What are some good general resources on card magic that are not crazy expensive (Somewhere around 20-40$ would be good price)? I have been practicing magic for about 9 months now, been doing some cardistry stuff (got Andrei Jihk's Genesis V1 last year) but I want to expand my knowledge base with some good reliable resources. Any suggestions? I believe I've heard that Dan Perry had a good set but it was pretty expensive.
Books and Dvds
- Thread starter mclintock
- Start date
Good on you for expanding your horizons.
As far as magic resources go. The best place you can spend your time and money is in books--not DVDs. Books are where the real secrets are hidden. It's rare for DVDs to be recommended over books.
On that, my question is this: What books do you currently own?
My recommendation would be 'Royal Road to Card Magic', since you're into cards and that's usually the 'go-to' for beginner card magic.
Maybe check out a local library, since you don't have the most expendable budget out there. You might be able to have some reading material at your fingertips.
As far as magic resources go. The best place you can spend your time and money is in books--not DVDs. Books are where the real secrets are hidden. It's rare for DVDs to be recommended over books.
On that, my question is this: What books do you currently own?
My recommendation would be 'Royal Road to Card Magic', since you're into cards and that's usually the 'go-to' for beginner card magic.
Maybe check out a local library, since you don't have the most expendable budget out there. You might be able to have some reading material at your fingertips.
For someone who is 9 months into card magic, I would recommend the following:
Royal Road to Card Magic - Jean Hugard and Fred Braue
Self-Working Card Tricks - Karl Fulves
Scarne on Card Tricks - John Scarne
101 Amazing Card Tricks - Bob Longe
A read through these will give you a good grounding in principles and basic sleights, and give you some killer tricks to try out as well.
Even if you only want to perform card tricks, it's always a good idea to read a bit about other kinds of magic as well. A broad understanding of magic as a whole can be useful even if you never perform anything other than card magic. Mark Wilson's Complete Course, as well as Joshua Jay's Complete Course are good for this purpose.
The best bit?
All the above a re available on Amazon and if bought all at once would probably cost you about $75. That's an average price of $12.50 each.
Any questions, just let me know.
Rev
Royal Road to Card Magic - Jean Hugard and Fred Braue
Self-Working Card Tricks - Karl Fulves
Scarne on Card Tricks - John Scarne
101 Amazing Card Tricks - Bob Longe
A read through these will give you a good grounding in principles and basic sleights, and give you some killer tricks to try out as well.
Even if you only want to perform card tricks, it's always a good idea to read a bit about other kinds of magic as well. A broad understanding of magic as a whole can be useful even if you never perform anything other than card magic. Mark Wilson's Complete Course, as well as Joshua Jay's Complete Course are good for this purpose.
The best bit?
All the above a re available on Amazon and if bought all at once would probably cost you about $75. That's an average price of $12.50 each.
Any questions, just let me know.
Rev
I keep revisiting Expert Card Technique and am always finding new stuff, If you could do everything in that book alone you'd be one of the best card magicians out there.
Thank you very much for the suggestions. Brett, I actually do not have any books at the moment, my only learning sources have been Genesis, my brother, and youtube, now before I get burnt at the stake for using youtube I only used to refine techniques my brother already taught me. And another quick question, people get all up in arms about people exposing magic on youtube even more classic things like the pass and such, saying it is breaking the magicians code, doesn't a book do the same thing? Given with a price attached, on Amazon that price can be under 10$
The issue is one of accessibility. Any spectator can look up an effect on Youtube, while people only tend to buy books if they are interested in learning magic.
The other issue is respect for the creator. If someone has decided to share their methods with people through putting out a book or DVD and someone posts the method for free on Youtube it really is a disincentive for people to publish their magic.
The final issue is the most people on Youtube suck. They perform for the camera with no presentation. Their focus is on the sleight (did you see it?) and not the presentation. Additionally, most performers on Youtube have learned from Youtube and have learned things incorrectly.
The books Rev and Josh listed are great. The only addition is Encyclopedia of Card Tricks. I would get Royal Road, Encyclopedia of Card Tricks, Scarne on Card Tricks and Expert Card Technique. That is six month to a year worth of material. Save Expert Card Technique until after you have gone through the other three.
'Breaking the code' is when a secret is revealed to someone who doesn't intend to utilize the secret for magic. A laymen only wants to know the HOW a trick is done for sake of knowing the secret. Not because they want to learn how to do a 4 Ace production.
This is where YouTube becomes a problem. Now, any laymen can look up a trick by just describing what happens and find an exposure video just to know HOW it fried them. Ironically, this also ruins their magic experience. Which is funny in a way. They ruin it for themselves.
It is uncommon that the exposure leads someone into learning more magic. But that's beside the point.
This is where YouTube becomes a problem. Now, any laymen can look up a trick by just describing what happens and find an exposure video just to know HOW it fried them. Ironically, this also ruins their magic experience. Which is funny in a way. They ruin it for themselves.
It is uncommon that the exposure leads someone into learning more magic. But that's beside the point.
