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One of my mates is about to take redundancy. His company have given him a £3000 "re-training allowance" which he can spend on pretty much anything he likes that falls under the "training" banner.

So he'd like to spend it on learning card magic.

He's currently an "enthusiastic amateur" and has already got loads of books and DVDs and will obviously have lots of spare time to use for practice. Are there any "magic schools" or professional "personal tutors" he could use to spend this money on in a productive fashion?

Serious replies only please!

The Becky Harris Accademy of Pink and Fluffy Magic can offer some interesting training courses for £3000.

I can teach him to be a professional tarot card reader for £2000, leaving him with a life-skill and £1000 in his sky rocket.

Honestly. He should give it a go. Some readers at the fair I staged last Saturday turned over £450 for 5 hours work.

Actually I wouldn't charge him or anybody £2000 for this valuable skill. Get in touch and I'll personally teach you and provide you with a training manual, for £200. What a bargain. You'd recoup that at your first psychic fair.

Personally I'd tell him to wait a while, as he doesn't know when he'll find work again and three grand is a lot of money to payoff the bills and mortgage for a couple of months.

What would be more beneficial to him, magic props and items and a whole lot of stress and worry thinking I should have saved that money or the peace of mind knowing that if the s*** does hit the fan then he's got a nice little back up to rely on?

Just my thoughts, that's all

It's a specific retraining allowance from his company, not just a random chunk of money. If it's not spent on "training" then it's lost, so he may as well spend it on something!

TheStoner wrote:It's a specific retraining allowance from his company, not just a random chunk of money. If it's not spent on "training" then it's lost, so he may as well spend it on something!

You said he already has a lot of dvds/books regarding magic which is usually the part that requires the most money. If, as I think you did say, he is still relatively new the craft then he probably has enough material to be looking at and could potentially save the money until he has decided whether magic is something he really wants to pursue with a greater investment, £3000 is a lot of money.

Tell him to buy the Royal Road to Card Magic, a brick of cards and not say another word for a year.

Lenoir wrote:Tell him to buy the Royal Road to Card Magic, a brick of cards and not say another word for a year.

Unless he spends a good percentage of a year studying the book, you won't really know a thing!

99% of good card magicians today and in the past never needed to spend £3000.

They got one or two good books and studied properly.

If it was me, Im assuming the company pay direct for the "training" rather than props...

So find a "friendly" mentor who charges £3000 for an all inclusive course including props or whatever....

Real charge would only be £500, so let the mentor charge £3000 and give back half which the company would know nothing about ....

Win/Win....

F x

Ask Michael Vincent to mentor him. I'm sure he wouldn't mind £3000.

I was in a similar situation not too long ago where a training allowance was allowed for professional development. It's often not a pot of money to spend as YOU see fit as there is nearly always some criteria to meet such as the trainer or training company needing accreditation, having a VAT number etc.

It is not common at all to be given the money yourself and it's usual for the training to be booked for you.

£3k can buy a lot of training depending on the sector that you're in. Personally, I'd forget card training and if your mate is seriously considering a career involving performance then I would recommend taking a course in performing arts skills such as acting, speech projection etc.

There are loads of accredited courses advertised in the ads section each week of the Stage newspaper.

Honestly, go along with what Dat said, tell him to get himself some performance training and spend a few quid on the royal road. That's all he needs!

I might teach him the glide for £500