Help with adavancing

[Mfick618]

Hi all, I am an aspiring magician who has been performing for a few months now and feel I have done pretty well. I perform for my college football team every week and the guys love it. Anyway I'm wondering on how I could learn more, because books are expensive and there aren't really any magic shops where I live, or people I can learn from or bounce ideas off of. If you have any ideas please let me know anything helps! Thanks.

 

[Mfick618]

Hi all, I am an aspiring magician who has been performing for a few months now and feel I have done pretty well. I perform for my college football team every week and the guys love it. Anyway I'm wondering on how I could learn more, because books are expensive and there aren't really any magic shops where I live, or people I can learn from or bounce ideas off of. If you have any ideas please let me know anything helps! Thanks.

Also, to clarify I'm not a big gimmick or effect guy (I have none) and do more slight of hand.

 

[Maaz Hasan]

Books aren't exactly expensive. You could build a full beginner library with more stuff then you'll need for 20 bucks, and that will keep you occupied for a long long time! Here is a full list of cheap books you can buy:
https://www.theory11.com/forums/threads/cheap-books-for-beginners-list.49213/#/post-467974
Obviously Don't go and buy them all at once. Buy one or 2, and really read through them. I think it's better to have mastered through one or 2 books than it is to have all the magic books in the world and not read through any of them.

You can very easily find these books for cheaper than I have listed them in there, if you hunt around on Amazon and Ebay (a friend of mine got an Autographed copy of Mark Wilson's book for 99 cents, and you can find stuff really cheap. If you can't find anything, you can find ebooks of most of them at various places, such as lybrary.com for pretty cheap as well)

Check out your local library, they might have something you can use!

Here are some questions I think you should answer, so we can better help you.

• Where have you been learning from so far?
• What have you been performing?
• What is your budget?
  
• What exactly do you mean by "I'm not an effect guy"?
• What kind of magic do you want to study first? (Card, Coin, Mentalism, Stage, all around)
• Within that category, what kind of stuff are you most interested in (eg. Cards - Stand up/street magic, Gambling/Card Cheating, Smaller "party-trick style" card tricks, Super visual stuff, etc.). This wont necessarily be your only outlet when you start, but we may be able to point you in the right direction.
• Are you willing to practice and polish your performances?

Finally, if you don't mind me asking, where do you live? I'm sure someone on the forums here lives in the same area, and can point you in the direction to some local magic shops near you, or at least introduce you to other magicians.

 

[Mfick618]

Books aren't exactly expensive. You could build a full beginner library with more stuff then you'll need for 20 bucks, and that will keep you occupied for a long long time! Here is a full list of cheap books you can buy:
https://www.theory11.com/forums/threads/cheap-books-for-beginners-list.49213/#/post-467974
Obviously Don't go and buy them all at once. Buy one or 2, and really read through them. I think it's better to have mastered through one or 2 books than it is to have all the magic books in the world and not read through any of them.

You can very easily find these books for cheaper than I have listed them in there, if you hunt around on Amazon and Ebay (a friend of mine got an Autographed copy of Mark Wilson's book for 99 cents, and you can find stuff really cheap. If you can't find anything, you can find ebooks of most of them at various places, such as lybrary.com for pretty cheap as well)

Check out your local library, they might have something you can use!

Here are some questions I think you should answer, so we can better help you.

• Where have you been learning from so far?
• What have you been performing?
• What is your budget?
  
• What exactly do you mean by "I'm not an effect guy"?
• What kind of magic do you want to study first? (Card, Coin, Mentalism, Stage, all around)
• Within that category, what kind of stuff are you most interested in (eg. Cards - Stand up/street magic, Gambling/Card Cheating, Smaller "party-trick style" card tricks, Super visual stuff, etc.). This wont necessarily be your only outlet when you start, but we may be able to point you in the right direction.
• Are you willing to practice and polish your performances?

Finally, if you don't mind me asking, where do you live? I'm sure someone on the forums here lives in the same area, and can point you in the direction to some local magic shops near you, or at least introduce you to other magicians.

