How to do Magic Tricks

Advice and Support for Magicians

Becoming an Expert Magician – Specialize Your Study of Magic Tricks?

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Expert magician‘I want to become a master magician. I’ve been doing magic tricks for a few years now and like doing card magic best. Is it OK to just do card tricks? I would like to become a master magician at magic tricks, but feel that I won’t be able to make a mark in magic, unless I focus on one part.‘ – Mark

 

What’s your specialty in magic? Are you a ‘coin man’, a card worker, or perhaps a mentalist? When you first start out learning magic tricks, it’s important to get experience across a wide range of magic tricks. You need to find out which types of magic suit you as an individual, which excite you and get your creative energy flowing. As you move along this path, you may find yourself drawn to particular types of magic tricks. When this happens, is it a sign that you should specialize?

We asked Simon Lovell to give you some advice:

 

That’s really good advice! Simon Lovell recommends that you spend the first few years trying out as many new types of magic as possible. Then, once you find a style of magic that you are passionate about, you should specialize and learn EVERYTHING you can about that subject. Through this, you become a master magician.

It’s vital that you develop a broad knowledge BEFORE you commit to a specific field, as you need to discover what’s right for you, and become grounded before you focus in one direction.

Dominic Reyes: By specializing, you develop a full understanding of a smaller subject. You learn it’s history, and it’s current direction and trends. You also discover it’s boundaries and limitations. Through doing this, you are able to touch the edge of current knowledge on that subject, and hopefully, push that edge a little further.

Let’s look at this process of becoming a master magician in more detail

Imagine this circle contains all human knowledge on the subject of magic

The whole range of knowledge in magic

As a kid you pick up a few simple proposition bets and basic magic tricks. You know a little:

Learning a few magic tricks as a beginner

You then start learning easy self working magic tricks. You know a little more:

Starting to learn professional magic tricks

You now start learning sleight of hand and performing skills. You develop a specialty:

Moving past self working magic tricks

You gain experience performing and deepen your knowledge of your chosen specialty:

Gaining experience and developing your knowledge in one direction

Lectures, specialized books, DVD’s and discussion with other magicians takes you to the edge of human knowledge on your branch of magic. You are now a master magician.

An expert in a field of magic

Once your at the boundary of your field you focus on your creativity:

Area of focus as you study magic tricks

You push at the boundary for a few years:

Working at the edge of magic knowledge

Until one day, the boundary gives way:

Creation of magic tricks

And, that dent you’ve made is your contribution.:

The magic tricks you develop

Of course, the world looks different to you now:

How the world of magic looks when you specialize

So, don’t forget the bigger picture:

 

Your contribution to magic

It’s important to understand that the goal is not the specialization itself.  The specialization is a tool cut through the huge amount of information on magic, so you can understand just one part fully. Your goal is to become the best performer you can become, in the time you have.

Specialization allows you to become an expert magician. It’s important if you want to become one of the core creators of magic in the field. However, specialization doesn’t need to be on the mechanics of magic tricks. Becoming a master magician in performance, misdirection, comedy in magic, dexterity… All these abilities could also become your specialty.

The core message is to gain a broad knowledge first, then COMMIT to mastering something. Choose a specialty and push yourself to know the subject fully, then push a little further and make a contribution.

Useful Posts:

Eric Jones: Master magicians don’t mind being caught out

Master magicians and creators of magic tricks – Talk to them

My hands are too small to do sleight of hand magic tricks

Special thanks to Matt Might for The Illustrated Guide to a Ph.D.

Recommended book: Simon Lovell – Second to None

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How Does Dynamo Do His Tricks?

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Magic Shops are asked how Dynamo Does his Tricks
How does Dynamo do his tricks? This is the most common question the team at the Merchant of Magic is asked. In fact, a day doesn’t go by without someone doesn’t phone the magic shop to ask just that question.

Why do they want to know?