Interesting, now I see people like 52Kards and DisturbReality and TheRussianGenius to know their way around cards and not just be doing it to expose the effect, in your opinions would it be wrong for someone genuinely interested in magic to use them as a source of information?
It's really iffy. I mean, I went my way about YouTube when I first started just to see what I would like and wanted to do. I could only afford a deck and wanted to become familiar with what the forums were talking about.
As far as using them as a credible learning source, I'd say no. They, like any tutorial, are only going to show you how something is done. Books also do that, but go further into detail about methods, theory, performance. Thins you're not going to find on a YouTube channel.
If you can't afford books and don't have access to a library. I'm sure we can find some sort of a solution. But if you have any money you want to invest into magic, you place all bets on books.
Watch the free video on this site by Jason England where he talks about the books he recommends everyone should read. Many are available inexpensively on Kindle and paperback.
The Kindle edition of Royal Road is $2.99 on Amazon.
I've noticed just a few issues with it, such as quite often, instead of the word right, it shows fight.
I've found in one instance where the words were missing, and appeared next to an image above the paragraph.
Still, at $2.99, it's a bargain.
I've also seen on L&L's website, they're offering eBooks, and they have a huge library to choose from.
You're probably not quite ready for it, but The Collected Works of Alex Elmsley, Volume 1 is $9.95
Oh, and before I forget, also on Amazon, Bobo's Modern Coin Magic kindle edition is $4.49
Good luck,
Dave
I've noticed just a few issues with it, such as quite often, instead of the word right, it shows fight.
I've found in one instance where the words were missing, and appeared next to an image above the paragraph.
Still, at $2.99, it's a bargain.
I've also seen on L&L's website, they're offering eBooks, and they have a huge library to choose from.
You're probably not quite ready for it, but The Collected Works of Alex Elmsley, Volume 1 is $9.95
Oh, and before I forget, also on Amazon, Bobo's Modern Coin Magic kindle edition is $4.49
Good luck,
Dave
The Jason England list is a great start. I still have a lot of this on my plate 
If you are the mobile type, you can find many of these books at lybrary.com in PDF format: Royal Road to Card Magic, Expert Card Technique, Scarne on card tricks, Encyclopedia of card tricks, the Vernon trilogy... The books are pretty cheap (between 5 - 15$ mostly). I like the PDF format as it makes them easily to have in your phone or tablet at all times. Plus, the table of contents makes for easy navigation, and you can take your own notes directly in the books.
I will use youtube to complete my readings, when I want to know how a sleight should look like. But it is getting more and more difficult to find good performances as I progress to more advanced sleights. Plus there is a lot of crappy stuff on youtube, so always be aware of that when searching for something. However, some vids are useful.
One of the most useful channels I have found is the one of Aaron Fisher: he's got great tips on card magic, not just sleights.
If you are the mobile type, you can find many of these books at lybrary.com in PDF format: Royal Road to Card Magic, Expert Card Technique, Scarne on card tricks, Encyclopedia of card tricks, the Vernon trilogy... The books are pretty cheap (between 5 - 15$ mostly). I like the PDF format as it makes them easily to have in your phone or tablet at all times. Plus, the table of contents makes for easy navigation, and you can take your own notes directly in the books.
I will use youtube to complete my readings, when I want to know how a sleight should look like. But it is getting more and more difficult to find good performances as I progress to more advanced sleights. Plus there is a lot of crappy stuff on youtube, so always be aware of that when searching for something. However, some vids are useful.
One of the most useful channels I have found is the one of Aaron Fisher: he's got great tips on card magic, not just sleights.
I need to look at the Jason England and see what would recommend.
The above example of the PDF version of 'Royal Road is why I would recommend to get books in most situations. It's a very cheap book to acquire anyway.
Expert Card Technique, from what I have been told, is a bit advanced for a beginner. However, it DOES have a section that relates to performing that is (again, from what I've been told) very very good to know.
One thing I would recommend is to also inquire and look into books regarding the performance side of magic. The sleights and tricks we do are the backbone of what we do, but we are all actors and performers at the core. We are all playing the part of a magician.
How would you play that part?
If you have access to theatre classes, improv, open-mic, Toastmasters; all are great resources to tap into.
One PDF I have that deals greatly on the subject of performing is 'Our Magic' by Maskelyne.
One thing to also consider is WHO you want to perform for. As there are lots of books that deal with specific audiences and age groups.
Here's why I suggest why you should get books:
They DON'T crash. They only stop working when they are caught in the rare occurrence of a house fire. They don't stop working when you download Limewire or visit a site of less-than-reputable integrity.
I had a bunch of books by PDF on my laptop, so when it crashed, I believed them all to be gone.
Fortunately, I found them all again and started reading (as well as freak out about to what I was reading). But I would HIGHLY advise that you put your stock into books. I know some sites allow you access to re-download the PDFs in such an instance, but I'm not sure if all sites do this.
Unless the book is FREE by PDF, I would recommend you get the books.
The above example of the PDF version of 'Royal Road is why I would recommend to get books in most situations. It's a very cheap book to acquire anyway.
