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bmat wrote:Wait a sec, hold the phone, back the truck up. Expert Card Technique as a must purchase for somebody starting out in magic? I wouldn't recommend it. I know everybody swears by it, and maybe after a few years experience it is a possible, although not necessary purchase. That book will turn beginers off of magic.

I agree completely. I'd rather buy the Hugard encyclopaedia of card tricks, given my time again.

I keep mentioning this book, but I'll do it again; it was the standard all-round magic textbook until Mark Wilson came along.

Hugard - Modern Magic Manual (reprinted by Dover as "Hugard's Magic Manual")

Barry

I think Card College superceeds RRCM in just about every concievable manner.

I really don't understand how people can recommend it over Card College. The book is 70 years old, and firmly rooted in the pass-palm era of card magic. It doesn't even cover the Elmsley count.

rest assured it would of covered the elmsley if it had been invented at the time of publication.
In an ideal world the royal road should be given the royal treatment, and have it's contents updated to cover the counts made popular by the sudden explosion of packet effects in the 1950 and 60s, and the introduction of mass produced gaffed cards

daleshrimpton wrote:In an ideal world the royal road should be given the royal treatment, and have it's contents updated to cover the counts made popular by the sudden explosion of packet effects in the 1950 and 60s, and the introduction of mass produced gaffed cards

It's been done!

It's called 'Card College'

I think that for the casual performer or beginner Royal Road is just fine, I know it's not got as much in as Card College but Royal Road will cost you £10, Card College is over £100 for the full set.

Yes, the Royal Road is outdated quite a bit now (especially a lot of the tricks, which just fail to impress) but it's cheap and still contains everything you need to know to start off well. I would never consider buying the whole card college set...

Lady of Mystery wrote:I think that for the casual performer or beginner Royal Road is just fine..

Outmoded, antiquated, and flat-out dull though it is?

Lady of Mystery wrote:...I know it's not got as much in as Card College but Royal Road will cost you £10, Card College is over £100 for the full set.

Although to be fair, you can go a long way with just Vol 1 @ £25 a pop. Anyone buying all 5 volumes in one go is making a big mistake, imho. I would recommend spending at least 1 year studying each volume.

I guess everyone likes different things, I just happened to find Royal Road brilliant and not out dated or dull in any way at all. It's got everything in there that I'm ever likely to use but then again I'm not really all that into cards.

Lady of Mystery wrote:I guess everyone likes different things, I just happened to find Royal Road brilliant and not out dated or dull in any way at all. It's got everything in there that I'm ever likely to use but then again I'm not really all that into cards.

Agreed; the elmsley count, riffle force etc can be learnt elsewhere. It's also got some nice performance tips that helped me when I started. A lot of the tricks in it are pretty rubbish, but it is a good start and I never found it dull at all.

Darwin's Encyclopedia of "TT" Magic