Look at your book shelf. When you get there, if you don’t see this book on your shelf you are no card magician. Period. This book is near perfect, even by today’s standards. It’s not as old school as The Expert at the Card Table, but yet it’s not as new school (or as expensive) as Card College. This is a book I go back to time after time, and I always pick up something new.

My favorite thing to do is to find a routine, maybe a self worker, learn it, then absolutely kill my magic buddies with it. They flip out, asking where I learned this ‘new thing’ and I tell them, “Oh it’s in this old book” and they all wonder what deep underground manuscript I have that was passed down from Vernon to me. If I really want to make them hurt, I tell them the truth, and say, “It’s in Royal Road.” Then everyone reacts again. The fact that I fooled them with a trick from a book they’ve all read gives me so much satisfaction.

My hope is that I’ve inspired them to go back to a book that they already ‘know’ and get a new perspective on their card magic. The opening essay on good card magic is still worth reading, and has enough practical knowledge and more useful theory than any Theory 11 DVD. I hope that even now, you are considering picking this back up off the shelf.

However, I know that a small percentage of you reading this do not have this book. It’s ok. I passed this up as a beginner’s book time and time again through my teens. It wasn’t until I was finally nineteen years of age that I spent the twelve bucks for my copy, and never looked back. I was rediscovering great effects like Do As I Do, and The Piano Trick while discovering new ones.

For those beginners who have not heard of the book, it begins each chapter by first breaking down a shuffle or sleight, then it teaches you tricks to do with what you have just learned. It gets slightly more advanced with each chapter, and the book does a great job of breaking it all down. There is really no excuse for not making it through the book.

Gimmicked decks, gaffed cards, and advanced flourishes are all great, but this book offers you something more. It allows you to pick up a deck, anyone’s deck, in any condition, and do what looks like real magic. Sure, magicians all know what a key card is, but laypeople don’t. Laypeople don’t care how much you’ve practiced or how many false cuts you know, they want to be entertained. If you are a magician, then you should be able to entertain them with magic.

This book show you how to do that. It also shows you how to turn card tricks into card magic, and it does so for less than ten dollars. The latest card magic DVD or packet trick isn’t even that cheap. This book is a gold mine that will reward you with seemingly endless treasures for years to come if you decide to put in the work.