talkmagic.co.uk

CHOP CUP
Unless you already have it that is...
Man those things rock

and Joecarr:
"no one believes in books anymore..."

I hav found books such as Bobos MCM and the RRTCM and the ETCM really helpful in learning.

LobowolfXXX wrote:As far as bang for the buck goes, AND future development as a magician, I couldn't agree more strongly with Mark Wilson's Complete Course.

I scrolled all the way down to see if this recommendation appeared.

Get this book and you will have enough tricks to keep you going for several Christamses!

It is ridiculously cheapand full of good stuff.

Look around this site, tyou will find good review after good review for it

I agree that books are the best value for your money, but it sounds like you want something you can perform easily and is impressive.

I recommend Coin Unique as not only is it practically self-working, it's also very impressive to a layman and there are a fair few routines you can perform with it. Other than that, go for a Scorpion and a PK ring.

You *only* have 50 bucks?

That's a WEALTH of magic money right there. AS discussed, that $50 could keep you going for about a year.

If you had the patience and drive.

Or, you could blow it on 2 packet tricks and get zero satisfaction in the hit-and-miss modern magical capitalism bandwagon.

As for Joe Carr's,'no one believes in books anymore' well ****xxx!
What a stupid statement to make. As I have said many times in print, on Forums & in my lectures, and Paul Daniels & Geoff Durham have also reiterated this; Books contains more secrets than any dvds. Books make YOU THINK and work out, handlings, routines, moves etc. to FIT YOU & hopefully your own presentations.. Dvds may show you HOW a move is done but then many magicians simply COPY that regardless of the style or personality of the performer demonstrating it, or whether it actually fits themselves.
So many magicians over the years have become copyists. In my youth it was effects like Evaporated Milk, then doves, candles, the Chop Cup, pyros, etc. And many dvds now enable this copying to continue. It is no wonder that so many members of the Public dislike Magic! But remember , it's not so much the Magic that engenders this response but the Magicians themselves particulary those who copy, steal and are too lazy to think for themselves!
Although for my, today's 75th. birthday,one of the presents is a portable 10" dvd player, there are several presents of books which will always be near me. I can turn their pages to What I want to view..read, When I want; put the book down , pick it up later and instantly find that Exact page rather than trying to shuffle through a dvd, probably missing it several times. Invest in your future and magic's. BUY BOOKS.
Rant over. Books encourage creative thought.
Allen Tipton[colordarrkred][/color]

Couldn't agree more. I have had more inspiration and ideas from the eight Tarbell books than practically any other magical teaching items I own.
One of the joys is learning something and then stumbling across your own handling or way of doing things which works just as well. It would be impossible to learn everything in these books and whenever I need a new 'trick' I just refer to these tomes and find something I hadn't previously learnt.

From this dismissive attitude the originator of this thread appears to have regarding the recommendations for RRTCM, Bobo, Mark Wilson, etc, it is quite clear that a flash-bang gimmick for $50 is desired rather than tools for learning.

There's a comparison here... the average teenager of yesteryear, when looking to learn how to drive, would book driving lessons, and study.

It would seem these days a crowbar would suffice.

It seems to me that we'd had this sort of question many times before and the old 'un's here end up bashing their heads against the wall whilst trying to make the valid point that information rather than props are a good way to go. If the info arrives on a DVD or CD then it will be just one way, if it arrives in printed form in a book then that's another way. The relative cost of acquiring the information is what makes this a never-ending topic.

Books tend to be lower cost than DVDs and/or tend to contain far more. OK, books don't show in slow motion step by step how tricks can be done but a bit of work and effort in getting to grips with any trick pays huge dividends later on. Taking this a stage further, such books might not need to cost anything at all - do we still have libraries these days? If so they can usually order or acquire specific books from within the library system and there will be a vast array of magical information ready to work though and take pleasure in learning. Home made props can be awful things at times but a bit of effort and care will result in excellent quality props which don't cost the earth and which the performer will thoroughly understand simply because they made them. It's a bit like getting a set of instructions, obtaining the parts, and building your own car, house, model plane, boat, whatever.

