Could someone do me a huge favor and help me to find my way in this art. If someone could please list at least one essential book and DVD for these types of magic;
-Card Magic
-Cardistry/XCM
-Card Cheating/Gambling
-Coin Magic
-Money Magic
-Mentalism
-Hypnosis
-General Magic
-Gimmicked Magic
Thank you very much for reading this, and I hope that if you are reading this then you can provide any information you can for others on the forum just like me. Thanks again, and have a great day!
Card Magic - "Royal Road to Card Magic" by Hugard and Braue. It gives a foundation of skills and is about $10 so if you end up not being that into magic, you're not out a lot of money.
Flourishing - I'm no expert here so take this with a grain of salt. Extreme Beginnerz by De'Vo covers a lot of ground and isn't too expensive. Dan & Dave have more updated stuff, but I am not sure how well it will work for a beginner. With Flourishing, because it is not a secret skill, there are actually a lot of good tutorials online for free (legally).
Don't worry about Card Cheating at this time. Develop basic card handling skills first.
Bobo's Modern Coin Magic or Eric Jones' Metal series - Bobo's is a book, Metal is a video series. Bobo's will cost you about $10, Metal around $90-$100.
I honestly don't do any 'money magic' so I have no recommendations outside of basic foundation recommendations.
Don't worry about Mentalism yet, develop performance skill.
Reality is Plastic and The Trilby Connection, both by Anthony Jacquin/Head Hacking, I believe are the best resources for someone to learn hypnosis. You can use this as a basis to go anywhere with hypnotism - stage hypnotism, street hypnotism, hypnotherapy - whatever.
General Magic - Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic is amazing. It's about $25 and will teach you techniques for every type of magic, including minor forms of Grand Illusion. You can find it at Barnes and Nobles or on Amazon no problem. Yes, it's a bit older now but the techniques are still golden - you just need to come up with new ways to present it. Joshua Jay's Magic! A Complete Guide is also very good and more modern. Josh is great at teaching and I liked the material I saw when I flipped through it.
Gimmicked Magic? I don't think there's a general resource for 'gimmicked magic'. Some magic uses gimmicks, some doesn't. I don't see how it could be separated out without being ridiculous.
All of that said - Don't overwhelm yourself. I studied The Royal Road to Card Magic for 8 months when I started. Nothing else - just RRTCM and a deck of cards. Make sure you're giving the material the time and energy it deserves.
