A Parents Letter to the Magic Shop

The team at The Merchant of Magic received a parents letter earlier in the week. It's a fine example of exactly why we run the magic shop.

I have been meaning to write and thank you for so long now for the inspiring and magical visit Edwin and I enjoyed at The Merchant of Magic last month, you were so generous with your time, advice and amazing magic we just looked at each other for days saying, How did he? Can you believe …, but I saw the cards in your hands the whole time! Edwin is totally hooked on magic now, and loved his sponge DVD and Starlight cards for his Birthday, which as you mind read was on the 1st September. His Dad bought him Junior Membership of The Magic Circle, so he hopes to be able to go to their workshops and my parents got him tickets to see The Magic Circle Christmas Show.

Your download books are very helpful too, and reassuring, he tried some of his sponge magic at school only to learn that teenagers and sponges didn’t mix, they wanted to grab at them and him! (His cousins were very impressed however with Sponge Magic!) He found his confidence again with his card magic, and made his Dad and I gobsmacked when he rubbed the 3 of Diamonds into a 2! I made him a little frame to keep the card that turned up in your shoe, because the experience of learning magic from you was amazing and something I don’t think either of us will ever forget!

I’m very sure Edwin will have loads of ideas for his Christmas Wish list soon, and I will be back online placing an order at Merchant of Magic! Edwin and I are also following Merchant of Magic on Facebook so will keep up-to-date with the postings.

Again, I’m sorry this has taken so long to write, but truly thank you for inspiring Edwin, he has one other thing in common with Dynamo, that being not Crohn’s Disease but its relation Ulcerative Colitis, when Edwin isn’t able to be tearing up the Basketball Court because of fatigue which has hit him a lot over the summer, he gets absorbed in learning magic, which I don’t think he will ever tire off or run out of things to learn. This gives me great comfort too, so thank you so much, it was wonderful to meet you. – Kind regards Julia

It's so nice reading letters like this. Not only because it gives us feedback on what we are doing at the magic shop, but because it shows that a bricks and mortar magic shop can still inspire magicians to develop their magic and gain so many positive rewards from it. We embrace the internet as a learning tool for magicians, but it has it's disadvantages. Visiting a real magic shop, talking to working magicians, and seeing magic tricks performed live is priceless to serious magic students.

Huge respect to Edwin for all the passion and hard work he is pitting into his magic. That commitment will take him far! It's great to see he is wanting to take part in the magic community by joining the Magic Circle, and that's going to help push his learning forward dramatically. Keep up the great work Edwin. With that attitude maybe we have just published the first mention of a future world famous magician.

When is it OK for Magicians to Teach Spectators a Magic Trick?

by Dominic Reyes 1 Comment

I'm often asked if I can teach a magic trick to one of the guests when I'm performing at a party or wedding. What should I do? I'd like to show them a simple magic trick that they can do, but at the same time I don't want to expose magic secrets. – John

That's a good question and one most magicians asked themselves. Teaching a simple magic trick is fine as long as you are very careful about what you teach. As magicians we promise not to disclose secrets, we also don't want to reduce the impressiveness or importance of our own magic by showing that it is just a collection of easy to master magic tricks. However, there is a good way to approach this. You can show them something that is not too technical, advanced, or the work of another magician. It's absolutely fine to teach them a magic trick as long as it is in the public domain, and doesn't reveal one of the core principles of magic technique. So what sort of tricks are OK to teach?

The perfect magic trick to teach a spectator is one where the secrets of a magic trick is revealed as part of the ending anyway. Bar bets or proposition cons are ideal examples of this. The conclusion of the trick automatically shows and teaches the method so you're not exposing any secrets. There is a huge range of magic tricks like this that you can use, they may not be magic in the strictest sense of the word, but they are entertaining and will satisfy your spectators curiosity and desire for a trick that they can do themselves.

Pushing an object through a cup.

A simple spur of the moment magic trick that you could teach spectators would be a demonstration of how you can push an object through a cup. You take a coffee cup and place it on the table, You announce that you will be able to push a large borrowed object (such as a mobile phone) through the small handle of the cup. It seems totally impossible. The huge object, such as a phone, or maybe a wine glass couldn't possibly fit through the small handle of the cup. When they ask you for the solution, you simply place the object in front of the cup, put your finger through the handle hole, and push the object with your finger. There.. you pushed the object through the cup!

It might not be a stunning example of sleight of hand, no real magic is taken place, but it will satisfy the spectators, entertain them and give them something to try out on their friends later.

There are lots of books and DVDs which teach bar bets or puzzles like this, and you'll be able to find them free of charge at your local public library. Being armed with just a few small easy to learn magic tricks that you can teach will mean that you never have to disappoint spectators or reveal the real secrets of close-up magic.

Beginning to Learn Magic Tricks – Advice For When You Are Finding it Tough

by Dominic Reyes Leave a Comment

If you are a beginner and finding things tough, here's some great advice from Ira Glass that may help you.

One of the interesting parts of running a large online magic shop is the ability to look at trends within the customer base of the shop. We look at the buying cycle of magicians to identify trends. It's important data for the magic shop. If we can tell on average how long a customer will remain shopping for magic, we can use our knowledge of average visit rates and average spend, to calculate the likely sales volume each customer will bring to the shop during their relationship with us. We can use this information to know exactly how much to spend on advertising to bring in new customers.

Whilst crunching this data, we've noticed an interesting data point about beginners learning magic tricks. If you have just started to learn magic, here's something for you:

It's statistically likely that no matter how passionate about magic you might be right now, in 6 months time you will probably quit.

At the 6 month point, there is a huge drop off for magicians who are buying magic that matches the profile for total beginners. Magicians who are ordering more advanced material, don't suffer that drop off. Established professional magicians tend not to drop off at all. It's just the people that have only just started out. Why don't they transition into more advanced products?

I think the video above hits the nail on the head as to the cause of this. Beginners start with high hopes, but it's a long process to become good at anything. Most magicians feel that they 'suck' at first, and hope to work through it as they gain experience. That's a hard thing to do. You have to work through a long period of time where you don't feel that you are any good, and it's so easy to quit at that point.

The way to succeed at learning magic, and the way to move past being a beginner, is to work through that and keep your energy up. Fight the nagging doubts in your head that tell you that you will never master it. Keep going and push past the beginner phase. Every expert goes through this, and every expert makes it through to the other side.

If you need any help of advice about how to do this, just get in contact and my team will do everything they can to help you. – Dominic Reyes