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The Effect

Cards, cards and nothing but cards

Cost

£22 from www.mikedanatasmagicstudio.co.uk

Look in the books section for a review.

Difficulty
(1=easy to do, 2=No sleights, but not so easy, 3=Some sleights used,
4=Advanced sleights used, 5=Suitable for experienced magicians only)

Nothing more difficult than a 2

Review

The Card College series has been around for years and for some is considered the Bible of card magic. This new 'Light' version is a selection of card tricks that have been bought together from the larger volumes and which are aimed at the novice to intermediate level cardie. What has been brought together and compiled in this volume has then gone through a review and rewriting process to bring things bang up to date.

The 'light' book makes a point of there being no sleights required to perform any of the selected card tricks. No DL's, no passes, no palms etc.

Despite this, there are some very strong card effects that are very nicely explained and often illustrated through detailed drawings rather than photographs (which to be honest I prefer). You not only learn some good and strong card tricks but some important and overlooked card principles such as the use of key cards, card counting, stacking a deck etc.

Overall, this is a very nice book indeed that is well laid out, nicely printed and well bound. It is a quality production in every respect and is an easy read, irrespective of your age. I've so far only managed to flick through the book in a few hours having just read the effects, staging and tips sections and will study many of the actual workings in the coming days and weeks.

The time that I have spent with this book has so far been very enjoyable.

Overall

9/10

This book has received a number of very good reviews that have given nothing but praise and it's easy to see why.

I am reminded of a post from the past few days where the member asked for some recommendations after reading Royal Road. I think that this book would make a perfect companion to RRTCM and is a natural progression.

Once studied and learnt, there is enogh quality material within these pages to perform an impressive and professional routine.

Highly recommended.

I have been thinking of this for a while, but I am still plugging away with T A Walters tomb.

Is the book a pick me up or a full read through type ?

Thanx

It can be either / or.

As stated, I've thumbed through and have got a good description from the text of each trick which would enable me to just go for the ones that interest me.

With the routines requiring no sleights, you don't have chapter and verse on how to do a DL, specails shuffles and other card sleights and this is where the RRTCM comes in and makes this a good buy as there is no repetativeness.

I also have the series for these. I think that everything is well explained, the author took his time to put everything together in that matter, it is one of my favorite magic books.

I give it 9/10 - I'm not so happy about some personal comments of his.

Kresnier wrote:I also have the series for these. I think that everything is well explained, the author took his time to put everything together in that matter, it is one of my favorite magic books.

I give it 9/10 - I'm not so happy about some personal comments of his.

what are the comments ?

He criticizes some magicians about their techniques.

I've been reading this book for a while (as well as RRTCM and Close Up Card Magic) and this is a great volume for sleightless card magic. They are all really remarkably good and can stun people, including magicians. He also includes a routine progression, whereby you can move from one trick to another seamlessly.

"Fingertip Sensitivity" has fooled everyone I've shown it to, "Card Caper" is a sweet and delightfully deceitful trick too.

I can't recommend this enough.

I purchased this book a couple of years ago and was delighted with the materials in it. It is expensive--even in the U.S. it's $35.00 from amazon.com. However, if you enjoy (endure?) reading ebooks you can get it from http://www.lybrary.com/card-college-light-p-452.html for only $26.00.

The original poster gave this a rating which suggested no sleights were required. I thought this was an error, so I pulled it out again.

I was wrong! Indeed the only reference I could find was in Royal Flush where he suggested a false shuffle before starting and a Charlier cut while performing would add to the mystery. However, they are not required.

I see that he has now produced a new book, Card College Lighter, which is priced at $35.00

Nice review, dat. Anyone who is interested in this book should also consider another similar book, Scarne on Card Tricks. It is great value-for-money and probably contains five times the number of effects, a good number of which are very good. Both these books should keep any sleightless card worker busy for a long while.

I've also recently bought Card College Lighter but haven't got around to starting it yet.

It's a continuation of the light volume with more self workers and it looks just as good.

I bought Card College Light for myself as a Christmas present, and can add my voice to the praise.

It's particularly suitable for me, as I'm NOT a cardie and don't want to put in the heavy time and practice needed to learn lots of sleights, but I do want a few nice card tricks under my belt. CCL is full of lovely tricks that are a cut above "Uncle Bob at the family gathering" in effect, but not necessarily in difficulty.

The book is organised into routines, so you can learn a whole routine in one go, or just lift out a trick here and a trick there to suit yourself.

Thanks for the review. You have convinced me to buy the book. I am really interested in card tricks, but I am not to good at sleights yet. So I am looking forward to this book.

So, whats the 'lighter' book like ?

Similar to the plain 'light' book with a different set of routines.

That's it really.

What's the betting that ther will be a third book called 'even lighter'?

Lightest, surely?