Hi
I am new to this forum and would like to get more invoved in magic. I recently performed Kevin James floating rose for a audience at my University and everything went well. I now would like to learn to do more card tricks. What Dvds would you recommend. Is Bill Malone's Dvd good for someone just starting out with sleight of hand techniques? I am willing to pratice alot. I have a lot of time on my hands so praticing is not a problem. Any other suggestions would be great too. Thanks for you help.

Hi Mike

Welcome to the Café. I think that you would be best off starting with books. You need to get the basics down first before getting into to something more advanced (I don't know how advanced the Bill Malone stuff is). My recommendation is that you would start with either "The Royal Road to Card Magic" by Hugard and Braue or "Card College" by Giobbi, which is a 5 book series. These will give you the grounding you need. If you want to go the DVD way, I would recommend Daryl's "Encyclopedia of Card Sleights" which is an 8 DVD series. There aren't very many tricks on these DVDs though, there are more in the books.
Anyhows, happy hunting and good look on your journey
Best
Scott

Italianmike315,
As Scott stated books are your best bang for the buck. To his list I would also suggest "The Magic Book" by Harry Lorayne. It's a good starter for card magic (moves & tricks. It is also good for coin magic, mental magic and genral magic. It is a good read with many valuable tips. It is one that I keep going back to over the years. Good luck to you.
Thanks,
Bruce

Sound advices up there. I'd add to Scott in that R. Paul Wilson has a series of DVD that demonstrates Royal Road to Card Magic - it's 5 volumes, and both educational and entertaining. I'm not sure if picking up Daryl's collection is useful when you're just starting out - it's abit like learning a new language by reading the dictionary. (It's called "encyclopaedia" for a reason!)

Personally I started with Daryl, but then again, I am the type of person that would likely start learning a language by reading the dictionary...

RRTCM is a fine choice, and the cost is certainly manageable should you later decide cards are not for you. I have seen some of Pauls RRTCM DVDs, and they are excellent, so you could go for those as a supplement later. I do recommend working a bit with just the book first though.

Michael

Another good book for your collection would be - Jerry Mentzer's: Counts, Cuts, Moves and Subtleties. It was always a staple in my magic shop.

Another essential book, if you want to learn coin magic, is Bobo's "Modern coin Magic" You'll be hard-pressed to find another book with that much information about coin magic.

I think Crash Course 1 by Ellusionist is an excellent way to start with card magic. Ellusionist isn't very popular with the pros here for... let's say political reasons. But this particular DVD does a great job of NOT teaching you more than you need to be able to perform some very nice tricks almost right away.

You can THEN enjoy discovering better ways of doing this and that sleight through other sources. Meaning that some sleights on the DVD are very good while others could be replaced by alternative ones that require lot longer practice. It's a crash course like the title says.

A more expensive and more demanding (but better, yes) option would be the Royal Road DVD set already mentioned.

Daryl, while brilliant teaches dozens of cuts, then dozens of shuffles, then dozens of... you don't get one of each of the basic techniques you need until you have worked with the DVDs for maybe a year. If you are looking for a purely technical sleight of hand DVD I would then recommend Richard Kaufman's Basic Card Technique instead. But if you get any of these you won't know what to use the sleights for until later. Something like Royal Road is structured so that you get to use what you learn as you go along.

Generally here people who find it easier to learn from books recommend books and people who find it easier to learn from DVDs recommend those. (we then like to argue for years on which camp are the most intellectual, patient, modern, unhip, etc). I'm in the DVD group mostly so if you are a big reader then don't listen to me but go with the book recommendations above.

If you get a book, then try to get through most of that. Don't be like me who has a shelf full of books, most of which I have read maybe five to ten pages in.

The annoying thing about works that are not intended for beginners is that they nearly all assume that you know the blabla move and the blablabla move, etc. Every page you have to put the book down for a months to track down and practice some technique you've never heard of. So a planned out beginners course is best in my opinion.

Welcome to the Café!

Just an addendum...you will find an excelent description of Counts, Cut, Moves and Subtlety here:

http://www.magictricks.com/magicbooks/cardbooks/ccutmove.htm

I would strongly suggest learning things the right way first and not having to go back and correct mistakes later. It will slow down your learning and understanding of sleight of hand. As mentioned above, Royal Road or Card College books. If you must have a DVD, then the Royal Road DVD by R. Paul Wilson. This will put you on the right track.

Best,

Dorian Rhodell

To the above I recommend you pick up Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic. I really think this book belongs in every magician's library.

I also think That books can be a great way to learn magic routines.

If you would like to see the sleights performed properly, a good DVD to start is " Born to Perform Card Magic" by Oz Pearlman. he really hits the basics you will need for most basic card magic.

I also strongly recommend Easy to Master Card Miracles DVD series by Michael Ammar. So far there are 9 in the series, get them in order. Each teaches powerful magic routines and the sleights to do them...and each DVD builds on the sleights taught in the ones before. So it is like a course in Card sleights while still teaching routines that have punch.

What I love most about Ammar's DVD's is, that he not only teaches method, but goes over Misdirection, Theory, and Performance of each effect, he teaches you now only how to do it well, but why it should be performed as it is. I think Ammar is an awsome teacher whern it comes to Cards.

PS I would stay away from Ellusionist. I hear from many that they overcharge for what they sell, because the material in the DVD's is scanty, and badly taught.

Stick with the names ... Ammar, Daryl, Ackerman... etc... these ARE quality..and known... Ellusionist is a gamble...

Clarissa35f I agree with you concerning Michael Ammar, I had the pleasure of booking him many years ago for a lecture at I.B.M. Ring#117, when he was first starting his lecture tours. He was one of the finest lecturer/teachers that we ever had. And, on top of it all he still had a full head of hair in those days.

I just wanted to thank everyone for their expert advice. It was very helpful. Thanks again

I won't knock my own book, THE MAGIC BOOK, but you'd also LOVE (and learn) from THE CLASSIC COLLECTION and the BEST OF FRIENDS volumes. And so far as DVDs are concerned, I did a set just for you. HARRY LORAYNE.

There are many good books and DVD's on introductory card magic, but the book "The Magic of Micah Lasher" is a good one to have. It also has a bit of other magic like coins, ropes, rubber bands, etc.
Once you get better at card magic, try out David Ren Jenkins' DVD "Warp One". After perfecting it I was able to use it as my main trick for close-up performances.
Just keep practicing and you will get better!
Hope this helps,

Italianmike315,

I may have missed it, but I don't think that your original question has been answered. Bill Malone's DVD's are detailed enough that you *could* use them to learn a trick. That being said I think Card College Vol. 1 is definitely the way to go. I am a beginner (only know 2 tricks), and found that performing anything from Malone's DVD would require considerable work.

regards,
merk

I picked up Oz's Born to Perform but heard he teaches you bad techniques so I picked up the Paul Wilson Royal Road DVD set and love it. The Born to Perform shows you tricks that will take a lot of practice to make them look good. I know a lot of people say the double lift is easy but in the Royal Road DVD set it doesn't come till later (and for a good reason). The Royal Road set really starts with the basics and gives you some great tricks to perform using those basics. It's expensive but worth it.

I think books are great but I've been learning so much more from dvds (especially ones based on books). It's like reading about performing surgery and then trying it, or watching someone perform it and then repeating their actions. Ok not really but you get the picture.