Preface

Hello everyone, I'm Albert Chou, and welcome to the debut issue of Cardmanship.

I'm a cardman from China, and I've been studying card magic for 20 years. Cardmanship is a brand I established that is dedicated entirely to card magic. Prior to this, I had published quite a few books, conducted dozens of lectures and workshops, and founded 3 series of Chinese-language magazines. However, this is my first time launching an English-language magazine, and I hope to use this opportunity to share my magic with card magic enthusiasts around the world.

I imagine most of you don't know me yet. If you've heard my name before, it might be from the card magic I've published in Genii and The Linking Ring. If you're a subscriber to The Disclaimer, you've likely read quite a few of my routines there as well. Beyond that, you'll soon be able to find more of my magic in my upcoming book, Horizon, published by Vanishing Inc.

This magazine, however, is a personal project of mine and holds special significance for me. I wanted a platform where I could publish magic whenever I wanted, with full control over the volume, timing, and everything else. This magazine was born out of that desire. Each issue will be a "one-man issue" featuring my own material, though down the road I'll also feature some routines from my friends.

Furthermore, the release schedule and subscription rules for this magazine are somewhat unique, so allow me to explain. First, I want to clarify that profit is not the purpose behind creating this magazine; in fact, it isn't even a consideration. Our magazine is devoted purely to card magic, and there are no ads now, nor will there ever be any in the future. Friends who know me are well aware that I have more than enough material to publish. In fact, one of the reasons this magazine came into being was that it was difficult to find other magazines that would allow me to determine how many routines I could publish, along with having the production capacity to match. Our production capacity is certainly enough to sustain monthly issues. However, the release frequency of this magazine is not based on a fixed calendar schedule.

The entirety of this debut issue is completely free. If my Instagram account reaches 2,000 followers, we will release Issue 2, and it will remain completely free as well. So please go ahead and follow my Instagram account: @albertcardman. Bookmark this website at www.cardmanship.com, and stay tuned for updates.

The birth of this magazine also owes thanks to a good friend of mine, Jackie, who serves as the magazine's editor-in-chief and producer. Thanks to technological advancements, we can now publish the magazine in multiple languages. Please keep in mind, however, that none of these foreign languages are our native tongue, so minor linguistic errors are inevitable, and we kindly ask for your understanding. If you have any thoughts, suggestions, or anything you'd like to add, feel free to DM me directly. I'd love to hear from you.

Lastly, I'd like to thank you all for your support. There are very few magazines on the market today dedicated solely to card magic, and, to the best of our knowledge, this is the only one that is both ad-free and entirely free of charge. I hope you'll support and encourage this publication, help share it with more friends who love card magic, and keep it going. I also look forward to watching this magazine grow, hoping that in the future it will evolve into a dedicated card magic community where we can vote on feature topics, introduce more columns and segments, and much more. Once again, thank you all for your support and encouragement.

Albert Chou
October 2026