I'v heard a lot about how great they all are,
but which one should I get as a beginner to cardmagic?
thanx
F.

Crash Course 1 is a great video for beginners.
It also has some great tricks on it.

I agree with Ferry. Crash Course 1 was my first video instruction and I still use two of the effects in my routine, one as part and another as back-up if someone wants something impromptu. Get Double Take from Greg Wilson (a video but there is no substitute) as you're going to need to get a better double than the one Brad teaches in CC1. Kard Klub is good as well, but it's just so darn expensive and it's difficult to sell on Ebay if you don't like it as Ellusionist will knock any their products off from being resold on Ebay. Avoid Ninja anything.

I would then skip the rest of the Ellusionist stuff and go straight to Michael Ammar's Easy to Master Card Miracles and the book Royal Road to Card Magic as reference. Ammar may not be as "cool" but he presents better effects that you'll use more often and he's a better magician IMHO.

Go with Ammar and the Royal Road to card magic as Jive-Turkey explained. I've heard many complaints that Ammar's series doesn't teach the sleights in depth. But along with the Royal Road (which is like 10 bucks more) it explains every sleight you'll need to know.

Hi fengenroll,

I would like to share with you my thoughts if you are just going into card magic...

if you find that you learn faster through videos and not books,

I would think that getting daryl's volume 1 of his encyclopedia would be a great start... he tells you all about the beginner stuff on card magic, one way backs etc.... after which you can move onto the Ammar series and even pick some of daryl's volume to learn the specific stuff you want to know more about.

as for books, if you are really looking for a value for money book, then royal road to card magic is the one...

and if I were you, I would give the ellusionist videos a miss.... I have ninja 1 and I didn't like it... maybe its not my style...

but I absolutely love and benefited from daryl's and Ammar's videos...

hope that helps
eric

Fengenroll,

Are you looking specifically for sleights, for routines, for guidance with presentations, all of the above? One thing no one has mentioned yet to you is that the Ellusionist products focus quite a bit on presentation. You may or may not like the style taught, but it's important to understand.

It's not quite as simple as "Daryl is better than Ellusionist..." The Daryl and Ammar videos I have teach absolutely nothing about presentation. SO if that's of interest to you, you might find the Ellusionist videos very helpful, as I have.

I thought Ninja 2 was very good, and I think the Ellusionist Ambitious Card video is a very high-quality product. Again, I truly appreciate the focus on presentation contained in it.

Thanks for the input guys,
I was wondering mostly about sleights, not so much about routines,
I need to learn stuff like: double lift, classic pass, forces etc.

I enjoy the "new school" ascpect of the Ellusionist stuff, that's why I thought this would be something for me..
F.

That's because Ammar and Daryl understand that you need your own presentation when doing magic and won't just give you one. Learning the tricks is half the work, the other half is finding your presentation which shouldn't be hand fed to you. This is the reason I like books better, it's hard to copy presentation since there isn't one given (usually). This forces you to create your own style and to be a better performer because of it.

Fengenroll -
I am a true cyber geek. Matrix (the first one) was in my top ten favorite movies when it came out. I understand your attraction to Ellusionist, but Daryl's videos will give you MUCH more for your money. Don't get sucked into the image of Ellusionist because I'm telling you, its just a front.

What ever these people said about Ellusionist are absolutely true. When I first got into magic, I faced the same problem as you. I enquired about the videos offered by Ellusionist in many magic groups and their replied are always the same. Brad's product is inferior and overpriced as compared to product offered by other magicians.

If there is one thing that Ellusionist can offer you, it would be medium quality card handling technique. The way Brad executes his pass (especially the riffle pass) only seems magical in the eyes of an amatuer or a layman that knows nothing of card magic.

So this is a summary of the things which is likely to happen to you after a year since the purchase of your Ellusionist video.

1. realised that you have overpaid your first magic video
2. realised that the Brad's card handling is not magical because they are mediocre handling.
3. everything that the site promised about the videos are not true. Or those comments are true to a certain extent, but realised that other magic videos are able to offer more.
4. Brad likes to say things which are already known
5. the things which he said are merely empty promises(eg. claimed that only ellusionist produced the best magic video. If this is true? Then why am I advising other amatuer not to fall into their marketing traps? Why did I not continue to purchase their 'reasonably' overpriced video?)

