beginners Archives

Feeling Clumsy and Don’t Know How to Start Learning Magic Trick – Problems

David writes:

‘It is only recently that I have tried to learn magic, but the thing I find most perplexing, is where should I start? Where can I learn the basics. There are so many incredible things out there, it is easy to get lost and become confused. Most people dream of winning the lottery, or becoming a famous singer, or the like. Not me. I would love to be able to amaze and astound people with card magic. That has to be the ultimate goal. But I feel clumsy, and when I look at the hands of magicians on TV, I see slim and nimble fingers. Unlike mine.’

It’s great news that you have started to learn. You’re in for such a fun time! Learning how to do magic scores over many other hobbies as you can instantly start performing to a level that will impress your friends. That’s a far cry from the ‘painful’ learning period that beginners (and the people they live with) have to go through when learning a musical instrument.

As a place to start, check out these recommended first magic tricks for beginners.

You may also find these posts useful:

Where to Start Learning magic

How to start learning coin magic

You mention that you are worried about your hands. There’s no need to worry. Larger or small hands are no barrier to learning sleight of hand.

The main skill you will learn is dexterity in your fingers, a light touch, and the timing placement of your hands. These factors are not influenced by the size of your hands, just by the amount of practice you are prepared to put into your magic training.

Like anything worth learning, you are going to be clumsy at first. Your hands need to develop a light touch and you need to perfect the timing and flow for any moves you work on. Keep working on a magic practice drill.

As you work on your sleight of hand, choose some self working magic tricks, so you can begin performing right away whilst you work on your performing style, and confidence. Remember that it’s not a race. You build up skill over the long term. The only difference between you and a professional magician is the number of hours spent on practice.

Easy Card Tricks – For The Magician Or The Spectators?

by Merchant of Magic 1 Comment

By Dominic Reyes

I am going to recommend a few easy card tricks for you. Before I do so, I want to give you a warning:

The magic shop often gets asked to suggest easy card tricks for a customer to learn. Surprisingly, the request doesn’t always come from complete beginners. Many professional magicians are searching for quick and easy card tricks they can add to their working sets, in a hurry. There are three problems with this question:

1) What makes card tricks easy?

2) Is the magician looking for something easy for the themselves or for their spectators?

3) Why is the magician putting that criteria above everything else?

Why label them easy card tricks?

No magic trick is really easy. Yes, many tricks can have basic methods, but the performance of any magic trick is far from easy. We have all seen seemingly easy to work magic tricks performed terribly. The power of a magic trick is in its delivery and performance. As Rene Lavand teaches us in the quotation above; A trick is created, refined by many. However, it’s quality is totally dependent on each and every performance of it. It doesn’t matter how well designed the method may be, or how many variations and modifications have perfected it over time. A thousand magicians may have worked on improving it’s method. All that work falls away the moment YOU, at the end of the process, begin to perform it. Your practice, commitment, and effort to make it entertaining is the quality it will be judged on, by the audience.

Easy card tricks for you or them?

One reason even experienced magicians look for easy card tricks, is that they want tricks to allow them to forget about the sleight of hand. They like tricks that are ‘safe’. There isn’t anything wrong with magic tricks that avoid technical skill. The value of a magic trick is in the reaction it creates for the magicians audience. As a magician, the spectators are your customers. A straightforward method allows you to give more work and attention to your presentation, which is where the real magic is created.

A basic magic trick can often be easier for your spectators to follow and understand, especially if you are freed from the binds of technique to become an actor during the magic tricks performance. Many master magicians can present a spellbinding performance, whilst doing the hardest sleight of hand, but technical ability is not a prerequisite of expertise in magic. Acting is just as valuable as sleight of hand for the expert. If your motivation to search for easy card tricks is for the benefit of the spectators rather than a shortcut for yourself, it’s not a foolish quest.

Why is ‘easy’ so valuable to you?

‘Easy’ isn’t a terrible thing. However, it needs to be lower down your list of requirements. If you genuinely intend to perform the magic you choose to learn, make the presentation the most significant factor in its selection. Choose magic tricks that amaze and inspire you. Magic tricks that blow you away when you watch them performed.

Forget about the work or effort required to learn them, that’s only an indication of how much time and effort you will need to put in. If you begin your search intending to only put in the minimum amount of effort possible, you probably won’t be prepared to give the right amount of time to the presentation, to make ANY trick worth learning.

An ‘easy’ list.

OK, I’ve given you my warning, here’s a short list of a few quite easy card tricks you can start learning right away:

Invisible Deck

3 Card Monte By Michael Skinner

White Star

Ultimate Self Working Card Tricks

BIGGER Finish – Jay Sankey

Learn ultimate selfworking card tricks

Learn Magic Tricks by Creating a Story – Link Your Magic Tricks Together

by Merchant of Magic 1 Comment

When you learn magic tricks, do you consider creating a story that the set of tricks will communicate?

For many magicians, their magic act is a collection of unrelated magic tricks. Each magic trick gets great reactions but doesn’t flow into the next magic trick that the magician presents.

If you learn magic tricks without thinking about the act that will contain them, you miss out on one of the most powerful ways to lift yourself above the level of an average magician: The Story.

Magic Tricks with meaning

Creating a story will give your magic tricks a purpose other than fooling the spectators. They give your magic meaning. Stories engage and draw in your audience.

Everyone loves stories. Humans are hard wired to seek them out and remember them. It’s how we learn and bond as a society. Information without a story is just a collection of facts or trivial. The tale binds information together, giving it a value greater than the sum of its parts. Don’t present your magic tricks as pieces of trivia. Improve them exponentially by creating a story to go along with them.

The story first.

Creating a story can be difficult. Here are some ideas to help spark your imagination:

A life experience you encountered.
Something to inspire people.
A cautionary tale.
A fable.
A proverb.
An urban legend.
An event in your past.
A story about a spectators experience.
A story from your past.
A story from their future.

Instead of a set story, you could form a story made on the spot by the magician and spectators together. A piece of improvisation, structured by the tricks.

Select and learn magic tricks that will, by being placed together, create and focus on communicating the story.

Do This:

Write down a few plot ideas, for stories that would suit your persona.

Mark out ‘events’ or focus points in each story that could be communicated with magic.

Learn magic tricks that will fit into those points

Over time, build up the collection of ‘meaningful’ magic tricks to create a piece of close up magic theater.

Learn Magic Tricks with Context and Meaning