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How to research a magic trick?
- Thread starter francism
- Start date
First off, read as many of the classics of magic as you can. Tarbell, Erdnase, Royal Road, Expert Card Technique, Sachs' Sleight of Hand, Martin Gardner's Encyclopedia of Impromptu Magic, Bobo, The Amateur Magician's Handbook, etc. As well as giving you a good broad overview of what's gone before, you may well find ideas for plots and methods that spark your creativity.
Next, sign up to askalexander.com. This is, quite simply, the best magic resource the wit of man has yet produced. I believe that, at the top subscription level, there are now well over a million searchable pages of text, including complete runs of many magic magazines, all of Max Maven's books, all of Harry Lorayne's books, hundreds of pre-20th century books, and the list goes on.
Also, network. Get in touch with knowledgable magicians, privately show them your idea and see what they have to say. One of the handy things about magic is that even those who are very well-known in our community aren't huge celebrities who have five levels of management to get through, it's normally very easy to get in touch with people directly.
Next, sign up to askalexander.com. This is, quite simply, the best magic resource the wit of man has yet produced. I believe that, at the top subscription level, there are now well over a million searchable pages of text, including complete runs of many magic magazines, all of Max Maven's books, all of Harry Lorayne's books, hundreds of pre-20th century books, and the list goes on.
Also, network. Get in touch with knowledgable magicians, privately show them your idea and see what they have to say. One of the handy things about magic is that even those who are very well-known in our community aren't huge celebrities who have five levels of management to get through, it's normally very easy to get in touch with people directly.
Here's the thing: lots of the marketed, professional effects out there are rehashes and special handlings of things that magicians have been doing in some form for years. If you come up with a truly groundbreaking way to execute and/or present something, it won't matter if it's a coin vanish, a broke and restored rubber band, a bill switch, or sawing the lady in half; if it's good and/or you're good at selling it, people will want it.
By that same token, though, it's remarkably difficult to break new ground with lots of things in magic because so many of them have been done and presented in so many ways already that it takes a really special something to make an effect stand out amongst the mountains and mountains of books, downloads, and DVDs the world has to offer.
Here's another thing: I own various DVDs and downloads, and not a one of them I can think of contains a segment where the magic teacher says anything like, "Yeah, this is pretty much the trick that got me rich and famous. I came up with it and showed it to a few magicians, and they were totally mind-blown and threw their money at me until I made this DVD."
To the contrary, they pretty much all say "I created this effect when I was X years old, and I used it as one of my own private routines for years before deciding it's good enough and I know enough about doing it to be making this DVD." It is very much the exception in my experience that a magician develops a trick and begins to market it immediately. You're going to want to spend ample time (as in probably years) drilling your created effects practically to death before trying to teach them to someone else, and I think there's also something to be said for keeping a few of your best tricks to yourself even if there is a demand for the information; what's a magician with no secrets, after all? Those tricks are kind of like your children; you should probably raise them yourself to some degree before you just let them out of the house on their own.
By that same token, though, it's remarkably difficult to break new ground with lots of things in magic because so many of them have been done and presented in so many ways already that it takes a really special something to make an effect stand out amongst the mountains and mountains of books, downloads, and DVDs the world has to offer.
Here's another thing: I own various DVDs and downloads, and not a one of them I can think of contains a segment where the magic teacher says anything like, "Yeah, this is pretty much the trick that got me rich and famous. I came up with it and showed it to a few magicians, and they were totally mind-blown and threw their money at me until I made this DVD."
To the contrary, they pretty much all say "I created this effect when I was X years old, and I used it as one of my own private routines for years before deciding it's good enough and I know enough about doing it to be making this DVD." It is very much the exception in my experience that a magician develops a trick and begins to market it immediately. You're going to want to spend ample time (as in probably years) drilling your created effects practically to death before trying to teach them to someone else, and I think there's also something to be said for keeping a few of your best tricks to yourself even if there is a demand for the information; what's a magician with no secrets, after all? Those tricks are kind of like your children; you should probably raise them yourself to some degree before you just let them out of the house on their own.