talkmagic.co.uk

okay so the first post went much better than expected so here gose for round 2. Although cascading dice is a fab trick it is kinda a blink and u'l miss it kinda deal an most of my friends have sean it and now the conversation has moved on, and i want it back. but i did manage to dream up a variation thanks to the post from the magicdiscoman although i make the large die change into about five 5 pence pieces.

But the question is were do i go from here and becasue i am new to magic i have no prefrence as to what type of magic i like best so am ready to molded and set on the path to becoming a magician. Altough i think i want some tricks that can be done close up and in the pub if that makes a diifrece.

So guys please help me. i would like your oppinion on which tricks to buy next and i am proud to say that at the mo the buget is not really much of a issue although the price cart be too steep because im not quite the die hard fanatic i could quite easaly become.

Thanks Juggling guy

since you mentioned me:-

haughnted key silver version not golden key addition.
stripper / wizard deck bicycle if you can get them.
svengali deck, bicycle.
multiplying sponge balls + ball to square / rabbit / ardvark??.
change bag, zipper base for fun or standard.
scotch and soda / gin and orange.
hopping halfs, expanded prefered but more exspensive.
sucker colour changing silks.
ghost tube.
hole can.
rope for cut and restored and other rope tricks.

pm me for additional bits for items and extra uses as required.
e-magictricks can cover most of the items on my list, enjoy.

And before anyone else mentions the key books:

Royal Road to Card Magic (Hugard & Braue) for magic with an ordinary deck of cards.
Modern Coin Magic (Bobo) for coins.
Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic for an overview of everything.

I would suggest getting used to doing tricks without gimmicks as soon as possible as it gives you something to fall back on if your aardvark producer breaks or you lose your stautue of liberty vanisher or something.

Nick

thanks for some great replies and nick, sory about the stolen signature, i knew i had heard of it from somewere i just dint realise it was here so il change my tag as soon as i think up another good one.

Ok as someone fairly new myself I wouldn't go along with all of the above.

For cards I'd agree you can't go wrong with a Svengali and wizard pack.

I'd say as absolute must haves

Pena Coin
Disappearing card case.

Both of these are very easy and get great reactions.

Poker chips ( colour changing ) are also very good and pretty easy.

Change bags are good in the right situation but I'd have thought the pub wasn't one of them.

Coin Unique is another stunner that would work well in a pub.

I'm very confident you wouldn't be disappointed by any of the above. None of them require great skill although doesn't mean the performance isn't important. Tricks like this will give you the buzz and confidence to go on and then learn tricks that require more skill and without gimmicks, which many magicians prefer, but in all honesty don't look any better to the average person. Love to hear how you get on.

ello

I'm not sure what your pubs are like and if you want to study and become good at something in the future, want instant magical hits now or both. All are valid choices though imho.

If your pubs are anything like mine carrying large props or anything that looks out of place in a pub would end in somebody trying to use it as a hat or see how funny their girlfriend finds it down her bra, I would not be consulted, lol.

Good tricks to carry again in my humble opinion are
coin unique : some great jaw dropping reactions with this one, there are cheaper versions with different names out there but this one is so well made, looks like a normal £1 coin etc and obviously fits in with the pub. This enables you to drop magic into a night out rather than sitting everyone down and demanding attention, handy until you have performance knowledge

Stripper wizzard deck : if you want to use cards but don't want to wait a (possibly) looong time until you have worked your way through a book these decks are for you, instant card magician in a box Go for teh bicycle decks though as all the others have MAGIC DECK in big letters all over the box and you need to get used to the feel and size of them anyway as most packet tricks are on bikes. Also get a stripper video if money permits, again takes the hard work out of knowing what to do.

Packet tricks : these offer instant, though not inspectable, card miracles, if you go for the self working ones you will find some lovely easy magic here.

Penna Coin : It fits over a glass so fits in with the pub and people love it, great trick for every level magician

Sight Unseen : great mentalism trick made in brass, find my review in teh review section, again gets great results.

Other small prop based magic : all the above is small, easily fit them all in one pocket and wouldn't look out of place, like I would say a change bag would or a mirror penetration etc, in a pub, there are also many little tricks like this that are very easy to do, small and get good reactions, a quick look through a beginner section of a good website will give you plenty of ideas.

Now as you do that and get good results, buy a few books and find what you like and what you are good at, the ones suggested above are all good, but these take time and dedication, not many instant hits down the pub. As you use your props you can be learning at home and move to a position where you can do some great stuff without gimmicks, that is examinable tricks Also consider any type of matchbox, glass or cig tricks for a pub
I know most of this has been mentioned before, just though I'd add my two pennies as I am a pub man myself, have learned bobos and RRTCM but in a pub its the ready made tricks they love in my area.

