Hi, I am 26, a student of law and originally was born in S.-Korea but live in Germany for 20 years now, in the beautiful city of Hamburg.
So it would be Hamburg, Germany (26;EN to SH, your judge ^^)
I started with magic, when I was a child, with a box of tricks. Later I got another one, but it got bored soon, since my friends and family knew all tricks after showing them very often. There was a long break then, I just watched Copperfield on TV sometimes, but that was too big, to do it as a hobby, so I thought. So much preparation and such stuff. I played a lot of card games though, and with 12 I first time played Poker and it is still a hobby of mine. It is the reason why I got my first All Plastic Naipes Fournier cards. 3 years ago, I met someone at my friend`s birthday, who did some card tricks and the arm twister thing. I was really impressed, that was my first contact with Impromptu magic, because he used my own card deck for his tricks. I just thought, because of my box of tricks, u can only do good tricks with manipulated cards ^^
There was another long break then, due to my studies, internet gaming, friends, party and such stuff, what young people do
Last year then, I discovered a German website, which was about card tricks, from a card magician. You really had to work on this site, and if you "mastered" all and answered some questions right, u got a password to enter the next level, where more techniques and tricks were explained. It had 4 or 5 levels. That was my beginning of card magic. Now the pass system is switched off, so you got free access now. I even invented my own trick, about which u perhaps will laugh :p It is very simple but to the advanced it perhaps shows my level of creativity (so you can give me better tips, which books or DVDs I should buy), which is really low yet, due to unexperience
You let one choose a card, he memorizes it, and while he does it, you bow the top card down in a smooth movement and turn over the deck. So every card except the top card is face up now, and it looks as if the whole deck is still face down. Then the guy put the card back in any place of the deck. You shake the deck with one hand very fast and drop the top card and turn over the deck again and ask the spectator, if this is the chosen card(all one fast movement). He will say no. His card is now the only faced up card in the deck
Now you can do your showdown as you like :p
I ordered my first bicycle decks last week, because my naipes fournier were too smooth, to learn the jumping gemini (could not handle the lifts clearly with them). With learning the jumping gemini right now, I decided to really start with (card) magic now.
So I have no books or DVDs yet, and the last days of researching in the Internet really confused me. Because I discovered XCM. And I want to buy my first things and dont want to throw away my money
Here are my questions:
1. Is XCM a higher art of card magic or is it an own discipline? Because Dan and Dave, De'vo or Brian Tudor can all do some tricks and this crazy cut stuff. Shall I start with normal card magic first or buy that XCM stuff?
2. If one of you were a teacher at a magic university, and I would like to learn magic, my focus would be on card tricks, but I would also like to learn coin tricks and other impromptu tricks or street magic and nearly all closeup; Is that too much to learn and every magician is specialised on one kind of magic?
Which book in which order (from beginner to advanced) would you recommend to become a nearly professional? (focus on card tricks, would like to "master" them first) My budget right now would be about 130 Euros to start buying.
3. On the German website a book called Royal Road to Card Magic was recommended, but at ellusionist I only find the DVD. Is it the same or even better than the book? Because it costs much more.
4. And what is about the book Card Manipulations from Jean Hugard? Is that a good book? What I want to avoid is, because I looked over some books, that they all seem to have the same content, teaching passes, forces, shuffles etc. Dont want a double buy
Ok and here is my knowledge right now listed, so you can recommend the right book or DVD for me, if you like to help me
Oh and I dont know any variations of the Jog or Crimp, if there are any, I just know one then
So it is with the other things listed.
-Shuffles: Hindu, American, Faro Shuffle, Riffle
-Pass: only the Classic pass and another way done the classic pass the other way round
-Crimp, Jog and some variations of forcing a card, palming a card inside
(I cannot backpalm really good, my hands are too small I think, or I have to practice it more ^^)
-Double Undercut to control the card to the top, triple false cut, turnover false triple cut
-double/triple lifts, last one depends on my cards, cannot do it with every deck
-Elmsey Count, Gemini Count
-dont know, if I forgot something
My tricks yet: (I have no books or such stuff about them, learned them through video watching in Internet, based on the knowledge above)
2 Card Monte, Jumping Gemini (my pride till yet) and some easy card tricks based on double lifts, false cut/pass or leading cards or preparation of the deck or just math
They are in German and I dont know the English names for them
Color/Card change(Erdnase)
I hope it is not too long and I will get some questions (hopefully all ^^) answered. Thank you very much for reading this.
Sincerely TigertheGambler
