Card College Light
Roberto Giobbi
Hermetic Press
(Based on 1 review)
From the author of Card College, the world's most acclaimed course on sleight-of-hand card magic, comes Card College Light, Roberto Giobbi's first text focused entirely on professional caliber card tricks requiring no manipulative skill.
For whom is this book intended?
It is for beginners, of course - but by no means in total. This book is intended for everyone who has always wanted to perform card tricks, but who didn't have the time necessary to learn complex routines, or the years necessary to master difficult techniques. So, yes, this book is certainly meant for beginners.
However, it is also directed at those who are already proficient in the craft. Card College Light is in a class apart from other books that focus on sleightless card tricks. When it comes to artistic considerations - interpretation, staging, communication and psychology - other books seldom even recognize such concepts. Card College Light strives to remain as simple as possible, yet to identify concepts and to open doors that put sleightless tricks into the context of artistic and utterly baffling card magic. Although other books consider the same type of material, their approaches to it are quite different from Giobbi's.
Most of the tricks taught are from Mr. Giobbi's active professional repertoire, with which he baffles the public and magicians, too. Every trick can be done with any deck of cards of average quality, and many can be done under all performance conditions, with a borrowed deck and no preparation. With these sleightless tricks, you can easily acquire a reputation as a magician who can really make magic.
When It Comes to Great Card Magic There Is More to the Secret Than Just the Secret!
Countless books on card magic promise tricks that "require no skill" and are "easy to do" or "self-working". They expose the method behind the tricks, but they fail to explain how the tricks are made genuinely amazing. Card tricks that allow the fingers to remain idle require that their methods be cunningly protected through presentation and psychology, which in turn amplify the feeling of real magic. Without these things, all you are left with are mere puzzles.
Giobbi brings his widely respected talents as both teacher and full-time performer to bear on tricks he has selected from time-tested classics and little-known modern miracles by world masters, taught with a thoroughness that includes psychology, presentations, scripts and invaluable performance tips.
21 Tricks - 7 full routines!
Giobbi has also organized these tricks into powerful routines, which teach the reader how organization and combination can be used to make good tricks even more inextricably baffling. These lessons serve not only the beginner, but also the advanced card-magician who wishes from time to time to include a trick wherein the audience can stare relentlessly at the fingers without discovering a thing.
Pages 170 - Hardcover
Reviews
(Top ▲)
I really like this book, and the one that follows ("Card College Lighter"). This reminds me of the "Scarne on Card Tricks" book that got me started in card magic many years ago. Each of these effects can be performed with no sleight of hand, but they make it appear you are working miracles. I love effects like this that allow you concentrate on presentation and not worry so much about that pass or slip cut you've got to execute perfectly with everyone watching your hands.
The good thing about this book is that the effects are already grouped into threes. This gives you (if you so choose) a ready-made routine with an opener, middle, and closer. They flow seamlessly between each other. But you can also choose to take any of them as a standalone effect and create your own routine. Some will require a bit of set-up (especially if they are part of a previous routine that would have naturally done the set up for you, like revealing the four aces or something similar) but many are ready to go when you are.
Not every effect is a gem, but there are so many good ones you can't complain. The book is professionally done, and Giobbi does a great job of explaining how to create your own routines and what to look for in them. This book isn't just for beginners, though they will probably benefit the most from it.
The good thing about this book is that the effects are already grouped into threes. This gives you (if you so choose) a ready-made routine with an opener, middle, and closer. They flow seamlessly between each other. But you can also choose to take any of them as a standalone effect and create your own routine. Some will require a bit of set-up (especially if they are part of a previous routine that would have naturally done the set up for you, like revealing the four aces or something similar) but many are ready to go when you are.
Not every effect is a gem, but there are so many good ones you can't complain. The book is professionally done, and Giobbi does a great job of explaining how to create your own routines and what to look for in them. This book isn't just for beginners, though they will probably benefit the most from it.