Beginner looking for advice

Oct 1, 2014
1
0
England
Hey all! (I apologise in advance if this is in the wrong place)

After many years of being in love with card magic and now having plenty of spare time I've decided to buy a couple of decks (Bicycle) and attempt to teach myself. So as a complete beginner where do I start? all I can do is the basic shuffle and a charlier cut (I think that's what its called). Ideally I would love for someone to post a list of things to learn from Easy - Hard so I can write it down and chip away at them one at a time.

Thanks for reading and thanks in advance for your advice.
 

WitchDocIsIn

Elite Member
Sep 13, 2008
5,877
2,945
There's a couple choices. 1 - Royal Road To Card Magic by Hugard and Braue. It's a book you can find on Amazon for around $10. The easy stuff is at the beginning, the harder stuff is at the end. Spend time learning everything. I spent 8 months studying that book when I began magic.

2 - How To Do Miracle Card Magic by Adam Wilber and Peter McKinnon. It's a new video, but it covers a LOT of material and these are two very good teachers. Again - easy stuff is at the beginning, harder stuff is later.
 
Feb 18, 2014
146
0
Literally How to do miracle card tricks on ellusionist is the best place to start if you are a beginner in my opinion. I don't really like reading and find it much harder to learn from then to learn from video but that's my personal self it may be different for you.
 

Tower of Lunatic Meat

Elite Member
Sep 27, 2014
2,435
2,029
Texa$, with a dollar sign
I have only been doing magic for 3 months with my 5 year old daughter.

We are both fascinated with one handed card tricks. I'm trying to teach her to do a revolution cut with a small deck of cards.

I learned these in this order:

Revolution Cut
Charlier Cut
One Handed Deck Shuffle

It honestly comes down to what you're interested in. I'm completely amazed with learning and performing one handed card tricks and flourishes.

But you will branch out. I can almost guarantee it.

Royal Road to Card Magic. Get the book. I told myself I was only going to learn one handed card tricks. I recently wanted to learn card forces and branch outside of flourishes.
I can almost guarantee that you will want to do more with cards. Get Royal Road. It is a purchase that you will not regret.

R. Paul Wilson has a DVD on it too. I'd get it if you're like me and you're reading Royal Road going 'Sweet Jesus! I THINK I'm doing this all wrong!'

I'd get the book first, try it out. And if you're like me and absolutely full of self-doubt; get the DVD set--but it's around $60 to SEE if you're doing it right. Might be cheaper to maybe Youtube what you're trying to learn. I don't have the DVD set, I just got the book from the library.

When you do get the book, follow it to the T. Don't skip around like it says.

Get the book.
 
Oct 28, 2014
2
0
in my opinion, i would recommend you to do the Magnetic Hand and bonus the Double lift. Furthermore, you can search on youtube for many videos that guide beginners.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Mike.Hankins

creator / <a href="http://www.theory11.com/tricks/
Nov 21, 2009
435
0
Sacramento, Cali
in my opinion, i would recommend you to do the Magnetic Hand and Double lift. Furthermore, you can search on youtube for many videos that guide beginners.

YouTube for a beginner - BUZZZZZZ! No...just no.

Yes there ARE some "OK" videos out there but most are taught very poorly.

Let me make some suggestions for you:

If card magic is your thing, then let me suggest Card College. It's a multiple volume book set that needs to be in your collection.

Royal Road was already suggested, as was the DVD set by Paul Wilson. So I will second and third that.

An oldie but great still: Michael Ammar's Easy to Master Card Miracles. (There are 9 volumes). He does a GREAT job explaining all of the routines and sleights...
 

Mike.Hankins

creator / <a href="http://www.theory11.com/tricks/
Nov 21, 2009
435
0
Sacramento, Cali
All of the suggestions here are good. If you want free, go to 52kards on youtube. He is great.

Do NOT "go" to 52kards...

He might be skilled, but he teaches routines and sleights that are not his to give away for free...

Do NOT support that kinda of crap.
 
Nov 1, 2007
145
0
If you want to be a great card magician, start where today's greats started - the literature. If you want to be a mediocre card magician, start where the YouTube magicians of today started - on YouTube.

You absolutely must start with Royal Road to Card Magic by Hugard et al. If you are in a position to spend some money on a quality magic education and cannot find a live person to apprentice from, I would highly recommend R. Paul Wilson's accompanying DVD set (not to be a replacement for the book of course).

Show some respect for yourself and the art and do not learn from YouTube, unless you don't mind ruining your fundamentals. 52kards' performances are great but his tutorials teach bad habits and there is no need to expose yourself to that at all.

I would recommend using YouTube for only performances. YouTube is an excellent way to stimulate your creativity and come up with an effect of your own.

Cameron
 
Oct 30, 2014
4
0
If you want to learn a few "card tricks" then go to you tube but if you want to learn magic then the royal road is the best possible start.
 
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