Hey, guys! This is my first day on the Magic Café as an actual member. My name's Beau Burchfield. I'm from Birmingham, AL, and I'd be quite reluctant to call myself a magician. The subject line of this post has something to do with that. You see, I've spent the last three years or so practicing and learning different tricks. YouTube has been my main teacher, but I've bought a handful of tricks from the shops and gotten pretty proficient at the tricks I know. The problem is, I just know that: a handful of tricks. I explain it to other magic guys around me (for which there are very few. We don't even have a magic shop within 200 miles) like this: A man doesn't learn guitar by learning how to play songs. He just learns those songs, that way. A man learns guitar by first studying chords and scales and spending ridiculous amounts of time playing terribly. Once he's put in his time, though, he can learn songs in a flash, and play thousands more than if he had just stuck to learning songs. So that being said, I wanted to ask you all: What's the best book for card tricks? Something that would begin a great foundation?

Note: I know how to cull and double-lift and hold a break. I can pull off a pretty convincing Triumph; so I'm not looking for Little Jimmy's Book of Magic. Something maybe one or two steps up from that would be nice.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to carrying on many conversations with you guys in the future!

First! I'm not a cardician! (Here comes the "but"!)::

But, I have known many, if not most of the great cardicians, in the past 50 years. (I'm not "name dropping") I've known, and know, men like Alex Elmsley, Charlie Miller, Ricky Jay, Dai Vernon, Frank Garcia, Paul LePaul, Jon Racherbaumer, et al. I met them as a professional magician, myself.

I started performing as a young teenager, in 1945. After my third show (age 13, almost 14) I became a part time professional! (I made $25. for a school assembly program at the local Jr. High School! (Grown men, in 1945, were working all week for that!)

20 years later, I "turned" full time professional, and,retired after 50 years on the road, playing mainly school assembly programs, coast to coast, and, border to border, but, also booking darn near every type of "venue", from circuses to an occasional trade show. --OK, there are some credentials!

I read Erdnase as a teen, and learned to perform almost all of the fancy cuts, and shuffles, plus the "standard" flourishes. I've done them all my life! I soon realized, however, that a 16 year old gambler, wasn't going to get very far!

BUT (again!) I don't do card tricks! I enjoy watching a good card man perform. I just have no interest in performing card tricks.

When I mentor a young guy who is interested in cards, I always suggest that he start by reading "Royal Road To Card Magic" by Jean Hugard. Hugard could write clear, concise instructions! His book starts with the fundamentals, and, you learn skills, plus performing tricks using those skills. He progresses to the harder moves.

RRCM was first published at least 50 years ago. IT IS STILL IN PRINT!!! There have been new moves developed, and, there have been refinements, BUT, you need to begin somewhere!

RRCM is relatively inexpensive. I'm sure that it's less than $20! I'm sure that most well stocked dealers have it. I would recommend Denny Haney (Denny & Lees Magic Studio 9004 Yellow Brick Road Suite H Rosedale Maryland 21237 Denny will treat you right!

Yours, 'til the deck is shuffled!

Dick

Welcome Kamozai,

"Royal Road" is a good move if you are into Cards. There is nothing wrong with learning to perform Tricks well. Each one will teach you several things about performance and maybe some "moves". People approach Magic in different ways.
I do know that some YouTube Magic is bad and some is outright theft of other people's intellectual property. People should only teach tricks they've invented. Good for you for turning from the dark side.
I like cards myself but find that in my own working repertoire I'm using a LOT of non-card stuff (obviously in my Family Magic) and this includes my strolling Magic for Adults.
I've noticed that when a Magician that does non-card Magic in a gathering with lots of Card Magicians they will often gather a larger lay audience. Having seen this sort of graphic display several times, I decided to curate a broader tool box.
Still, my first few Tricks were Card Tricks and I still keep Cards by my easy chair.

Best of Luck (and hard work) in your quest.

-Mary Mowder

If you've learned via YouTube, you might consider DVDs as well books. For cards I'd recommend Bill Malone. His "Here I Go Again" and "On the Loose" sets are filled with great card tricks with clear explanations. He also talks about developing routines, characters, and business. More than just tricks.

Good luck and welcome to the Café

Hi Beau!

Well, that's "two votes" for "Royal Road" and Jean Hugard!

I've known Mary for about 35 years, and she is one sharp lady magician. I haven't been out to Sacramento for a few years, but, I'd be willing to bet that she's still one of the busiest performing magicians in Sacramento and the surrounding area!

I don't KNOW Bill Malone, personally, but I DO KNOW that he is a very successful professional magician. --and a fine card man!

"BUT", I will stick with my recommendation that you START with RRCM!

When Jeff Helding was starting out, at 17, he asked for my suggestion, I recommended RRCM. He bought it, he studied it. He learned what Hugard had written. He worked in the Chicago area for several years playing local dates. He got along just fine with what he had learned in RRCM! It was the only card book that he ever read!

You can get Royal Road free right now from Conjuring Arts.
http://shop.conjuringarts.org/store/pc/F......c127.htm

While Royal Road is how I got started, if I was starting over again today, I'd go with Giobbi's Card College.

(Or, if you're so inclined, get both, since Royal Road is free)

Both RRCM and CC have DVD's available from a couple sources.


Dave

Great! I appreciate all the advice! I believe I'll get RRCM, then. Thank you all!

Greetings!

My stage name is Malaki Dracwin (aka David Swanson). I have been performing magic for 40 years now, primarily in Medieval and Renaissance fairs in central US. Many years ago, I used to be one of the contributing authors for Miss-Magics House, my room was "Tower of Malaki".

My introduction to this forum was this morning, when I googled my stage name and found that someone on the forum had mentioned my books, wondering where to find them. I joined to answer, and found that this is quite a nice forum of magic! The "Magic Box" was a beautiful short film that I had never before seen! I am sure to share that with some family and fellow magi.

My first book is titled A Timeline of Magic, which started out as a means of documenting magical performances in my time period, the 13th century. I continued to add to the timeline for 10 years, until it reached from 50,000 BCE (stone age) to 2000 CE, and was in excess of 200 pages. I published this work in 2002, just in time for the Oklahoma City Cavalcade of Magic.
The second book, Theatrical Magic, takes the reader on a tour through the theater, explaining how things work. It also includes some stage effects of my invention, such as a working Sword in the Stone (no electricity required!) and my version of the new thin table. There is also a chapter on theatrical makeup.

I make most of my own equipment, so that my apparatus looks the part when doing historical reenactment. Having purchased a lathe, I started turning magic wands and other magical apparatus.

I look forward to learning from the obvious talent that is present on this forum!

Hi Malaki!

Yup! in your enthusiasm, you "started out the wrong way" (hee hee)

You're in another guy's thread! --A committee of wizards will meet on your front porch this very evening, and cast a spell on thee! (You have committed the "unpardonable sin", so we recommend that you immediately join the Gospel Magicians!

HENRY LE TRIGATOUR is also an "out of date" magician. You may wish to contact him. I'll get you his correct nom de Café.

Meanwhile, Welcome to our motley crew...........(I think!)

Dick