talkmagic.co.uk

I was thinking of buying the Street Magic set from eMagictricks.co.uk . It includes: ID, biteout 10p, floating note (I imagine this is thread of some sort), a Raven and 2 decks of bicycle cards. I'm pretty amatuer but I'm okay at sleight of hand with a regular deck but I haven't got many props/gimmicks. This set will cost me 50 quid. Do you recommend it? If not then what do you recommend?

well if this is the sort of stuff you wish to do then yes it would be worth it as the total cost of all items is greater than what your paying. each effect can be awesome if done correctly. if you have any problems with any of the effects you can probably find help in these very forums.

Mog's right (as usual)...

The kit seems good value - as the Raven and Biteout coin alone could cost you this much elsewhere.

To accompany the kit, you may want to look into a streetmagic video (i.e. Raven usage etc) as I don't think you'll get much in the way of tutorials with this. Worth asking eMagictricks first.

On the other hand, if you know what you're doing, get the kit and practice a lot. Street magic is hard because of open angles - but the beauty of this kit is that most of the items are angle-proof.

A good starter bundle - go for it!

It does mention that there is a video explaining the tricks, as well as 2 regular card tricks which I already know. Its probably only got basic stuff on there but I think It'll give me a good starting point. Thanks for the advice. Can you recommend any other tricks which would be good for a semi-skilled (at sleight of hand) amateur.
Also because I'm not a proffessional magician is it possible for me to get into the restricted section. I won't tell any secrets... I promise.

access to the secret area is granted by the moderator of the board after its seen that a person has a good knowledge of magic... there are other threads on the forums which explain this more..

as for effects... you could try NFW which is always a killer move

click http://www.talkmagic.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=1448 here for details on the secrets section

Because you're on your feet, and have no props around (as a street magician), you'll need tricks that you can easily carry around.

NFW is great, and is an example of a packet trick.

Packet tricks are supplied with just the cards needed for the effects, and they're almost always gaffed cards. They're good on one hand, because you can carry lots of them, as they're quite compact. But, the disadvantage in your situation is that they're quite hard to pass off as anything other than gaffed cards.

Packet tricks which I'd recommend are Ultimonte (in my opinion, the strongest table-less three card monte routine) and NFW (already mentioned by myself and The Master Mog).

Other effects you could look into are things like the McClintock Twist video, which gives you a beautiful and mind-blowing routine with normal cards.

Also, coin magic's quite good. Get some nice shiny American Half-dollars and learn something like Sankey's Messiah Vanish, or some other coin sleights - they're compact, and really do impress.

Any more thoughts will be passed on to you, but going for lunch now

If you are anything like me (and I know I am), then you may want to supplement that set with a couple of books.

The books I would recommend (as they were indeed not too long ago recommended to me) are the "Royal Road to card Magic" (RRTCM) for cards and "Bobo's Coin Magic" for Coins.

This would help you with general card tricks using any deck of cards, and general money tricks using anyones money. Incidently there are a lot of gimmick coin/card effects that would also benifit greatly from the basic undestanding of sleights, palms etc that are detailed in these two books.

The other thing you may wish to add, that wasn't included in that set is a TT. They are very cheap - and can offer some good effects, especially - (but not solely) with silks.

Oh... theres a thing..... for a place to get magic "books" try here some are on CD but there are downloadable versions too... royal road to card magic is only $5

its that magic man flogging his dead horse again but...

try haunted key good and angle proof.
scotch and soda works in the specs hand leaves you clean.
stripper deck loads of easy card tricks to back up your slights.
colour changing poker chips.
svengali / mirage deck (thanks siege).
tt streamer needs tt.

bumb bag to carry it all in, i ware mine round the front.

i carry thease items around for demos with my bussines cards, gets me gigs.

As with most magic, you need to find what you:

a) enjoy doing
b) can afford to do
c) can do

To qualify:
a) No point buying a bit of everything... problem is, you'll end up with a rather full top-drawer. Concentrate on your favourite magic - the magic you enjoy to watch. It's nice to be happy doing what you do.

b) Don't go out and buy the most expensive stuff in the hope and belief that you'll be a better magician for it... read these forums and the reviews - lots of cash does not neccessarily mean better magic

c) Another mistake is to try and do effects before you're ready. If you're having problems palming a coin - don't perform it! If the Raven looks wrong with a short sleeved T-shirt - don't do it!
The answer here is to put the performance down, and never discredit yourself by performing a good effect badly. Practice, practice and when you're happy and confident - THEN perform.