Hi All,

After reading these forums for a while I decided to join up and use my first post to hopefully get a few tips off of the more experienced.

I am 25 from Nottingham UK. I was inspired by the likes of Dynamo and Troy to give magic a go and have been sat with a deck of cards most nights since.

First off I am really struggling getting a double lift right. A lot of routines I have looked into so far require a double lift and I just cant get it to look natural. I can't seem to consistently pinkie break under 2 cards. So any help with that would be appreciated. I have the feeling it will just come with practice but don't want to start bad habits yet.

As I said I love the kind of magic Dynamo and Troy perform. Walk up to someone, amaze them and leave. Could you name a couple of DVDs/Books/Tricks I can purchase that falls into this category?

Looking forward to learning from this site.

Thank you in advance

I've written quite a few books JUST FOR YOU!

Hello Fozzie!

For improving your double lift, I would recommend The Double Lift Project by Big Blind Media.

You mention that you want to walk up to someone, entertain them, and leave.

If you are thinking of doing "street magic", read this essay by Jamy Ian Swiss: http://www.antinomymagic.com/swiss.htm

If you really want to amaze and entertain people, and make a career in magic, you need to obtain a strong basis in magic.

You need to read books. Here are some suggestions:

Mark Wilson's The Complete Course

The Tarbell Course

Card College Series by Robert Giobbi

Royal Road to Card Magic

The Magic Book by Harry Lorayne

Now You See It, Now You Don't by Bill Tarr

Modern Coin Magic by Bob

13 Steps to Mentalism

Strong Magic by Darwin Ortiz

Maximum Entertainment by Ken Weber

Watch other magicians peform. Learn about the history of the craft. Learn to respect and appreciate the greats. Explore the craft and have fun!

Just for me? That was quick

I see from your website you have quite a few, could you narrow down a couple for me?

Thanks

Great, thanks Anand

A few bits for me to look in there

You might start with LORAYNE: THE CLASSIC COLLECTION, VOL. 2. There's a lifetime of impromptu card magic within those covers. You can see a few of those effects performed at www.youtube.com/harrylorayneonvideo (I think!). HL.

I have the Mark Wilson course and it is very good for covering different types of magic, not just cards so for a beginner like me (and you) it find it very useful, it is also very easy to understand and follow as the illustrations are clear.
Otto

Read Harry's books!

I only mentioned one book of Harry's, but everything by him is essential reading.

I recommend Royal Road to card magic, Card College and Hey, Listen to the master, Harry Lorayne! All of his books are great. I got started 30 years ago with Close-up Card Magic. You can't go wrong!

My vote is for Harry Lorayne's 'Close up Card Magic'. It is a treasure ful of commercial magic.

Ray

Thanks for all your recommendations guys. Plenty for me to get into. Time to get ordering

As Anand did say The Double Lift Project by Big Blind Media is a good start but if you take The essential sleights for card magic boxset from Big Blind Media you will get the double lift project + 2 more DVDs. Then you will have 3 really good DVDs.

That's a great box set that Timtom mentioned. I highly suggest it.

There's so many excellent resources people have linked you to here, I wont try to list any more. The essentials are here and I'm going to most definitely even further encourage "Strong Magic" by Darwin Ortiz-- As well as any other book based on the presentation of magic.

One of the biggest things I wish I'd known at the beginning is that everything you do needs to be simple, straight forward and practical.

I spent so much time researching deceptive ace assemblies, transpositions, and other such things... While I learned many sleights and it expanded my knowledge profoundly, it didn't really help my repertoire. In fact it hurt it for a while. I was doing tricks that required too much effort to pay attention to. An amazing performer can make just about anything entertaining but especially as a beginner, stick to things that have a very DIRECT and straight forward plot. Lots of magic moments. Never have more than a minute or so with no magic happening if you can help it. You have to keep people ENTERTAINED. After a year of vigorous research, I learned that there's a reason the classics are classics... It's because they have a reputation for being effective. (most effects anyways) You can add your own handlings, refinements, presentations, let your imagination run wild if you want but I highly suggest performing classical effects with your own presentation that suits your character. In my professional repertoire for strolling, I perform an Ambitious Card, Cards to Pocket, Triumph, and Chicago Opener. There's a lot of other great things but that's what I found suit me best.

A short list of classical effects that you should explore if you haven't already (You'll have to dig in to them to find sources to learn them but the conjuring archive can help you with that http://www.conjuringarchive.com/ )

The Chicago Opener ( Highly recommend Pop Haydn's version, "The Chicago Surprise")

Triumph. There's many in the hands versions you can dig in to. My favorite is one I learned from J.C Wagner's International magic lecture. A "Slop shuffle" will do you just fine.

The Ambitious Card (Absolute classic, every magician should experiment with it in their repertoire at least once)

Here Then There (Very popular among street magicians)

The Biddle Trick

Dr. Daley's Last Trick (Great combining it with "Twisting the Aces")



All I can hope for is that you hear me when I say to make sure your plots are SIMPLE and your performances are ENTERTAINING.

Good luck!

Zephury has suggested some brilliant routines, and his advice is extremely sound. The Chicago Opener by Pop Haydn is one of my go-to effects and is, in my opinion, one of the best card tricks of all time. Pop also has a great version of the Ambitious Card.

Many people here will recommend The Amateur Magician's Handbook by Henry Hay. Provides a good basis in just about everything.

The Amateur Magicians Handbook is fantastic, if you can find it.

Brilliant guys, thanks a bunch for all the recommendations.

I'm off on holiday next week so when I get back I will be looking through all of this properly and ordering a few bits. I don't want to overload myself too much so probably just one or two.

Has anyone read Card College? Seen a couple of people recommend that one.

Also I have spent the last couple of nights practicing a double lift and it has really improved.

I'll be taking a couple of decks away with me as to not get too rusty