Customer Reviews

The Royal Road to Card Magic

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm ashamed to admit that this wasn't the first card trick book I ever bought. This book walks you through every amateur sleight of hand any card-magician-to-be could ever hope to learn with a bounty of helpful illustrations, along with very deep text. While some of it is a little difficult to wade through, it is well worth the effort. The tricks, with rare exception, are excellent, and the way in which they are taught is very user-friendly. Instead of teaching seven or eight sleights of hand at once, this book teaches you one, then a few tricks using that sleight. Then it teaches you another, and then some more tricks.

If you're just looking into card magic for the very first time, or are an advanced magician, this book will prove to be both fun and informative - a must have.

This is without a doubt the best introduction on card magic on planet earth. Period. The only one that might rank close is the Card College by swiss card conjurer Roberto Giobbi, which is however somewhat a dry read. And much too expensive since he takes the material of "A royal road to Card magic" and "Expert Card Techniques" and turns it into five volumes which are selling at 35 bucks each (I am not accusing him of a rehash but he also didnt re-invent card magic) . These ones have been written in the fourties...and have an incredible charm to them. I wouldnt even call the writing dated, I am from Germany and my English is pretty good, but not perfect, but I find it extremely easy to follow the instructions.

What I love about the book. I have been interested in card magic since I was a boy and have only recently picked up this hobby again, and even though I am probably already familiar with every slight dealt with in this book, it kind of fills in the gaps. For example, even though I know of course how to control a card using a simple overhand shuffle, I was never really able - or even aware of - a false overhand shuffle. I mean a shuffle that looks genuine (not just "running" the cards one by one) and 100 percent deceptive. I am kind of an indermediate, you see. And then this book made me think: well, maybe not even just yet.

Didactically the book is brilliant. For starters, it does not torture you with slights only, but every chapter will already introduce three or four tricks that go with the slight in question, and Hugard and Braue have made sure that they are worth -while. I have found some real gems here. Which really surprised me. I mean, the more one deals with the subject, the more one tends to me focusing on real crazy stuff, like card so saltshaker, tear and restore a card....routines like that, which make you forget there are "normal" tricks out there. DVDs on the subject are floading the market and there is some great stuff. Here, however, a solid foundation is laid, that you will benefit from for the rest of your life. I could write on forever. I think this is just IT. Some teaching DVDs are great, but NONE offer the array of slights and the encouraging style and tone of this book (Except maybe for "Daryls Encyclopedia of Card slights", which will however confuse the beginner). "Some of the finest tricks", as they say, will be at your fingertips soon. They keep it as simple as possible. One more thing, there are no knuckle busters here. Just the basics. But ALL of them.

1. The Overhand Shuffle
2. The Riffle Shuffle
3. Flourishes
4. The Glide
5. The Glimpse
6. The key card
7. The palm
8. The back slip
9. Overhand Shuffle Part Two
10. False Shuffles and Cuts
11. Double Lift and Turnover
12. The Pass
13. Miscalleneous Flourishes
14. The Reverses
15. Hindu Shuffles and other Controls
16. The classic Force
17. Top and bottom changes
18. Arrangements
19. Routines
20. Platform Tricks

Again, the introduce the slights in an order that makes sense and in each chapter there are already tricks that go with the slight. You will be performing magic within...well, day one, lets say. Buy this if you love card magic and wish to go beyond the proverbial Uncle Charlie Card trick ("in which row is your card"), for this is superbe.

Since I bought this book, my boys and I are spending time each night figuring out how to do these cards tricks. My sons are 9 and 13 and I feel childlike too in learning with them. The book is a virtual gold mine, a bit difficult to read, but quite complete for the beginner. We are all having such fun! You will too. Whatever your reason for considering this book, just get it. It is such a worthwhile investment and pays great dividends! You won't be sorry!

I found this book back in 1976, when I was becoming intrested in card/parlour tricks. I wasn't amazed to see that this book was still in circulation - because it provides excellent instructions on the basics of card tricks, while it offers detailed drawings and it also provides moves that the experienced person can you to improve their skills.

If your intrested in card magic - this is the first book you should buy. There are several great books - but this is one that should be on every magician's book shelf.

Royal Road to Card Magic is a reprint of a classic card conjuring text. The great thing about this book is the ingenious way Hugard and Braue teach you a card sleight and then teach you a card effect using that sleight. An excellent old card conjuring book that will stand the test of time. Highly recommended.

This review is for all those who have an interest in card magic yet cannot navigate the confusing array of titles that are available. This book is indispensable! If you, like me, are a novice card magician then this is the place to start. If you buy this book and read it carefully then I promise you by the time you have read even the first few chapters you will be able to amaze anyone with a pack of cards. Not only is there a wealth of information here, the book is also extremely well written; I couldn't put it down! The book contains every basic false shuffle, cut, slight, and flourish that you will need to make significant progress in card magic. Within months I had developed a convincing card routine and was delighting people with my 'magical' abilities. If you choose this book then you will be on the way to doing the same.

This book is simply perfect. Each chapter corresponds to a specific technique and concludes with complete "tricks" that employ that technique. The chapters generally build on each other, but you can jump around to some extent. The book's many illustrations make the difficult aspects of the tricks transparent.

This book, plus the willingness to practice card conjuring in private and then actually perform the tricks for friends and families will get you there! I ran one trick 4 or 5 times for one of my colleagues the other day; her only response: "Oh, I get it, it's a trick deck right? They're all the same card, right?" Nope. When I turned over all the cards (revealing a genuine deck) her jaw simply dropped.....

If you're overwhelmed with magic book titles, and don't know which book to buy to start your experience with magic, BUY THIS BOOK.

Keep in mind it was written before TV, so you must be a enthusiastic reader and a magic lover. It requiers a lot careful and minucious reading and re-reading, but only because of its very precise explanations.

The next step after studying from this book, is watching a good magician perform the sleights so you can have an idea of speed and timing.

Buy it only if you are truly commited to learning non self working card tricks and sleights.

If I had to throw away all my magic books except one, this would be it.

I've always been fascinated by magic tricks, but it wasn't until about a month or so ago that I finally decided to try learning to do them myself. I bought a couple decks of cards and I searched around the Amazon website for different magic books; I ended up buying this one as well as a few others. Having already read several of them, all I can say is that, for the incredible amount of information contained within this book, it is well worth the price. A few of the books I purchased were a bit overwhelming, but not this one. The instructions for learning the different sleights are presented in such a way that I felt very comfortable picking up a deck of cards even though I had almost no previous experience. Within a day, I was able to do one or two of the first tricks in the book, and since then I've learned several more.

I know the other reviewers have mentioned this, but one truly great thing about this book is that the difficulty level of the sleights actually progresses reasonably as you make your way through it. There's one trick in here-the pass-that it says could take at least a couple of months to get right!

This is a wonderful book, and I highly recommend it to anyone even slightly interested in learning card tricks.

Whatever you are, an advanced magician or just a beginner, this book was written for you, even if you know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about card magic. This is a rare kind of book, I mean, no matter how skilfull you are you'll be interested to read every word. For the beginner, you'll learn the correct way to execute sleights which will make you able to do tricks you never thought you'd be able to do. For the advanced magician, this book is a classic, reading it will enable you to correct possible mistakes you do when executing a sleight, improving your presentation. Simply excellent.