Category: Magic Advent Calendar 2020

Hello everyone!

Here we are at day 4 of the Magic Advent Calendar. It is a short film clip, which was originally recorded as a private demonstration and explanation of the “Houdini Color Change”, described in my Card College Volume 3 (p. 744), following a very kind inquiry from a reader who did not come to terms with my description in the book.

I would like to remind us all that a Color Change is not just a “pretty effect”, which of course it is, provided it is well done, but that to elevate it to Artistic Magic, it should be given a meaning, a dramatic unity, which makes it more than just a “quickie”. This can be done by previously having a card selected (premise), then apparently failing in finding it (conflict), only to magically corriger la fortune by mysteriously transforming the wrong card into the spectator’s selection (resolution with astonishing miracle). Now it is an esthetically pleasing impossibility that fulfills the deep human desire to get out of trouble just by a snap of the fingers – who wouldn’t want to be able to do that (and in these times)! This is just one of the things Juan Tamariz pointed out to me many years ago in one of our night-long sessions, when he said to me, “You have to put emotions into it.” But that’s another story…

The clip is very “home-made” :-), in the “writer’s corner” of my studio in Muttenz, where many of my books have been written. I hope that all that matters to understand and learn the sleight is there, everything else is not… But since it’s free, you will forgive the “amateurish” quality…

To watch the clip CLICK HERE.

Enjoy!

PS: If you like the idea of this Magic Advent Calendar and its content (and my innocent ramblings…), you can leave a comment on this page. Then everyone can read how great I am, and how much of a connoisseur YOU are 🙂

Hello everyone!

This is day 3 of the Magic Advent Calendar with a version of Paul Curry’s “Open Prediction”.

In 2012 I was asked to create a basic course of card magic for the Magic Agora project, a great idea for an online school of magic, which unfortunately folded after a short period – the reasons for this would make for a fascinating essay on the obscure psyche of today’s practitioners of magic and the magic market…but I won’t torture you with that 🙂

Instead, here is one of fourteen chapters of what became Introduction to Card Magic, certainly one of the first if not the first interactive multi-media e-book on basic card magic (it is sort of Pre-Card-College). Chapter 9 deals with audience management, and is illustrated by a self-working version (if there is anything like that…) of “Open Prediction”. My open prediction is that even the very advanced among you will find this interesting, and maybe even use it, let alone those who just started out in magic!

To read the PDF CLICK HERE.

Enjoy!

PS: If you’re interested to obtain the complete course, you can get it HERE – I put a price tag of € 6.95 to it (no, it’s not a printing error) so that everyone can get it. I’m sure even experts will find the holistic approach of the course inspiring, and those among you who teach card magic will find it to be a ready-made curriculum for their course.

Hello everyone!

Welcome to day 2 of the Magic Advent Calendar.

My Advent gift to you today is the last segment, over one hour long (!), of my first lecture at Penguin’s, the Penguin Lecture Live – Stand-up Card Magic, which runs a total of 5 hours 25 minutes!!! At the time it was a live stream, and the server broke down, as it couldn’t handle that much – I still hold the record for the longest Penguin Live lecture 🙂 Here people who attended the lecture online sent in questions via Twitter to Dan Harlan, who is a great moderator as you will see. We discuss some interesting questions related to the lecture, of course, but also independent issues, and all can be understood and appreciated even though you do not have the rest of the lecture.

To watch CLICK HERE.

If you want to see the complete lecture, you can buy the download of it directly at Penguin Magic HERE, or if you still prefer the DVD with the lovely Penguin-graphics, you can get it directly from me, signed if you wish (please mention on order form), CLICK HERE. The content is not just a bunch of very good tricks from my professional repertoire, but really a comprehensive course in the art of performing card magic in stand-up situations (parlor and small stages). This is not an expense, it is an investment 🙂 The lecture, BTW, was so successful, that the Penguins asked me to do a second one in the same year, and you can get a bundle deal (only from me) HERE.

And now enjoy!

Hello everyone,

…and welcome to the first day of the Magic Advent Calendar! 

When I was a boy, on the 1st of December my parents would give me an Advent Calendar, one that depicted some colorful winter scene and had, of course, 24 small “doors” to be opened every day from December 1st to 24th, and which hid some seasonal image. Albeit of great simplicity, the little images fired the imagination of Young Giobbi, and each were like a small story – nowadays you need professional YouTube-clips to achieve the same result… Anyway, opening one of the “doors” each morning became a wonderful ritual. Later, Barbara brought the concept to the third dimension by sewing small numbered bags attached to a cord and which contained each a small goodie for our boys Rafael and Miro, who meanwhile are 26 and 28! Barbara, by the way, is not only my amazing wife, but also the gifted artist who illustrated all my books – without her there would be no Card College – so now you know who to really thank 🙂

I forgot about that calendar (what a pity…) until recently, when I was reminded that we magicians, deep in our hearts, have retained some of those wonderful resources we had as children (…and are sharing them with our audiences through our magic). I would have loved to send you 24 bags with a magical surprise in each, but Corona and the Post Office are serious stumbling blocks. BUT what about a virtual Magic Advent Calendar? And here it is!

All you have to do, first thing in the morning (or maybe later…), is to go to www.robertogiobbi.com and click on “News” to enjoy the current day’s “magic goodie”, which will be what I hope you’ll find to be an  interesting PDF or film clip or…well, it’s a surprise 🙂 So, without further ado, here is my first little gift for you for December 1st:

DECEMBER 1

In Februar 2013 The Linking Ring, the official publication of the International Brotherhood of Magicians, run out of real celebrities, so they decided to put me on their cover 🙂 In order to justify the choice, Bill Evans, then IBM’s international president-elect and exquisite connoisseur of magic, did an interview with me, which I believe is one of the better ones I ever did. We discuss some seriously interesting topics, and you might find it entertaining as well as useful. Plus they talked me into writing up their complete “Parade”. If you have the patience to peruse it, you might find a nugget or two…

The PDF-extract is reproduced here with the kind permission of editor Samuel Patrick Smith (thank you, Sammy!), and I encourage you to visit the IBM’s website HERE.

To download and read the PDF click on the image below. Enjoy!