learn magic tricks Archives

Do Close Up Mats Belong in the Bin?

Close up mats sell very well in magic shops, but are they a waste of money? Let’s look at the reasons for using close up mats, and if it’s actually doing more harm than good.

Close up mats come in a wide range of shapes and sizes, from the small circle pads through to table hopping strips and ending in huge display mats. How you use your close up mat and the types of magic you perform will determine the size of the mat that’s right for you. The purpose of most close up mats can be grouped into two basic types:

Walk-around temporary surfaces
Stages areas for a fixes show.

The Close Up Mat SurfaceThere are two main types of close up mat surfaces. The traditional surface is made of felt, similar to the fabric used on a pool table. This looks great, but can attract dust and dirt quickly. Felt close up mats can wear out quickly and don’t take well to being washed.The alternative to felt is a close up mat which is made of the material used for mouse mats. It’s a tighter weave than felt, and had a thicker rubber backing. These mats are more hard wearing, and easier to clean so have started to become much more popular than the traditional felt mats.For most magicians, the surface material is mainly a cosmetic choice. The most important aspects of a good close up mat is the tension of the surface, the resistance it gives to an item being presses against it, and it’s ability to grip the surface it is placed on.

Advantages of a close up mat for table hopping.

As a magician, you may like to carry a small close up mat with you when you table hop. Close up mats can define an area of the table as ‘your turf’ which can help reduce grabbing of props by spectators.

Close up mats can also create a frame in which the magic is presented. It moves the action away from the cutlery, glasses, and other items on a table.

You may find that using a close up mat can help with many of the moves and techniques requires for sleight of hand. The springy surface of the mat can be a core part of the mechanicals of a magic trick. This is especially the case with many coin magic tricks.

If you perform your magic tricks in a set area, and draw a crowd, a close up mat looks great. It’s a professional surface, sets a tone and helps the action on the table to be visible and clear.

Disadvantages of a close up mat for table hopping.

For close up magicians that table hop, a close up mat is a strange item to pull out and add to your guests table. Using even a small mat, requires you to move guests items and make a space. This can be seen as rude by some people, as you not an invited member of the group, when you first approach a table.

Using a close up mat can make you dependent on a specific surface for your magic to work effectively. Over time, you develop your technique to work with that specific surface and become dependent on it.

Close up mats encourage magicians to perform magic at table level. This has huge viability issues, and unless you are seated behind the mat, the background to your magic is your crotch, nice.

Dinner tables are messy places. They have wet patches, food stuck to them and drinks get spilled on a regular basis. If you are going to use a close up mat, it’s vital that it looks clean and new if you are putting it down on someones dinner table. That can be very hard to control, unless you carry a spare. Your ability to judge if the mat looks good, fades with time due to familiarity.

Close up mats at home.

There are several good reasons to have a close up mat set up in its own space in your home:

1) Using a close up mat at home is fine and establishes an area in your room set aside for practice. Noticing the mat, set up and ready to go, can spur you on to practice.

2) Guests that visit you, will notice the area, and may ask to see some magic.

3) Your family won’t be tempted to move your magic props if they are on a close up mat.

4) It looks awesome.

Using a close up mat for a formal display.

If you have a special table set up to present your magic, then a good quality magicians close up mat is a wise choice. It finishes the look of the stand.

The larger the close up mat the better.

Street performers often use a table as a focal point for their act. If it’s not already felt covered, like a card table, then a close up mat creates a perfect surface for the table.

If you are positioned in an area to perform your magic tricks. Perhaps doing magic at a bar, or on a trade show stand. A large close up mat advertises that ‘magic happens here’ and gives your area an official feel.

Not using a close up mat.

It’s important that you learn to perform your magic on a wide range of surfaces. This may just require practice, or it may mean a tweak or adjustment to the method of the magic trick. Learn to perform on glass, table cloths and wooden surfaces. It’s OK to use a mat as you work on a difficult move and need to focus on the sets involved. However, once you have gotten an understanding of the move, work to remove any dependence on the mat. Make sure that using a magicians close up mat doesn’t become a crutch.

Do you really need a close up mat?

No, not really. They can help in the early stage of learning a magic trick, but developing or adapting a magic tricks method to work anywhere is a much better approach.

Look at Close up mats as dressing and useful for creating a staged area for magic shows. It shouldn’t be vital to your performance.

Why a Card Magic Trick Only Works 1 in 20 Times? – Magicians Problems

by Merchant of Magic 17 Comments

How to learn a card magic trick for consistancy

James is having trouble learning a card magic flourish. He writes:

‘I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for the chance to receive these update emails. I have been doing a card magic trick for 1-2 weeks now and I can do a few basic flourishes and card tricks.

