Cody Nottingham and Luke Dancy Chat About RIFT

RIFT by Cody Nottingham

Luke Dancy chats to magician and magic creator Cody Nottinghan about his card through window magic effect – RIFT. They discuss the mechanics, presentation and performance of the trick to get the best results, and answer questions from magicians.

Find out more about RIFT here

Spread playing cards over any glass window, and you easily pull their playing card right through the window, using just your mouth. You show your hands totally empty and can even have them behind your back.

You don’t need to palm playing cards, no need for any magnets, and the window is totally normal and not prepared.

The audience can really put the playing card back into the deck themselves. You just go up to any window or glass door and perform this. No stooges, it’s really easy.

– No cards palmed, controlled, or hidden up your sleeves.
– Hands are placed behind your back to ease suspicion
– Cleanest Card Through Window on the market
– Resets in seconds
– A sleekly designed gimmick that gives you the power to bend the laws of physics.
– 50 mins of expert instruction taught by Rift creator, Cody Nottingham

Magic Trick Difficulty Levels – Are They Deceptive?

by Dominic Reyes 1 Comment

Is it wise to pay attention to magic trick difficulty levels in magic shop trick descriptions?

Dominic Reyes talks about the dangers of focusing too much on the difficulty levels on magic trick descriptions. An easy rated trick can often be just as hard to master as an expert trick. Should magic tricks be rated for the level of ‘effort’ required? Would that be a better indication of the true work required to master any trick?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below

Teaching Your Kids Magic Tricks – How to Support a Young Magician

by Dominic Reyes 1 Comment

How parents can help their kids magic tricks practice

Roger writes:

Our son is 11 and is trying to learn card tricks, he is on YouTube every day, he upset me yesterday, when trying a trick that went wrong, he was very disappointed after I said it had gone wrong a few times .. He went up stairs crying and said “sorry I’m not a magician yet ” … Bless him.. What can I buy him to get him started and able to do a few tricks .. He had two sets of bicycle cards.. Are there special cards and books you have that will enable him to feel he is making progress ..

Roger, you are correct, your son will get it wrong a few times, I still get things wrong whilst I’m practicing, but your son will get there, sometimes it is good to go along with him, even if he messes up, but once the trick is over give helpful pointers. so, if you saw a flash of a card that he was trying to hide, try and explain how he could have positioned himself differently to cover it more or if you see him turn over two cards when he is saying it is one, tell him if you think he could have done it differently to be more convincing. I know you are not a magician, but I hope you understand what I mean there. Constructive criticism can go a long way to improve if it is handled delicately and with supportive suggestions on how to improve.

One thing I will say, is the YouTube tutorials are often taught by people who rush to learn a trick and give a poor explanation that can be difficult to follow, or may teach a trick incorrectly, leading to confusion whilst trying to learn it – especially for a younger person who is still learning the jargon.

After saying that though, YouTube does have some Solid Gold Gems for learning Flourishing and kids magic tricks. Dan and Dave Bucks channel is excellent for learning flourishes with cards, and once your son develop a little, he should definitely check that channel out.

There are a few resources I can suggest straight away that may be of use.

Born to Perform

Royal Road

Born to Perform Card Magic is an awesome DVD that starts at the beginning – how to hold cards correctly – and develops the magician through sleight of hand lessons, shuffling, trick explanations and audience management to be a great card magician. The best thing about the DVD is you get to see exactly how to do the tricks, no guessing, no half-hearted or semi-coherent explanations, 100% clarity on how everything should be done.

There is not a lot of sleight of hand, I perform that I did not learn from this DVD.

There is also a book called the Royal Road to Card Magic – this is regarded as the bible of card magic. It was written LONG ago – but the material explained in the book has not changed from then until now. The only downside I can really say about the book, is that it uses words and diagrams to explain sleight of hand, which can be confusing at times to follow.

Secondly, you asked about cards. There are standard bicycle cards that we use as performers in our working environments, but I too am a card collector, so know a few things about pretty cards!

Some great decks in no particular order are:

Just click on each of the suggestions and it should open up the pages for you to view.

If you think he would learn best from a DVD then I would 100% suggest Born to Perform.

As for the cards – you know him better than me, but they are all fantastic decks I’ve suggested. They all feel really nice and are perfect for magic.

All of these kids magic tricks are 100% suitable for your son, The DVD is really easy to follow along with and is very well explained. The cards are all just decks of cards – so nothing can really go wrong there!

If your son even needs any advice, and you are OK with him talking to us, get him to send us an e-mail to [email protected] and we can help him out with any advice or concerns he may have.

There are some simple kids magic tricks with coins:

Coin Unique

Bitten Coin

Coin in Bottle

For non coin related things, have a look at:

Link-o – It is a linking Polo effect which has a very nice ending.

Self Tying Shoelace – Shoelaces tie themselves with a shake of the foot.

Pen Through Bill – Push a pen through a banknote or a piece of paper, then pull it out without leaving any holes – you can borrow the paper

Thumb Tip – The possibilities are literally endless with a Thumb Tip look at the Thumb Tip Book too.

Raven – Vanish coins and other similar items from the back of someone else’s hand.

There are also a few freebies you can download and let him have a look at, I’ll pop the links to them below.

6 Free Sankey Tricks