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Pass Artist New user London 15 Posts |
I am a fairly competent magician (mostly cards and close up) and suggested to a few friends that they might like to learn a few tricks. 20 people have snatched my hand off and I now have to teach a magic course! Entirely untested!
I've got some ideas but some back up would be most appreciated. Any suggestions as to what you might include? Thank you in advance. x |
Terrible Wizard Inner circle 1973 Posts |
Non-cards:
Paddle move M*gicians Choice Passe Passe Sponge Cards: Basic handling - grips, overhand shuffle, riffle shuffle, industry shuffle Shuffle control - top to bottom and bottom to top control, milk shuffle, OHS in-jog control, riffle shuffle top stock control False Cuts - false cut to table, false triple cut Forces - Hindu flash f*rce, cr*ss-cut force Flourishes - Charlier cut, swing cut K*y Card principle Gemini placement principle Card Tricks: Any two pick-a-card find-a-card tricks (with different reveals) Any two tricks using a force (with different reveals) Any trick using a k*y card (like Circus card trick/ betting game) Any trick using Gemini placement (like Gemini Twins) A couple of tricks using set-ups (like FTT or Shuffling Lesson or Poker Player's Picnic) |
DaveGripenwaldt Elite user 487 Posts |
Please do everyone a favor and don't have them just "learn a few tricks". Teach some basics about performance. We don't need any more "look what I can do" approaches that just have them describing everything they are doing like it was play-by-play without any premise, plot or entertainment.
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Wravyn Inner circle 3479 Posts |
Something I have done when asked to teach some magic tricks... we went to the public library, grabbed some magic books and looked through them. Had them read and work on what they decided on. I have only had one person willing to put the work in like this and is successfully learning and doing more.
The others found out that there is more than imagined involved. |
davidpaul$ Inner circle Georgetown, South Carolina 3086 Posts |
If they didn't ask you and you don't know their respect level for our art why would you suggest, as your post states, share and teach effects?
I can't tell you how many people I've encountered that know a few things about certain sleights that chime in their limited knowledge in the midst of a performance. I currently work 4 restaurants weekly and into my 16th year in the business. "Those" people learned a little about magic, maybe from someone like yourself, didn't really care about respect, or proper decorum and think it's OK to yell out DL etc. I'm not against sharing, on the contrary, I would be happy to, but only to those that have a sincere interest and respect for the art and countless hours I've devoted to it. I once had a server at a restaurant plead with me to show him how I perfomed a certain sleight. I explained to him that unless he had a true desire to learn and put in the time and respect magic I would not share. He assured me he did. I gave him some homework to look up some terminology regarding a card sleight and tell me about it when I saw him again. When I saw him again,his response was that he didn't have time to look it up yet. That's the end of the story.
Guilt will betray you before technique betrays you!
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danaruns Special user The City of Angels 808 Posts |
Classes for newbies, huh? Cool. I've taught newbies both privately and in classes, and I've spent the last couple years helping Mark Wilson teach magic to adults at the Magic Castle. A few observations from all that time:
*Most people really do want to just "learn a few tricks" at first, even if they tell you they want to headline on the Vegas strip. What they really want is to go home from that first class (and the 2nd, and the 10th) and be able to do a couple cool tricks for their friends, spouse or kids. With a few students, you'll see a spark that eventually catches fire, but I wouldn't worry about presentation, scripting and performance right now. Just get them able to go home and show the first person they see a good magic trick. I guess that puts me at odds with DaveGripenwaldt, above. *Teach the easiest self-working tricks you can find. Beginners don't want to dive into trying to learn sleights, they want to do "magic now." What you think is cool is not what they think is cool. So give them something with a cool effect that's ridiculously easy to do. At this point it's about the wonder of seeing people's reactions. They will wither and die if you insist they learn a good double lift right out of the gate. I like "Fantastic Five" from Mark Wilson's book. Totally self-working with an easy setup, and teaches the key card principle. It has "magician in trouble," a dramatic reveal, and a kicker where the four aces are produced after the chosen card is found. It's self working and hits hard, and that's what your students will want to see. You will blow them away when