Currently I am focusing on flourishes and I am attempting a trick that is above my skill level but it’s a flourish I really want to learn. I can flip the deck successfully 1 in about every 20 flips. I practice about 1-2 hours a day along with various card tricks in an extra hour totaling about 3 hours a day. Any advice would be really appreciated.‘

Dominic Reyes:
Sounds like you may be practicing too much. I know that sounds crazy, but you’re learning motor skills, so small amounts of practice often, is better than 1-2 hour chunks. Set up a practice drill, so you run through the card magic trick 15 times in the morning and 15 times in the evening, every day for 21 days. Slow it down to the slowest you can do it, yet it still ‘work’.

It’s a good sign that you are getting the card magic trick 1 in 20 right. It means that you have the ability. You just need to build consistency in technique.

The danger is that the 19 failed attempts are reinforcing the wrong actions. That’s why you need to slow down the action, so you can check everything (finger placement, Deck placement, pressure applied, thumb placement etc). Speed can build up later, on it’s own. You just want to focus on how the times that the card magic trick worked are different to the times it didn’t. It’s all really just physics, so the times that work WILL have something different happening from the times that don’t.

Focus on learning just one card magic trick or routine at a time. Splitting your practice time on several magic tricks slows you down. Choose ONE routine or card magic trick to master and make the commitment to work on just that project until you are happy with it. Jumping from trick to trick makes you a ‘jack of all trades, but a master of none’. It’s not a race, so make sure you are not trying to learn magic too fast

Adam Symons:
To learn a completely new sleight, first work out what the slight is trying to accomplish – with fans and flourishes, etc this is self evident, but with things like false deals, shuffles etc, it pays to have a clear idea of what the outcome of the move results in.

Oftentimes, an author has solved a card problem for themselves and the method they put out is one that works for their hand size, so by getting a sense of what the mechanics are trying to achieve you can begin to translate the action into something that works for you. If you’re having trouble mastering something, THINK! Break the move down into it’s component parts… Are you gripping the deck too tightly? Is the deck int the wrong position in your hands? Would you get a better result with your fingers in a different position?

Pay attention to the quality of the deck, newer, more slippery cards behave differently to an older, broken-in deck. Practice with your head as well as your hands – a lot of card manipulation boils down to an exercise in controlling friction (you’ve either got too much, or too little giving you the problem).

For beginners, work on the basics first (Charlier cuts, pressure fans) before going for that hotshot cut, to improve hand strength and co-ordination. And don’t give up! If it was easy, there’d be no value in the skill!

Daniel Chard:
It’s key to remember that all sleights are a means to an end, they are much better in the context of a structured routine as appose to just learning them for sleights sake!

I agree with mastering one effect at a time! Then once the routine/move/ flourish gets to a habitual stage (where you can perform it where you can perform it in your sleep, you are ready to move on!). Make sure their used in context, I use flourishes extensively in my work, but they have their place!

Take sleights and work them backwards, change the grip, handle them differently, change the timing.An interesting philosophy for moves:

If you can’t hide it, exaggerate it!

Exploit the part of move you can’t do, and try to come with a novel way of getting around it!

Learn at your own pace, but once you are ready take it out in the real world to test your effect, move in front of an audience! You will learn more in those few minutes of performance then any magician can teach you. Speak with trusted magic friends, ask for constructive feedback.

I hope that this has proved helpful and good luck with your journey.

Do you have any practice advice that will help James with mastering a ‘knacky’ card magic trick? What was the hardest flourish you mastered, and how did you work on it? Please share your ideas in the comments section below:

Magic Collection – A Magicians Obsession with Magic Tricks

by Merchant of Magic 1 Comment

Every magician is a magic trick collector. FACT. We all have a drawer, case, box, or even just a corner of a room, where all our magic tricks get stored over the years. As magicians, we feel drawn to a beautiful magic prop, and sometimes we crave them even if we have no intention of performing the magic trick. Over the years, our collections build up to become a treasure trove of magic secrets.

Imagine if you had a room in your house, totally devoted to magic tricks. What would it look like? Steve Chmara know’s because he has just that. An Aladdin’s cave of magic going back past the turn of the 20th century.

“Magic apparatus is a unique collectible because it’s not something that just sits there. People come over and say, ‘What’s that?’ But instead of going into this long-winded explanation, I simply show them.”

Collecting magic is a fascinating hobby. Unlike many collections, each item is more than just a display piece. The magic tricks you collect over the years cry out to be played with, to be performed and shared with an audience. It may be wonderful to sit amongst your collection, but it must be hard to not feel that the items are ‘waiting’. If magic tricks were alive, they would be performers and showmen. Each magic trick patiently sitting there, for it’s time to come again, when it gets to express it’s purpose for being. A room like Steve’s must be such an exciting place for a magician, and also one of the saddest.

DO THIS: How long has it been since you looked through your draw of magic? The reasons why you abandoned a magic trick years ago may not be there anymore. Old magic tricks become alive with the new techniques you have developed over the years that you can bring to them. Props can be re-purposed, routines that were too technical when you were a beginner are now full of possibilities. If you were to go through your collection now, would you find magic tricks that you had totally forgotten about?

Image Source: Winnipeg Free Press
Video Submitted by Monty Witt