Card College on DVD

Roberto Giobbi's remarkable Card College books have become the groundbreaking course in the subject - an analysis of the art, science, technique and philosophy of card magic. Card College has changed the way a generation of magicians have learned card magic, and changed the way they think about it.

In this highly anticipated new video project, Roberto's Card College has been brought to a four DVD set, with nearly eight hours of material. Personal Instruction combines Roberto's lessons with his performances, demonstrations and explanations. Here you have a chance to learn directly from Roberto. He explains the essential moves, the subtle touches, and gives amazing examples that will allow you to add these techniques to your repertoire.

As one of magic's great teachers, Roberto will serve as an inspiration in your work. These four discs are unlike any DVDs you've ever seen, professionally photographed and edited to efficiently demonstrate card techniques, with clear close-ups and reverse shots, as well as expert analysis of every move. There are fundamental lessons for the beginner, and expert approaches for experienced magicians. Best of all, here's a chance to meet Roberto, watch his presentations and benefit from his personal instruction.

On this four disc set, you'll learn basic techniques like squaring, cuts, grips, dealing, breaks, spreads, shuffles, false cuts, card controls, forces, glide, glimpses, key card handlings, double lifts and flourishes, the Hindu shuffle, and special techniques like thumb count, buckle, palm, spread count, top change, crimp, reverse, the classic force.... And much more. In the Card College tradition, Roberto teaches magic immediately, with astonishing routines, allowing you to see the sleights in action and put them to use in these effects.

Card College 1 begins with fundamental techniques, and includes the Overhand Shuffle, False Cuts, Card Controls, Forces, the Riffle Shuffle, Transfer Cuts, the Glide, the Glimpse, Key Cards, the Double Lift and Flourishes. Roberto discusses each sleight in detail, while you watch clear close ups of his hands, finger positions, and grips. Then sit back while Roberto entertains you with a trick or two that includes the move you've just learned. These tricks will soon become standards in your repertoire, including Belchou Aces Revisited, The Question Is?, Further Than That and Beyond, Impossible! Finally, Roberto explains each trick, with special emphasis on the move and finely tuned details that he's learned in the course of hundreds of performances.

As with Roberto's classic volumes, Card College 2 continues with more advanced sleights and moves. Now you'll learn Auxiliary Sleights, the Hindu Shuffle, the Overhand Shuffle II, the Force II, the Palm, the Spread Cull, False Counts, the Crimp, and the Reverse. Each sleight is broken down into its essential elements. Roberto carefully demonstrates the move, each one fully illustrated through close up shots of his hands. Roberto then includes a practical demonstration of the sleights as they appear in some of his favorite tricks. These include X Marks the Spot, The Magic Phone Number, Time Machine, Twisting the Aces, the Lucky Coin and the Psychic Stop Trick; soon they'll be among your favorites too! Each section concludes with Roberto's breakdown of the performance, as he carefully shows how to use the sleight, and draws attention to the tips and details that come from years of experience.

Roberto Giobbi is famed as the author of the supremely excellent Card College series of books, and deservedly so. They are the finest course in card magic extant and simply fabulous. His other contributions to the art are turning out to be equally impressive, Mr. Giobbi has an excellent mind for keeping track of all the great developments in card magic, and elsewhere it seems, and organizing them into a gestalt that is beautiful to behold.

Recently, he has been doing an excellent workshop on the Professor, Dai Vernon, which is a must see, if you have the opportunity, and there are also excellent notes available documenting much of the content he discusses during the workshop. Further, he has been supplementing the Card College series with some video companions to the work which are very well produced and wonderful (hopefully the series will continue!), as well as the Card College Light trilogy that presents self working card effects in the same thorough detail as the sleight of hand books.