I personally is not against Ellusionist in any way. It's just that I do not want other amatuers to experience the same fate as I do.

I hope all this great advice about avoiding ellusionist isn't falling on deaf ears.

Redstreak is right...Ellusionist is for Blainesters. Get the Roberto Giobbi's Card College Book set (5 volumes), which contains not only all the sleights you'll ever need to know, but also fantasitc tricks to go along with the sleights. Then, I'd advise getting the Michael Ammar Easy to Mater Card Miracles 6-Volume DVD set.
With this combination, you really can't go wrong.

Thanx for the input guys, and to artofmanipulation: you got it right on the spot, I was afraid I'd be disapointed with the Ellusionist purchase.
That Brad Cristian guy is a good salesman though, he makes you belive that if you buy one of his videos, you'll soon become the world champion in card magic...

But another Q, is OZ's stuff abit like this also?
I do like the guy, he seems like a good teacher, he also breaks the stupid "the older - the better" ethics...

Born to Perform worth it?
F.

I feel that The Ellusionist videos have some great instruction.

I am actually impressed....their shop doesn't have much of a selection...but what they have I actually enjoy.

In my opinion, "Born to perform" is definately a much better purchase than anything Elusionist has to offer. I'm not totally against Elusionist products, I have two of Brads videos myself, but I think you will get a lot more out of the "Born to Perform" DVD.

I also agree that you should pick up the "Card College" books, and the "Easy to Master Card Miracles" DVDs or videos.

I posted a quote from this forum in the ellusionist forum to provoke some thoughts from both sides. yes their crediting is bad, but brad has learned from this mistake and rectified it. Yes, they do sell magic in a very slick and glossy way but they are a company, they do have to make money somehow. So in defence I have picked a quote from a happy ellusionist customer and here it is:

"To generalize all ellusionist members and supporters as wannabe's and so forth is absolutely absurd. It's incredibly stereotypical and ridiculous.

Whilst sure, some people may have joined in the hope to be the next Blaine - but that's not everybody. Besides, even some people that have joined here with that attitude have grown and changed their outlook on the art of magic completely.

Since I have been here, I feel within myself that magically I have matured. I've learnt a lot from here - by that, I mean the forums - The community. The magicians on here have helped me learn a lot - not just the effects, but a whole lot more.

Some of it is hard to explain. It's not the effects... Or the presentation ideas. It's hard to explain - it's a maturity thing.

I signed up to ellusionist for several reasons. Firstly, I wanted to take my art even further. I wanted to get even further in to magic. Ellusionist made this easier for me - it meant I had more sources to learn from.

The forums here are fantastic, like I said.

I can't help but think that opinions like that are spawned by people who haven't experienced the community here properly."

Just letting everyone have their say
laters all

Ellusionist rocks and people know it. That is the reason they knock them. If there were not liked or so popular, they wouldn't even have been discussed here at all. This long post is flattery for them and for all that enjoy their fine products. There will always be haters, always have, always will, no matter how good a product is, or how great of an artist they are.

Big Dan said
"I signed up to ellusionist for several reasons. Firstly, I wanted to take my art even further. I wanted to get even further in to magic. Ellusionist made this easier for me - it meant I had more sources to learn from."

If you are a seasoned magician or a magician you would righteous call 'mature' you will know that Ellusionist is appealing only to those new to this amazing art. So are you saying you are trying to "to take my art even further" by spending more time in a forum where amatuers are. They may be very friendly, and helpful. But I believe they are trying to stop you from getting ahead, from truly maturing. Just by reading the stuff you're posting up here goes to show that you already believe that ellusionist is magic itself. By staying there, you will grow, you will mature is this art. You are wrong my friend. Want proof of how wrong you are. " I wanted to get even further in to magic" . By staying in Ellusionist= a place most appealing to amatuer magicians?

Brad corrected the crediting problem. I like the Elussionist DVD's very much.

They're new videos are credited (some have flaws, such as crediting Houdini for a certain colorchange instaed of Erdnase!), and the new ones have live street performances too.

Also got some nice slo-mo's and voice overs.

And some discussions on general magic theory - which is why I guess sometimes the sleights included in the videos might seem a little "few" as compared to other instructional vids out there.

Ellusionist is a decent place to find magic instruction but there are a LOT of books and videos out there that the amateur can benefit from, and better yet save as opposed to being an Ellusionist fanatic....

Just my 2 cents.