talkmagic.co.uk

Now it really depends on what your wanting to achieve. Personally I think it's best to start with some self working tricks. This will allow you to perform little miracles quite quickly and technically they are not difficult, so it allows you to concentrate on the presentation. Once you have experienced performance success with some of these then you can begin to look at developing sleight of hand techniques.

I suggest you spend some time in the reviews section and look for tricks that are 1 or at most 2 out of 5 for difficulty level and with an effect that appeals to you.

Some you might want to look at

Disappearing card case
Melt
colour changing poker chips
Penna Coin
Svengali Deck
Coin Unique
Coin Squeeze
Pen through Note
ID
Stealth Wallet

The list goes on, but much depends on your personal tastes. I hope this helps.

By far the cheapest method is to go for books, it's not for everyone but if your the sort that can wade through a lot of information and put the work in, you will not find a more cost effective method of getting into magic. the "Works" is a very useful place to check out and often has real bargains in that dept.

I agree with what Happy Toad has written and many of those tricks that are mentioned can be found in nearly everyone's starting repertoire.

Also, if you use the search function at the top of this site and enter the words ‘online magic shops’ then you should find some additional good advice on where you can buy these items online, and also find out if there is a magic dealer close to where you live. I would advise that you visit a dealer where you can. They may be a little more expensive but you can see before you buy and in your case I would phone and arrange a time to visit when they’re not busy so that they can dedicate a little extra time to you.

Oh, and set yourself a budget and try to stick with it! You will see things that will amaze you, and you will want to buy it there and then. We’ve all done it – many of us still do it !

I would not actually recommend that you go into gimmicks before you have mastered the basic sleights...no point having an amazing card trick if you can't force their card!

I'm not sure what you'd like to start with, but my first DVD was Oz Pearlman's Born to Perform, and it helped tremendously! It goes right from the proper grips and breaks to one handed top palms and thumb fans - definitely a great resource .

If you want coins, I can't think of a good starter DVD but the classic book in the area is Bobo's Coin Magic. I'm sure someone else on this forum can help you more with that though.

I wouldn't recommend trying to go into mentalism until you have a basic grasp of the principles involved in magic...

Kati

I started by buying a decent boxed set. It cost me £60 but gave me a good starting point. It is made by a french company called D.I.D. Magic and is called CLOSE UP 2. Withinn this set are 9 effects.

Mirage : By coming into contact with the magic card 4 Aces are transformed to 4 Kings and then 4 blank cards.

Magic Pen : A note is borrowed and the pen pierces the note. But when the pen is removed there is no hole!

Flying Coins : 2 cups allow any chosen coins to be transported thru the air from one cup to another.

Vision Box : This procedure allows the magician to see theough a solid object and predict the cosen colour on a coloured die placed inside it.

Cigarette Vanisher : A simple and clever device that allows you to vanish a cigarette right before your sepctators eyes.

Sponge Balls : An ordinary ball multiplies into 2, both then disappear only to reappear in spectators closed fist. The 2 balls are then placed into the magicians fist and transform into a large single cube!

Hypnose Cards : tricky to explain but worth having.

Dynamic Coins : A stack of coins appear from nowhere, they pass through solid matter, transorm into differnet coins then disappear from a spectators hand without leaving a trace.

Svengali Cards : A card chosen at random disappears from the pack opnly to reappear under a cup, then the pack mulitiplies to be only the chosen card!! Many other effects possible.

After I got the mastery of this set I started looking at www.magictricks.co.uk where I found a great beginners section. I then joined this forum and expanded my knowledge like that.

It takes time and practice but find what works for you, what you want from magic and how you are going to present it then practice practice practice until it becomes second nature.

Self workers are the natural place to start but DO try and learn a few basic card sleights or other SOH moves so that you dont rely on self workers. If you show someone say 5 tricks try to make at least one of them involve you doing a sleight, not only will it make you feel more like you are performing magic but it will also help to increase your confidence in your ability to perform sleights etc.

Hi,

I got into magic because a colleague spent hundreds of pounds in some of London's magic shops buying 'no skill needed' tricks.

He tried them and found they sort of worked, put them in the box in our store room and continued his quest. As time went on, I decided (early hours of the morning waiting for a software distribution to finish) that I'd look in the box. After a week on one trick (vanishing bandana) I'd pushed the software around the world and could do the trick without thinking (so that I could think about the trick!).

I don't think that there's any such think as a self working or no skill needed trick - every trick takes practice, practice and then more practice. The other thing is that to make the trick work requires an understanding of it (DVD is great here) and also the ability to read instructions (not usually a bloke thing that - I use the wife to read to me ).

Palsm, sleights and forces will always be with us and therefore have to be developed (and should be - the discipline is good and the fact that you will one day get out of a hole using them is worth it too!). Oh yeah, don't forget a brainwave deck as an ejector seat from that failed finger break

Hope this helps,

Vic

Hi matt Expert card technique is a great book but if i were you i'd probably get royal road to card magic first which is a little bit easier to start with.
If your into DVD's then get some of Daryls encyclopedia of card sleights, though they get a bit expensive as there are 8 of them they go from the very basics of how to hold cards right through to some serious sleight of hand. There are also loads of other dvds out there by other people as well so try a couple of different peoples out. I would suggest though that you don't by Alan Ackermans Las vegas card expert dvds though "THEY ARE BRILLIANT" i think they are a bit too advanced for a beginner.
SAM

Matt,

I'd echo the comments above - Corinda is a great read but I started with the 'Royal Road to Card Magic' and found it essential reading.

The Corinda book (I also read Burger's 'Performance of Close-up Magic') is good, but there is lots of mielage in laying good foundations rather than the quick fix or effect.

Reading is tough for some (hence rise in popularity of DVD's) but I really would commend books as the best way, especially as they enable you to develop your own style, approach and patter.

Have fun . . . .


Vic

I'd say Royal Road is nearly enough to put you right off magic

Well I have to admit there is a great deal of very good information in the book, but it is a hard slog. Modern books tend to have photo's to go with the text, RRTCM has a limited number of line drawings. If your a visual person there are not many books as bad as this.
I have spoken to many beginners that have found this book a real turn off but it still seems to be the one book that forums like this will tell you is a "must buy" Clearly for some people this is a great book I just wanted you to know that not everybody sees it like that.

Happy Toad wrote:RRTCM has a limited number of line drawings. If your a visual person there are not many books as bad as this.

While I would agree in principle with the above...RRTCM was the book that got me interested in card magic and was the first magic book that I purchased.

IMHO, both Erdnase at the Card Table, and RRTCM are the only two books that teach the proper method of the Jog Shuffle, sure lots of books detail it but these two books teach the proper method IMHO, and Erdnase is even more difficult to get on with than RRTCM.

The patter and drawings are of the 1950's but the magic is great and as the name suggests it is a Road to follow, at each chapter or break in the road a new sleight and some magic with that sleight is learnt.

If you follow the road you have a great grounding in card magic....Brilliant book in my opinion......

It is taken for granted that when reading the book that you know nothing of card magic, therefore any path or road you follow where you learn something new is bound to be difficult at first.

While I would agree in principle with the above...RRTCM was the book that got me interested in card magic and was the first magic book that I purchased.

Yup and that is true for many other people too. However there are also many many people that find the very old style and lack of illustrations and even then only line drawings a very difficult way to learn. Since RRTCM usually only gets great praise and since so many find it difficult, I think it worth giving a negative post to kinda balance things out.
Saying that if the Jog shuffle is a sleight that you feel is absolutely neccessary to learn in your early stages of learning magic and your quite happy to learn from mainly text, then rush out and buy it.