Thanks for the response! And to answer some of the questions.
Mostly from books and YouTube

Almost exclusively card tricks like Slieght of hand and other simpler stuff

I'm a college student so my budget is pretty low

I've never bought or used an effect

I want to keep developing my SOH but really anything would be great I just wanna learn

Street/stage magic

And lastly I don't have a ton of free time, but a lot of time I do have is spent on practicing. I love doing this and the reactions I get. So yes I'm willing to put in the work on nit picky moves but I'm worried I'm not doing it right and think that's why it'd be helpful to have a person help me.

And I currently attend school in the Salem, OR area. Thanks again for your help!

 

[RealityOne]

Generally, YouTube is a bad resource to learn from. Books are a great value on a cost per trick basis.

My recommendation is to get Scarne on Card Tricks. There is a lot of effects in that book that are easy to perform. Bobo's Modern Coin Magic is also a must have.

Then get Card College volumes 1 and 2. Those will allow you to properly learn the basics. There is a DVD set if you want to see how things are done. The illustrations and instructions in those books are so good, I don't think you need the DVDs.

Then get the Art of Astonishment books - one at a time. The edfects are amazing. If you like the visual there is a very expensive DVD set. The DVDs cover fewer effects and Bro Gilbert's performance of Those effects is technically good but his style is a bit bland.

Your best bet is online shops like Penguin and MJM.

As for helping you advance, the people here are always willing to help you improve.

 

[Lord Magic]

Hi all, I am an aspiring magician who has been performing for a few months now and feel I have done pretty well. I perform for my college football team every week and the guys love it. Anyway I'm wondering on how I could learn more, because books are expensive and there aren't really any magic shops where I live, or people I can learn from or bounce ideas off of. If you have any ideas please let me know anything helps! Thanks.

Straight up I will say a sentence which will make everyone mad at me ( I love being so controversial, lol)
YOU TUBE IS A GOOD PLACE TO LEARN MAGIC!!!

There, I said it.

When we have technology, when we have the aids, why not use them? Why just be like 'Oh, you tube is bad' and stuff? Am doing magic for 6 years now, maybe am not what you can call Blaine level, but am definitely better than those kids who get a magic kit and follow instructions blindly!
Because I have common sense.
All you need, frankly ALL you need to make a good use of you tube and internet is common sense! The person teaching did something. You did not like that. You think that that was not impressive. Replace it!
I think magicians have a very biased opinion about you tube.
I mean, books are gold, believe me. Books vs You Tube and books would win any day.
But you tube is not at all a terrible place to get some magic knowledge from.
I, like many of my generation, started my magical journey after seeing a magician perform on stage and then googling 'easy magic tricks', and that got me where I am now!
As I said, books are THE BEST. But I feel it is not good to intentionally belittle the work of people who spend hours trying to teach something. Honestly, It Is Not All About Views. There are some great magic teaching channels out there.
Technology has revolutionised everything, and whether we admit or not, the first thing that comes to our mind after seeing a great trick we could not figure out ( not that that should be our only goal), is, "Is the trick there on You Tube?"
You Tube makes loads of great magicians. I personally feel it is very negative minded approach to just hate You Tube for making things easier.
Technology will revolutionise every art form, whether the artists like it or not. If a dancer learns the moves from You Tube and adds her/his own style to it, can anyone really say that dancer is bad? I don't think so.

Returning to the topic, I feel You Tube is a fine source to learn. Only because the person teaching did not perform a clean DL does not mean the student cannot. Am sure applying a little common sense and intelligence there will get you through.
BOOKS ARE GREAT, but please stop criticising You Tube.
So @Mfick618 , the channels I love are 52kards, Chris Ramsay, Jay Sankey's channel, Free Magic Live has pretty decent stuff on its old tutorials, does not upload often now-a-days, That's about it. Btw...Vinh Giangh has a cool channel. No tutorials, but inspirational stuff. And now you should focus on your secrets, after that your performance is what you should pay 99.99% of attention to 'cuz that is the real magic, then finally you will get to a level where just seeing performances will give you some great ideas for your performances.

