How to do Magic Tricks

Advice and Support for Magicians

I don’t know what magic secrets exposure means anymore

by Merchant of Magic Leave a Comment

By Paul Osborne

Exposure. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? When I was a lad [picture me walking up a hill carrying a bread loaf while Dvorak’s New World Symphony is playing – now there’s a reference for the teenagers] magic secrets exposure was an easy concept to understand. From my very first magic book – How to be a Conjurer by Robert Harbin – the rules of magic were clearly laid out: Never tell anyone how a trick is done, the author wrote.


However, even in those dark days before the internet, the waters were sometimes muddied. I remember Paul Daniels being criticised for including tricks such as the Chinese Linking Rings and the Rice Bowls in his magic sets, with some magicians saying that Paul was exposing these classics of magic to children.
And then, a few years later, those “bad boys of magic”, Penn and Teller, crashed onto the scene. Most of you will have noticed, in my opening line, the nod to Teller’s sublime smoking routine where classic sleight-of-hand moves are explained to the viewing audience. As a teenager, watching their first TV special, I thought, “well, this will annoy a lot of magicians, but, what the hell. I love it.”


Teller has often spoken about the duo’s approach to exposure: that most of their audience probably had a magic set as a child, that most people know what a “palm” is, and that, sometimes, a routine can still blow your mind even if you’re in on it. Check out their version of the cups and balls using clear plastic cups for proof of this. (Dai Vernon witnessed them perform this effect live and laughed his head off, according to Teller; The Professor ‘getting’ what they were doing.)


Today, social media is awash with magicians and hobbyists performing tricks and then exposing the method, and many have been criticised for doing so. But I think the argument is more nuanced than it seems.


Mentalist Spidey, who puts out many magic tutorial videos on YouTube, addressed some of his critics on the Magicians Talking Magic podcast. He said: “There’s a difference between magic secrets exposure and teaching magic. I see a lot of YouTube videos with a child who learned a trick last week, barely knows how to hold the cards, and is exposing the secret to the trick. And I don’t like that.

“I teach magic. Everything on my channel is either something I created, or something I adapted, or something that’s so old-as-the-hills that nobody could claim ownership to it. My videos, on average, are 14 to 18 minutes, and you’re learning one trick. And by the time you get to the tutorial, we’re about eight or nine minutes into the video. My average view is six to seven minutes. So most people have left the video before I even get to the secret.


“It’s all by design. It starts with me talking about the trick, then I do the performance, then I talk about the history of the trick, and then we go into the tutorial which is taught slowly and effectively. I want real students, not someone who is looking for a quick secret.”


The flipside of a tutorial though is the video that’s designed for entertainment by magic secrets exposure. One famous YouTube magician was brutally criticised by Craig Petty on his Magic TV channel for exposing illusion bases, a principle that many stage performers use in their shows.


I think most of us can agree that giving away secrets that aren’t yours is wrong. If Murphy’s Magic brings out a new product from a particular creator, and then someone immediately reveals the method on YouTube, that’s not right – and they should be called out. But for tricks that are many years old and not owned by anyone? This is where I get confused. Is a wannabe magician seeking out the Three-Card Monte trick on YouTube any different to someone visiting a library and reading the trick’s secret in a magic book? OK, for the former, you don’t have to physically leave your chair but you still have to invest time in searching for it online.


So maybe the ‘what does exposure mean?’ answer lies in how much time and effort it takes to discover that secret. A wannabe-magician spending 20 minutes watching a Spidey video, listening to his explanations and watching a performance, is very different to a layman channel surfing, coming across a repeat of the Masked Magician on the TV show Breaking The Magician’s Code and being spoon-fed classic secrets used by working magicians.


And talking of Three-Card Monte, in 1994 John Lenahan became the first magician in 85 years to be thrown out of The Magic Circle after explaining the sleight-of-hand used in the trick on the BBC show How Do They Do That? His website’s bio states: “The trick is no more than a gambling con, but I took the rap and enjoyed the publicity.” And today, happily, he’s now a Circle member again.


I contacted The Magic Circle to find out the club’s current position on magicians who give away secrets on YouTube, and also whether Vegas legends Penn and Teller would, today, be allowed to join the club.
President Megan Swann said: ”We have a committee which considers each case individually. It is complicated and often depends on the intent of the magician and what the trick is. Generally, it’s safer to avoid YouTube exposure videos though, as it’s hard to control who sees them.  
“As to whether Penn and Teller would be allowed in – now that’s an examination which would fill our theatre!”


