Hello guys, i've always been interested in magic. My dad has been a professional clown for over 30+ years and so I grew up surrounded by many cool people and even magicians. Some years ago(to be honest) I started practicing card magic and other tricks, but I quit after a while (being young I carried on other things). Now I decided to pick up and start fresh. What advice can you guys give me to start in the right direction? Im really a newbie, I can perform some basic tricks like the do as I do by OZ, synergy by OZ, ultimate pick a card trick by OZ and a two card monte. Tricks that require basic moves really. What's the best way to practice and gain confidence, I tend to get a bit nervous . I have the Greatest beginner magic free dvd from penguin, Paul Wilson's Royal Road to card magic and a Michael Ammar easy to master card miracles dvd. Last, should I try to learn card handling, breaks, shuffles etc separate to being required for a trick or as I need to along the way. Thanks in advance!

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If you want a starting point from which you can gain a diverse perspective on the many kinds of magic that are available, you should purchase a beginner's magic book. These titles are very well esteemed:

General Magic:
~ Magic: The Complete Course (Author: Joshua Jay)
~ Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic (Author: Mark Wilson)
~ The Tarbell Course in Magic (Volume 1) (Author: Harlan Tarbell)
~ Now You See It, Now You Don't: Lessons in Sleight of Hand (Author: Bill Tarr)

If you are more interested in card-oriented magic or coin-oriented magic, it may behoove you to select a book that is more focused within those categories.

Specific types of magic:
~ Modern Coin Magic (Author: J.B. Bobo)
~ The Royal Road to Card Magic (Author: Jean Hugard & Frederick Braue)
~ Card College (Volume 1) (Author: Roberto Giobbi)

Always remember that the greatest magicians are entertainers, meaning that their sleight of hand technique may be smooth, but the manner in which they present the magic (i.e. how they "dress it up") is what carries the weight of the success.

Presentation and Theory of magic:
~ Magic and Showmanship: A Handbook for Conjurors (Author: Henning Nelms)
~ Strong Magic (Author: Darwin Ortiz)
~ Maximum Entertainment (Author: Ken Weber)

Each of these books has a wealth of beginning material. The Tarbell book is a bit dated, so it is not my first recommendation. If you want to learn modern material, you would be wise to look into Joshua Jay's book.
If you are more interested in card magic or coin magic, the three books that I've listed for those sectors are the best ones to read as introductory material (and beyond).

Too many novice magicians forget to focus on presentation, so you may want to look into the books I have listed under that category. However, it is less important to delve into presentational factors until you have the sleight of hand very well practiced, such that you are ready for a performance.

Welcome to the world of magic.

I agree with Satanica. I first started when young but dropped it, could never master much at 9 yrs old and it was all printed material, amateur magicians handbook and a magic set. I let it go and came back to it after 36 yrs. Started here at Penguin and did mostly gimmicked tricks but got Royal Road to Card Magic book and started reading and practicing. Found some great tricks, also got a few of Oz DVD's as well as Ammar's. Then it was practice and practice. I would take some effects I liked and practice the sleights and tricks. Since then I have not looked back, haven't done much with coins other than some Matrix and Silver Copper Gold.
But Satanica is right, much has to do with presentation, believe me, you can do a simple trick with no character or presentation and it will come across as that, a simple trick. Yet with character and good presentation it can be a dymamite trick garneshing great reactions. I perform each weekend at the local pub, house magician, so to speak. And some of the easiest tricks to do are some of my favorites when I want to get the specs going and into the show. I know when I have done a good job because at the end of the night I am exhausted!
So you have quite a bit to go on, yeah it will take some time, you just won't be going out and perfroming in a week, learn something from RRTCM, Paul is somewhat dry but there are some great beginner tricks to learn, once mastered try it out on a friend of family member. Good Luck and welcome back to the magic community!

I originally started with Amar card magic VHS's (Yeah, that long ago). I'd go over the video's, find the effects I liked, and started practicing them. Once I felt I had the routine down (Copied it, of course) I would then show my family. Once I felt like I could do it well enough for family, I'd take it to High School (That is where I ended up doing most of my performing). I slowly kept adding new stuff to my repitoir and had a pretty nice set up for a while. Once high school was over there, I kinda gave up. I had lost my regular audience and at the time I had not thought about simply seeking out a new audience.

Several years went by before I got back into magic. That's when I came here. I got card college books, started reading through Bobo's, read an Ortiz book an magic theory, and now am at the point where I am designing my own segmented routines with my own handling and my own patter.

It took alot of time, patience, and determination to get this far, and will take more to keep going.

-ArchAngel_G

Great post Archangel!!! We, (really I) forget the crap we had to go thru to get things right. I am glad you reminded us about that part of learning:

Many of the young people think magic is a "quick, easy way to be the center of attention. It's not quick, and if you want to be a GOOD magi, it's not easy. But, D**M is it worth the effort.

Thank you very much for the input guys. Ive been practicing all these days, watching dvd's and reading. It's cool that the tricks that im doing now put in practice what I'm reading on royal road. My wife is my guinea pig and I love watching her entertained, even if I mess up a bit little by little Im getting better. I performed some magic at work and my coworkers loved it and today I had the opportunity to work with a girl ( around 12 ish ) and she was a whole lot more clever at the tricks than grown ups, but I still got her Im loving it

Kids are a tough crowd. Not only do they lack a lot of the assumptions that adults have but they are short! It took me a while to realize that so many sleights we practice have one bad angle in common.....under your hands! When practicing in mirrors and for adults you never have to cover this angle so when I first started performing a bit for kids I was getting called out on stuff that completely stumped adults.

Anyways, sounds like you are off to a good start and you have some good advice already so I'll just wish you good luck!

I also believe that a lot of kids are harder to fool because they don't over think things like adults do, I think adults tend to over think the methods. I worked as a bartender for many years and I would perform floating dollar or Steve fear sons floating cigarette. Most people thought that I had a big elaborate setup like air vents that I could control to push the bill up but when I performed this around children They always assume it was string.


Sorry for the off topic, I also test stuff on my wife but I usually get caught. I don't know what it is but A lot of magicians get busted by their wives.

~Roy