 

[Hgagnon]

Straight up I will say a sentence which will make everyone mad at me ( I love being so controversial, lol)
YOU TUBE IS A GOOD PLACE TO LEARN MAGIC!!!

There, I said it.

When we have technology, when we have the aids, why not use them? Why just be like 'Oh, you tube is bad' and stuff? Am doing magic for 6 years now, maybe am not what you can call Blaine level, but am definitely better than those kids who get a magic kit and follow instructions blindly!
Because I have common sense.
All you need, frankly ALL you need to make a good use of you tube and internet is common sense! The person teaching did something. You did not like that. You think that that was not impressive. Replace it!
I think magicians have a very biased opinion about you tube.
I mean, books are gold, believe me. Books vs You Tube and books would win any day.
But you tube is not at all a terrible place to get some magic knowledge from.
I, like many of my generation, started my magical journey after seeing a magician perform on stage and then googling 'easy magic tricks', and that got me where I am now!
As I said, books are THE BEST. But I feel it is not good to intentionally belittle the work of people who spend hours trying to teach something. Honestly, It Is Not All About Views. There are some great magic teaching channels out there.
Technology has revolutionised everything, and whether we admit or not, the first thing that comes to our mind after seeing a great trick we could not figure out ( not that that should be our only goal), is, "Is the trick there on You Tube?"
You Tube makes loads of great magicians. I personally feel it is very negative minded approach to just hate You Tube for making things easier.
Technology will revolutionise every art form, whether the artists like it or not. If a dancer learns the moves from You Tube and adds her/his own style to it, can anyone really say that dancer is bad? I don't think so.

Returning to the topic, I feel You Tube is a fine source to learn. Only because the person teaching did not perform a clean DL does not mean the student cannot. Am sure applying a little common sense and intelligence there will get you through.
BOOKS ARE GREAT, but please stop criticising You Tube.
So @Mfick618 , the channels I love are 52kards, Chris Ramsay, Jay Sankey's channel, Free Magic Live has pretty decent stuff on its old tutorials, does not upload often now-a-days, That's about it. Btw...Vinh Giangh has a cool channel. No tutorials, but inspirational stuff. And now you should focus on your secrets, after that your performance is what you should pay 99.99% of attention to 'cuz that is the real magic, then finally you will get to a level where just seeing performances will give you some great ideas for your performances.

I like the attitude lol! You do bring up some good points on YouTube. Also shin Lim is starting to post tutorials now so try him too! There are definitely good magicians on YouTube. Also Xavier spades and Alex pandrea has some good stuff check them out

 

[Josh Burch]

First off, welcome!

I want to clear up a common phrase we use as magicians. Effect, is just what happens in the audiences perspectinve, during a piece of magic. Every trick, whether it is performed with a gimmick, a piece of sleight of hand or another means has an effect. I hope that clears things up a little.

You Tube is a tool, it can be a really terrible place to learn magic (the blind leading the blind), but it can be positive. I use You Tube in conjunction with books. When I read about a move I look to see how others have interpreted that move and much of my research is done on You tube. That said You Tube can being a steaming pile of magic rip offs, terrible teaching, and poor ethics and advice. Tread wisely.

The library is probably your best resource. If you are in college especially University libraries have great magic sections and they often have library sharing programs where if your university doesn't have a book they can order it from another library for free. Local libraries are great as well. You can find physical magic books at any library at 793.8.

(Another secret, many libraries have how to do magic DVD's)

The last thing I have to say about books is that there are a ton of classics that you can purchase for $1 or $2 on Ebay or Amazon. The classic books out there will give you hundreds or maybe even thousands of tricks for just a couple bucks. On the flip side, you can purchase a single trick dvd for $30. So books are cheap and its easy to get a hold of them.

