Ask Roberto is a magic book unlike any you have ever read before (by him, or anyone else). The concept is great: Roberto invited 52 fans (via the internet) to submit a question, and he answered all 52 of them. In some cases, he added to or clarified answers later. This is the complete file of those "conversations," and they are wonderful! This gets our highest recommendation.
Here we find a more conversational, casual Giobbi, which is quite different than the Giobbi we find in Card College and Secret Agenda.
There are deep, insightful questions, like "How do you study?" or "Why do you do magic," and there are very practical questions like "What are the ten best card effects in history?" or "What is your favorite deck switch?"
The book is soft-bound and 330 pages, and it ALSO includes bonus essays on "The Too Perfect Theory" by Simon Aronson, Jon Racherbaumer, John Carney, and Jamy Ian Swiss.
Here are the topics Roberto covers in essay-form:
- Injog Overhand Shuffle
- Presentation Ideas
- How to Study
- Staystack
- Fear of starting to perform
- Three Card Monte
- Memorized version of Out of Sight Out of Mind
- Think Of A Card Routines
- Magician is only an actor playing the role of a magician
- Gilbreath Principle
- Too Perfect Theory
- How many effects?
- Creative Process
- Bottom Deal Applications
- Philosophy of Magic
- Trick That Can't Be Explained
- Origin of Display Pass
- In Spectator's Hands
- Vernon's Travellers
- Effect Categories for Cards
- Why do Magic?
- Ten Best Card Effects
- Practice
- Best Self-Working Card Trick
- Starting with Card Magic
- Tabled Faro/Riffle Shuffle
- Delayed Setup
- Program Construction of an Act
- How to Prepare for a Competition
- Dirty Cards
- Constructivism
- Favorite Card Routine
- Favorite ESP Card Trick
- Secret Setup
- Zarrow Shuffle
- Escuela Magica de Madrid
- How to Navigate Information
- Favorite Non-Card Effects and Books
- Magician Fooler
- Notebook and Journal
- Repertoire Books
- How to Archive Tricks
- General Card
- Deck Switches
- Stand-up Deck Switch
- Best Si Stebbins Trick
- Magic Pizza
- Audience's Reality
- Clocking the Deck
- Performing Opportunities
- Alternative Sleights
- Kolossal Killer
Softback. 330 large pages