talkmagic.co.uk

Well sorry for the very long delay.....I'd almost forgotten about this. I hope you enjoy

Actually, what you suggest is a guide for somebody who is passed the basics of magic. You omited some very basic books such as Mark Wilson and Bill Tar.

However the really brass roots down to basics? Forget books and DVD's. The very first thing to do is go out and get a svengali deck or ID, mental photo deck. Perhaps dynamic coins or dime to penny. I'm talking some real basics. You can go home learn these in very little time and start showing them to friends almost imediatly. You are not going to be great and as a magicians standard, or performance standard you will pretty much suck. But you are going to fool the tar out of friends and family. The instant gratification is going to get you excited about magic and performing magic and as you outgrow those first few effects (the first time around) then you will find the books and dvds.

If however the first thing you do is go buy a book and have to read and learn a bunch of sleights and spend hours or weeks at it before you can actually go out and show somebody something? That is the easiest way to turn somebody off of magic rather then gain interest.

I hate it when people recomend Royal Road as an introductory to magic. Or Bobo's coin magic. Wonderful books but not for the grass roots beginner. They are boring to read, its only when the interest is really peaked that those books become of value.

Ask most of the pro's out there how they got started? A toystore magic set for the most part. Easy and instant, the work comes later.