Hi,

I'm new to magic and definitely a beginner in my handling of cards etc. However, I'm really interested in cards, mentalism, etc. however, I want to be able to use the tricks I perform on the street so I'm going to be learning some coin and impromptu stuff as well.

I was wondering if there are any good beginner guides on magic, namely for street magic as it seems to be what I plan on doing. I'm getting Wilson's Complete Guide and then 13 steps to mentalism, but I'm just wondering if there are any other guides I should be looking into for street magic.

Thanks.

Well "street magic" can be anything, card, sponges, cutting your skin and pulling out coins whatever. The Wilson book is great and was more introductory course in magic. If you have the money anyone who has bought the Tarbell volumes in magic will attest to their greatness.

Also sankeymagic.com sells some pretty easy, AWESOME tricks. Go to the beginner section and you will find a lot of neat ideas to play around with.

And if you like cards get Royal Road to card magic, great book. And if your not scared off after all that, buy some of the Card College books, it's more or less an encyclopedia set of card slights and there applications. For gambling slights and table work with cards try Expert at the Card table (the bottom deal has served me well).

Search Banachek and you will find TONS of mentalism stuff, that from my understanding is fairly easy to do. Sankey also sells some mentalism stuff but a lot of it uses cards.

I suggest learning coins and such because of how useful knowledge of coin mechanics are. get Modern Coin Magic and work your way through the sea of coin DVDs after that.

There are so many great books and DVDs out there and I can't list them all. Do a little searching on your own and check your local library (chances are they have some books on magic).

Welcome to magic,

Keegan

Keegan had some good ideas. If you want to work the street, and I am assuming you don't mean blaineing, take any three effects, rate them as an opener (getting a crowd) a middle (little lower in quality) and a "hat trick" (the BEST one you do.) The reason it's a "hat trick" is because before you do it you use your "hat lines" (tell the crowd that you are going to ask for money) and after wards you walk thru the crowd and let them put money in your hat.

The effects don't have to be good, but YOU have to ENTERTAINING in your presentation. If you follow that and don't try to be a Gazzo or Bobby Maverick clone you'll be successful in the streets.

Paddy

Thank you for the tips, I really like the hat idea. I do like Blaine's style, if that's what you mean by "Blaineing," who I ironically or perhaps paradoxically don't find a great performer but he's interested to watch. However, I also like Oz Pearlman, from what I've seen he's really good at entertaining... either way I have miles to go on my performance skills. I have really bad nerves, hah. Thanks for the tips, I'll check some of these out.


Should I put Tarbell above Wilson's if I can afford it?

Paddy has mentioned that "think in threes" approach to street magic before and I followed it for a gig I did back in April. It worked like a charm. I started with three sets of three effects and paired down to two sets of three effects after following some (keep it simple) advice. My hat line was actually to ask the spectators to buy some food from a booth my colegues were running but other than that the performance was essentially busking.

The only thing I would add is to make sure that your last effect not only plays the biggest in terms of reaction but also in terms of crowd size. Once you get that first gasp or yelp from an audience on the street the crowd grows quickly! My only mistake was picking a closing effect for one of my two sets that didn't play large enough. Naturally I discarded that set mid day and performed the the larger playing effect over and over for the rest of the day. Not as much variety for people who happened to pass by on more than one occasion but structurally more effective for the venue.

One book that very, very few people seem to have heard about, but I think is excellent, is The Secrets of Alkazar by Allan Zola Kronzek. It's an account of the author as a youngster being coached by his mentor. As such it contains a lot of sound advice on the attitudes you need to acquire in order to be a good magician. It has 12 chapters and in each you learn just one trick or routine, but it is covered in the finest detail possible. For example, the simple key card trick is covered and it takes eight pages. As a result, this trick probably ranks in the top three out of all the tricks I do for the level of reactions it achieves, despite the fact that almost everyone is already aware of the trick.

I think the information in this book is invaluable to anyone starting out in magic, because it sets up their expectations and makes sure they're pointed in the right direction. It puts all the focus on presentation and less on the actual methods, which is exactly what magicians need to, but usually don't, do.

I can't REALLY tell you that personally because I don't have them. But the Tarbell books have A LOT of stuff in them. The Wilson book does to but not nearly as much as a set of books. Just from a guy who refers people to the Wilson book when they ask what source they should use to get into magic (if they seem to really want to) I'd say start with the Wilson book to get your feet wet. Just because you can very well wind up getting overwhelmed with all the material in the Tarbell books. But that's just my opinion the opinion of a guy who doesn't own them.

Can anyone else who owns them help this guy out?

EDIT

And the only way to get over the nerves when performing is to perform more.

Start with the Wilson book. It's good and at $20 it is cost effective. If you like magic and use properly what you learn in that books GREAT! Move on to Tarbell. Tarbell is older. The writing style is difficult at times and the performances are dated. The information is sound and the effects are good. It would be good for you to have a good foundation in magic before you crack open Tarbell where you will be required to come up with new presentations to just about every effect. I haven't read it but Josh Jays book Complete Course could be good and a lot of people always recommend Henry Hay's the Amateur Magicians Handbook. I got Wilsons book when I was 12 so that is my ultimate recommendation. I got Tarbell when I was 29.

Adam

I have another question, how do you know what tricks to perform and do you read the whole books? I mean, in that Wilson book I heard there was about 300 tricks, do you learn them all or do you just read through them and decide which ones sound cool? If it's me I'd be stuck on wanting to learn them all but I don't see that as being relatively possible, at least not for some time. Sooo when you read books, how do you read through them and how do you choose your tricks?

Nothing put personal preference. I'm sure you have in mind the kind of tricks you already like to see performed. Chances are you will want to perform those kinds of tricks.

For me when I choose a trick in a book it's because I

1. Like the way it looks when it's performed
2. Like the way it works

If I don't like the method than I don't do it. And even if I think the method is clever and great, but the trick doesn't look good I still don't do it. Go with you gut.

Many magicians will also say pick the tricks you really like and practice at them until you can do them better than anyone else. Chances are you wont learn all the tricks in the Wilson book, which is a good thing in my opinion. Since I'm picky I usual only like about 1 out of 10 tricks in a book or DVD and even then I only perform 1 out of 50 or so of the tricks I like on a regular bases. Get your bases covered with all the slights, and then pick the tricks you like.