Best tricks to buy/books?
- Thread starter FelixW2
- Start date
To start, what kind of magic are you looking into?
I'd recommend you get books first before you get a bunch of props you may not use in the future
I've been doing magic on and off for about 3 years and I've never really gotten past card and coin magic. I've dipped my toe into magic books with the classics e.g. royal road but never really expanded. I was thinking of ring and rope magic.
Speaking from personal experience there? Also, What To Read realllly needs to be put somewhere big with a sign on it...
Not really. A lot of what I got a year ago is still in use. I just know it's too easy a trap to fall into.
Rings and ropes.
Other than maybe Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic (which only goes into rope tricks; no rings). That's the only resource I have for what you're requesting, unfortunately.
For rope tricks, you have Professors Nightmare, Fiber Optics, Hungarian Linking Ropes.
Rings. I know of Ninja Rings, Dragonfly Rings. You can do way different stuff with smaller rings than larger ones, and vice versa.
That's all I know about both subjects.
Based on what you've posted, I think that Art of Astonishment is your best bet. Mostly cards and coins, but there is a lot of other strange in those books and some good essays by Paul. Another option is The Books of Wonder -- it has great routines and great theory.
For ring and rope, I'm not sure if you were talking separate effects or a combined ring and rope effect.
For the combined effect, check out Tarbell treatment of Grandmother's Necklace and Cords of Phantasia:
http://www.conjuringarchive.com/show.php?search=grandmother's+necklace
There are two great versions in Jim Steinmeyer's Conjuring Anthology -- Fantastic Cords and Houdini's Grandmother. You can get a DVD with a lot of ring and routines by Aldo Colombini. Aldo was a great person and a great performer. There is an L&L World's Greatest Magic with Ring and Rope routines -- including some of Aldo Colombini's work.
If you are thinking more of finger rings and string, your best option is Greg Wilson's Ring Leader DVD. I've seen Greg perform this in person and it is a great multi-phase routine.
If you are looking at linking rings, your best resources are Levant's Linking Ring DVD set and Pete Biro's Real Secrets of the Chinese Linking Rings. The L&L World's Greatest Magic Linking Rings DVD is a great place just to pick up a routine. Shoot me a PM if you are looking to by a set of larger rings -- there is a big difference in quality and I can make some recommendations.
If you are looking at the smaller rings, go with the Ninja Rings. Shoot Ogawa is amazing with these. My only regret is that I didn't buy the gold rings after I saw Shoot perform his routine at a lecture. I think the Dragonfly rings are way too small (although they may work for ring on string routines). The Messado rings are nice but out of stock.
For rope magic, Mark Wilson has some great material. Karl Fulves' Self Working Rope Magic is well worth the price of around $7. The best book in this area is Francis Tabary's Award Winning Rope Magic. Fiber Optics is good, but it really just teaches Richard's routine.