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I like all of im up with anything that is fun and wows the audience, but i want to start off with one and concentrate on it.

Can you post the pros and cons with the following

coins:
cards:
sponges, hankerchiefs:
ropes:
anything i havent covered

thanks

What do you do if you get caught on the haunted deck and they see the string. My bro saw it and what should i say?

AJ wrote:I like all of im up with anything that is fun and wows the audience, but i want to start off with one and concentrate on it.

Can you post the pros and cons with the following

coins:
cards:
sponges, hankerchiefs:
ropes:
anything i havent covered

thanks

Thats your choice and not ours to make. Pic the one that intersts you. They can all "wow" the audience with proper presentation. So its not the effects that "wow", its you.

And you dont have to stick on just one, you can go with close up magic, street magic, stage magic.
But in the end its your choice.

AJ wrote:What do you do if you get caught on the haunted deck and they see the string. My bro saw it and what should i say?

means you need more practice.

AJ wrote:I like all of im up with anything that is fun and wows the audience, but i want to start off with one and concentrate on it.

Can you post the pros and cons with the following

coins:
cards:
sponges, hankerchiefs:
ropes:
anything i havent covered

thanks

coins:

pros: everyone has them, so they're good for impromptu. Small and easy to hide/dispose of. Good for closeup/street magic. wide range of tricks

cons: usually easy to spot a fake or gaffed coin. since they're small, sleights may take quite a bit of practice and dexterity to handle. bad for stage magic.

cards:

pros: everyone knows them. good for visual, mentalism, and most genres of magic. good for closeup/street magic. wide range of tricks

cons:many tricks are just variations of each other. advanced sleights require a lot of practice and dedication. bad for stage magic. pretty cliche when it comes to magic, since many people know basic card tricks

sponges, hankerchiefs:

pros: good for stage magic. very visual. less cliche than cards. comfortable to use because of softness and feel

cons: harder to obtain that cards or coins, leading to people thinking they're gaffs. bright colors stand out, so if you're not careful with sleights you can be spotted.

ropes:

pros: very common item, very visual.

cons: for some reason, people always seem to think that tricks with ropes always involve trick raopes, so i suppose you'd need a really good routine to make specs think that everything is real magic.

In case you couldn't tell, i prefer card and coin magic, so I know the most about them. Still learning about sponge balls/hanks and ropes, so I'm sorry i couldn't provide more info on them.

Thanks i just pick up bobos modern coin magic from lybray.com

I started out with cards and coins but have recently found myslef getting into sponges and ropes.

Now the thing I love about sponges is that they are just great fun and everyone I perform for loves them from kids to adults, something that isn't the same for cards or coins. My sponge balls to Swan Lake routine has gotten me more laughs and given me more enjoyment than any of my other routines.

Ropes as well are brilliant fun and I'm currently putting together a rope routine.

My advice would be to have a go at all of them and see what you enjoy doing the most.

On the ropes front I cant recommend Richard Sanders Fiber Optics routine enough. The amount of milage and fun I've had performing this is staggering and probably gets me some of the best reactions and so much fun can be had....actually dont get it as it's mine....AAALLLL MIIINNNEE!!!!

personally, i'd say just stick to one for at least 3 months, then see how you get on with it...then maybe try some cheap n cheerful "classics", cup and balls and so forth...then decide from there and give one or two subjects some serious study...

the more you fragment, the less you'll learn in my opinion...stick to maybe two major types at a time until you're confident enough to move onto something else...

Have a think about it and try to play about with a few things to see what interests you. Although avoid buying loads of things and expensive gimmicks until you know what area interests you.

Oh and get yourself a TT, its very cheap and you can start almost immediately with it. I got one recently and behind my bikes this is my favourite item.

Some good points from Abraxus there, as always.

Now this is why I think Mark Wilson's Complete Course is such a good book. Buy yourself a copy and work through it cover to cover, really getting to learn every section inside out as you go. It contains so many different areas in enough detail to really get you going on them.

This is the way I learnt, working through that book and reading further into any subjects that caught my interest.

I was waiting for that post above ^^^^^^

AJ wrote:What do you do if you get caught on the haunted deck and they see the string. My bro saw it and what should i say?

The first rule of magic is never to give away secrets.
The second is never to perform a trick until you can perform it flawlessly.

I think you broke the second one and inadvertently broke the first in doing so. Haunted Deck is now a trick you'll never be able to perform again if your bro's anywhere near you now, which is a self-fulfilling punishment in itself, young Womble.

Tomo wrote:

AJ wrote:The first rule of magic is never to give away secrets.
The second is never to perform a trick until you can perform it flawlessly.

I think you broke the second one and inadvertently broke the first in doing so. Haunted Deck is now a trick you'll never be able to perform again if your bro's anywhere near you now, which is a self-fulfilling punishment in itself, young Womble.

I broke the second rule once then unintentionally the first when I first started magic. I can now never perform that magic in front of my friends and they are nearly always about me when I do magic. So the pretty expensive gimmic sits in my room unused.

I was annoyed but it also taught me my most important lesson about the rules of magic. I haven't broke them since!

AJ wrote:I like all of im up with anything that is fun and wows the audience, but i want to start off with one and concentrate on it.

Can you post the pros and cons with the following

coins:
cards:
sponges, hankerchiefs:
ropes:
anything i havent covered

thanks

I think most of us have had a go at many different sorts of magic what happens is that you gravitate towards the bits you do best and enjoy doing. I have had to come to terms with the fact that I am never going to be a coin man. I still have a couple of little effects that I do with coins but I am never going to master the knuckle busting stuff that are coin sleights.

Cards I feel confident with and they make up most of my repertoire but I have a few bits I throw in between card tricks, Hloy Moly is one that I currently like and really close up Coin Unique is a killer.

I also like doing childrens magic. I get a great kick out of performing for kids because they believe it, they believe it is magic.

So there is no real answer to your query, the magic that is best suited to you will find you.

One thing a lot of other posters have said here which I agree with totally. Don't spend a load of money on flashy gimmick tricks. We have all done it and we all have shelves of tricks gathering dust!