Expert Card Technique, from what I have been told, is a bit advanced for a beginner. However, it DOES have a section that relates to performing that is (again, from what I've been told) very very good to know.
One thing I would recommend is to also inquire and look into books regarding the performance side of magic. The sleights and tricks we do are the backbone of what we do, but we are all actors and performers at the core. We are all playing the part of a magician.
How would you play that part?
If you have access to theatre classes, improv, open-mic, Toastmasters; all are great resources to tap into.
One PDF I have that deals greatly on the subject of performing is 'Our Magic' by Maskelyne.
One thing to also consider is WHO you want to perform for. As there are lots of books that deal with specific audiences and age groups.
Here's why I suggest why you should get books:
They DON'T crash. They only stop working when they are caught in the rare occurrence of a house fire. They don't stop working when you download Limewire or visit a site of less-than-reputable integrity.
I had a bunch of books by PDF on my laptop, so when it crashed, I believed them all to be gone.
Fortunately, I found them all again and started reading (as well as freak out about to what I was reading). But I would HIGHLY advise that you put your stock into books. I know some sites allow you access to re-download the PDFs in such an instance, but I'm not sure if all sites do this.
Unless the book is FREE by PDF, I would recommend you get the books.
Yes, it's wrong on several levels.
First, these people have no clue about what they're doing or talking. I mean they don't show any respect for the creators or magic in general and their references, if there are any, are often plain wrong.
Although they would never admit, all that they want are clicks and fame, they do NOT want to help other people except themselves. It may be tempting sometimes because it's free, but you would only support such unethical and harming behavior.
Learn it right from the start, get the real deal.
There ARE some very good videos to learn from for free, such as Aaron Fisher and similar experienced magicians who have forgotten more about magic than these youtube magicians will ever learn.
Other than that, the advice given here is excellent. There are even free (legal) e-books you can and should get (conjuringarts.org, vanishing inc just to name two) and other e-books are very low priced ('Our Magic' for example).
Chris, interesting could you give me some examples of when this happened? For example 52Kards (Asad Chaudhry) did a video on a move by Dan and Dave and mentioned in the description that they gave him permission to teach it. If you can get me information that they did not authorize him to do this then to me he and the other youtube magicians I have watched will be discredited, and I will stop watching them. (I do not mean to be argumentative or a jerk but I think you saying they have no clue what they are doing may have been a bit of a blind accusation. Also thank you for the information about ConjuringArts and Vanishing Inc.)
Here's the thing. All the YouTube channels do is teach you a move--like any tutorial or DVD. They just teach you how to do one thing at a time.
And something I recently learned. If you're learning a move that another magician makes, it may not be the best fit for you (in my case, 'Raise Rise'), as the move is best suited for that particular magicians handling. And as far as the D&D move being taught by 52kards. I find it very concerning that a move by D&D is being taught secondhand by someone else.
If I'm going to learn a move from a tutorial, id rather learn it from its actual source. If it's a significantly older move that a lot of magicians know and can/have done tutorials over, I'm certainly not going to consult a YouTube channel about it that's meant to garner viewers who may not be interested in magic.
It's really more of the 'shotgun' approach he and other YouTube instructors have. You're better suited to acquire information that SPECIALIZES, rather than consult a source that tries to cater to everybody (young magicians and nosy laymen alike)
In that case, I'd much prefer to visit a magic club/magic ring. There may be a SAM or IBM Ring in your area that might be worth checking out
And something I recently learned. If you're learning a move that another magician makes, it may not be the best fit for you (in my case, 'Raise Rise'), as the move is best suited for that particular magicians handling. And as far as the D&D move being taught by 52kards. I find it very concerning that a move by D&D is being taught secondhand by someone else.
If I'm going to learn a move from a tutorial, id rather learn it from its actual source. If it's a significantly older move that a lot of magicians know and can/have done tutorials over, I'm certainly not going to consult a YouTube channel about it that's meant to garner viewers who may not be interested in magic.
It's really more of the 'shotgun' approach he and other YouTube instructors have. You're better suited to acquire information that SPECIALIZES, rather than consult a source that tries to cater to everybody (young magicians and nosy laymen alike)
In that case, I'd much prefer to visit a magic club/magic ring. There may be a SAM or IBM Ring in your area that might be worth checking out
Hey. Don't worry about it. We all speak from a degree of experience. We just don't want to see someone in the learning process waste any time and/or money than they need to.
In this case, we just don't want you to waste your time on YouTube
Thanks, Tonight I ordered five book for around 40$ total, Royal Road, Expert Card Technique, Encyclopedia of Card Tricks, MSS Card Control, and Collected Works of Alex Elmsley V1 (Last one as an eBook, I could not refuse 10$ for it). At some point I'll be picking up V2 of Collected Works and Scarne. But I should have plenty of material for now.Hey. Don't worry about it. We all speak from a degree of experience. We just don't want to see someone in the learning process waste any time and/or money than they need to.
In this case, we just don't want you to waste your time on YouTube