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Review: 10x10 (R. Paul Wilson) - a free mini-course in card magic

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EndersGame

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10X10 (R. Paul Wilson)

A quick introductory course in card magic that includes 13 good tricks - and now available free

Overview

Vanishing Inc Magic has made available for free an excellent video by magician R. Paul Wilson with over a dozen card tricks, and which doubles as an introductory course in card magic.  In their words: "We've made an amazing video from none other than R Paul Wilson available for free so everyone interested can learn card magic.  Not from some youtuber teaching badly, but from a real master."  It used to be sold for $10 [link], but they've decided to give it away for free to help people get started in card magic the right way.  As they say,"This used to be something we sold a while ago, but we strongly believe that beginners in magic need a resource that is a step up from what they can find on YouTube".

Here's how the ad copy describes it: "Paul Wilson gives a phenomenal introductory course to close up magic with cards - 10 lessons on 10 principles of card magic. 10x10 is card magic for beginners, but even the seasoned card conjuror will be pleased to sit down with Paul for an hour, discussing powerful card magic with methods that are easy to perform.  You'll learn how to shuffle and pretend to shuffle a deck of cards, secretly obtain knowledge of a selected card, palm cards off of the deck, and much more. Not only does Paul describe these fundamental sleights, he puts them straight to use by teaching you effects that you can perform as soon as you've mastered each lesson.  Join Paul, and go deeper into the rabbit hole."

Here's the official trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FgAliTAJVs



Contents

In their promotion for the video, Vanishing Inc states on their blog that "This is an 80 minute video where Paul teaches you ten card magic moves and then ten card tricks where you can apply the moves you've learned."  It's 78 minutes long to be exact, and more importantly it actually it teaches 13 different card tricks, not ten.

Basically the video is divided into 10 separate lessons, and each of them covers a main principle or sleight in card magic, which is taught together with a trick or two that employs that move.  The list isn't published anywhere online, so I compiled a complete contents listing by working through the video carefully myself.  Here's what it covers:

Lesson 1 - Presentation (Tricks: Ace Cutting, Invisible Card)
Lesson 2 - False Overhand Shuffle (Trick: Poker Player's Picnic)
Lesson 3 - Table Riffle Shuffle (Trick: Mirror of the Mind)
Lesson 4 - The Glide (Trick: Designed for Laughter)
Lesson 5 - The Glimpse (Trick: Gray's Spelling Trick)
Lesson 6 - The Key Card (Tricks: Do As I Do, The Circus Card Trick, Impossible Find)
Lesson 7 - Breaks (Trick: Ace Assembly)
Lesson 8 - Palming (Trick: Cards Across)
Lesson 9 - Double Lift (Trick: Two Up And One Down)
Lesson 10 - The Pass (Trick: Pass At Red)



Impressions

I've watched the entire video, and was reasonably impressed. In some ways it is like a miniature version of Paul Wilson's acclaimed Royal Road to Card Magic DVD set, and there is some overlap in the content.

The tricks: The video is mostly about teaching the tricks rather than the sleights.  Because there are 13 of them in all, most of the tricks are explained rather quickly, and without a huge emphasis on presentation.  Even so, the tricks covered include some terrific ones.  The majority of them can also be found in Royal Road to Card Magic, with the exception of Ace Cutting, Invisible Card, Impossible Find, Ace Assembly, and Two Up and One Down.  Tricks like Poker Player's Picnic, Designed for Laughter, and Gray's Spelling Trick are all very solid and worth learning, so the choices are generally very good.

The sleights: As Paul himself says right at the beginning, it is a very quick course, and not in depth.  There's only so much you can cover in 80 minutes after all.  In this case, the sleights don't get a huge treatment.  For example, the lesson about the double lift is mostly about the trick itself, and little attention is given to the teaching of the move; something similar can be said for the section on breaks.  On the other hand the treatment of the palm and the pass both give some really good tips and how to master these tricky sleights.  I wouldn't rely on this video alone to learn all the sleights that are covered, but it is a good review and overview. 

The video: The video itself doesn't have super high production values.  It is quite fine, but it's almost entirely a single over-the-shoulder view of Paul doing his card work.  So it's not very flashy, but it does the job, and it does show things clearly enough as you go along.  Paul Wilson is a good teacher, but he just doesn't have a lot of time to work with here given the breadth of material to be covered.  What I did find a little puzzling is the structure of the video, and why an indispensible sleight like the Double Lift would be left until the second last lesson, while the lesson on Palming precedes this.  It's also a bit of a mixed bag in that sense, since most introductory courses in card magic wouldn't bother covering an advanced move like the Pass.



Recommendation

I can't really recommend this as a course in card magic, simply because it goes over the details of the sleights far too quickly, and there's simply not enough time spent on some of them to learn them properly.  But it does give you enough of an idea of what they are about, so it is a decent introduction to everything; and you can certainly supplement the teaching here with other teaching material if you need to.  On the other hand if you already know most of these sleights, it's a great review, and you will get some solid tips along the way from a respected pro. 

But the strong part of this video lies in the tricks themselves, since these are really the focus.  Although a number of them will be familiar to many people already, there are thirteen in total, so there's some good variety.  For people who have the RRTCM book, it's a nice companion that will help you work through through some of the material in the book.

Considering that you get to learn some tricks and cover some basic sleights, so it's not a bad little package.  And you certainly can't argue with the price!  For something being given away for free, I definitely recommend it as worth your while to download and watch!

Where can you get it? Either for $10 over on Vanishing Inc's product page or free from this link.  For more details on what you need to do to get the download, see this blog article over at Vanishing Inc Magic.

« Last Edit: April 27, 2020, 07:10:50 AM by EndersGame »
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