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The Expert at the Card Table: The Classic Treatise on Card Manipulation

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Re: The Expert at the Card Table: The Classic Treatise on Card Manipulation

#11

Post by britknight »

diiq wrote: post #10
spinchange wrote: post #8

Erdnase is like the Genesis of the card magic canon. While it has an important & worthwhile place on any cardworker's bookshelf (Dai Vernon basically considered it the bible), there are some newer & more modern treatises a little more accessible in terms of language, descriptions, illustration, and just overall instruction. The multi-volume Card College series by Roberto Giobbi comes to mind.

Yeah, Erdnase is the last thing I'd recommend to someone who wants to learn card work -- that is, I'd recommend it, but after all my other recommendations :) Erdnase was revolutionary as a catalog of slights and subtleties that existed -- but if you want to learn to perform them, all you'll get from Erdnase is frustration.

What would you suggest?

Re: The Expert at the Card Table: The Classic Treatise on Card Manipulation

#13

Post by dsrguru »

britknight wrote: post #11
diiq wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, Erdnase is the last thing I'd recommend to someone who wants to learn card work -- that is, I'd recommend it, but after all my other recommendations :) Erdnase was revolutionary as a catalog of slights and subtleties that existed -- but if you want to learn to perform them, all you'll get from Erdnase is frustration.

What would you suggest?

Card College by Roberto Giobbi is pricey but provides excellent instruction. If you don't mind reading older, more formal language (though not as old as Erdnase!), The Royal Road to Card Magic by Hugard and Braue, and its sequel Expert Card Technique, cover more material than Giobbi at a fraction of the cost, albeit with slightly less attention to the subtleties of finger position.

Re: The Expert at the Card Table: The Classic Treatise on Card Manipulation

#14

Post by scoot »

britknight wrote: post #11
diiq wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, Erdnase is the last thing I'd recommend to someone who wants to learn card work -- that is, I'd recommend it, but after all my other recommendations :) Erdnase was revolutionary as a catalog of slights and subtleties that existed -- but if you want to learn to perform them, all you'll get from Erdnase is frustration.

What would you suggest?

The Annotated Erdnase? http://www.mcmagicwords.com/books_erdnase.html

Re: The Expert at the Card Table: The Classic Treatise on Card Manipulation

#15

Post by spinchange »

dsrguru wrote: post #13
britknight wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would you suggest?

Card College by Roberto Giobbi is pricey but provides excellent instruction. If you don't mind reading older, more formal language (though not as old as Erdnase!), The Royal Road to Card Magic by Hugard and Braue, and its sequel Expert Card Technique , cover more material than Giobbi at a fraction of the cost, albeit with slightly less attention to the subtleties of finger position.

Hugard and Braue are, again, totally canonical. (Almost sort of analogous to Thompson & Ritchie's published works on C/Unix, but for cards...sort of ;) They're cheap and easy to come by for I do think for a serious beginner right now, though, Giobbi is probably more appropriate. I would argue he offers considerably more detail on subtleties of handling and overall performance and in more accessible language which is important. It's kind of like you're getting the best of Erdnase, Hugard, Braue and so many of the greats who came after them in the 20th century distilled down to best practices with Giobbi's course. There's nothing wrong with taking it slow either. You don't have to get all the volumes at once. In fact, it would be better to spend a long time mastering each before buying and moving on to the next.

Re: The Expert at the Card Table: The Classic Treatise on Card Manipulation

#16

Post by markgarity »

The Expert at the Card table is a classic, but pretty advanced for someone just getting started with card handling.

For anyone looking to learn more, I would strongly recommend some of the video tutorials available at http://www.theory11.com/tricks (some are free, many are cheap, and majority can be streamed online)

Specifically look for anything you can find by Jason England. That man is a modern master of card sleights if their ever was one, and over the years he has created some great walkthroughs for techniques from the Faro Shuffle to Palming to Dice Switching.

(Full disclosure, I have done some work for this site, but it's legitimately one of the greatest resources for learning more about this topic that I know of)

Re: The Expert at the Card Table: The Classic Treatise on Card Manipulation

#18

Post by mistermann »

kqr2 wrote: post #2

For a fascinating look at one of the masters of card manipulation, see Secrets of the Magus : http://rickyjay.com/NewYorker_RickyJay.pdf There was also a recent documentary on Ricky Jay (available on Netflix) called Deceptive Practice : http://www.rickyjaymovie.com/

I also love Ricky Jay after seeing a video, but was disappointed when searching for others that it seems that, unless I'm missing something, he's been doing the same 5 to 10 tricks his entire career. Wish he had more variety (available online I mean, he's certainly capable I'm sure.)

Re: The Expert at the Card Table: The Classic Treatise on Card Manipulation

#19

Post by diiq »

britknight wrote: post #11
diiq wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, Erdnase is the last thing I'd recommend to someone who wants to learn card work -- that is, I'd recommend it, but after all my other recommendations :) Erdnase was revolutionary as a catalog of slights and subtleties that existed -- but if you want to learn to perform them, all you'll get from Erdnase is frustration.

What would you suggest?

Yes, yes -- start with The Royal Road. It's a fantastic place to start. Graduate to Card College if you can afford it; otherwise, Paul le Paul, and then dive in deep with Buckley's Card Control. If you're still hungry after that, you and Erdnase deserve each other.

Re: The Expert at the Card Table: The Classic Treatise on Card Manipulation

#20

Post by lostcolony »

britknight wrote: post #11
diiq wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, Erdnase is the last thing I'd recommend to someone who wants to learn card work -- that is, I'd recommend it, but after all my other recommendations :) Erdnase was revolutionary as a catalog of slights and subtleties that existed -- but if you want to learn to perform them, all you'll get from Erdnase is frustration.

What would you suggest?

As a note, too, R. Paul Wilson did a rather decent DVD series of The Royal Road to Card Magic, which you can get for ~$60. The book is a useful reference, but actually -seeing- the sleights can be amazingly useful.

And as others have mentioned, if you do go to Erdnase (or get sufficiently hooked to just want a copy), there is both the Annotated Erdnase by Darwin Ortiz (which is pretty readily available), as well as Dai Vernon's Revelation book (not to be confused with the 'Revelations' series of DVDs), his own annotations on Erdnase ( http://www.mcmagicwords.com/books_revelation.html ).

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