As a wise man once said,

“You can learn to play golf from me, or you can learn to play golf from Tiger Woods. Trust me, you don’t want to learn to play golf from me.”

This brings to mind the new Magic Makers DVD set based on Hugard & Braue’s seminal text, “The Royal Road to Card Magic.”

Since the sheer brutality of an event early in my card magic learning has worn down to barely an eye twitch (thanks, in part, to years of therapy,) I can safely admit that the first book on cards I ever read and studied was not “Royal Road to Card Magic.” (Please keep your gasps to a dull roar. I’m embarrassed enough as it is.)

It wasn’t one of the Dover books.

It wasn’t even any of the other beginner books on card magic.

No, my beginner text — my primer — on card magic was purchased from Paul Diamond’s table at a magic convention years and years ago. As I stood there holding the thing in my hands, I recall Paul looked at the book, looked at me, looked at the book, and asked me how much card magic did I know. I told him I knew what playing cards were. Paul laughed a hole into the roof, not because of what I said but because of what I meant.

Against his better judgement — and Andi’s shaking her head — he sold me my first book on card magic: “Ever So Sleightly” — a book on the card magic of Martin A. Nash, written by Stephen Minch. It was a “first” book, alright; the first of the Nash Trilogy and certainly not for the novice card guy. (I wasn’t even good enough to be considered a novice, that’s how out of my depth I was.)

After a month or so of trying to learn some of that stuff, I was absolutely convinced I was a functional idiot who didn’t deserve to hold a deck of cards, let alone deign to even consider doing card magic for human beings, for pity’s sake. Still, I soldiered on thinking that if I just practiced that Knock-Out Double Lift enough times, I could actually do it some day before I assumed room temperature. (Which, of course, was true — just as it is with any close-up card move one must practice to perfection.)

However, my second book on card magic was Hugard and Braue’s “Royal Road to Card Magic.” After the total and abject humiliation I experienced from nearly a year of torturing myself with the Nash book, “Royal Road…” was like jumping after taking off ten pound weights you’d had strapped to your legs for the past month.

There, now I feel better for bearing my soul. You can stop laughing now. I mean it, stop.

For most people, though, “Royal Road…” was their introduction to serious card magic. To this day it remains a solid suggestion made to beginners. (Roberto Giobbi’s five-volume set is also a strong suggestion. Giobbi, in my estimation, is the Tarbell course for card magic. Avoid it at your own peril.)

So who were these two fellows who wrote such an important text in the world of magic?

Digitally picking the brain of Michael Edwards via his contributions to Usenet newsgroup alt.magic.history years ago, we learn a number of very interesting things about Jean Hugard. Hugard came into this world December 4, 1871 in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia as John Gerard Rodney Boyce. Professor Hoffman’s translation of Robert-Houdin’s Secrets of Conjuring and Magic was his introduction to magic literature and became his “bible.” Over the course of his life he performed as Oscar Kellmann, Chin Sun Loo, Ching Ling Foo, and Jean Hugarde. He came to the USA in 1916 and subsequently authored 27 books under his own name, and numerous others as a ghost writer.

He died on August 14, 1959 at the age of 87.

Fred Braue’s story is less illuminating. In his book, “Who’s Who in Magic,” Bart Whaley tells us Frederick George Braue was born in 1906, was a newspaper man in Oakland, California; semi-professional magician; specialized in card magic “of which he was a master”; invented the Braue Addition, Braue Reversal, rear palm, and the Homing Card.

Among the books he was author or co-author: “Expert Card Technique” (1940); “Showstoppers With Cards” (1948); and “Braue on False Deals” (1977). He edited Hugard’s Magic Monthly 1959-1962.

And then there’s “Aunt Elsie” at the Oakland Tribune. (I’ll let Pete Biro tell that one here.)

For many people the name “Fred Braue” conjures up the phrase “Braue’s Notebooks” — which are reported to be contained in some one thousand pages written over a thirty year period.

