I purchased rct by marlo several months ago, and just began looking into it now. the 500 page book intimidated me, but when I finally picked it up I realized that there was some good stuff in it...then 100 pages later I was bored out of my mind

normally, I have no problem reading a magic book; in fact, I look forward to it...this is the first book that I have come across that I kind of look forward to putting down...maybe I am just getting frustrated due to reading so many sleights that need perfect finger placement, but I am starting to think the book is a little useless.

while learning the mechanics of a side steal is very important, learning the mechanics of 40 different types of a side steal seems a little ridiculous...

I don't wanna put this book down, because if I do, I will feel like a quitter, but I also feel as though I am wasting my time at certain points

what do you guys think???

I have not read RCT. I do have some of the individual books and have read them.

From a learning standpoint. If you are bored with the material, you are not going to put your best effort into mastering the material. Put the book down for a couple of months and then come back to it. You may find your perspective has changed. If you don't want to put it down, then skip ahead to a different subject and come back to this chapter later.

The collected RCT, like Modern Coin Magic, was not intended to be read straight through. It is a reference for those looking to perfect a specific technique.

Van

This is the first time I have heard any bad comments about RCT. It is without a doubt a true classic in magic and there is a wealth of information between those two covers. It is a collection of different Marlo manuscripts and IMO the best book available on card magic in history. If I could choose I card book to have forever, it would be RCT.

The reason why you are getting so frustrated is because there are so many techniques that you do not know which one to choose. Of course you should choose the one that best suits you and obviously you will not use even half the sleights in the book but it does give you a broader option. Remember, this is a very specialized and indepth book on card magic so you can expect difficulties. Give the book another look through and try to grasp and appreciate the amount of information in it in comparison to other books on card magic. Maybe then you will learn to love the book.

Hope this helps

Fayaad

Here's the thing. When marlo thought up of a sleight and it was new, He puts every known variation known to man into the book with it. This way you can't take credit for any of the varations either. This makes a big problem. You have to dig through all the crap and not as good variations to get to the good one.

Thats one thing I don't like about marlo's stuff.

But Marlo's stuff is great if you just read the general application of the sleight, and use it that way. No need to read through all the variations unless you are really interested in that sleight.

Tony C.

I bought Revolutionary Card Technique for one reason...To learn to second deal.
What I think is an important question is it worth the Time, Effort and Money?

TIME:
As previously mentioned in the above post, it does certainly take a lot of time to search through the relevant chapter to find something suitable to you. depending on how much time you have to spare etc. this can be impractacle. Also there is no derfinative method mentioned, so if you want to find the best, you are going to have to try out everything to see what feels right...After all if you skipp a couple of methods, how do you know that that method was not the one for you?

EFFORT:
This is similar to the previous topic, it take a lot of effort and bother to try out all of the possible methods, when first learning the second deal I found that the initial learning curve was steep but it eased off...But if you have to learn all of the techniques...Quite a bit of bother.

MONEY:
Well for the money you get a lot...But a lot of S**t as well! Again as previously mentioned, every variation under the sun is detailed here, so there are a lot of things which will not be practacle, or easy to understand.

In personal opinion I think that it is worth getting. I set out to learn the second deal from this book, but now also perform a floor less Faro Shuffle, as well as having a good refference to control methods, steals and palms. I think that this book is a good long term investment...You will not reap the benefits immediatly, but as you improve and reach a certain skill level, more doors will open for you, and you will be able to perform more of the techniques and tricks detailed here.
owen

I also recently purchased this book and although some of the material is above where my skill level is now, I can see myself looking back at it for years to come!

You simply won't be dissapointed with the quality of his work...