Hi,

The names Mike and I have been playing around with magic since I was a kid. Anyways...I have got into card magic in a big way and have spent lots of time and money on all sorts of stuff. However I still feel old fashioned advice from experianced card magicians is best.

Anyone have any tips.

Hm...I don't consider myself that experienced with card magic, but I'm not sure what you mean by experienced. I may have only been doing it for 2-3 months, but I've been obsessive about it...I walk around doing card flourishes and sleights all day long..never leave my dorm room without a deck of cards, not even to go to the bathroom..you never know when youre gonna get a chance to do a trick for someone.

Your experienced as far as Iam concerned....I know your right in practicing all the time....I too am at Uni, but I have not had the bottle to try any tricks on friends at the moment. Still having trouble with the DL.

I have Vernons Inner Secrets of Card Magic and I have a whole load of other books, but I think videos and someone showing me where I go wrong must be the best way of learning.

Well, the "books vs videos" debate has been hashed out numerous times here

Basically, for the money you will most likely learn more from books, but you might learn certain techniques clearer from videos.

The problem with video learning lies with the fact that everyone is built a little different. Differences in hand size requires differences in handling. What works great for a person on a video may not work so great for you. Additionally, some people have a tendency to mimic the video teacher and not find his/her own unique handling.

For beginnersI like to recommend videos. I doubt you have a whole load of books if you could only see what a whole load of books looks like in a magicians library.Anyways for books for you I would recomend Harry Lorayne anywhere anytime book you can get it at the library its a nice starter book as for videos Go for the Daryl encyclopedia of card slieghts.

I recommend getting a good magic teacher there are many on this site .

vinny

With videos it's a lot easier to show handling and learn from that, and then come up with your own handling later on..IMO, the two need to go together..that will provide the best learning experience.

Just go out and start doing what you already know, and don't worry about having problems with the DL, do other stuff that doesn't need DL first and DL, will come by it self after doing it time and time gain. This way will teach you better with Videos and Books and even teacher.




Zac

I'd get Oz Pealman's Born To Perform Card Magic first and then move on to Daryl's EOCS and Jay Sankey's RCM. I recently watched CardShark by Jeff and he has some really awesome sleights/passes that you can use to wow your audiences...

Hi mike,

If you like books I think you might reach out for Roberto Giobbi's Card College collection. You'll find very good material in it that will help you in a theorical and technical way. I don't think that you should start with "Inner Secrets", it isn't that basic. It's also a great book, however.

Cheers
Pablo Leal

Michael Ammar's DVD "Amazing Secrets of Card Magic" is an excellent resource to start with.

Flimnar

Thanks guys for the advice......I will try and spread it 50/50, one thing I don't want to do is copy any particular magician....However I have just ordered Daryl's EOCS because I am interested in making up an ambitious card routine. As with the DL, I'll just keep praticing...

Mike,
I have two piece of advice. First, get "Royal Road to Card Magic" and work it from start to finish. This will give you a working understanding of the basic card sleights. Second, find out if there is an I.B.M. (Interbational Brotherhood of Magicians) and/or S.A.M. (Society of American Magicians) chapter near you and join. Otherwise, post a notice on campus or in campus newspaper and get together with others in your school who are interested in magic. Nothing compare to one on one learning. Just my 2 cents.
Nando

Thanks for the advice Nando, but Iam from the UK. However I will post something on our college forum and see what happens.

Hi ipaq,
Books and vids are both good in the ways that are explained above. I've been at this now for about a couple of years and can tell you that I've only happy been with my DL for about a week or so now! Check out card college. The thing that has helped me most is to understand the learning process. I teach a martial art and part of the teaching is to break this process down.

SHU- To keep, literally to follow exactly how you are taught, if your using more than one source for your DL don't. Find the simplest one(get ready?)and just go for that and that alone.

HA - To break, once you have mastered this technique, and I'd genuenly say it took me almost a year of just using the one DL, then you can go and find the other variations. A DL is a DL-same technique, different approaches, but the basics you have mastered will stand you in good stead for the more advanced techniques.

RI - To move away from, to create an entirelly new technique for the purpose. While a few here have undoubtedly reached those heights you and I should stick to SHU and HA for about twenty or so years at least!

These three fazes of learning can be applied to learning anything from the alphabet to magic. Good luck and happy learning.