The Royal Road to Card Magic

As a beginner magician, I could not be happier that I have found this book. When one first begins his journey into prestidigitation, it is normal to be completely overwhelmed with the mass of sources that claim to teach you the magic you need. The latest culprit of this are the videos that make the promise of mastery of a particular trick within X minutes of watching. RRTCM takes this premise, and completely negates it, despite having been written much prior to the thought of such an idea. Hugard & Braue dispense of the notion that a good magician is one who knows a thousand tricks, for a thousand tricks equate none if you cannot perform them correctly. Each chapter introduces a feature of card handling, whether it be shuffles (overhand, riffle, hindu), flourishes, passes, glimpses, etc. Then, at the end of the chapter, the authors provide a handful of tricks that are performed due to that certain sleight you just learned. The authors instruct you to read the book in order, making sure not to rush ahead, almost as if you were studying for a college class. If you take this approach, it will seem dull at first, but it will make you a better magician, I promise you. To sum it all up, there is a reason this is called the Bible of Card Magic. Whether you're new to the field of card magic, or a seasoned veteran, this book should be the first in your library.

Classical work. You progress from the very basics through advanced techniques. Explanations and images work well together to ensure proper form and technique

Highly recommend. The number one go to book for learning card magic technique. If followed in order, one will have enough material to buld an impressive routine at the end of the book, though Each section teaches technique then tricks with those learned techniques to apply and lock that learned technique in to memory for future tricks. There's a reason this book is the number one mentioned book for learning card magic. The material within its pages will do one well as you progress. The key with this book as well as any other is Practice. But even though this was written in the 50's it is still THE BEST starting point to learn. Get this book, you will not regret it.

I am going to start this review explaining why I only gave it 4 stars. The Kindle edition was full of typos which made it difficult (and in one case impossible) to learn the tricks. Otherwise it is a great book which will give you a great grasp on beginner techniques and tricks which are fun to learn and perform. I got a lot out of reading it and am now ready to get some more intermediate skills. I recommend that use youtube to get examples of any trick or technique you can't quite follow with the in book descriptions. I did, then I reread the trick and it made perfect sense. very helpful.

For learning card magic, this book is simply the best. I've studied it for about 40 years. All the necessary sleights for card magic are explained. (False deals excluded). The tricks that are explained are very good. If you can't learn to entertain an audience with card magic with the material from this book, try another hobby.

If you run a magic club at school or anything like that this is a good book to teach from. It teaches a move, and then a trick with that move. then another move, and a trick with that, and a trick win both. It’s really a good way to learn card magic.

This book is awesome! It teaches you so many great card tricks and flourishes, and although it has examples of things to say and how to go about performing tricks, it encourages you to make up your own tricks as well as routines and dialogue. Also the price is very reasonable, making this book a very valuable asset when learning how to do card magic!

The information presented in "The Royal Road to Card Magic" is very good, and, if followed as intended, should provide an excellent set of skills necessary for effective performance of card magic. The writing style is dated, however, which makes the book less enjoyable to read than you may wish. Worse, though, is the poor conversion to a digital book. Often words are misspelled, such as the frequently-occurring "fight hand" instead of "right hand." There are several places in the book where a sentence, paragraph or portion of a paragraph is out of sequence on a page, so it takes some careful reading and deductive reasoning to determine what the authors actually wrote. This can get very frustrating when you are trying to understand a complex series of instructions which have been jumbled in the digitization process. Does no one edit or proof-read these digital books before they are published?

I've dabbled in Magic when I was a child. This was always one of the most recommended books. Thanks to time and the internet, I finally have my own copy. I have read through this and may or may not learn a few tricks from this because most of the stuff in here is familiar to me, but this is a must have book. If you are at the stage where you are collecting Magic books and spending all your free time reading them, you must have already come across the name of this book. Do not be surprised if you see phrases like "...as taught in The Royal Road to Card Magic.." when reading your magic magazines and books. After reaching a certain level of proficiency, it is assumed that you have read some of the classics and have them on your book shelf. This book is one of them. Written in 1948, this book will make you 'the person who does some pretty cool card tricks'. If you invest time and effort to practice the slights taught, you will be getting crooked looks from your friends, wondering what demonry is enabling you, in no time. After the slights are worked on, you will notice that you will start being able to tell how most card tricks are done when they are performed. Over the years since, there is a deluge of great books on magic and you may find a more expensive and more detailed modern book than this, but know that the great magicians of today have read this book and many more greats will continue to be inspired by it. Just buy it if you have the inclination and option to. You cannot be a magic enthusiast and not own this.

カードマジック事典には「名著といわれるが、現代のカードマジックを知ることは出来ない」と紹介されています。ですが、それでこの本を敬遠するには及びません。確かにカードマジック事典そのものは名著ですが、「技法→解説」というスタイルではない、体系的な本です。本気でカードマジックをやりたい人が、テクニックを一つずつ一からじっくり学び、そしてそれを応用したマジックをして次に進んでいきたいと思い立った場合、カードマジック事典では少々面倒なことがあります（最初にいきなり技法を全部覚えなくてはいけない）。 この Royal Road to Card Magic は、確かに古典的な作品しか紹介されていないかもしれません。ですが、どのトリックも十分通用するものです。むしろ、現代のカードマジックを知るにしても、これらのトリックやそれに使われている技法を知らなければまったく歯が立ちません。「古いものはダメだ」思考では、何時まで立っても上達しません。 この本は英語です。ですが、いちいち翻訳してでも読むべき価値のある技法やマジックがふんだんに掲載されており、特筆すべきは、前述したように「技法→マジック解説」となっているという点です。ですので、すでにカードマジックをやって長いという方には向かないかもしれません。とはいえ、初心者が学んで演じても、充分に相手を驚かせることのできるマジックが解説されています。難易度も次第に難しくなっていくので、「あれもこれも」と焦る必要がありません。 新刊書を手当たり次第に買うより、この本をみっちり習得してください。必ず力になります。

Great content, wtf cover. I mean seriously the cover looks like a thumbnail stretched to cover an entire book. Like, from amazon you can't tell, but when you get the book it's like the image is made of enormous pixels. Like, how do you screw it up that bad? The picture is easily reproducible, just take a picture like that with an ace in your sleeve on like any modern phone camera and it would be 100x better. The book itself is great, full of awesome info for card hucksters like myself, and the cover doesn't matter, which is why still 5 stars, but seriously how did they manage to make it that ugly? The pictures inside the book are all fine.

