A month or two?
Someone who's worked through RRTCM, please tell me, how long did it take you to master everything?
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praetoritevong, dude, you just said my pet peeve. >_<
Three questions:
1) Why would he need to master anything in the book?
2) Assuming someone would like to master something in the book, say Palming, is the book sufficient for this?
3) Is mastery an end-goal in the first place?
While it did take me 2 years to finish the book ( I performed every single trick at least once, literally, and yes, I pulled off at least 10 boring performances ), I did it as I already was hooked with magic so much, having enough dedication.
The truth is, he doesn't HAVE to master ANYTHING, not only because he's just starting out, but because of the fact that he CANT ( at this level ). Mastering something takes, experience in performing and the theory of moves and technique, which although can be gained from reading material ( not RRTCM though ) but performing experience is really needed. The original poster, I think, lacks both. This is not to mention that the more dedicated the student is, the more he desires to be come good at something. We can't ask dedication from a beginner, he has to decide it himself, when he gets enough performing experience. If he get hooked, he'll make sure he'll hook himself more. Automatic process ( the fact that books demand more dedication than DVDs, is a major issue of why beginners lean towards DVD, and why beginners who start from books become dedicated extremely fast ).
Also, a lesson from chess, I learned that mastery is a process rather than an actual goal. You constantly stretch yourself, get out the comfort zone, and you become better and better ( and even find someone who is WAY better ). In my opinion, aiming at the so called perfection is not a sensible goal. Stretching, improving, thinking and practicing, you'll become good without you knowing it.
For the original poster:
Books:
Cheap: Expert Card Technique, Erdnase ( a free PDF, legally
).
Card Magic of Paul LePaul. Subscribe to Genii or Magic Magazines.
Expensive: Card College vol.2 or 1,
Dai Vernon's Book of Magic . Any magic magazine collection ( Apocalypse, though expensive, is a good choice )
Very expensive, though will last a life time: Classic Collection vol.1 or 2 by Harry Lorayne (100$)
DVDs:
Ellusionist's Crash Course 2
Mike Ammar's Easy to Master Card Miracles 1-9 ( browse through the DVDs and pick the ones that look appealing to you, there's no need to go through them in a specific order )