'CARDSHARK' by Darwin Ortiz is a great investment, or 'Darwin Ortiz at the Card Table' are both great card books. The LePaul book is great also.Card College, Up-Close Card Magic by Harry Lorayne, Totally Out of Control, The Art of Astonishment.There are so many great books! If you're into gambling moves, check out the Darwin Ortiz books. If you're not familiar with a lot of card moves, get Card College 1-5 (I saw 1 - 3 for 70 bucks on the Cafe).If you want impromptu, can be done with a borrowed shuffled deck; then get Up-Close Card Magic. Of course, Totally Out of Control is just a great all-around book.Look at Jason's 1-on-1! This is like asking what you should have for dinner tonight. Everyone is going to tell you what they like without any analysis of what would be a good choice for you,Help us out by telling us how long you've been doing magic, what books and DVDs you have, what type of effects you like to perform and, if you know, where you want this book to take you.
Are you looking for knuckle busting sleights? Are you looking for the basics? Are you looking for great effects?
Are you looking to methodically learn the fundamentals? Are you looking to learn a variety of different techniques? There are different books that will get you to different places. This is like asking what you should have for dinner tonight. Everyone is going to tell you what they like without any analysis of what would be a good choice for you,Help us out by telling us how long you've been doing magic, what books and DVDs you have, what type of effects you like to perform and, if you know, where you want this book to take you.
Are you looking for knuckle busting sleights? Are you looking for the basics? Are you looking for great effects? Are you looking to methodically learn the fundamentals? Are you looking to learn a variety of different techniques?
There are different books that will get you to different places. Click to expand. Ok card magic, 8-9 months i have been doing it books i have;Royal Road,Encyclopedia Of Card Tricks;Expert at the card table.pdf,Joshua Jays Card Magic, The little big encyclopedia of magic. DVD; army 52,ninja 1,2, Kard Klub, Gerry Griffin Complete card magic,Crash Course to slight of hand tricks 'elusionist'.
Can climara patch be cut in half. Oh and a svengali and a stripped dvd, and i want intermediate to advanced tricks and slight of hand not to many flourishes but if the trick has a flourish thats cool, not the basics, and i want it to take me so that i can look to it for inspiration and tips and stuff, a variation not just passes or stacks, and a variation of different techniques 30+. Ok card magic, 8-9 months i have been doing it books i have;Royal Road,Encyclopedia Of Card Tricks;Expert at the card table.pdf,Joshua Jays Card Magic, The little big poencyclopedia of magic.
DVD; army 52,ninja 1,2, Kard Klub, Gerry Griffin Complete card magic,Crash Course to slight of hand tricks. Oh and a svengali and a stripped dvd, and i want intermediate to advanced tricks and slight of hand not to many flourishes but if the trick has a flourish thats cool, not the basics, and i want it to take me so that i can look to it for inspiration and ptips and stuff, a variation not just passes or stacks, and a variation of different techniques 30+. Click to expand.My first thought is that you need to spend more time mastering the material you have. It's a lot of material to cover in 9 months. Learn it, master it, practice it and perform it before moving on.If you liked Royal Road, Erdnase, and Encyclopedia of Card Tricks, get Expert Card Technique, Card Control and the Card Magic of LePaul. Total around $35.If you found those books difficult, get Card College. The teaching is detailed and gives you the history and variations for the sleights well as effects using the sleights.
Get at least the first two volumes - they were meant to be a complete course. If you can get the first 3 volumes for $70 (which is the retail price of the first two volumes) that is a great deal.Art of Astonishment ($35) has great effects and the handling isn't too difficult.
The Paper Engine also is a great book with some great effects. The Paper Engine ($25) has more advanced sleights and some routines require knowledge of sleights that aren't taught in the book. Aaron teaches some less dificult variations of the effects on his DVDs.Don't get By Forces Unseen. Its too advanced for where you are and is too flourishy for where you seem to want to go.I think the option that would be best for you is Card College - but only if you work through it chapter by chapter. I suspect that if you get ECT, LePaul and Card Control, they will suffer the same fate as the books you have - looked at but not studied (if I'm wrong about that then I apologize - its hard to do cold reading on a forum).I think you would find AoA most interesting, but that you need to spend more time mastering the fundamentals first. Without at least a year's experience performing, you will not be able to pull off a lot of the effects in that book.
Click to expand.It´s a bit overrated in my opinion by today´s standards. It´s not a bad book (a few gems in it), but Mr.Lorayne himself stated that it´s not his best book and his later books are much better. I agree (I own Classic Collection 1 + 2).I´m with RealityOne. I think Card College is the single most effective collection of books in card magic I´ve ever read (and I have read a few.most of the books mentioned in the thread).
I found out that the sleights (the description (note: the DESCRIPTION only.not the effectiveness of the sleigth or variation) of many/most?! Sleights are even better and more indepth than in the original source) and the teaching is superior to anything I´ve came across in terms of magic books.