Magic Book Review, Magic News, Magic of Australia, Magic of India

Roberto Giobbi’s Five Volumes of Great Stuff!

Magic Student Resting on Card College Books

We were  first exposed to Roberto Giobbi’s Card College back when we ran a small magic business.

We considered carrying the entire series for sale but even at wholesale, the investment was more than we could swing.

Since we were working on a cash-only basis, we could not afford having expensive inventory on hand.

We bought three of copies of Card College Volume One and sold every one within five days.

The quick sale and high demand actually caused us to think.

We decided to read Card College Volume One.  That mean we had to take it off the shelf and buy it.  We are cheap but apparently more curious than cheap.

We were amazed by Mr. Giobbi’s attention to detail and his innovative epistemological approach.  His method of teaching was so effective that we even learned from the book.  Our ability to learn totally new sleights ended at around 18 years of age.

(Sure, maybe you kept learning new knuckle-busting moves throughout life, but we didn’t.  Agreed, that makes us terrible and not worthy of writing a Magic News Site so sue us).

Roberto Giobbi’s approach is perfect for magicians like us who want to learn but need help.

He introduces the subject, shows the sleight en toto, then breaks it into component parts.  After you have an idea of how to move your fingers, he entices you with practical and effective magic based on the sleight.  In this way, the approach is reminiscent of The Royal Road to Card Magic.

Actually, the Card College series is better than The Royal Road text in both instruction and effects.

If reading is not your thing, and that’s okay but we don’t know how you got to this point in the review, you need to check out our friends over at Lybrary.com.

Chris Wasshuber has done a great service for magicians by putting Card College Volume One and Card College Volume Two on CD-ROM. The digital versions still have the great text but also come with outstanding mini videos demonstrating the methods taught.

Visit Lybrary.com for a sample, a tasting, of the digital version of Card College here.

There is no better way to learn from the series, in our humble opinion.

Lybrary.com will send you either volume or both for a special package price.

Plus, because the digital versions were created from the original German edition, you get what Lybrary.com calls “the author’s cut.”

In fact, there are portions on Card College Volume One in CD-ROM format that do not appear in the English book version.

Check it out here.

The series covers the essentials and more.

Volume One:

The Overhand Shuffle, False Cuts, the Riffle Shuffle, Card Controls, Forces, the Glide, the Double Lift, Flourishes, the Top Change and the Spread Cull

Volume Two:

Palming, Card Reverses, the Glimpse, the Pass, the Crimp, False Counts, Advanced Double-lift Techniques and an eye-opening major chapter on Misdirection, Psychology, Routining and Presentation.

Volume Three:

Breaks, Steps and Jogs, Advanced Double Lifts, Card Controls, Multiple Shifts, the Side Steal, Diagonal Palm Shift, Color Changes, the K.M. Move, the Biddle Steal and the Faro Shuffle.

Volume Four:

Forcing Techniques, Card; Packet Reversals, Advanced Passes, Culling & Stacking, Half Passes, Tilt, Sandwich Techniques, More Flourishes, Lapping, Card and Packet Switches, Estimation, Deck Switches, False Deals, Structural Theory.

Volume Five:

Making Secret Setups, False Shuffles, Obtaining Duplicate Signatures, Quick Tricks, Openers and Routines with the Aces, Favorite Effects, Gambling Demonstrations, Mental Mysteries.

Related Posts

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.