talkmagic.co.uk

HI All,

I am new to doing magic tricks. I am curious if you all think these are good tricks to start with:

Last Monday I got a TT and have sucseffully pulled off making a silk disappear about 50 times.

I have even cashed a piece of silk at the bank. I asked the teller to cash my silk and she looked at me as if I were nutz. After some time I exchanged the silk for a check and she was delighted.

I have been caught twice, but I think once the girl knew the trick. The other time I was paying at a restaruant and told them I didn't have any money. I asked her to say some magic words to see if some money would appear. When I was pulling my hands away she noticed that the TT was pretty dark. I now have a much lighter toned TT.

I got a svengali deck yesterday. Not demonstrated that yet. Still practicing.

I have on order a D'Lite.

Also these two videos:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... %3AIT&rd=1

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... %3AIT&rd=1

There is a street magician here and Friday and Saturday I went up to him at the end of his performance and said "I wish I could give you a tip but I have no money." His reply was "That is ok".

I held my hands out to show everyone my hands were empty and then said "but if you will say the magic words I have faith that something will happen." I held out my hands and he looked at me funny and said "abracadabra" and then I started to act scared and asked him what was in my hands to which he replied it was $1. He then said "I didn't know there was a magician in the audience, please give him a round of applause." (I was hoping that they would now be thinking of giving him a tip, which worked).

Last night I did it I asked a little girl in the crowd to say the magic words, she got scared and bolted, to which a little boy said them and then I acted really scared and handed the dollar to the boy and he said "Its a Dollar!" I said, "go give that to him" to which he.

But anyway, does it appear as if I am off to a good start?

I am starting off with the three tools: TT, sven, and D'lite. Is that a good foundation? Is this too fast?

Thanks!

Well it sure sounds like you've got the magic bug, and performing is one of the biggest and best learning experiences, so well done. It's also good that you're working on perfecting your pieces as opposed to just rushing them out and showing them off - you sure seem to have the right attitude towards magic. One thing though - I don't know what videos you bought of eBay because the link has been removed - but you have to be careful with what you get. If I were you I would stick with reputable magic dealers, both online and in store. But hey-ho.

Also you might like to work on your handling of the TT...people have used bright orange ones before but because of their handling they were never noticed.

As for moving too fast? Hmm...you could hardly call a TT, a Svengali Deck and a DLite a foundation - for example, if someone came up to you with a pack of cards tomorrow and asked you to show you something, what would you do? Or if someone handed you some coins? Keep working at the things you have, but don't become hung up on gimmicks and gaffs. There have been lots of threads recently giving advice on these matters but generally the best places to start are and include:

Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic (If you're willing to splash the cash a little bit, maybe the Tarbell Course too)

Royal Road to Card Magic

Modern Coin Magic by J.B. Bobo

Magic and Showmanship by Henning Nelms

If you ever want to progress in to mentalism then Thirteen Steps to Mentalism by Cordina and Practical Mental Magic by Anneman are good places to start too.

Best of luck with it all!

Books and DVDs are the way forward!

I checked out "Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic" from the library on your suggestion.

It is an excellent reccomendation!

Good to see you are enthusiastic. However i must say your "performance" after the street magicians show was pretty poor form.

Its bad etiquette to perform anywhere near another magicians show, even if your intentions were good.

Still hope you get a lot from the Wilsons book (Actually i am sure you will)