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

Straight up I will say a sentence which will make everyone mad at me ( I love being so controversial, lol)
YOU TUBE IS A GOOD PLACE TO LEARN MAGIC!!!

There, I said it.

This may be of use to you: https://www.theory11.com/forums/thr...-like-you-know-everything.49392/#/post-469171

The reason YouTube is a bad place to learn magic is not (only) because the techniques are usually taught very poorly. It's because the people on YouTube are focused on getting views. Which means there's no incentive for them to really get into the theory of performance - which is actually what makes magic magical. People on YouTube want to learn more tricks, they don't want to figure out what makes a trick good.

YouTube is a good place to learn a couple beginner tricks, and that's about it. If the majority of your education is YouTube based, you're going to be missing huge chunks of knowledge and skill, because it won't ever even be introduced to you. That's why it's pretty obvious when someone has mostly learned from YouTube and tries to give advice.

 

[Maaz Hasan]

Straight up I will say a sentence which will make everyone mad at me ( I love being so controversial, lol)
YOU TUBE IS A GOOD PLACE TO LEARN MAGIC!!!

There, I said it.

When we have technology, when we have the aids, why not use them? Why just be like 'Oh, you tube is bad' and stuff? Am doing magic for 6 years now, maybe am not what you can call Blaine level, but am definitely better than those kids who get a magic kit and follow instructions blindly!
Because I have common sense.
All you need, frankly ALL you need to make a good use of you tube and internet is common sense! The person teaching did something. You did not like that. You think that that was not impressive. Replace it!
I think magicians have a very biased opinion about you tube.
I mean, books are gold, believe me. Books vs You Tube and books would win any day.
But you tube is not at all a terrible place to get some magic knowledge from.
I, like many of my generation, started my magical journey after seeing a magician perform on stage and then googling 'easy magic tricks', and that got me where I am now!
As I said, books are THE BEST. But I feel it is not good to intentionally belittle the work of people who spend hours trying to teach something. Honestly, It Is Not All About Views. There are some great magic teaching channels out there.
Technology has revolutionised everything, and whether we admit or not, the first thing that comes to our mind after seeing a great trick we could not figure out ( not that that should be our only goal), is, "Is the trick there on You Tube?"
You Tube makes loads of great magicians. I personally feel it is very negative minded approach to just hate You Tube for making things easier.
Technology will revolutionise every art form, whether the artists like it or not. If a dancer learns the moves from You Tube and adds her/his own style to it, can anyone really say that dancer is bad? I don't think so.

Returning to the topic, I feel You Tube is a fine source to learn. Only because the person teaching did not perform a clean DL does not mean the student cannot. Am sure applying a little common sense and intelligence there will get you through.
BOOKS ARE GREAT, but please stop criticising You Tube.
So @Mfick618 , the channels I love are 52kards, Chris Ramsay, Jay Sankey's channel, Free Magic Live has pretty decent stuff on its old tutorials, does not upload often now-a-days, That's about it. Btw...Vinh Giangh has a cool channel. No tutorials, but inspirational stuff. And now you should focus on your secrets, after that your performance is what you should pay 99.99% of attention to 'cuz that is the real magic, then finally you will get to a level where just seeing performances will give you some great ideas for your performances.

YouTube is a good source... if you know what you are doing and learning from stuff outside of it. Not everything is on YouTube, and a lot of stuff on there is absolute garbage. Yes, there are exceptions, but just knowing a few tricks and sleights wont get you far if you aren't taught how to use them, which wont be taught on YouTube, because of the whole views thing.

 

[Maaz Hasan]

But getting back on track here, @Mfick618 so what I would start with is one of these books. They are pretty cheap, and will give you the basic fundamentals of whatever you want to go into. Just pick one you think you want to focus most on and go through it (It wont set you back too much).
Cards - Royal Road to Card Magic by Jean Hugard & Fredrick Braue
Coins - Modern Coin Magic by Bobo
Mentalism - Practical Mental Magic by Theodore Anneman
More "classic" all around magic (Basic Cards, Coins, and bills alongside Sponge Balls, Cups and Balls, Silks, Illusions, Bets, Rope Magic, and more)- Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic

You can find all of these for 5 - 10 bucks each. Buy one and read through it, it will not only give you lots of material, but also get you lots of tips to help improve your performances.

