Search results

This is the best advice you've been given so far. Mark Wilson's book covers basics in cards, coins, bills, rope, cups & balls, sponge balls, billiard balls, silks, stage illusions and mentalism. There is enough there to keep you busy for six months. The next step for cards, coins and...

If money isn't an issue, check out Roberto Giobbi's Card College DVDs which cover Card College Volumes 1 and 2 (except the pass) in almost 8 hours of video for $125. I don't have the Royal Road DVDs, but had no trouble learning from the book. If the DVDs are $60 and the book is less than...

As others have said, this is a matter of proper routining. A a big or powerful effect such as the Invisible Deck shouldn't be the first effect you perform. Your routine needs to build up to those effects. Do two other effects that involve a reversed card or a prediction and then get into...

I agree completely. The sad part is stuff like this makes me (and I assume others) less likely to help people looking for an effect because there is the risk they are going to do the same thing.

I'll echo the endorsement of the Eco Edition. I really like them and they have a good feel to them. If you want just green backs check out here: http://www.mjmmagic.com/store/greenbacked-bicycle-cards-from-vincenzo-di-fatta-p-1288.html Green backs and faces check out here...

The RNT2 sets are really nice, but probably not something you want to get if you are just starting out. On the flip side, I have a "cheap" set (either Uday or MAK) and they work fine but are, as Silver said, easily dented. I think a good "in-between" set would be the Morrissey...

Stars of Magic - I'm working through it now. It has Dai Vernon's Triumph, Cutting the Aces, Ambitious Card and Slow-Motion Aces; Scarne's Silver and Copper, Carlyle's Homing Card, Daley's Itinerant Pasteboards, Slydini's Flight of the Paper Balls and more. You can't find more classics (in...

Agreed. The "!" is a good thing and the "?" isn't.

Exactly. If a magician frequently gets the "how do you do that?" question, the accurate answer most likely is "without effective patter and presentation." If the spectators are focused on the method, you haven't done your job as a magician.

Scarecrow: I can't keep myself from recomending books... Get Arthur Buckley's Card Control, it's $5 on Lybrary.com. You will get so much more out of that book than any download on just the side steal. The side steal is also covered very well in Giobbi's Card College Volume 3. I really...

Sounds like an interesting effect and congratulations on coming up with a workable method. However, this sounds similar to effects that are out there using blank cards instead of the Ace of Spades (whole deck turns blank except selected card). The value of the effect is really the method and...

The effect is a presentation of Multum In Parvo which literally translates Much In Little.

I think a rope routine would work well. There is a great one by Roberto Giobbi in the November 2009 Genii magazine called the Houdini Rope Trick. Its beauty is that you are pretending to teach how Houdini did a rope trick but end up frying the audience because you obviously aren't using the...

Do as I Do.... it requires two decks each of which has the same 52 cards. However, I usually perform it with a twist using different colored backs.

What ages are the kids? How long have you been doing magic? How old are you (general range - under 16, between 16 to 20, over 20)? What type of magic do you normally do? What are your favorite effects? All that really needs to be taken into consideration before giving you advice.

I think I may have read too much into your original post. We agree on more things than we disagree. A one way forcing deck is a tool. There are situations where using such a deck makes sense -- like having a spectator select from a table spread or forcing a card when you need to do a deck...

I have to disagree, somewhat. If you take away the patter regarding the forces and the slights, the routine is essentially the standard Svengali deck routine. The difference being that you can show the deck to be "all different" if you are using a Svengali deck. That works on laymen all the...

I have to reiterate what Silver is saying. Don't try to make flash paper at home. To make real flash paper requires using some pretty dangerous chemicals. To do it safely requires having protective gloves, breathing aparatus, etc. As a couple of others have said, check out MJM. That is...

You can get Kauffman's "On the Pass" on DVD. Once you get over the 1980s look (yeah, it was originally on VHS) and the bad background music (guaranteed, you're humming it the next day) the DVD is good. His descriptions are good, but you have to watch his hands (repeatedly) to get the...

I have to STRONGLY disagree. It is not a good idea to learn all the secrets first. Once you learn the secret, the desire is to find out the next secret and then the next and so on. After a while you know a lot of secrets but are unable to perform any effects. Also, do not try to learn 20...