Books on card sleights

[Guest]

I am seeking help in selecting a well written and illustrated book on card sleights from basic to intermediate difficulty. Any response to my inquiry would be appreciated.

[Erik Hemming]

CHRITIE-

Lots of answers to this question...here's one:

The quickest to find and easiest on the pocketbook is Jean Hugard and Frederick Braue's The Royal Road to Card Magic published by Dover. It's usually around $10.00, and worth many times that. The down-side is that the illustrations a little small and spare. It should be available through your local magic dealer, your local bookseller or online.

Roberto Giobbi's Card College (Volume 1) from Hermetic Press is also a good place to start. It is somewhat clearer, for a modern audience, in both text and illustrations. It is also more expensive ($30-$40) and mildly more difficult to obtain. Try your local magic dealer, hermeticpress.com, or any of the online magic dealers.

Lastly, if you are a visual learner, our host, Richard Kaufman, has a great tape available called Basic, Basic, Basic Card Technique.

There are at least dozens of other books that would cover the ground. But the first two on the list are most commonly named.

Hope this helps!

Gordon Corbin

[CHRIS]

You can never go wrong with "Card College". This series has 4 volumes. It starts in volume 1 with real basic but important grips and moves and covers in the later volumes pretty difficult sleights. You also get a lot of important theory.
You will hardly find another book with such detailed descriptions of the fine points, common errors and possible variations. You get the life long experience from a professional card magician - one of the best I may add.
And now you can get volume 1 also as ebook. The great benefit here are the 89 embedded video clips which describe every move. This is particularly helpful for someone starting out. The ebook has updated text and illustrations, too, but is otherwise the same as the book:

Card College 1 - the ebook

The ebook will be soon reviewed in the big magazines. Michael Close's review should appear in November in Magic and I think the Genii review by Joe M. Turner should not be too far away either. The feedback I received from customers so far is better than I could hope for.

There are of course other good card books available. "The Royal Road to Card Magic" was already mentioned. After Royal Road you could move on to "Expert Card Technique". "Encyclopedia of Card Tricks" doesn't give you any moves but lots of interesting tricks. (These three books are also available in electronic form.)

But again, with Card College you get a modern work which is in my opinion the best and most comprehensive series of books on cards available today.

Chris Wasshuber
preserving magic one book at a time.

[Guest]

To Gordon Corbin & Chris Wasshuber:
Many thanks for the wealth of information I received from your response to my inquiry. I am very excited about purchasing some of the books and visuals that were mentioned in your emails. (Thank you to Mr. Kaufman for such an excellent site.) Chirite

[Jonathan Townsend]

Originally posted by CHIRITE:
a well written and illustrated book on card sleights.

It happens that some of the editorial staff of Genii Magazine / Forum have constructed, written and illustrated several such books. These folks are way too proffesional and modest to even suggest their works here, so I will. Next time you get a chance to look over a list of available books, look for Richard Kaufman, David Regal, Pete Biro...
This is one of the few times that those who 'can' are also those who teach.

[Richard Kaufman]

CHIRITE, of the books I've done which fit your skill level, the best might be "The Secrets of Brother John Hamman." Most of the items do NOT require terrific dexterity, however they have devious psychological constructions that render them devastating to an audience, whether it consists of magicians or laymen.
You can do so much with a Gemini Count ...

[Bill Mullins]

Originally posted by Richard Kaufman:
You can do so much with a Gemini Count ...

Maybe so, but it always looked, well, goofy to me. Why reach into the middle of a packet to show one of just a few cards?

Bill

[Lance Pierce]

Well, I think the idea is that it's supposed to look like you're taking cards from the bottom and not the middle. Some may still say that's on the goofy side, but Bro. Hamman had such a casual air about him that it didn't seem to raise suspicion, and the bottom-taking action was so consistent throughout the count that it really looked like you saw all four cards.

Cheers,

Lance

[Guest]

Mr.Kaufman where can I find the book you mentioned "The Secrets of Brother John Hamman."

[Terry]

I recently bought my copy online at the Magic Warehouse:

http://themagicwarehouse.com/

Shipping only took 2 days.