So did programmes such as Breaking The Magician’s Code do much long term damage to magic? Hopefully not, but it certainly showed non-magicians that a lot of secrets are simply ugly and mundane. Remember Julius Dein’s appearance on Good Morning Britain when the camera picked up the invisible thread used to make a pair of spectacles move on a tabletop? It was actually quite amusing reading his fans express their outrage on social media. Did they really think he had magical powers? Or did they think the method would be more elegant than it was? Into my head popped the headline: ‘Magician uses secret thread shock!’


With great card magicians, however, even if you know the moves and sleights you can still appreciate the performance. When an expert such as Michael Vincent executes a side-steal – you may know what he’s doing, you may know roughly when he does it, but you can’t see him do it. And therein lies true magic.
But let’s leave the final comment to seasoned performer Doc Dixon, who beautifully summed up the Masked Magician TV show – in that Atlanta bar-room drawl of his – with one simple down-to-earth line:
“All I could picture in my head was the guy who’d just spent two grand on a Zig-Zag the week before.”


Let us know what you think about YouTube ‘exposure’ in the comments below.

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Filed Under: how to do magic tricks, magic advice, YouTube Magicians Tagged With: learning magic, magic advice

Why A Monthly Magic Subscription Box For Beginners Is A Bad Idea

by Dominic Reyes Leave a Comment

Box Subscription Service for magiciansChris asks: Is there a monthly magic subscription box for beginners?

If you have not come across them before, the concept is simple. You pay a monthly subscription, and each month or quarter you receive a box full of cool tricks, and tutorials to learn that month. Sometimes this is followed up with a members forum to share ideas and opinions about what’s in the box.

For the subscriber it’s exciting, often cheaper than the cost of buying the items individually and (in theory) you get a curated collection of great magic tricks to learn each month together with a community of fellow subscribers to socialise with.

For the magic dealers it’s a great way to sell a bulk batch of each item.. It’s a steady constant income stream that can grow rapidly as your subscriber list increases. Your subscribers stay loyal and profitable over a long period.

I’ve never liked the idea of a magic subscription box.

From the point of view of a magic teacher I think they are a very bad way to look after magicians that trust you to teach them. From a business point of view a magic subscription box may be profitable.. and from a distance they appear to be helpful, but they usually fail to deliver any real results. MoM is about pushing magicians to develop their magic into performance, and that isn’t helped in any way by the restrictions a subscription box puts on a beginner.

The importance of being actively selective

The sooner beginners are pushed to be ‘actively selective’ about the material they spend their valuable practice time on the better. Beginners waste enough time on disjointed random effects and purposeless moves without application already…

The key to building an effective magic training program for your magic is to be very selective about the material that you spend your time working on. You should aim to slowly build up mastery of the core moves in card and coin work, together with the basics of misdirection. Each trick you learn should be picked because it fit’s into building you an act of material to perform… Not because a dealer managed to get a large wholesale deal on a particular beginners item to throw into this months magic subscription box. You deserve better than that.

Netflix for magicians

Another option that gets suggested a lot is a subscription service for download tuition. Again, some customers will see value in it for the short term, but ask yourself this:

Are you buying magic tricks to entertain yourself, or to teach yourself? A buffet of content is fun, but you don’t need that much material in your training program. Too much choice is the enemy of structured practice… It leads to simply jumping from one trick to the next, never stoping long enough to master anything. The pull for the ‘new’ distracts you from working on something long enough to be anything more than average at it’s performance. Slowly, choice turns to boredom, and that is the most common cause of people drifting away from magic over time.

Pick just a few items that you REALLY want to master.

I’d always recommend a good slow paced individually focused magic course. A structures way to drill of core moves, and then routines that reinforce those moves. So much better than a lucky dip of random easy tricks each month..

If you contact the support team at the magic shop, they will discuss what you already perform, what you’re struggling with… and then get a good suggestion of the next material to work on to push you forward. Any good magic shop will give you the time to do that for you.

Best wishes and good luck with your magic

Dominic Reyes

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Filed Under: how to do magic tricks Tagged With: learning magic, loot, magic subscription

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

by Merchant of Magic 4 Comments

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

Did you find this post useful? Leave a comment in the section below and please share this with your friends:

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Filed Under: Card Magic Tricks Tagged With: beginners, learning magic, magic advice, Master Magician, practice

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