His (in)famous notebooks were to be published in serial form, and it’s reported many subscriptions were sold. Unfortunately, the publisher — who now lives in Idaho and seems to be a few kernels short of a full ear of corn — has found numerous excuses for why the notebooks have never been published as promised.

(For the record, Braue is pronounced BROW-ee.)

He died July 3, 1962.

“Royal Road to Card Magic” was published in 1949 by Faber and Faber Limited of London, England, under the eye of Sir Geoffrey Cust Faber, founder and president of the publishing house (who named the house after himself and was the only Faber in Faber and Faber. Hey, it sounded good.)

It is understatement to say Faber and Faber were not lightweights in the publishing business. Among some of the first authors represented in books published by the house were T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Jean Cocteau, Herbert Read, Max Eastman, George Rylands, John Dover Wilson, Geoffrey Keynes, Forest Reid and Vita Sackville-West. Faber and Faber’s first real commercial success was to become a solid classic, the book, “Memoirs of a Fox-hunting Man” — initially printed as an anonymous text, but later attributed to its author, then popular poet Siegfried Sassoon.

Over the years, many other authors were added to the roster of Faber and Faber, including W. H. Auden, Stephen Spender, Louis MacNeice, Marianne Moore, Wyndham Lewis, John Gould Fletcher, Roy Campbell, James Joyce, Walter de la Mare, William Golding, Lawrence Durrell, Robert Lowell, Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath, W. S. Graham, Philip Larkin, P. D. James, Tom Stoppard and John Osborne.

In other words, Hugard and Braue’s book — the one so many of us point to as a book that absolutely has to be in the library of every serious student of card magic — was printed and distributed by one of the most prestigious and important publishing houses ever. I think that’s appropriate.

The Preface to the book recounts a story that’s been subsequently repeated (in various forms, using various luminaries):

Many years ago David Devant, the great English conjurer, was approached by an acquaintence new to sleight-of-hand with cards. “Mr. Devant,” said this young man, “I know three hundred tricks with cards. How many do you know?” Devant glanced at the youth quizzically. “I should say,” the magician responded dryly, “that I know about eight.”

Devant was making a point with which all professional magicians are familiar. To perform card tricks entertainingly you must not only know how the tricks are done, but how to do them. There is a vast difference between the two, and if proof were needed, one need only watch the same feat performed by a novice and by an expert card conjurer. The novice knows the mechanics of so many tricks that he cannot do any one feat really well; the professional performs a smaller number of tricks which he knows how to present in such a way as to create the greatest possible impression upon those who watch.

We cannot emphasize too strongly that knowing the secret of a trick is not the same as knowing how to perform that trick; and that knowing the secret of hundreds of tricks is of little value unless each can be performed smoothly and entertainingly. It is far better to know only a few tricks which can be performed with grace, skill and effect.

In writing this book, we have attempted to teach you card tricks which may be performed anywhere, at any time, under any circumstances, for any company, and using any pack of cards. You will not need “trick” packs of cards, nor special cards, nor expensive accessories. This is most important, for it means that no matter where you may be, you need only borrow a deck of cards when called upon to entertain; the ability to amuse and interest will be literally at your finger tips.

I’ve just written an awful lot about an old book, some editions of which have fallen into public domain. But if you’ve gotten this far, you should have some sense of reverence this book should instill when it is mentioned. “Royal Road…” is an important book written by two important authors, the contributions of whom have impacted magic — and particularly card magic — to a degree no one can estimate. In fact, let’s just agree to use the word “inestimable.”

It is with that expectation of respect and reverence that one should see in a project bringing the book to the television screen. So many magicians were both delighted and excited by news a couple of years ago that R. Paul Wilson was the fellow to put together the work in front of the camera to bring to life the work of Hugard and Braue.

(I generally refrain from quoting exceptionally long excerpts, but I want to place as much relevant material in one place as possible. Please visit the links for entire passages.)

