Where to go next?

[Wallmott]

Hello everyone!

I have been studying magic for a couple of years now but right now i feel a bit lost and i dont know where to go next.

I have been studying everything in royal road to card magic, Oz Pearlmans Born to performe, Ellusionist Crash Course series, a couple of dvds on the pass and Aaron Fishers book the paper engine and i have worked really hard to perfect whats in there.

I think that it is easy to find great dvds and books out there for beginners and advances magicians, but its harder to find dvds and books that will help you to get from beginner to more advanced.

Can someone recommend any books or dvds? I prefer dvds because english is not my first language so its sometimes hard for me to learn from books.

Is there any dvds out there that are like Aaron Fishers books that has both some great sleights and effects on them? It gets so expensive to buy a dvd for every trick and sleight.

 

[Sinful07]

I suggest Disc one of the trilogy.

Here's a review:

http://forums.theory11.com/showthread.php?t=4828&highlight=trilogy+review

Although The Trilogy in itself is a good investment, if you're only looking for sleights, Disc one and three would be a good idea. As well as Getting Andthensome Which is the Fourth disc to the Trilogy.

They're by Dan And Dave Buck by the way. The review above is quite indepth. You can easily Google/Youtube any of their effects.


Likewise, "Mystique" From Daniel madison's "Dangerous" DVD can also be a good investment.

 

[holo]

1. That is the single best reason for preferring DVD's that I have ever heard. I applaud you sir.
2. I am going to have to disagree with Sinful07 on the trilogy. The types of effects (and really the category of magic) that the trilogy falls under is way off from Aaron Fisher material and such.
3. Mystique isn't bad, but personally I would stick with the stuff from the paper engine.

 

[Cedric Taylor]

Its now time...i've had that feeling, and i felt like its just something out there thats not created yet and all of the other stuff is now old news, that made me become a creator, so its time for you to come up with something so original and the world will be waiting and your feet for the next miracle, so all i have to say is study and watch anything jay sankey, anything criss angel, reza, learn their secrets, and hear what each magician reasons for doing a certain effect.....i'm not limiting to them, cuz after seeing daniel garcia do different stuff, i was like "damn, i actually could have come up with that", i saw what kevin parker came up with and i was like man, thats my idea, i think u get the point...but i would lay off of trying to read every book and trying to do every effect, i would try coming up with my own...

who knows the next miracle might be from you....

 

[d00m5day]

I recommend Paul Harris AoA books (Art of Astonishment).
I love all his card tricks in there, I highly recommend.
Also, it depends where you want to go.
If you want to go into cardistry, then stuff from De'vo is good, (i think).
If it's card magic really, then yeah, AoA as I mentioned. Jay Sankey has some nice DVD's, highly recommend anytime anywhere, 34 tricks, all impromptu, gets your head thinking about magic.

Hope you will find your path!

 

[btaylor]

Its now time...i've had that feeling, and i felt like its just something out there thats not created yet and all of the other stuff is now old news, that made me become a creator, so its time for you to come up with something so original and the world will be waiting and your feet for the next miracle, so all i have to say is study and watch anything jay sankey, anything criss angel, reza, learn their secrets, and hear what each magician reasons for doing a certain effect.....i'm not limiting to them, cuz after seeing daniel garcia do different stuff, i was like "damn, i actually could have come up with that", i saw what kevin parker came up with and i was like man, thats my idea, i think u get the point...but i would lay off of trying to read every book and trying to do every effect, i would try coming up with my own...

who knows the next miracle might be from you....

so you really don't want to watch criss angel other than to learn what NOT TO DO. he is not good and although he was got attention for magic, he is really bad. david blaine is good to learn from because he knows his performance style and teaches that whatever works for you is golden.

sankey has some good stuff, but i would recommend gregor wilson's in action series as well. routines with different objects and all strong stuff.

 

[praetoritevong]

Study and watch Criss who?

On a serious note, try Tommy Wonder's Visions of Wonder. Great magic, and great thinking. I've heard great things about the books (raved from everyone I know who's worth anything), so the DVDs sound up your alley. Or maybe Vernon's Revelations series?

