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What is often missing in the sharing process is a rite of passage, moving experiences that give us the foundation for who we are. These emotionally charged, life-changing transitions are affirmations that solidify our humanity and our core. When we acquire knowledge and wisdom, the change can be significant. A sense of dignity comes to us when we put forth great effort to earn something. Anyone who has struggled to reach something extraordinary knows this. Learning can be profound. At times, guidance makes a difference. Hence, the Master Courses.
Attend a course via Zoom or come to Las Vegas to study in person.
Tailored to you.
We may focus on a specific plot, a sleight, the thinking behind the magic, or how to shape a routine—or an entire show. This includes choreography, performance, theory, and composition.
Sleight of hand has its own beauty—subtle, precise, and varied. But technique alone is not enough. Psychological delivery often carries greater weight. Together, they become powerful.
The study may center on cards, coins, or both—guided by what unfolds.
Courses
Study perceptual engineering and the beguiling finesses within the compositions of legerdemain.
Pasteboard Devices
$1500 · Zoom | $2000 · Las Vegas
PD via Zoom consists of six sessions of 60 minutes each, once per week or every two weeks until completion, with just you and Armando. After confirmation, review the NDA and schedule. Suggested hours are 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM, Las Vegas time. If these fall outside your availability, we can find a suitable time. — check your time →
$1,500
PD IN LAS VEGAS for the Connoisseur. See Armando in person and study Pasteboard Devices — two days: 11 AM to 4 PM with one hour lunch in between.
Check the NDA and reserve early for cheaper flights and hotels. Location: EVO Apartments (hotel nearby — details). Contact Armando to ensure availability beforehand.
$2,000
Las Vegas sessions are intentionally limited and held at full value to preserve focus, continuity, and integrity.
Coin Menagerie
$3500 · Zoom | $5000 · Las Vegas
Coin Menagerie is a comprehensive study of perceptual engineering. It consists of four coins and four cards. The focus is on theory, composition, and the underlying philosophy. Use it as a template to anchor and reflect upon all fundamental concepts later.
CM via Zoom consists of fourteen sessions of 60 minutes each, once per week or every two weeks until completion—just you and Armando. After confirmation, review the NDA and schedule. Suggested hours are 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM, Las Vegas time. If these fall outside your availability, we can find a suitable time — check your time →
$3,500
CM IN LAS VEGAS for the Connoisseur. See Armando in person and study Coin Menagerie for five days: 11 AM to 4 PM with one hour of lunch in between.
Check the NDA and reserve early for cheaper flights and hotels. Location: EVO Apartments (hotel nearby — details). Contact Armando to ensure availability beforehand.
$5,000
Las Vegas sessions are intentionally limited and held at full value to preserve focus, continuity, and integrity.
Both PD & CM
$5000 · Zoom | $7000 · Las Vegas
PASTEBOARD DEVICES reveal special sleights and some tangentially related artifices. Explore the psychology of delivery over brute force technique. Routines include Divination Gone, Betwixt Me, Inscrutable Pocket, Empanada, or any works from The Hungry Imagination.
Coin Menagerie is a comprehensive study of perceptual engineering. It consists of four coins and four cards. The focus is on theory, composition, and the underlying philosophy. Use it as a template to anchor and reflect upon all fundamental concepts later.
PD & CM via Zoom is twenty sessions of 60 minutes each, once per week or every two weeks until completion — just you and Armando. Review the NDA and schedule after confirmation. Suggested hours are 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM, Las Vegas time. If these fall outside your availability, we can find a suitable time — check your time →
$5,000
PD & CM IN LAS VEGAS for the Connoisseur. See Armando in person and study Pasteboard Devices and Coin Menagerie — seven days: 11 AM to 4 PM with one hour lunch in between.
Check the NDA and reserve early for cheaper flights and hotels. Location: EVO Apartments (hotel nearby — details). Contact Armando to ensure availability beforehand.
$7,000
Las Vegas sessions are intentionally limited and held at full value to preserve focus, continuity, and integrity.
Annex For Alumni Prerequisite: PD & CM
The Annex For Alumni is an extension of the Master Course that refines and enhances previous studies. It continues the exploration of theory and composition regarding perceptual engineering and the beguiling finesses within compositions of legerdemain. Use it to advance your knowledge and skill or refresh it.
Consider it the graduate studies program of this humble university but minus the bureaucratic paper chase.
The Annex Via Zoom is offered as a single meeting or as a series of ten or twenty. Each session lasts 60 minutes and is scheduled once per week or every two weeks until completion—just you and Armando. Suggested hours are 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. (Las Vegas time). Scheduling takes place after confirmation — check your time →
The Annex in Las Vegas for the Connoisseur offers an immersive five-day, in-person engagement with Armando, open to alumni of Pasteboard Devices and Coin Menagerie, studying from 11 am to 4 pm each day with one hour for lunch in between.
Reserve early for better flight and hotel options. Location: EVO Apartments (hotel nearby — details). Contact Armando to ensure availability beforehand.
$5,000
—or—
$1,000 per day (limited availability)
Las Vegas sessions are intentionally limited and held at full value to preserve focus, continuity, and integrity.
An expression of Shibumi →
Shibumi, at least for me: doing what I want when I want without those burdensome tension thoughts pulling me down. Just hanging in that sweet spot of precarious balance between too much and too little—an intersection of blissful fluctuation while sitting with cards, coins, and coffee.
— Armando Lucero
On Shibumi →
The term shibumi is Japanese and is explored at length in the novel Shibumi by Trevanian. You can read more about the book here: ABOUT Shibumi (Wikipedia)
The short reflection above is my own adaptation, inspired by Trevanian’s use of the word and the sensibility he describes. What follows is an excerpt from the novel, quoted here to preserve the original context and language:
“He sounds as though I shall like him, sir.”
“I am sure you will. He is a man who has all my respect. He possesses a quality of . . . how to express it? . . . of shibumi.”
“Shibumi, sir?” Nicholai knew the word, but only as it applied to gardens or architecture, where it connoted an understated beauty. “How are you using the term, sir?”
“Oh, vaguely. And incorrectly, I suspect. A blundering attempt to describe an ineffable quality. As you know, shibumi has to do with great refinement underlying commonplace appearances. It is a statement so correct that it does not have to be bold, so poignant it does not have to be pretty, so true it does not have to be real. Shibumi is understanding, rather than knowledge. Eloquent silence. In demeanor, it is modesty without pudency. In art, where the spirit of shibumi takes the form of sabi, it is elegant simplicity, articulate brevity. In philosophy, where shibumi emerges as wabi, it is spiritual tranquility that is not passive; it is being without the angst of becoming. And in the personality of a man, it is . . . how does one say it? Authority without domination? Something like that.”
Nicholai’s imagination was galvanized by the concept of shibumi. No other ideal had ever touched him so.
“How does one achieve this shibumi, sir?”
“One does not achieve it, one . . . discovers it. And only a few men of infinite refinement ever do that. Men like my friend Otake-san.”
“Meaning that one must learn a great deal to arrive at shibumi?”
“Meaning, rather, that one must pass through knowledge and arrive at simplicity.”
