Hey everyone. I’m brand new to this site and card magic as well which is making it difficult for me. I don’t know where the best route to start is? Am I supposed to learn shuffling first? Cuts? Any help? Any tips or advice is greatly appreciated.
Where do I start?
- Thread starter CanYouTeachMeToMagic
- Start date
Depends on the path that you want to take. I can give some general recommendations:
For General Magic I would start with Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic and that will give you a great foundation in magic since it has cards, coins, mental magic, and much more. There is an accompanying DVD out there somewhere too if you look hard enough. Once you have studied that and have a good foundation of the knowledge, then you can graduate to the next series called to the Tarbell Course in Magic.
For card magic I would start with Royal Road to Card Magic if you are on a budget. If you can afford it, there is the Card College volumes but they are really expensive. Royal Road to Card Magic is sufficient enough for me and then I would also recommend Self-Working Card Tricks by Karl Fulves to get some experience with just performing card magic to spectators in general. Once you have a solid foundation in those two books I would graduate up to The Expert at the Card Table by S.W. Erdnase and Expert Card Technique by Jean Hugard and Fred Braue (authors of Royal Road).
For coin magic, I recommend Modern Coin Magic by J.B. Bobo. Then you can upgrade to other coin magic such as David Roth's Expert Coin Magic once you have built the foundation laid out in Modern Coin Magic.
For mental magic/mentalism, I recommend Practical Mental Effects by Theo Anneman and 13 Steps to Mentalism/Mindreaders: Masters of Deception (both can be found in Encyclopedia of Mentalism and Mentalists) by Corinda and Rauscher.
For General Magic I would start with Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic and that will give you a great foundation in magic since it has cards, coins, mental magic, and much more. There is an accompanying DVD out there somewhere too if you look hard enough. Once you have studied that and have a good foundation of the knowledge, then you can graduate to the next series called to the Tarbell Course in Magic.
For card magic I would start with Royal Road to Card Magic if you are on a budget. If you can afford it, there is the Card College volumes but they are really expensive. Royal Road to Card Magic is sufficient enough for me and then I would also recommend Self-Working Card Tricks by Karl Fulves to get some experience with just performing card magic to spectators in general. Once you have a solid foundation in those two books I would graduate up to The Expert at the Card Table by S.W. Erdnase and Expert Card Technique by Jean Hugard and Fred Braue (authors of Royal Road).
For coin magic, I recommend Modern Coin Magic by J.B. Bobo. Then you can upgrade to other coin magic such as David Roth's Expert Coin Magic once you have built the foundation laid out in Modern Coin Magic.
For mental magic/mentalism, I recommend Practical Mental Effects by Theo Anneman and 13 Steps to Mentalism/Mindreaders: Masters of Deception (both can be found in Encyclopedia of Mentalism and Mentalists) by Corinda and Rauscher.
I was aiming mostly for cards but I would like to have a few other tricks like coin and mentalism as well. But thanks a lot for the book recommendations! I appreciate it a lot.
Go on youtube and type: "Calen Morelli 365 Project" and see if that is the type of magic that you want to do.
Go on youtube and type: "Bizau 365 Hours of Magic" and see if that is the type of card magic you like.
Go on youtube and type: "Card Magic of Sankey" and do the same.
Something that is not card magic, "Magic of Mario Lopez" and go to his account. He does cigarette magic, coins and cards. He was 2015 FISM winner. Great dude.
Repeat this process for, "Dai Vernon, Ed Marlo, Dai Vernon's Student Giobbi, and then look in FISM winners of Parlor and Close up". Try and find the type of magic that you feel most attracted to. Then you will know where to start from.
At the same time you build an imagination repertoire of magic effects. These will act as material for your inspiration and creation. I did this 2 years before I started the 365 project. Just kept on watching a lot of performances from Slydini, Cardini and all the masters. Then started watching videos of modern magic and then went on to read. Meanwhile I was developing my foundation.
It is important to keep yourself entertained at the beginning. Don't try to swell into reading books too much at the beginning. Learn the basics - a good top palm, 3-4 color changes, a switch and a force (classic force and top card switch) and 3-4 flourishes from Fontaine Cards, Anyone Worldwide, Dealers Grip - these flourishes will strengthen the muscles in your hands and prepare you to be able to easier master sleights. Once you have your first bunch of things to learn, they will keep your hands busy as you are on the bus, in class, during lunch break at work, etc. Start playing with these, try and come up with effects, small stories - make it so that you do not burn out / bore yourself at the beginning. Make the beginning of your journey with magic as fun as possible. If you end up loving it, you will surely go on to reading books and mastering harder sleights.
Much love
Go on youtube and type: "Bizau 365 Hours of Magic" and see if that is the type of card magic you like.
Go on youtube and type: "Card Magic of Sankey" and do the same.
Something that is not card magic, "Magic of Mario Lopez" and go to his account. He does cigarette magic, coins and cards. He was 2015 FISM winner. Great dude.
Repeat this process for, "Dai Vernon, Ed Marlo, Dai Vernon's Student Giobbi, and then look in FISM winners of Parlor and Close up". Try and find the type of magic that you feel most attracted to. Then you will know where to start from.
At the same time you build an imagination repertoire of magic effects. These will act as material for your inspiration and creation. I did this 2 years before I started the 365 project. Just kept on watching a lot of performances from Slydini, Cardini and all the masters. Then started watching videos of modern magic and then went on to read. Meanwhile I was developing my foundation.
It is important to keep yourself entertained at the beginning. Don't try to swell into reading books too much at the beginning. Learn the basics - a good top palm, 3-4 color changes, a switch and a force (classic force and top card switch) and 3-4 flourishes from Fontaine Cards, Anyone Worldwide, Dealers Grip - these flourishes will strengthen the muscles in your hands and prepare you to be able to easier master sleights. Once you have your first bunch of things to learn, they will keep your hands busy as you are on the bus, in class, during lunch break at work, etc. Start playing with these, try and come up with effects, small stories - make it so that you do not burn out / bore yourself at the beginning. Make the beginning of your journey with magic as fun as possible. If you end up loving it, you will surely go on to reading books and mastering harder sleights.
Much love