 

[The Tumbleweed]

Study and watch Criss who?

On a serious note, try Tommy Wonder's Visions of Wonder. Great magic, and great thinking. I've heard great things about the books (raved from everyone I know who's worth anything), so the DVDs sound up your alley. Or maybe Vernon's Revelations series?

Do you have every magic resource known to man?

 

[Cedric Taylor]

while i i'm not doubting those other sources but seriously watch the simplicity of criss angel's moves, notice that all magic is not complex. criss is a great guy to learn from, i happen to love his presentation. kevin parker, the guy is what i like to call a simple genius...his moves and creativity looks simple, hell, he even sounds like he's dead, but the guy is flat out brilliant....

e-mail and gain knowlege from lee asher, he sometimes speak into parables, kinda Christ-like but yeah you'll get the point, put all of the above into what you want to create, the worst thing to do is to try to be either guy....be yourself...

 

[Andy.Boss.Glass]

i chuckle that you say tommy wonder is not simple. and much less brillant than mr.angel. do not study angel, as a matter of fact, throw away your T.V. and pick up books of wonder ( routine structuring) the fitzkee trilogy (showsmanship), and card college (for technique) should help you along your marry little way.

 

[MagicUK]

This is always an interesting topic...

There is a particular stage one will get to in their development as a magician when they realise that they have learned so many effects that they need to filter through their repertoire and decide which effects they actually want to perform in the longer term. The mindset of a magician either side of this point is very different.

For arguments sake we will call the mindset before this point the 'accumulation mindset'. In this stage one wants to improve their skill and their knowledge of effects, and it is arguably the most fun stage of being a magician. You actually get to do things you didn't think you could do, and it's a very satisfying feeling. It sounds to me like this is the stage you're at now, so I'll direct my advice appropriately:

The resources you mentioned are all pretty good and will give you a good grounding. I started off with Royal Road to Card Magic, Expert Card Technique and Expert at the Card table, then bought Daryl's Ambitious Card DVD to learn a bunch of variations of this effect. I found that gave me a pretty good understanding of basic card magic and put me in a position to go and perform.

After performing for a while I began to combine/develop some of the things I had learnt into new effects and decided I wanted the challenge of more advanced card handling. So out of the Books/DVDs/videos (yes this was a while ago!) that I had, the best ones were probably:
Drawing Room Deceptions (Guy Hollingworth) (Also his London Collection and Routines Video)
Devil's Picturebook (Derren Brown)
Pure Effect (Derren Brown)
Absolute Magic (Derren Brown)
Scams and Fantasies with Cards (Darwin Ortiz)
At the Card Table (Darwin Ortiz)
Card Fictions (Pit Hartling)

Each of those resources taught me something important about card magic, whether it being a sleight, effect, routine, or general thoughts on card magic. The card effects that I perform are therefore heavily influenced by the authors above, even though my personality is completely different. I think your natural personality should shine though your magic rather than being something that you have to work on in the same way as your effects, but that's a different story....

So anyway, I would recommend all of those resources that I mentioned above. I have a lot more books and DVDs, but they were the best ones.

Going back to the beginning I said the mindset before and after the turning point are very different. Once you have accumulated a vast array of sleights, effects, routines etc you will probably realise you have learnt far too much to be able to perform it all, and even remember it all. So what do you do then..? Well that's a whole different topic in itself, and probably not something for you to worry about now.... Just enjoy learning a bunch of new amazing card effects!

Hope that is of some help to you...

B

 

[Mr Zsasz]

Hi Wallmott,

I know you've mentioned you'd prefer DVDs to book but I'd like to recommend two books to you.

Strong Magic and Designing Miracles, both by Darwin Ortiz.

Strong Magic focuses on the performance aspect of close-up magic and tools and techniques to improve you performances. Designing Miracles looks at the design and structural conception of magic effects.

I think anyone performing magic should read these books. They both completely changed my outlook on magic.

Regardless of where the next step in your magic takes, enjoy the journey!