How to do Magic Tricks

Advice and Support for Magicians

The Dangers of Learning New Magic Tricks

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Learning New Magic Tricks

Are you spending too much of your 'practice time' learning new magic tricks?

By Dominic Reyes

Ragedy Writes: 'I have a question. I've spent lots of money on books and marketed effects. What should I do with them all ? Should I ignore them? Can I make time to play with the tricks I've bought and read all the books I have, or is this all a waste of time? Is it ok to just show something for the fun of it and keep some tricks for the serious practice time. Some of the things I have are just fun and I like showing my close friends these effects. There are some though I feel fit my persona more and these are the effects I practice hard at. What do think? Am I on the right track?'

 

Yes, it's fine to spend some of your time learning new magic tricks. But I think you should set a goal to choose a range of magic tricks that you will build into a performing act. That should be your focus. Watch the DVD's and read the books. Play with magic and learn all you can, but do it with focus towards a GOAL.

Spend 50% of your time researching and learning new magic tricks. Spend the other 50% developing your core set of tricks and practicing their performance.

Learning new magic tricks is not 'practice', it's just research. It needs to be done, so you can build a strong act, but it's not something that should take up more than half of your magic time. Equally, it'sfine to have a range of fun tricks you perform. However, make sure that you are building a core set of effects that will make up a performing act. Hope this helps. Dominic Reyes

 

Using Coin Magic Skills to Learn the Cups and Balls

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Coin Magic and Cups and Balls

Tim writes:

I got the David Roth DVD set to learn sleight of hand. My question is that I struggle to see how I can transfer this to chop cup/ cup and balls work.

Is there a different way to see things I'm not seeing at the moment? Would a dvd/book about cup and balls give me the insight I'm missing?

Your thoughts are always welcome.
Still pushing on learning magic though iIhave neglected my studies due to heavy work at the moment (no excuse really is it)'

 

Hi Tim,

You're right… It's no excuse 🙂

Just do 10 minutes magic practice in the morning and 10 minutes in the evening each day. You don't need long marathon practice sessions to improve. The key is consistant, frequent drilling of the techniques over time, and that can be done in small daily bursts. Consider yourself told off 😉

I totally understand your desire to take your coin magic skills and apply them to a new area. There's no need to limit yourself to coin work, if you can adapt the moves to suit a different prop.

Many of the skills you will learn from coin magic work can cross over to the cups and balls. The biggest crossover is your 'timing' ability. The work you have put in on transfers and passes, all help with many of the moves for an advanced cups and balls routine. However, there is an important point you should remember:

Work with top down, rather than bottom up when you build your cups and balls routine.

Don't look at the moves you already perform and build a routine around them for the cups and balls. That leads to building a routine that is restricted and limited by your current skill set.

Instead, study as many cups and balls routines as you can, and choose one (or a combination of several) that is as entertaining as possible. Forget about the techniques that you will need to learn to perform it. Once you have picked a routine that you want to build, learn whatever techniques are required to perform it.

Imagine you are a cook. Pick a recipe that you want to make, THEN find the ingredients. Don't go through a cookbook trying to fine something to do with the stuff you already have in your larder.

Even though you will be learning many new techniques, you will still be amazed at how much cross over there is. Coin magic uses performance skills that can apply directly to using balls rather than coins, especially in your use of misdirection, framing and presentation. The exact mechanics may be different, but the psychology remains the same.

A great place to start would be the excellent training provided by Micheal Ammar:

Ammar Cups and BallsAlso available to download here

I hope this helps you

Dominic Reyes

Do you have any advice for Tim about learning the cups and balls? Leave a comment in the section below:
 

How Long Should a Magician Take to Practice a Magic Trick?

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Time to Practice a magic trick

By Dominic Reyes

Stephen writes: 'I want to develop my first magic act. How long should I aim to practice a magic trick before it's ready to be performed?'

That question has a very simple answer.. It depends.

There is no set time scale for any magic trick to be ready. The time it will take you to get the trick to a performance standard is different for each magician and each trick. However, My good friend Steve Shufton told me some simple advice that I would like to pass on to you now..

Whilst writing the instructions for the mind reading magic trick Ps I Love You Steve wanted to include a section about how long the magic trick will take to learn. He explained that the more experience you have in magic, the more you will understand the value of practice. PS I Love you is very simple to learn. You could start performing the magic trick in just 15 minutes. Many beginners will learn the trick and do just that, but in doing so, they are making a huge mistake. Experienced performers understand that the success of a magic performance has little to do with the simplicity of the method. The strength of the trick comes from the performance, and that comes from the skill and effort of the magician.

Do This: Don't assume that a magic trick that is easy to learn, should take less time to become performance ready. Use the extra time you gain from a simple method, to work on the presentation. Don't rush out and perform a new trick right away. Take you time…