Many callers have just seen an episode of Dynamo Magician Impossible on TV. They have been amazed by the show and simply want to work out Dynamo does it. For other’s, the dynamo TV series acts as a gateway, inspiring them to learn magic for themselves. They call the shop for help taking the first step in magic training.

How should a magic shop answer this question? There are several possible answers a magic shop could give:

How does Dynamo do his tricks? Answer: It’s a secret.

Magic shops use a code of conduct developed by magicians over the years, to allow the exchange of magic secrets amongst themselves. Training and magic tricks need to be exchanged, but magic shops agree not to actively promote exposing the secrets of magic tricks to the general public. When  a person that magic shop doesn’t know, calls to ask: how does Dynamo do his magic tricks? We assume that the person is simply a member of the public and is looking for answers to a puzzle rather than seeking to learn magic.

 

How does Dynamo do his tricks? Answer: With a huge production company on TV

Much of Dynamo magician impossible is TV magic. That’s very different to the type of magic tricks that would work if a magician were performing magic tricks live.

Dynamo’s TV show is a polished product, produced, edited and directed. It’s the work of a huge team of people. When people ask magic shops: How does dynamo do his magic tricks, they are hoping that it will be something they can simply buy and perform themselves. This is often not the case. Some possible answer:

 

How does Dynamo do his tricks? Answer: That’s the wrong question to ask.

The saying goes:

‘The only silly question is the one that isn’t asked’.

That’s true, but there are better ways to ask the question. How about:

That’s true, but there are better ways to ask the question. How about:‘How can I do magic tricks like dynamo?’

It’s great to be inspired by famous magicians, but one of the real magicians secrets is not to try to become a clone of any single magician.

 

If you enjoy the type of magic Dynamo performs (Street Magic), look for magic tricks you could do in that style. Be original, yet with a popular theme. Clones are never as successful as the original. As a magician, you need to step out in your own direction. Use other magicians as inspiration and learn as much as you can from them about presentation and performance, but don’t follow too closely in any one person’s footsteps. If you do, you will encounter all the problems they have faced, but very little of their luck or breaks.

Ask a good magic shop for help choosing magic tricks in the style of Dynamo Magician Impossible and they will be happy to help you. If you ask them: How does Dynamo do his tricks? They won’t answer that question directly. However, they will be happy to talk to you about your performing style, persona and the magic tricks you already do. Then, they can suggest magic tricks that would fit you perfectly. The best magic shops are staffed by working magicians so they will have invaluable free information for you on how to get it right.

 

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How to Perform Magic – When Do You Know You’re Ready?

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Part of learning how to perform magic is understanding when your magic tricks will really be ready to perform to the public.

The process of learning tricks often follows this path:

  1. You discover magic.
  2. A decision is made to learn how to perform magic.
  3. You pick your favourite magic tricks to learn.
  4. Private practice takes place as you learn how do the magic trick.
  5. You notice another magic trick that looks good.
  6. You start practicing a second trick.
  7. You find out about another trick.
  8. Repeat..

There’s something missing!

When are you going to decide that you are ready to start performing the magic tricks that you are learning. Dominic Reyes talks about one of the most important steps in learning how to perform magic:

If you want to learn to become a magician, you don’t just need a good knowledge of magic techniques. Being a magician isn’t about how much you know about the subject. It’s about what you do with that knowledge.

To really understand how to perform magic, you need experience of performing. Hours of private practice will only help you to a point. You need much more than that. It’s vital that you go out and show your magic to people. Magic is a performing art. The skill of how to perform magic, that you need to develop is very hard to learn in private. To really learn how to perform magic, you have to gain an understanding of the social dynamics, timing and pace of your magic tricks, and that needs to be done through performance.

 

Questions to you:

How long did you spend practicing your magic tricks before you started showing them to people other than your family and friends?

Do you think you could have started sooner?

If you are still practicing in private, when will you make the decision to start showing people your magic?

What’s stopping you from showing your magic tricks to people?

 

Share your answers in the comments section below:

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