Everyone into magic would have heard of this book. The Royal Road to Card Magic by Jean Hugard and Frederick Braue has been around for so many years. How many of us actually own a copy but never read it? (I know more than a GREAT handful)
Well, there is hope! SMC is conducting a very special string of sessions that will focus on dissecting the workings of the Royal Road to Card Magic!
This will be a very special group of sessions conducted that will take your card handling to another level altogether! We will be pouring through the book from chapter to chapter; we will run through every effect and sleight; we will discuss existing effects in the book and try to give it the 'SMC' touch. ;P
For those of you who don't know, RRTCM has got so many gems of wisdom in it - many of which have been 'repackaged' as new ideas by some less than scrupulous individuals and selling them off at more than the price of the book.
The Inaugural session of this herculean session kicked off at the recent SMC chalet. And already, we have rediscovered many hidden treasures. Read the review to the first session further in this thread.
Due to the special nature of this sessions, there will be certain restrictions imposed. Only 10 places available.
Conditions for attendance of this course:
1) You must be willing to commit to the sessions fully -
This is a long term commitment; you will be required to attend at least 6 of the 10 sessions and are expected to contribute in the sessions - this will ensure you get the most out of the sessions.
2) You must be a forum Contributor -
Only forum members who have been contributing to the forum are allowed to participate in these sessions. This is subject to the screening of the mods facilitating, but the general guidelines would be:
- at least attended 2 gatherings RECENTLY
- at least helped out at ONE SMC Event/Charity RECENTLY
- in good standing with the Forum
3) RRTCM - YOU MUST OWN A COPY OF THE BOOK.
As we are planning to do it like a 'classroom' (for lack of a better word), you are expected to own your own copy of this book. To avoid any debate about what is ok to teach and what is NOT ok, we figured that if EVERYONE who attended owns a hardcopy of the book, then it's open season on all the effects therein. Treat the book like your own 'textbook' of sorts - take notes down and jot ideas in there - you'll find that these sessions will be like NO OTHER EVER. You can get a copy of RRTCM from either Borders or Kino at about 20 dollars.
Sessions will begin in January 2008 and will be conducted twice a week on Friday evenings. This will accomodate the working people amongst us. We will confirm the time and venue with everyone each month.
IMPORTANT
If you haven't already done so, please drop an SMS to me at 81804044 so we have a copy of your contact number and can keep you updated as things move along.
Review of Royal Road To Card Magic (RRTCM) Session 1 - 21 Nov 07
by Jonathan Low (jlowhy)
The RRTCM Session was conducted by Shade and Adrian. 3 Chapters were covered, namely: The Glimpse, The Glide and The Riffle Shuffle. The teaching was done in a very systematic and methodical manner.
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Here's a run-through of how the teaching was carried out:
At the start of each chapter, Shade and Adrian would go through ALL the sleights taught within. Additional tips and refinements were given as well as variations of which the sleights could be applied. As the teaching was done through demonstration, there was hardly any difficulty in understanding the material taught.
Next, we were divided into 2 groups to attempt the tricks in the chapter. Given some time, we had to read through a selected trick, go through and discuss the handling within the group. Following that, we would nominate a person in the group to perform the trick for the rest. After the performance, Shade and Adrian would ask us to review the trick based in general on some of the following points:
1) How would you rate the trick upon 5?
2) Would you add this into your repertoire?
3) What do you think about the effect? (Eg. strong / weak points, etc)
They would also give their opinions on how the trick can be improved or applied in other ways by utilising the principle behind the trick as well as the strong or weak aspects of it. Shade also gave his advice on how to get into some tricks that involved a set-up and even demonstrated effects that could lead into the tricks with set-ups.
In this manner, every single detail in RRTCM was covered with no stones left unturned.
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Personally, I felt that the session was very helpful to me and would be good for magicians of all levels. For the beginner, it would be a very good introduction into magic as the effects are mostly good enough to be performed as it is. For the intermediate and advanced, it serves to strengthen and reinforce one's basic foundations and gives the opportunity to analyse and think about the construction of the effects taught in RRTCM. From there, one would be able to further derive uses for the principles and sleights taught.
After the session, I definitely felt that there was an improvement in my own card handling as well as my approach towards magic. As I started out learning magic in a more haphazard manner, I would say that my foundation is not very strong. Thus, the methodical learning approach in the session helped to fill in the spaces lacking in my foundation as well as reinforce my base.
Out of the 7 effects that were taught during the session, I can definitely see myself using at least 2 of them in my repertoire given some small modifications in handling. In fact, Shade taught an effect in RRTCM that he vastly improved on which would play very strongly not only for laymen but for magicians as well.
I cannot wait to attend the rest of the other 9 sessions. I am very sure that there will be gems waiting for me to be discovered in the book of which I can apply into my own repertoire. A big thanks to SMC for organising the course and kudos to Shade and Adrian who invested a great deal of time and effort in working out the course.