Kargo ve firma gayet sorunsuz. Ancak ürün özelinde kitabın baskısından mıdır anlayamadım sayfaları çok kalitesiz bir kağıt gibi duruyor. Kapağı da görselden farklı geldi.

Uno dei primi che ho letto, in parallelo con Scarne on card Tricks, e personalmente lo reputo il migliore libro per avvicinarsi (e non solo) alla magia con le carte da gioco. È un libro scritto da Frederick Braue californiano e Jean Hugard australiano che viveva a New York nel 1940, i due autori hanno scritto questo libro collaborando via posta, cosa incredibile se si pensa alla velocità delle informazioni di adesso. Braue era un giornalista e prestigiatore semi professionista, appassionato di Cartomagia, a lui si devono delle utility move molto importanti ed usate, come le Braue Reversal e Braue Addition. Jean Hugard era un prestigiatore professionista che dall’Australia si era spostato negli Stati Uniti. Ha scritto più di 30 libri di magia, alcuni a nome suo, alcuni come ghost writer (Mental Magic by Al Baker, Effective Card Magic by Bill Simon, The Fine Art of Magic by George Kaplan), e libri a suo nome: Mental Magic with Cards, Encyclopedia of Card Tricks, Expert Card Technique con Braue ed appunto Royal Road to Card Magic. Il titolo Royal Road to Card Magic tradotto letteralmente dall’inglese vorrebbe dire “La Via Maestra per la Cartomagia” e ben spiega il senso e lo scopo di questo libro, avvicinare il lettore alla Cartomagia non per scorciatoie o vie esoteriche e poco battute, ma di farlo entrare dalla porta principale in un mondo affascinante e ricco di sorprese, un vero testo di studio, strutturato come un corso con lezioni di difficoltà crescente, da cui ha tratto ispirazione Roberto Giobbi per la serie Card College. Non voglio entrare nel dettaglio dei contenuti, ma si trova davvero di tutto: overhand shuffle, miscuglio nel cavo della mano, miscuglio riffle all’americana, glimpse, carta chiave, impalmaggio, falsi tagli, falsi miscugli, etc… Se volete vedere l’indice completo del libro lo trovate qui Jean Hugard & Frederick Braue – The Royal Road to Card Magic TOC Contents Per ogni lezione/tecnica c’è prima la spiegazione teorica della tecnica ed alla fine del capitolo si trovano uno o più effetti che utilizzano la tecnica appena studiata. Una parte molto interessante è la routine per impratichirsi con l’overhand shuffle, una serie di controlli da eseguire in sequenza: carta portata in fondo e poi in cima, poi seconda dal fondo e poi in cima, etc.… come un kata nelle arti marziali. Ve lo do come consiglio, prendete 3 o 4 sleight o destrezze e mettetele in forma di routine di allenamento, proprio come un kata. Alcune tecniche sono un po’ datate, ma conoscerle permette di capire l’evoluzione della magia con le carte, tenete sempre a mente che è un libro del 1948, e nel giro di 70 anni i gusti del pubblico e la sua percezione della Magia sono cambiati moltissimo. Stesso discorso per gli effetti descritti, molti classici, sono comunque da adattare ad una presentazione più attuale, anche se funzionano benissimo se eseguiti alla lettera. Un elenco dei miei giochi preferiti: A Poker Player’s Picnic, il modo più semplice per produrre gli assi, Matthew Dowden lo fa con 3 spettatori ed è molto forte. Mirror of the Mind, la versione di Giobbi nel Card College ne amplifica l’effetto Design for Laughter e Circus Card Trick, i due sucker trick più belli. Gray’s Spelling Trick la madre di tutti gli effetti di compitazione. Do as I Do, qualcosa da aggiungere? provate a farlo con due mazzi sigillati! The Three Piles, dove viene spiegato il concetto di remote key card Card in the Pocket e Ambitious Card, chi non li ha in repertorio? Pulse Trick, variazione mentale di un ritrovamento con carta chiave. Insidious Dr. Fu Liu Tu, il mio preferito, lo faccio con un Joker Guarantee. Questo libro, ha anche una versione in italiano “La Strada Maestra alla Cartomagia” edito da Mondo Troll, per quello che ho letto la traduzione non è chiarissima ed in ogni caso consiglio sempre la versione inglese, che piaccia o meno l’inglese è molto importante nello studio della Magia. Sul mercato di trovano anche due DVD interessanti che seguono passo passo il libro, entrambi dal titolo The Royal Road to Card Magic, uno fatto da Paul Wilson (pubblicato dalla L&L), molto tecnico ma poco coinvolgente, l’altro, di Rudy Hunter (della Magic Makers), invece meno tecnico ma più divertente da seguire. Molto consigliato è lo studio del libro accompagnato da uno di questi due video, per aiutarsi con le immagini dove il testo in inglese sia troppo complesso da seguire. È un libro che non può e non deve mancare nelle librerie di chi studia Magia ed in particolar modo Cartomagia.