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They Say

Card College

Roberto Giobbi's acclaimed course on sleight-of-hand card magic has received the highest praise from amateur and professional magicians alike, throughout Germany, France, Spain and the USA. The idea of producing a thorough course in card magic has seldom been attempted, and those few rare efforts are dated and often difficult to obtain. What Roberto Giobbi has done 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 of a deck in the shortest possible time.

Up-to-date information on the latest 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.

It's 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. Roberto has selected only the best sleights and handlings from literally thousands of books on the subject, saving his readers countless hours of research and wasted effort spent on inferior approaches and ideas.

Card College is written both as 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.

Roberto Giobbi's Card College is now a five-volume course with over 1300 pages of easily understood instruction that starts with the fundamentals of card handling and progresses to the crafts most advanced and secret techniques-and each step of the way the reader is given astonishing card tricks, which provide practical applications for the sleights and concepts taught.

Price

£21.99 each for the first 2 volumes, £23.99 for volumes 3, 4 and 5

Difficulty Rating

1-5

These books cover everything from basic handling and dealing techniques through to the most advanced card controls and passes.

I say

I have read and worked through the first 3 volumes of this course, and I have to say it's fantastic. The descriptions and drawings are first rate, and is ideal for anyone either interested in getting into card magic, or people looking to improve their skills.

The down side, as usual, is the price. At £21.99 - £23.99 each and with it being a 5 book course it's not cheap. HOWEVER, I wouldn't imagine you'd buy more than 2 books a year, so put into that context and compared to what you can pay for individual tricks it does not look too bad.

Another thing I would say would be to look at these books as an investment into your magic career, as the principles, techniques and thinking it teaches will be with you for a lifetime. There are also a number of effects taught along the way, implementing what has been taught in the previous chapter.

Overall

Everything you could possibly need to know about sleight of hand card magic, but at a price. 8/10.

Thanks for the review!

Do the books gradually get more difficult? For example is book 1 simple cuts and shuffles, where as book five is advanced techniques.

Please check for past reviews before posting new ones.

I put up a review just 2 days ago !!

http://www.talkmagic.co.uk/ftopic17376.php

Feel free to add to reviews already in existence. This way it avoids cluttering up the forums.

I.D wrote:Please check for past reviews before posting new ones.

I put up a review just 2 days ago !!

http://www.talkmagic.co.uk/ftopic17376.php

Feel free to add to reviews already in existence. This way it avoids cluttering up the forums.

Thanks ID. I couldn't get the search function working earlier!