Of the original Royal Road DVD project, R. Paul Wilson recently notes:

Royal Road was shot in 2002 and has been delayed until this year when it was finished by L&L Publishing to their excellent standards. We have spent the last six months getting it into shape and it is common knowledge on the net that this project is pending.

When we shot this I, Tim Trono, Mark Murphy and our crew went to great lenghts to produce a quality product that would teach the student how to be an excellent card magician.

We followed the format of the course, taught the material but I also addressed the problems that I felt dated the course and added ideas that greatly improved the material. We added three effects – one of my own (using a Pass, a Top Change and a Palm under misdirection), one of Dai Vernon’s (one of the best Card Tricks ever invented) and a Roy Walton trick that helps teach the Pass beautifully (none of the tricks in the book really utilize the pass properly, IMO).

Many of today’s finest magicians added words of advice to the course so students would understand something more about card magic than just moves and tricks. It’s been a hard path but it’s paying off with a course that WILL teach you how to perform excellent sleight of hand card magic.

…

Before setting out, I learned that a calm, steady presentation, without hyperbole, makes for the most productive style of video instruction so I applied this to Royal Road. I sincerely believe that if the student watches each lesson and learns the material before moving on (without skipping ahead) they will develop a much better understanding of card magic.

The also included words of advice from some of the biggest names in magic. We weren’t just “putting the book on video” but really trying to create a home-study course that would really deliver.

The idea was to apply my knowledge and experience to the course and act as a guide to the student, helping them avoid the pitfalls and offering improvements where necessary.

Wilson also notes:

I demonstrate and teach everything in the book but I stress from the outset that the student should try to learn from the book too.

The project was announced a long time ago. Wilson subsequently announced in late 2002 that the DVD project was entering post-production. (I’m guessing no one knew how long the gestation period would actually become.) On December 16, 2002 Wilson stated:

“The DVDs are about to enter post production. This is more than a matter of editing. We have gathered valuable advice from magicians around the world for the novice magician to learn from and the seasoned professionals to consider. I am also hoping to have bios of several important card conjurors on each disc. this will show those new to card magic that there is a rich history behind the book and help them, hopefully, to appreciate their work, which is represented within Royal Road.”

Reverence. Attention to detail. Respect befitting a work as important as “Royal Road…” L&L Publishing is producing the set of DVDs. Louis Falanga’s reputation for quality preceeds him. I think Wilson’s work is in appropriate hands and I can’t wait for the set to become available.

On the other hand, for whatever reason, evidently and unfortunately Magic Makers appears to have hastily cobbled together a set of DVDs using the name “Royal Road to Card Magic” as its title — perhaps in hopes to trump L & L Publishing’s pending release later this year. In the introduction to the set, as well as in the advertising copy, the set purports to be a card course based on the book.

However, from viewing the sample clips from the Magic Makers website — replete with poorly scripted patter and absolutely ghastly camera work — these words from Jo Galloway in “A Few Good Men“ come immediately to mind:

“But my feeling is that if this case is handled in the same fast-food, slick-ass Persian Bazaar manner with which you seem to handle everything else, something’s gonna get missed.”

And it’s evident more than “something” was missed. If these clips are a fair representation of the quality of the set — and one would expect so, as these are the ones chosen for the web site — it appears to me these videos would find a better home on one of the many web sites maintained by amateur magicians who collect and offer for download free “homemade” videos.

When I consider the obvious care and love and respect shown the DVD project shot by Wilson and being put together now by Louis Falanga and his staff at L&L, Magic Maker’s version seems to me to be like a false-eyelashed, Hollywood wig wearing, uneven brothel-red lipsticked, cheap-perfumed whore. (To be fair, of course, I recognize some people prefer the quick convenience of a hooker to real love. Different strokes, and all of that.)

On the one hand, we have the hard work of real professional magicians working hand in hand with real professional videographers, scripting, taping, editing and producing a work that everyone I’ve spoken with expects to have a right to stand next to a work like “Royal Road to Card Magic” — and on the other hand we have Magic Makers’ version.

So, I guess the question now is, “From whom do you want to learn to play golf?”