 

[RealityOne]

BOOKS ARE GREAT, but please stop criticising You Tube.

Simply put, most people who post on YouTube aren't performing the sleights correctly and don't have the ability to perform for a real person. If you want to learn from those folks, go right ahead.

Also, I noticed you only listed four channels that are worth viewing. Can we assume you agree the rest are garbage?

 

[Lord Magic]

Simply put, most people who post on YouTube aren't performing the sleights correctly and don't have the ability to perform for a real person. If you want to learn from those folks, go right ahead.

Also, I noticed you only listed four channels that are worth viewing. Can we assume you agree the rest are garbage?

those 4 are the ones I feel teach well.
Then there are some I did not mention but some find amazing!
So maybe ALL the rest are not garbage
MOST of them MIGHT be.
But the point I am trying to make is not that they teach well. I am trying to say that they teach SOMEthing. Maybe they left something essential out, fine. The intelligent student (most avid learners are included in this group) will manage even with little instructions!
As long as, as @Maaz Hasan said, You Tube is not the only source.
I hate wasting the time of the questioner just because of my stupid posts, but the reason I am actually going on with this thing is because I don't want him to be biased like many are!
Many AMAZING stuff from the books will never make it to the YT.
But a lot of he stuff on YT will also never be directly obtained from books. Because maybe that 'garbage' channel guy had a SINGLE great idea in her/his lifetime which will never be in the books 'cuz she/he created it.
And I feel it is just that if we abuse (not the severe forms) someone for something stupid, we praise that person for any great idea.
So I just want to say here, I feel (notice how it is completely MY opinions, and I maybe naive) if we ignore the internet, we will hamper our art's growth.
Also...what I hate is anyone doing anything online which they would not do in real life.
I could have appeared as the 'experienced-saint level' of magicians who criticise magic on YT and its tutorials. But I have gained amazing stuff from there and I want you guys to get that as well. So I did not pretend to hate YT.
So please check out the wealth of You Tube! It is nlt like I have a channel (I would have put a link here then) or will get any money out of it. It will be completely for you guys' benefit.

My opinions, I keep stressing it is just the way I feel, I think. Completely fine for anybody to disagree. Completely. Okay.
I would suggest, if you wish to take my suggestions @Mfick618 that you try and believe You Tube a little more than most other magicians and try and treat it and respect it as a good learning source. Don't ignore books. I have many books on magic. Those guide me really well. But still I don't hate You Tube, honestly.


One last thing...an open question to all who feel something about this as well...

If someone has put something great on You Tube, if someone has done something however badly to help some avid student somewhere to learn some magic...

Why shouldn't they get views?

 

[Lord Magic]

This may be of use to you: https://www.theory11.com/forums/thr...-like-you-know-everything.49392/#/post-469171

The reason YouTube is a bad place to learn magic is not (only) because the techniques are usually taught very poorly. It's because the people on YouTube are focused on getting views. Which means there's no incentive for them to really get into the theory of performance - which is actually what makes magic magical. People on YouTube want to learn more tricks, they don't want to figure out what makes a trick good.

YouTube is a good place to learn a couple beginner tricks, and that's about it. If the majority of your education is YouTube based, you're going to be missing huge chunks of knowledge and skill, because it won't ever even be introduced to you. That's why it's pretty obvious when someone has mostly learned from YouTube and tries to give advice.

lol

https://www.google.co.in/amp/s/www....-know-how-age-thinks-feels-old-men-guilty/amp

sometimes it is the stupid and lazy people who have the most revolutionary ideas of the age

 

[Lord Magic]

I like the attitude lol! You do bring up some good points on YouTube. Also shin Lim is starting to post tutorials now so try him too! There are definitely good magicians on YouTube. Also Xavier spades and Alex pandrea has some good stuff check them out

hmmm...ready to try my hand at somethings at the shinlim-level I guess!
And about the points on YT, well...