you demonstrate it. And if they can go home and blow away their spouse, they will think you are a genius. And holding back on the sleights for a while satisfies DavidPaul$'s concerns. Make them earn the sleights. *Use this teaching format: (1) Demonstrate the trick, and fool the heck out of them; (2) Teach the trick; (3) Have the students practice the trick with each other while you go around and give "atta boys" and help individuals who are struggling. Get them ready to perform a couple tricks as soon as they leave your first lesson. *Don't teach too much. Three or four self-working tricks is all they will be able to handle, at first. Every new magic student wants to learn everything at once. Resist that. Because they also want to go perform for all their friends, so give them only enough to scratch that itch each week. And give them written instructions for every trick you teach. *Increase complexity as you go, but slowly!, and only teach one sleight at a time. Any trick that requires that they learn two sleights they don't know, forget it. Find a trick for each sleight. Build on that each week. Don't overwhelm them. *Don't teach to the best student or the worst. Teach to the middle of the pack. The best student will get private little "pro tips" to inspire and as recognition. The worst student gets the most positive encouragement. *Along with the easy tricks, teach a little theory and a little technique. "Every magic trick is made up of the effect, the secret, and the misdirection," or some such easy concept. Demonstrate a few shuffles and have them practice them: riffle shuffle, overhand shuffle, Hindu shuffle, and explain that they will use all these things later on. I've found that this formula seems to work for the most people. Even the most casual, the dumbest, the most excited, and the most skilled get into it. I have a professional poker dealer in class now, and that person is happy as a clam learning self-working card tricks. Conversely, giving too much burns people out. Set them up for success. There is plenty of time to learn the Ten Cards to Pocket. Good luck! And have fun!
"Dana Douglas is the greatest magician alive. Plus, I'm drunk." -- Foster Brooks
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Terrible Wizard Inner circle 1973 Posts |
Great post danaruns.
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Pass Artist New user London 15 Posts |
Thank you for these thoughts. I will take them on board.
I realise now that I should have given some more details. These will be children aged between 10 and 15. They are home schooled children who tend to eschew regular subjects for the more obscure and fun stuff. And I am a trained actor and so I always think of the performance first over the actual mechanics of a trick. (You do NOT want to watch my hands during a performance!) So, my initial ideas before I reached out to you were a mix of teaching them something that they can go home and do to their family, quickly and easily with a few principles of telling a story. The suggestions that Terrible Wizard supplies (thank you) look great. But I think that is a whole years worth of lessons right there. I will slowly inch my way through it, I'm sure. Danaruns. Thank you for your time. That is a very insightful post from someone who is obviously at the forefront of this sort of thing. I'm honoured. I will take your points very seriously. The point about teaching to the middle of the pack is something that hadn't occurred to me. It's something that sounds quite ethereal, but perhaps when I actually get people into the room it will make itself clear. I have been leafing though Mark's book looking at what to start with and Fantastic Five is now first up on the list of stuff to learn. Thank you. A simple Out Of This World routine seemed an slight free, high impact trick to go with early on. Is this wise? Obviously, there will be a lot of talk about the rules of magic as well. This is exactly the sort of thing I was looking for. Thanks guys. |
danaruns Special user The City of Angels 808 Posts |
Quote:
On Jan 17, 2018, Pass Artist wrote: That's a nice compliment, but I'm not at the forefront of anything. I'm just a schlub, one of the Great Unwashed. Whenever you read advice from me you would do well to keep firmly in mind that I have trouble even finding my car keys most mornings. Good luck with your kids. Sounds like fun.
"Dana Douglas is the greatest magician alive. Plus, I'm drunk." -- Foster Brooks
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Terrible Wizard Inner circle 1973 Posts |
I probably wouldn't start with OOTW. It's quite long to do. I think you might be better off with a shorter card trick. Dana's suggestion of the Fantastic Five from MWCMC is a very good one. You'll probably have to provide multiple packs yourself for them to begin with.
If you want child friendly, easy to do tricks, you might want to check out Julian Mathers Young Magician School tutorials. |
GreenKnight33 Regular user 151 Posts |
Or perhaps Gemini Twins? Excited to hear how this goes!