Also books aren't the only route, take royal road to card magic for example, fantastic bible of cards but maybe you don't want all that knowledge. Maybe you just want to learn a routine that with the easy moves you will learn you can move on, a few steps at a time.
The ninja, crash course amd street magic videos over at ellusionist are great for this though are quite costly, check out their site.
Much maligned on the web due to other videos offereng 20-30 tricks and these only offering 5 or 6 but they are shown as if you are new to cards and other videos are more designed for people confident with a deck.
Just an idea, as a learner that doesn't yet want it all their stuff is good
Great routines, easily expained without having to bend your hands in half and you will look like you know what you are doing.
http://www.ellusionist.com/

You are possibly at a crossroads, you can be scared out of magic or learn to love the wow factor first, I for one hope you can manage to learn the wow factor then move on to something you love and enjoy for life. It worked for me, that's all I can say I guess.
I'm happy to help if you need any

Anyway, hope it helps m8.
BaB

http://www.merchantofmagic.co.uk/cnb/shop/merchantofmagic?listPos=&productID=525&search=triple&op=catalogue-product_info-null
haveing just scanned through the triple cd which has bob's and royal raod i have decided to carry on with stripper and svengali bikes and go over to coins for close work.
i recomend coin unique and nest of coins by eddie gibson for english coin tricks, but dont discount some of the new euro coin tricks for pub situations just think of reaching into your pocket for a round only to find euros instead, oh well you will have to doa trick instesd of buying this round
there are tricks around that are specialy designed for pubs gaffed bear mats and lables etc but most are american but there is always coin in a beer bottle though

I can understand that MagicDiscoMan, how did you find teh cd btw?

check out the review section hope ive made some sense being logicals not my strong suit my straight jakets my strong suit

I have, it did, ty ty ty

Agree with all of the above, especially wrt Bobo + Royal Road. I would just warn that, although brilliant, the style of writing in both of these books is very dated + could be off putting. There aren't really any alternatives which are anywhere near as good for the price, however, so it's worth persevering.

As far as effects go, "dynamic coins" is certainly worthy of a mention in my opinion.

Not surprisingly, there are some great suggestions above and, if budget isn't a problem, represent only about 10% of what could be suggested as we all have our own sure-fire, must have, don't leave home without 'em favorites.

Perhaps a bit of time scanning the Review Section might help - most of those mentioned above have been reviewed, dissected, criticised, praised etc. and the additional info might help you decide. And don't forget to ask for more information if needed - we might not be able to divulge much but a hint or two might be possible if it doesn't actually give away any secrets!

(No, I'm not going to mention Double Back, The Web, Carpenter's Nightmare, Diceman, waffle, waffle, waffle etc.)

However, I really can't resist mentioning Basic Basic Card Technique DVD or Video which is described as 'a must for any budding card magician.'

Lots of good stuff, no tricks, just techniques and slow motion and normal. You need to quietly ignore the quirky angled camera shots on the introductions to each move but the information is very good quality. DVD seems to be cheaper than the Video at the momet - do a Search on emagictricks under Basic Card Technique and they should both appear.

Ok thats it just gotta comment on Royal Road To Card Magic. The following is an opinion only, just one I feel quite strongly about LOL

I would never recommend RRTCM to someone just starting out. I know it's a classic and is full of great stuff.

However it just is not a beginners book. So I'm going against the thinking of many of the experienced guys who love to suggest moving away from gimmicks and get a couple of good books that will give you years of stuff to work at.

I'd say RRTCM is ideal a putting off the beginner, I know thats the effect it had on me and others I've spoken to.

When you first start, I'd say what you need is easy preferably self working tricks, in which you can concentrate on presentation and not worry about bending your hand backwards while looking natural and then misdirecting while hiding something in the spectators back pocket.

RRTCM is a hard slogg, yes in the end it is worth it, but it's definitely not the easy route and my guess is most of us are a bit on the lazy side and prefer to take the easy route.

So I reckon to start, the easiest and best route, though admittedly the most expensive route, is to start with tricks like Penna Coin, Coin Unique, Disappearing card case a stripper/wizard and Svengali pack and the like. From this I'd say you are likely to get the best results with these kind of tricks and hopefully this will give you the motivation to want to move on and learn the skills for some of the more difficult tricks.

Ok I'm ready to defend my corner

I have to say that even though it's the route that I took I agree with toad in that RRTCM could well be off putting. It DOES take a lot of effort to get into the writing style and is certainly not the lazy way. However, I still think it's well worth getting as it is inexpensive and if you can get into it will pay dividends alongside some self working stuff which will get you going with the instant "wow" factor.