need a beginner's guide to card tricks

[crazymoose]

Haven't seen a post about this in awhile.. The ones I saw I've been unable to locate on search.

What is a good beginner's level book to learn the common slights, tricks, etc?

[fraac]

Royal Road To Card Magic. There are a couple of 4xDVD sets of it available, which is even better. This forum is rather more useful for that sort of thing.

[notorious]

Robert Giobbi's multi-volume Card College is a wonderful introduction to modern card magic. Start with volume 1 & 2.
Royal Road , though a classic, is somewhat out of date. However, Paul Wilson's recent DVDs breathe new life into its contents.

[colgin]

I hear that Oz Pearlman's "Born to Perform" DVD is very good. It is available at Penguin Magic online. I don't have it but have considered getting it as a refrsher sicne I haven't doen card tricks for about 20 years now.

I have the three David Williamson DVD's (Sleight of Dave 1 and 2 and Magic Farm) since Dave is an old acquaintance of mine. The quality is absolutely top notch but most of the tricks are intermediate to super-advanced.

[maurile]

[ QUOTE ]
Robert Giobbi's multi-volume Card College is a wonderful introduction to modern card magic. Start with volume 1 & 2.
Royal Road , though a classic, is somewhat out of date.

[/ QUOTE ]
Yes, if you want your best bang for six bucks, Royal Road is your best bet (then add Expert Card Technique next).

But the class of card magic books, by a huge margin, is Giobbi's Card College series. Go through them in order. They are fantastic.

I personally learn from videos better than books for the most part when it comes to magic, but Giobbi's books are the major exception to that. They are the best resource on card magic, period.

[colgin]

I just realized the OP was asking about books not DVD's. The book I started outwith as a kid and which I highly recommend is Harry Lorayne's "Close-Up Card Magic". The book has many great tricks from beginner level to intermediate, and teaches many of the fundamental slights in the context of those tricks. I think you can fidn this online for about $20.

[jordiepop]

go with dvd's . check out ellusionist.com as well as penguinmagic.com. really good stuff.

[Splossy]

RRTCM as a first book is ideal. It's cheap and covers the start of real card magic. The effects range from easy to quite hard but most are way better than the tricks anyone who isn't into magic can do.

Card College is the best series of card books by a mile but I think you need to be sure you are into it before shelling out the cash

[crazymoose]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions! I'll probably get RRTCm and see how I like it before getting the card college ones..