will not do this "on spec."

When I printed Sheherazade, I had to invest $1200 in software, upgrade a computer, and then pay for the publication of the book. By the time the smoke cleared, I was out of pocket for well over $10K. I paid Borodin royalties on his book. He wasn't out a cent. And I repaid Harold Voit for what he paid me to translate it. So he wasn't out anything, either.

I basically lost money on the book in the long run. If I had been greedy, I would have cut some corners, not done the proofreading and I would have saved a couple of thousand dollars.

You have to figure the investment in the book. If Cellini could have come up with the money for the book, I'm sure he would have been glad to produce it, himself. One can only hope that he receives some compensation for his work. Knowing the people behind the DVD's I'm fairly sure he has.

I do know that he can get these items wholesale and resell them. You make a lot more money on retail sales than you do on royalties, anyway. That's the way business is.

I have an immense amount of respect and admiration for Jim and Marianne. The book and the DVD's have undoubtedly helped him greatly.