Tricks in packets can be excellent value but books can, and will, be even better value than packets which may contain a big disappointment when you see what you actually get! This last comment was based on an old memory which just surfaced whilst writing this diatribe. Some 50 years ago I sent off my pocket money postal order for a few tricks by mail order, one of which was entitled The Afghan Bands with a lot of hype about the way these magic bands mysteriously changed from being one band to one large one and then to two smaller ones interlinked. Those who know this one will understand the disappointment I felt at seeing what was actually in the packet when I opened it. The real magic was in the instructions and, even worse, I could have got those from a basic magic book costing considerably less than The Afghan Bands trick itself!

Mandrake wrote:The real magic was in the instructions and, even worse, I could have got those from a basic magic book costing considerably less than The Afghan Bands trick itself!

Well times dont change much do they? How many times have I seen the latest super dooper, woo dee dow, revolutionary, cutting edge piece of magically mystery, only to think to myself, hang on, I've seen that before. And yup after a quick flick through Mark Wilson, Royal Road or some old paper dated 1903 and there it is.

One of the things I really love about books is that I don't always get them first time or decide that the trick is no good and dismiss it. Only to come back to it months later and have it suddenly click, almost feels as if you've descovered something totally new.

I actually did this last night when flicking through Bobo, came to a two coin transposition that I've never liked. Ran through it and 'click', I've just found the missing piece that I've been hunting for for months to finish off a rountine. What a brilliant feeling that was.

There's always that little diamond that you've not yet found hiding in a decent book, you just don't get that with DVDs.

Lady of Mystery wrote:There's always that little diamond that you've not yet found hiding in a decent book, you just don't get that with DVDs.

That's not so true!

I re-watched some older Marlo stuff a while back, and found some brilliant insights.

Things I'd missed the first time round, because I never needed them.

I am not sure quite how contradictory that is, but I can vouch that *some* DVDs/Videos are well worth having.

On a side note, I'm having a complete nightmare trying to buy a decent video player to play my old VHS tapes. I want a nice quality one with NTSC playback and ideally playback only... any ideas? The best option so far is a Philips one from Argos... but it's nearly £60!!!!! All I want it for is playing old magic vids

(You see, I was into magic in a time before DVDs and illegal downloads, so all I have is these humble objects called 'cassette tapes' which have a loop of magnetic strip in them. Primitive, I know...)

I can vouch for seiges vouching of some Dvds. Like Get Nyman all the little hints and tips that Andy gives you are worth the price alone. Same with the unexpected by Spellmann nardi. Easy to master mental miricals too.

The chap also asked about cheap tricks. Now I ve had expensive tricks that are just dam right horriable and some things costing about £10 that are killer.

Books are excellent I doubt you could get "Sleight of mind" translating over to Dvd. Also like other said you could be flicking through an old book and find something worth using. 3rd Choice by Corinda being one of them.

Buy a trick you have just got a trick. Good dvd or book will contain sleights and the likes that you can use in other aplications.

I guess you're right Seige, I just thyink that DVDs give things up a little easier than an old, cryptic book.

I certainly don't think that all DVDs aren't worth having, some of them are. My Tabary DVDs are some of the best resources that I've got and contains stuff that would be very difficult to put across in a book.

Seige, nail, the, head, hit, on. Rearrange that, then...as Tenko says, you'll get the most out of a pack of cards. Royal Road to Card Magic either in book or DVD form, a few packs of cards, and if you've got a little money left over for a packet trick, NFW is very magical effect wise, you'll need to do an Elmsley Count though.

I'm sure Seige will also agree with me that you could do far worse than get a couple of Jay Sankey DVDs, some of them are excellent value for money, and have plenty of impressive tricks you can do with cards, coins etc.

Nah what he really wants is a pack of blank index cards some pay envelopes and a pencil. Miricales to be had i tells you, And some osterlind.

See the problem with what should i get is we all like diffirent things. I like reading minds others like pulling 15 aces out of deck. You will say Svenglai deck I will say Beyond ESP 2. Now if he reads his books though he will find a way to do coin bend with a borrowed coin and no silly things like a superman.

Markdini wrote:Nah what he really wants is a pack of blank index cards some pay envelopes and a pencil

Total outlay about £1.00 or less. Bargain. Isn't it Anthony Owen who says his favourite magic prop supplier is Staples?