who thinks jb bobos book is the best

For beginners, it is definitely the best. Start with it if you've never done coin magic before.

It's even best if you aren't a beginner. There is SO MUCH material in Bobo's book. So much of it is ignored even by "advanced" magicians in favor of slickly-produced videos with nowhere near the amount of content. Seems like every few months, something from Bobo gets repackaged by some 20-ish guy in a t-shirt who changes one finger position and calls it fresh, new, and revolutionary.

Truth be told, if you seriously and thoroughly studied Bobo's book, it'd take years...and you could create entire acts out of nothing but the material between its covers.

Yes...it's that good.

I can't believe you would consider NOT having it. Buy it. Read it. Love it.

I voted yes. NOBODY ELSE DID WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU OMGOMGOMG.

But seriously, it's a must if you're interested in coin magic.


Garrett

actually, Bobo's is not the best for beginners. Roth's stuff is better. After you watch the Roth stuff, then go back to bobo. It will be a whole lot more resourceful afterwards.

Yes! Get Modern Coin Magic! Every coin magician has to have a copy of it! It has so much material in it that like TheCaffeinator said above, it will last you for years. One day you might buy the newest, hottest coin magic DVD that just came into Penguin Magic. You'll start watching it and the guy will be like:

"Ok. Now you're going to want to do a back thumb palm and then... "

And you'll be like:

"Huh? What the heck is a back thumb palm?"

Just look in MCM and you can learn it there!

I have had it for so long I was just wondering what other people thought

Nope. Still Bobo. First of all, let's for a moment focus just on books: Roth does not have a book comparable to Bobo's in accessibility or scope. Second, if we branch out to include Roth's videos, I'd still say get Bobo's book first. It's cheaper then a single volume of Roth's video series, which means you are getting more bang for your buck (and beginners tend to whine about money a lot).

I certainly recommend buying Roth's series AFTER buying and studying Bobo's book, as Roth's videos make an excellent complement to Bobo. None of the beginner-level stuff in Bobo's book is so mind-boggling that it needs to be learned from a video. Geez...it's a wonder we learned any magic at all before the VCR and DVD player were invented.

i actually agree with CHickenz, Roth's DVD's definitly will help. But Bobo's still has alot of great stuff.

i dont like how more 70% of his tricks involve a hankercheif, its not my style

I own Both. I have to say Roth is more accessible. Then after you have studied Roth for a while will Bobo have value to the average new magician. I am sure there are many that only had Bobo, so had no choice. But today's generation can defenitely benefit from DVD's.

In my opinion if pushed to fulfill it's potential, no medium was made for magic as the DVD was. And that includes books. Unfortunately few DVD's have even tapped this potential.

A lot of people show a disdain for DVD's and mostly it comes from a " I didn't have it and I'm a great magician therefore you don't need it." kind of attitude. I can understand the " More bang for the buck, in books." But The best book in the world won't properly teach you the timing of coin vanishes and false transfers as well, as Roth or David Stone. With DVD's you learn faster than with books.

I would even say for the average student there may be more bang for the buck from a DVD. I know it sounds crazy. But Imagine 2 average students one with a book, one with a DVD. The one with the book takes a few more months to learn something useful, than the one with the DVD. The One with the DVD can start making money faster. That is a few months where he is earning, while the other is learning.

Yes get both, book and DvD. But even if one pays $100 for the DVD set. How long would it take to earn $100 with the material in the Roth set? Now multiply that by the time it would take to learn from Bobo's book, enough to start earning? Net loss from the Bobo book, I think.

The problem here is, some people never had the DVD as an option when they started, so to them...it's " learn only from books..." Because it was the only option they had. So they learned. They have forgotten how hard it might be at times to figure out what the writer was trying to say. And since they had no other recourse other than private instruction saw it as " Paying their dues." Today's magicians have DVD's they have the Internet, they have ID. More to choose, and maybe a Book is best for one, and not for another. Maybe the Older magician feels that if a magician learns from a DVD he hasn't " paid his dues"?

You can give the whole Tarbell, and Card College series to one type of student, for $1, and if he cannot learn as well from Books as someone else, it will give him very little value... very little " bang" if he cannot make it useful... sell him the Roth set, and even if it costs $100 he will get more " bang for the buck" out of it, if he can learn from it.

Different strokes for different folks.

DVD's have tons of potential. Multi Angle Options in real time for one. Slo-mo,... Instant access to material. Replay... Proper Timing on sleights, The benefit of a world class magician actually showing you the proper handling, and timing, so you learn correctly from day 1. Not imagine you have it right... The ability to replay what you wish over and over and over and over. One of the downsides is, that you sort of absorb the teacher's style, and it delays the discovery of your own.

Books on the other hand are cheaper up front. They also can provide line drawings that stress what is important. They provide more effects. A lot more on theory. You also benefit from being able to be yourself more, and not copy the style you see.

I think the best way to learn is to buy both Books and DVD's, it may be a little more expensive than just books or DVD's. But you get the benefits of BOTH. If you cannot afford to buy DVD's as well, then by all means go only with the best books... But speaking from experience. If I had started with Card College only, instead of Michael Ammar's Card Miracles series, I may not be doing magic today. And there are more than a few of us out there, that would probably be in the same boat. There are many here who would more than likely just say " Tough" or .." You aren't a real magician."

To which I reply... The Turing test for magicians.

To those that can learn only from books, props to you... to those of us that need the visual aids...well...we need the visual aids, and may not have the hundreds of dollars for private instruction.


Just my thoughts

Have I understood correctly that you are insinuating that it's quite normal to be proficent enough to go out and start earning money professionally as a magician after a few months of watching a DVD?

Or is this only possible with certain DVDs?

I said it might take a student that does not take well to books a few MORE Months to learn something useful. Not a few Months total.

Say it takes 9 months with Roth's DVD set , it might take him a year with Bobo. Just as an example. Chances are a person that does not learn well from books may never learn from reading Bobo...but let's just say it takes a year from reading Bobo.

Seems to me the money he makes in those 3 months, more than pays for the DVD, don't you think? I mean he would only have to make $10 a week to make $120 in those 3 months. And he could probably make more than $10 a week. Heck in NYC in a touristy place, between spring and fall, he can probably make that much per hour... On a slow day. See what I mean?

This kinda makes me wonder though! ... how do kids these days learn anything in school if they have difficulity learning from books ? ... or are the teachers now teaching with DVD's ?