At about what age is good for designing and building stage illusions? (I'm 13.)

Do you have to get the "Begin your own illusions Vo. 1-4" to be a good illusionist?

No age doesn't matter. what matters is your purpose and your passion!

You don't absolutely have to get those books to be a good illusionist - but they are a good place to start! also Andrew Mayne's are good too.

As a matter of fact, if you have a few good, new ideas and the mind of an 'armchair engineer,' you can invent a few new illusions.

We could use a few more 'Robert Harbin' types.

Andrew Mayne's books have illusion plans in them (correct me if i am wrong.) But is there any book that'll help you become a better magician (illusionist)

What the h*ll? I'm not even going to click on that. Can someone remove his post? Get a life.

Yes i agree Andrew Mayne makes really good illusion plan books
And you can usaully build the plans cheap
So ya I hope this helped

I just ordered illusiontech...i'm pretty excited about it too

I have designed and built numerous of my own original illusions. If you wish to build or design one that's been done before, the best thing to do is by a book of illusion plans and then modify it to what you need.

However, if you want to design and create your OWN illusions, there is a method to the madness. First, decide on what it is that you want to accomplish...What illusion are you wanting to do? Then design a way to do it....Realistically and practically. I have a graph notebook that I sketch all my ideas in. A rough concept of what I want to do. Then I think of ways that I can accomplish them and draw it out to scale.

Last, I design the graphics for the illusion. Is it going to be painted, Black Art, what colors do I want to use, do I want to go with a specific theme with this illusion...which is based on HOW this illusion is going to be presented.

Andrew mayne has some stuff you should look at!!!

If you want try making a larger version of swords through coin. You measure your body length and make the predetermined slits in the box where the swords will go. Everyone was fooled when I did it

Excellent advice! That's exactly what I do too. I also have a notebook with me that I'm scribbling down. Usually after watching a show I'll try to modify the ideas and come up with my own methods. Studying other illusionists shows and determining their methods are a great to create your own methods. Just don't be a copycat.

Also, more praise for Andrew Mayne! His cheap illusions are amazing just because they're cheap. Not everyone can relate to a shiny nice painted pine crate that you put on your head and twist with a big shoulder crank and spin your neck around... but with a cardboard box... how many people have never seen a cardboard box? His illusions are easy for the audience to relate to, and cheap and easy to build wow I have to stop ranting in my posts -_-

haha good luck with your illusions!

get mark wilsons complete guide to magic , it contains a few good stage effects but mostly close up magic. it has a self vanish, self levitation , make someone turn into another person in 10 seconds , and a couple mummy ones that are comedy

if its your first time building and want to build big illusions, i reccomend the rand woodbury illusionworks 1-4 (now on dvd) and any of the illusionworks books (no 1 may be hard to get a hold of though as i want it but cant find it anywhere lol)
hope this helps