(This post could also be titled, Why I Think Books are Important.)
I got into magic when I was 14 or 15, and I'm 20 now, and I started magic because I learned to juggle and figured, "why not learn a few magic tricks? After all, magic and juggling go hand in hand." I've always loved watching magic and I honestly can't remember what magic thing it was that "gave me the bug" as some people say. I do remember a guy pulling a coin out of my ear when I was in third grade or something, and I also remember seeing the old "Jack robbers" trick and being completely amazed. I mention these things to give you some background and so that you know where I'm coming from, now on to books.
I learned juggling for 6 months or so before I learned the magic trick that got me "started," and again, I gravitated towards books. I learned the "jack robbers" trick mentioned earlier from a book in the library in Auburn, Michigan where my aunt was the librarian. This got me started, and I've never gone back. Actually, the first magic trick I learned was the Cups and Balls. I learned it from a book in 6th grade, sadly I'll never be able to find the book again. It was the absolute best magic book I've ever seen. Sadly, I didn't learn much else from that book, and I never performed anything. (For this book, think Mark Wilson's book, but with color photos instead of line drawings, and a section at the beginning of each chapter detailing famous pros and other useful info about the background of whatever branch of magic you're studying, including bits of psychology.)
Anyway, eventually I learned about Royal Road to Card Magic. I read this book from cover to cover and learned everything I could. This really got me started in magic. I started performing for everyone that would watch. I also got Born to Perform Card Magic, the DVD from Penguin. This showed me the "modern style" of street magic, and I learned the ACR that's taught in that DVD. Eventually I also got Mark Wilson's book. Mark Wilson's book taught me about the one ahead principle, and a ton of other amazing things.
Jumping ahead to the last 6 months, I now own Expert Card Technique, Bobo's Coin Magic, Card Control by Arthur Buckley, and a few other classic texts. I've also read Erdnase, but in digital form. From these books I've learned many things from tricks to presentation to psychology. This reading has lead me to believe that reading books, in particular, classics, will make you a better magician. For example, early on I learned a few coin tricks from Michael Ammar's Coin Magic video (VHS...lol), but I never considered myself very good at them. Then I got In the Beginning There Were Coins and that didn't really help, aside from teaching me with palms and vanishes. Now, I'm working through Bobo's coin magic, and I'm learning the tricks in there, and I'm actually doing well, judging from the reactions I'm getting. This is probably because I've become a much better performer and learned the timing required for coin magic, but I think there's something to be said for sitting down with a book and having to figure out what's supposed to happen by interpreting the authors description and a few line drawings.
Another thing that I've learned over the short few years is that a lot of the magic that we do today can be traced back to ideas published by Reginald Scott, Robert-Houdin, Erdnase, Bobo, Hugard, Buckley, Marlo and Vernon. Granted, there are more people who've published influential things and to list them all would take a long time, but I've not studied the entirety of magic literature, and this list is limited mainly to close-up and stand-up material. For example Re-Set, the classic Paul Harris trick, is similar to a trick published in the Discoverie of Witchcraft called "How To Deliver Out Foure Aces, And To Convert Them Into Foure Knaves." I'm not trying to say that Scott's trick is the inspiration for Re-Set. What I'm trying to do is point out that there's a similarity. (Re-Set is a lot better than Scott's trick.)
Final thought, I'm in no way arguing that we don't study new stuff, and I'm also not arguing that you shouldn't learn from DVD's. What I am trying to do is show that there's a young guy who enjoys the classics. I'm also trying to show that there are valuable things in the old books.
I got into magic when I was 14 or 15, and I'm 20 now, and I started magic because I learned to juggle and figured, "why not learn a few magic tricks? After all, magic and juggling go hand in hand." I've always loved watching magic and I honestly can't remember what magic thing it was that "gave me the bug" as some people say. I do remember a guy pulling a coin out of my ear when I was in third grade or something, and I also remember seeing the old "Jack robbers" trick and being completely amazed. I mention these things to give you some background and so that you know where I'm coming from, now on to books.
I learned juggling for 6 months or so before I learned the magic trick that got me "started," and again, I gravitated towards books. I learned the "jack robbers" trick mentioned earlier from a book in the library in Auburn, Michigan where my aunt was the librarian. This got me started, and I've never gone back. Actually, the first magic trick I learned was the Cups and Balls. I learned it from a book in 6th grade, sadly I'll never be able to find the book again. It was the absolute best magic book I've ever seen. Sadly, I didn't learn much else from that book, and I never performed anything. (For this book, think Mark Wilson's book, but with color photos instead of line drawings, and a section at the beginning of each chapter detailing famous pros and other useful info about the background of whatever branch of magic you're studying, including bits of psychology.)
Anyway, eventually I learned about Royal Road to Card Magic. I read this book from cover to cover and learned everything I could. This really got me started in magic. I started performing for everyone that would watch. I also got Born to Perform Card Magic, the DVD from Penguin. This showed me the "modern style" of street magic, and I learned the ACR that's taught in that DVD. Eventually I also got Mark Wilson's book. Mark Wilson's book taught me about the one ahead principle, and a ton of other amazing things.
Jumping ahead to the last 6 months, I now own Expert Card Technique, Bobo's Coin Magic, Card Control by Arthur Buckley, and a few other classic texts. I've also read Erdnase, but in digital form. From these books I've learned many things from tricks to presentation to psychology. This reading has lead me to believe that reading books, in particular, classics, will make you a better magician. For example, early on I learned a few coin tricks from Michael Ammar's Coin Magic video (VHS...lol), but I never considered myself very good at them. Then I got In the Beginning There Were Coins and that didn't really help, aside from teaching me with palms and vanishes. Now, I'm working through Bobo's coin magic, and I'm learning the tricks in there, and I'm actually doing well, judging from the reactions I'm getting. This is probably because I've become a much better performer and learned the timing required for coin magic, but I think there's something to be said for sitting down with a book and having to figure out what's supposed to happen by interpreting the authors description and a few line drawings.
Another thing that I've learned over the short few years is that a lot of the magic that we do today can be traced back to ideas published by Reginald Scott, Robert-Houdin, Erdnase, Bobo, Hugard, Buckley, Marlo and Vernon. Granted, there are more people who've published influential things and to list them all would take a long time, but I've not studied the entirety of magic literature, and this list is limited mainly to close-up and stand-up material. For example Re-Set, the classic Paul Harris trick, is similar to a trick published in the Discoverie of Witchcraft called "How To Deliver Out Foure Aces, And To Convert Them Into Foure Knaves." I'm not trying to say that Scott's trick is the inspiration for Re-Set. What I'm trying to do is point out that there's a similarity. (Re-Set is a lot better than Scott's trick.)
Final thought, I'm in no way arguing that we don't study new stuff, and I'm also not arguing that you shouldn't learn from DVD's. What I am trying to do is show that there's a young guy who enjoys the classics. I'm also trying to show that there are valuable things in the old books.