MAJOR THANKS TO BEING A GREAT DEBATOR IN SCHOOL!!!

 

[DisasterTheory]

My personal take on YouTube is mixed. It is a great tool as long as it is used wisely.

As stated here, unless you are going to a more official source like Ramsay’s, The Russian Genius, etc...you always have to worry about the move being performed properly, and as such, worrying about it being taught incorrectly.

Youtube is more popular for those beginning in magic...purely because it’s easy and free. I can’t argue that this is horrible for those on a budget and really want to try to learn magic. The thing to keep in mind however is that the majority of the magicians that have inspired new magicians...learned their craft from books and other magicians that handed down knowledge to them. They didn’t learn it from YouTube. YouTube likely didn’t even exist for many of them.

I tend to tell my kids the following: “a person can only give real advice on how to be them, because their decisions were based on following their own advice. So do not follow the advice of someone that you don’t want to become yourself.”

So when you learn from someone on YouTube, ask yourself if they are where you want to be one day. If they’re not...just remember that there’s a reason they’re not. If they are, then by all means...follow their path.

 

[Maaz Hasan]

those 4 are the ones I feel teach well.
Then there are some I did not mention but some find amazing!
So maybe ALL the rest are not garbage
MOST of them MIGHT be.
But the point I am trying to make is not that they teach well. I am trying to say that they teach SOMEthing. Maybe they left something essential out, fine. The intelligent student (most avid learners are included in this group) will manage even with little instructions!
As long as, as @Maaz Hasan said, You Tube is not the only source.
I hate wasting the time of the questioner just because of my stupid posts, but the reason I am actually going on with this thing is because I don't want him to be biased like many are!
Many AMAZING stuff from the books will never make it to the YT.
But a lot of he stuff on YT will also never be directly obtained from books. Because maybe that 'garbage' channel guy had a SINGLE great idea in her/his lifetime which will never be in the books 'cuz she/he created it.
And I feel it is just that if we abuse (not the severe forms) someone for something stupid, we praise that person for any great idea.
So I just want to say here, I feel (notice how it is completely MY opinions, and I maybe naive) if we ignore the internet, we will hamper our art's growth.
Also...what I hate is anyone doing anything online which they would not do in real life.
I could have appeared as the 'experienced-saint level' of magicians who criticise magic on YT and its tutorials. But I have gained amazing stuff from there and I want you guys to get that as well. So I did not pretend to hate YT.
So please check out the wealth of You Tube! It is nlt like I have a channel (I would have put a link here then) or will get any money out of it. It will be completely for you guys' benefit.

My opinions, I keep stressing it is just the way I feel, I think. Completely fine for anybody to disagree. Completely. Okay.
I would suggest, if you wish to take my suggestions @Mfick618 that you try and believe You Tube a little more than most other magicians and try and treat it and respect it as a good learning source. Don't ignore books. I have many books on magic. Those guide me really well. But still I don't hate You Tube, honestly.


One last thing...an open question to all who feel something about this as well...

If someone has put something great on You Tube, if someone has done something however badly to help some avid student somewhere to learn some magic...

Why shouldn't they get views?

We never said they shouldn't get views. We are saying that due to YouTube's algorithm, quantity > quality. People will post stuff just to get views. And a lot of it is garbage.

Furthermore, almost everything on YouTube that is a "brilliant idea" Is either A) from a book, B) previously released, or C) not well developed enough. Due to the algorithm, it would be uploaded pretty much instantly. And let's be honest, very few of these ideas are brilliant. Those of those that are are from professional magicians who will tell you exactly what we told you:

It's not worth learning if you aren't learning right. YouTube is a good source if it is taught right and in detail, And it isn't your only source.