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ok basically this hobbie i am keen to learn is becoming very expensive can someone please tell me some good Magic tricks to do with either normal coins or house hold items...

i know how to make a toothpick dissapear but all me other tricks are bought prop tricks etc.

plus i think it might look better to use everyday items

Ash

People nearly always talk about the expense when they've started out and this is typically fuelled by people's hunger to learn. Like us all, after time you will end up with lots of items that you will never use again and really wonder what motivated you to buy them in the first place.

If I may suiggest a few tips.

Read the reviews a lot to help you pin point more accurately what you will like - sort of learning through other people's mistakes as the hype on some web sites will make you feel disapointed when you actually get your hands on the trick.

Buy books - there are loads out there that will contain exactly the information that you're after. DVD's can also be good value for money but go for the ones that teach a number of effects rather than just one.

Don't buy something new until you've learnt and mastered the material that you've already got. Again, we all have DVD's and effects that we've bought that are still in the wrappers.

Hope that this helps

If you want coin magic, then don't necessarily go for gimmicks and stuff right away. Otherwise one day you'll be Mr. Cool when you have your coins on you but then when someone asks to see it again and you've left them at home then you're stuck. At least learn some moves first, and some effects you can do with borrowed coins.

Good books: Bobo's Modern Coin Magic
Royal Road to Card Magic/Encyclopedia of Card Tricks
Scarne on Cards
The Expert at the Card Table

Karl Fulves has some good books out, such as "magic with everyday objects, self working coin magic, and self working card magic."

Easy and cheap way to build up some confidence and get some basic ideas. There is also Mark Wilsons Complete Course In Magic, which is always to be recomended.

thanks guys i know it will take years to get "Really" good but pulling of a trick really makes me feel good so i will take your tips into consideration and read into things more carefully.

already regretting buying some tricks lol

Modern coin magic, royal road to card magic, mark wilsons complete course in magic and Paul Zenon's street magic books will show you how to do tricks with coins, a deck of cards and lots of other everyday household items. I was exactly the same I spent a lot of money on gimmicks and I'm now learning the tricks I have and not buying anything new until I've mastered the stuff I have. Its hard cause you read a review or hear about something and you want to immediately buy it but if you keep on doing that you will soon become overwhelmed and not get anywhere

In my experience, people don't really get impressed by coin magic (unless it is spectacular). I would reccomend getting Card College.

Buy the Royal Road To Card Magic and 2 nice sets of bikes, and you shall have all the magic you can handle for quite a while.

[Edit] Wow, I didn't notice that the topic shifted from coins to cards, I shoulda read the first post twice. My opinion on coins - yes, I agree with what has been stated above, audiences are unimpressed by coin magic unless it's AMAZING. The thing about coin magic is that it's so impersonal, whereas with card magic they select a card and you have to find that card. It gets the spectator more into the magic than coins do, which ends up being mostly a visual show. I guess my post doesnt have much relevance anymore, but it's an interesting read (at least I hope).

Something that's interesting in today's day is that retailers tend to bundle up "amazing" tricks and sell them 1 trick for X amount of dollars/euros/whatever. Beginners tend to see these tricks and go wow! I must have that DVD/book teaching that trick!

What they fail to see is that you have to have the basics of magic to become a great magician. Without the basics, all you have are a bunch of tricks here and there but no real application to other, new tricks. You buy the trick, you learn the trick, you buy another trick, you have to learn that new trick.

But what happened to things such as palming? What happened to the pass? Or a diagonal palm shift? Or a double undercut? What happened to counts, slip cuts, spread culls, forces, false cuts and shuffles, basic color changes, double lifts, tilts, and a myriad of other things which together make a magician great? Sure, you sometimes get these basics in the more "advanced" tricks which you buy alone, but you never truly learn its application towards magic in general, only its application towards that particular trick. Let's say you're learning Rewind and they teach you a false count. Well that's good and all but the beginning magician has no idea why he or she would want to use it out of the Rewind trick.

[Edit] Whoops, I didn't realize that not all magicians know how to false shuffle keeping the entire deck in order, better example inserted. Hopefully better, anyways.

For instance, many of these tricks that you buy alone have relatively simple sleights involved (some are exceptions) so incredibly new magicians might not know what a pass is even though they can do something such as a Dream of Aces perfectly. Now this isnt a problem perse but it's sorta like having legos (or building blocks for you who've never heard of them). If you have lots of blocks, you can make anything you want to. On the other hand, if you go to the store and buy a toy...sure it's a fun toy, but it gets old after a while. Building blocks are useful forever.

*And just as a side note, I wouldn't trade my pass for 10 tricks, it's just too useful*

I'm actually thinking of making a video series called Back to the Basics which will demonstrate effects you can do with the most simple sleights without giving the sleight away just to prove that easy does not mean bad. In fact, most of it is necessary.

If you want a solid foundation in card magic, I must say Card College volumes 1 - 5 are absolutely incredible. I've learned most of what I know through that series and you will NOT be let down by that set.

Sheesh, when I see my magician friends performing Mindbender but then don't know how I did a trick with a glide or a cover pass, it makes me laugh to myself inside.

fireshower wrote:Give half the beginning magicians in the world a NEW deck and ask them to perform a false shuffle which keeps every last card in order. (And I'm not talking about an optical shuffle, although I'd be impressed if someone DID know that) Chances are, they wouldn't know how, or wouldn't have it smoothly.

Hmmmm. Guess who can't do a false shuffle keeping the entire deck in order
I could flase cut the deck several times and leave the deck in order but no shuffles

Whoops, maybe I should watch what I say

Just trying to prove a point, hehe

It's alright mate.

I see your point entirely, however, I can't agree that a completely false shuffle is a "basic sleight".
I learnt all my basics of card magic from RRTCM and there's no fasle shuffles in there... there's card control, injogs and throws etc. which I use regularly enough and consider to be the most basic of card magic.
There's the glide and the D/L and several others, which yes, people need to learn as a sleight themsleves. Not just part of a trick.

When they're experienced, they can then start learning single tricks etc, as they'll be able to apply the sleights they learn in new ways.


All in all... well written piece there mate.
I'll look forwad to the back to basics video project thing!

fireshower wrote:
Give half the beginning magicians in the world a NEW deck and ask them to perform a false shuffle which keeps every last card in order. (And I'm not talking about an optical shuffle, although I'd be impressed if someone DID know that) Chances are, they wouldn't know how, or wouldn't have it smoothly.

Was this suppossed to make me feel bad? Because it did. Yet also a bit determined, so maybe, I should say thank you...you big jerk!

...hmm, where are my cards.

Hmm, maybe I should edit my post so it's a bit less offensive

I'd say go one step further on your packet spinning thing at the beginning and do Vertigo Hackisack by the Buck twins. The proper technique for the move can be bought on their site but it's really simple once you see it. Kinda what you did but spinning it in a better way such that the packet doesn't break apart so that you cann hackisack the packet .

As I said on the other topic, use some fanning powder to make the packet stay together.

Work on that pass a bit more because it's just really obvious IMO.

Steve