Great feedback on tips. |
landmark Inner circle within a triangle 5194 Posts |
I wouldn't teach a trick that is in the repertoire of working magicians like Out of This World. But there are still fun self-workers like the Piano Card Trick or even the twenty one card trick (yes!) to teach. The thing is to get them to focus on a premise. Group them in twos or fours and have each group come up with two or three premises for each trick.
It's also helpful to have children build a prop that they can use. There's a nice double wall production tube they can build from construction paper that's detailed in the Joshua Jay magic course book. Josh also has a book specifically for teaching children magic: https://www.amazon.com/Big-Magic-Little-......61180095
Click here to get Gerald Deutsch's Perverse Magic: The First Sixteen Years
All proceeds to Open Heart Magic charity. |
Dougini Inner circle The Beautiful State Of Maine 7130 Posts |
Quote:
On Jan 16, 2018, davidpaul$ wrote: Oh yes! I have had JUST that kind of luck! I am not a worker, but have been laughed out of a room by some very cruel 20-somethings (I'm 62). YouTube and a 45 inch screen were not my friends that day! LOL! But even at places like the Food Bank. One guy had a little knowledge of Exp [ coins. He had one, I guess. He proceeded to spill it after my performance. Nothing I could do, but walk away. One person CAN wreck your show. MY show, anyway. After 45 years of doing this, I do have a few OUTS. But there are a few instances, I imagine (in restaurant performing) where as Dave said, a little knowledge can be deadly. I think it was JoeJoe who showed how he shut down a heckler. Made the guy feel really guilty. Rightfully SO! What kind of person gets a thrill out of ruining a person's fun? Nobody likes a Mr. Know-It-All. "Oh! You know how do do this? Here! SHOW us!" But...I've never done a restaurant gig. I cannot imagine the things that might happen. On the PLUS side, I like Dana's post above. I cannot think of anything better. Doug |
rew4747 New user Utah 8 Posts |
“…Much has been said on this by other authors and I do not have the years behind me nor the standing to speak with the same authority. Similarly, I can add nothing very new to the discussion. But consider this…”
-Derren Brown, Pure Effect, p.21 I'm currently helping an 11 year old create a magic routine for his school talent show. When I have taught "magic lessons", what I have done is had them watch a variety of professional magicians on Youtube, from a variety of genres (Penn and Teller, Derren Brown, Steven Brundage, Shin Lim, etc) and have them notice which clips they liked the most. We would then talk about why. Doing that helped them feel what kind of magic they wanted to perform, and what style they wanted to have. I don't just want clones of me. As Derren Brown said in Tricks of the Mind: Magic: "...The protege (of magic) delights in learning new slights and eventually he spends so much money on his new hobby that he’s tempted to try and earn a little something with it. Unfortunately, he’ll have been exposed to predominantly appalling magic and will have learned only to ape the mannerisms and performance styles of his mentors. Many people I know have had the strange experience of chatting to a perfectly pleasant young man who turns out to be a magician. And, curious to see what he can do, they accept his offer to show them something, and are surprised to see him, as if someone had pressed ‘play’, transformed into a quite unlikeable caricature, changing his speech pattern, making rude comments about what they’re wearing, cracking weak, unpleasant, and soulless gags and utterly disengaging them from the situation. Sadly, the ability to perform magic naturally and with any charm is perhaps the most difficult thing to learn." When I teach the actual tricks, I do a performance of it, and then afterward help them deconstruct the trick and work backwards to figure out how it is done. (A side note, this has helped me fine tune a lot of effects I do, after realizing how obvious certain 'devious' things I do actually are). From here, we then approach each trick through the lens of what makes it magical, discussing when the moment of magic happens, etc. and then ideally "create" a new trick- usually meaning translating a close up trick they know to be perform able on stage. sometimes it's just coming up with a new presentation for one they really like. I usually teach one on one, or groups of two or three. And I also agree with danaruns, that having a trick to go home and practice (but actually just show off and perform poorly-- hey, we've all done it) is essential. I make sure that they leave the first lesson with at least one effect they can perform well- usually a quick, self working card trick. And I agree with landmark that building props is a tremendous way to help them feel invested in the craft. It also helps them understand the magician's dilemma of having the performance itself be cool, but the method and hard work you put into it be so much cooler, and not being able to talk about it. |
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