This has been reviewed before but very biefly.. so I have modernised the review
Card College ( Roberto Giobbi )
Available from : Take your pick.. Ellusionist, NUMS, Magictricks, Magicshop
Price: 129.99
Category: Card Magic Tuition
Difficulty: ranging from 2 - 5
They say:
What Roberto Giobbi has done in "Card College" far surpasses his predecessors in a number of ways:
Never before has a course in card magic been so thoroughly illustrated for clarity and ease of learning. Clear, engaging, detailed writing is coupled with over twelve hundred professional drawings to aid the student in attaining mastery over a deck in the shortest possible time.
Card College contains up-to-date developments in the craft, giving the reader the best methods for creating amazement with an ordinary deck of playing cards, ranging from classic sleights and ruses to the most sophisticated modern techniques.
Card College is the first course of its kind written by a full-time professional magician, consisting of material selected from his own repertoire. Giobbi offers his readers hard won knowledge obtained through experience, and teaches the best sleights, methods and tricks, along with the psychology, misdirection and theory essential for successful card magic.
Card College is written as both a course for the beginning student and a retraining course for the experienced card magician who may have picked up some inferior techniques during previous study.
I say:
If RRTCM is the bible, then Card College is the original scrolls!! ( dates aside of course )
Card College is RRTCM with a new engine, chrome alloys and leather seats, finished off with a PS3 fitted in the back. Yes, sure its now going to cost a little more, and essentially it does the same job.. but you get SO much more
For your buck ( or pound as we Englishmen prefer ).
Book 1 deals with your basic techniques, overhand shuffles, breaks, hindu shuffles, the glide, basic D/L’s, false cuts, transfers, flourishes and some basic theory. Also included is the history of playing cards. The nice thing about Card College is each section is summarised by checkpoints, meaning you can make sure all the vital points are sinking in. Any problems, here is where you refer to first.
Book 2 gets a bit more in-depth. It covers the overhand in more detail, bringing in card controls ( retaining stocks etc ). It covers, the glimpse, card reversed, crimps, false counts ( Emsley, Jordan and haaman ) and false cuts, the pass, more D/L’s and some flourishes. Also covered is more in depth theory like Psychology, routining and presentation
Book 3 gets more advanced still. The first 2 books have covered so much in detail.. I am just currently finsihing book 2 ( though I have jumped ahead to certain techniques in the last 3 books ). Anyway, in three you learn of the biddle steal, K.M move, breaks steps and injogs, advanced palming ( on hand top ), zarrow shuffles, advanced D/L’s, mulitple shifts, pull through shuffle, faro shuffles ( including the perfect ), colour changes, side steal, diagonal shift palm and more false counts and displays ( a lot of these in this book ).
Book 4 gets into nitty gritty duttyness of card conjuring… forcing techniques, card/packet reversal, advanced passes ( invisble pass etc ), culling and stacking, half passes, tilts, sandwich techniques, more flourishes and colour changes, lapping, card/packet switches, estimation, deck switches, false deals ( good explanation of second deals here ). Then it finishes up with yet more theory on presentation, humour, routining, writing your script etc. There is also some recommended reading that we are referred to.
And to finish up, Johhny number 5 deals with making secret setups, even more false shuffles, obtaining duplicate signatures ( I cant wait to get to this!! ), some quick tricks using the techniques learned, openers and full routines using the Aces, some of Giobannis favourite effects, then gambling demonstrations and topped of with Mental Mysteries. Volume 5 contains 34 ‘professional-calibur’ routines.
More Info
Some of the best features of card college are the checkpoints which are so useful in making sure you have understood key points and the fact that everything is dealt with individually and progressively. The tricks use a combination of techniques used thus far and refer you back to where the moves were taught. There is a LOT of theory that is extensively covered. Some of the best example are the psychology behind the classic force and how to routine a set.
RRTCM is great and undoubtedly the most common reference to card work, but I feel that if money was invested in card college, there is so much more to learn that isn’t touched upon in RRTCM. If you are a beginner, I would start here… the explanations are so much more easier to grasp as it is quite modern, the tricks are also modernised and I use the effects in here way more often than I did with RRTCM ( although the majority of them are the same if not with updated handling ). Even if you are more of an advanced worker, there are many things to be learned, if you have picked up bad habits or find certain concepts hard to grasp, here is where you fine tune your skills.
More noteably I improved my one hand top palm, second deal and one handed reverse fan from this book. I also mastered ( mastering ) the elmsley and jordan count and now have a version of twisting the aces that I can perform !! and looks stunning!!
Overall: 10 / 10 : I don’t see how I could give this less as EVERYTHING is covered. There is no reference out there that I know of that teaches all this in one place.. and goes over it all so detailed.
I think this is a must buy and I think you should give in to the CUPS that has been beating in your chest while reading this.
