If you’re new like me, I advise staying away from the Latest and Greatest topic. Too much fantastic magic that’s hard to pass up when you are just starting to acquire tricks/effects to develop a routine. LOL

Trust me, your wallet will thank me.

: )

Mr.Jingle, etc.!

You are wiser than you look! hee hee

Permit mem however, to help you, to understand a few "things"...

You can't "pass up MAGIC". MAGIC only "happens" in the mind(s) of spectator(s).

You can't acquire or buy tricks. TRICKS, somewhat like music, only exist while they are being performed.

You can't acquire or buy effects. EFFECTS are what the spectator(s) perceive.

You can acquire, or purchase PROPS, and/or SECRETS, which you can use to perform a trick.

If you, with practice, perform the trick well, with a good PRESENTATION, you MAY ENTERTAIN those spectators. (MAGIC IS N O T INHERENTLY ENTERTAINING!)

I'll repeat that: MAGIC IS NOT INHERENTLY ENTERTAINING.

When I was starting out, 70 years ago, I asked my mentor to help me to understand what PRESENTATION meant. He said, "Well, it aint WHAT ya do, it's HOW ya do it."

You're just beginning. Routines are developed after you have learned "some" tricks.

HERE'S A BASIC RULE: To add a trick to your show, there are three things necessary:

1. Learn how the trick is DONE.

2. Learn how to DO it.

3 Learn how to do it, so that it ENTERTAINS spectators.

I hope this has been helpful. You may ignore what I have written, but, your wallet wont thank you.

Seems like a post extracted from Henry Hay's book I am reading right now

I read June Barrows Mussey's "Amateur Magicians Handbook" about 60 years ago.

He said it 'well'!

Styles of performing have changed! "Vaudeville" is gone! So, some of his ideas of presentation, are now, passe, but, his technical material, is great!

I am loving all the theory part. The tech stuff is ok, but there are books that explain it better IMHO.

Interesting. Thank you Mr. Oslund.

You can, perhaps, understand my confusion when a lot of this appears to be semantics (in my, admittedly, limited experience).

For example, I would note that there is a complete topic on these forums called "Tricks & Effects" that is for "reviews of magic tricks only". Shouldn't this then be called "Props and Secrets" for reviews of "props and secrets"?

Also, from my reading here and elsewhere (including online "Magic" stores), most/many magicians these days refer to what we buy as "tricks and effects".

It seems to me that we do buy "tricks" and our purchase includes only the secret or the secret AND a prop/gaff/gimmick/etc. required to perform the "trick".

Question: If I am practicing a "trick" (alone) does an "effect" occur even if there are no spectators to perceive it?

I wonder what books Houdini- Danta - Thurston - Blackstone- read ?? Now days so much theory - so confusing for the begginner. ?????????????

Hi MrJingle!!!

Glad you replied~! I can readily understand your confusion!!! (It's OK to be "green", 'cuz, you can get "ripe"!) I've been "ripe" for a long time. (I'm 86. I should be 87, but, I was sick a year.) When you're "ripe"', you can only get "rotten".

When I was beginning (early '40s) my mentor(s) insisted that I use terms correctly, to avoid confusion, and I listened!!! I realize that it may sound "picky", but, as one of my college professors "usta" say, "That, offends my ears."

Yes, there is a forum titled "Tricks and Effects", and, that is not correct. I've noticed it, too, but, I've "given up" on that one.You can't buy tricks, but you can buy props and secrets, with which to perform a trick. (Note: I didn't say to perform a trick, WITH!)

Yes, illiterate dealers have advertised that they sell tricks. They "aint" right! --And, that's one of the reasons that we have so many "trick store magicians". They DO tricks, not a magic show.

"Those who think that magic consists of doing tricks, are strangers to magic. Tricks are only the crude residue from which the lifeblood of magic has been drained." --S.H. Sharpe

No. the "magic" happens (only in the spectator(s)' mind(s). --and, the effect is what the spectator(s) perceive in their mind(a).

So you are perfectly welcome to call "stuff" whatever you wish. --But, don't come to me looking for any sort of guidance. (I've only had 70 years of performing experience, all over North America.

Dick

Reminds me when my Grandfather , a Pastor, invited me to see a "Gospel Magician". What a phony - he did the Hippity hops-Die Box-20th centry silks and others - ALL done and useing the Patter in the instructions(like he just took them off the shelf)> No bible Verses-references - etc., he only said he was a Las Vegas Peo(?) and couldn't stand the immorality - and was into Church Magic-I think he was only in for thr $$$. Needless to say Grandpa said to me -"don't say anything" and I didn't.

Yes Russo, it really can be confusing.

Dick, could one "argue" that the difference between a what you refer to as a "trick store magician" showing a series of "tricks" they bought and an experienced performer/artisan performing the same series of "tricks" just PRESENTATION and EXECUTION?

It's the difference, for example, between me performing "Unshuffled" and Paul Gertner performing "Unshuffled" - we are both doing the same "trick" to make an "effect", but his presentation and execution makes his performance a "magic show" and mine me "doing a trick".

I admit that, at this point in my magic education me doing a series of "tricks" is not (yet) a "magic show" - it's me doing a series of tricks, i.e., I am a "trick store magician". But I think that's because my presentation and execution need to improve, not because I bought the "tricks" from a store that called them "tricks" or because I technically use the wrong terminology.

I guess to put it another way, aren't most beginners in magic "trick store magicians" until they learn to PERFORM and put on a MAGIC SHOW? Maybe that's in effect what you are saying.

I doubt few of us would regard Dynamo (and to a less extent, David Blaine) trick shop magicians however both are known to use commercially available tricks.

I agree the difference is clearly the x factor which is created through experience, presentation and charisma.