I was really into magic when I was a kid. Probley from the age of 8-13. I then got out of it to do different things. Im now 30. I whish I stuck with it. Anyways. My friend owns a Tropical fish store right down the end of my street. Across the street was a store front that said coming soon Magic shop. So I got excited knowing there was a magic shop right at the end of my street. Being out of magic for so long I started looking for a ton of stuff on the internet. Boy things have changed in 17 years. So I started reading a bunch of things on the internet. Everything from magic is a dying hobby to ellusionist has the greatest tricks and dvds ever produced ect... So a month went buy I went into the magic shop. which is called Brick and Mortar Magic shop. I met the owner Michael Paul who is the owner and is a Pro Magi. He seemed cool down to earth. I go in there from time to time. He wanted me to take lessons. They were 30 dollars a month.I think that is pretty cheap. I was wondering where should I start. I bought indecent and crash course 1 and 2 from ellusionist. There good products. But the almost 100.00 I spend on them. I would of been better buying a few books or taking lessons. I was wondering what should I start with. I heard Mark Wilson complete course in magic is good. Also theres a few Dvds someone has recomended. Let me know If any of you guys can help. Also what do you think of magic is it more popular today say because Of David Blaine and Criss Angel. Or was it more popular in the 70s to late 80s. When they had all those magic specials. With DougHenning David Copperfield Ect........... Hope you guys can get me going again

Scott

Scott,

a warm welcome to the fascinating world of magic. I would recommend you to get an overview of magic first. Think about what kind of magic you would like to perform.
You will not be able to learn everything at one time, thus it is important to set yourself goals and visions.

This site is a fantastic resource, so please use the search engine as much as possible. As you mentioned, a good book for beginners is Mark Wilson's Encyclopedia of Magic. It gives you a pretty good idea.

Once you made up your mind, you can start to embark the journey. There are many resources out there. Taking lessons is a good option, as long as you have a competent teacher.

It is great that you think of learning and practice, just buying tricks and gimmicks is not the way to go.

I hope this helps

Andy

Thanks for the welcome. I want to learn close up stuff. Also I want to get really good with cards. I like some stage stuff. Torn and restored cards and newspapers are cool. For now I would like to stick with cards. Right now I can do. The biddle card trick misled, twisted sister, quarter through soda can, I just ordered no tear newspaper off of Ebay, What are some good card dvds or books. The royal road to card magic I heard is great. That and Mark Wilsons Complete course in magic. I will have my girlfriend get themfor me for Xmass. Let me know If you think of anything else

Scott,

You are very welcome - sounds as if you are already investing heavy bucks . . good for the industry.

Card magic is a great, rewarding choice - be prepared for a lot of practice. The first statement is my biased view, the second the brutal truth.

Two affordable, yet excellent books are
Expert at the Card Table by Erdnase
Expert Card Technique by Hugard & Braue

That should keep you going for a long,long time . . . without the need to spend much money on gimmicks and tricks.

Andy

Hello Scott!

A sincere "welcome back" to the field of magic! If you take a look around I think you'll like what you see! Haha in all seriousness welcome back and its great to see someone returning to our craft after so long. If you need to relearn basic card techniques, the Michael Ammar Easy to Master Card Miracles DVD series is a great place to start, as well as the aforementioned books. Looking around I'm sure you have already begun to see the immense advances and changes in the field of magic since last you were involved, for better or worse. In any regard welcome again.

Brian

Hi Scott,

I can totally sympathize with your situation. I have decided to return to the art of magic after a 15+ year hiatus. When I was 13 I was given a book with all kinds of magic tricks in it (cant recall the name off the top of my head,) that I begun practicing with. I really enjoyed the card magic and sponge ball routines, but alas at the age of 13, your dedication to one thing can slip easily. I unfortunatly fell victim to the lure of computers, comic books, video games, and of course to girls... Needless to say I gave up on practicing and while a lot of the theory behind the tricks remain, the body will not remember...

So after some prodding by a buddy and some encouragement by my wife, I have picked up the deck of cards again with the intent on doing something magical with them (and I am not talking about hitting the casino's either!)

I have decided to start with the card tricks and stick with the ones that can be done with little or no gimmicks. Basically I want to get into something that I can be at someones house, grab a deck of cards, and wow them. I have been fortunate enough to have been given a copy of Roberto Giobbi's Card College Vol 1 to start out with and I am working from front to back to try and start out with the proper basics that I can build on. Wish me luck!

Scott, welcome back. Other than buying materials, go and enroll the course, at least for a month. For beginners it's good to have someone professional to give you some feedbacks. You can't get the same from books/dvds.

I will let you guys know how I make out. The 1st class for me is monday night at 7:00pm. Its only 30.00. I could spend that on a dvd watch it once and it will sit on my shelf

Scott

You sound like you are off to a great start! Good luck, and enjoy the journey!!!

You sound like you are off to a great start! Good luck, and enjoy the journey!!!

If this is the same Michael paul I think your talking about... Go for it man!

Michaelpaulmagic.com

I have a few of his e-books. THeyre killer

Yes it is mikael paul. Have you ever taken lessons from him. or seen him perform??

I second anything by Ammar. Especially his Easy to Master Card and Money Miracles. The Backbone of Close up is coins and cards, but as you already know, there are countless other close up type things you can do. Thousands.

Monte

Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic or a volume of Tarbell Course in Magic. There are 8 volumes in all, is a good place to start.

When I first started getting back into magic a couple of years ago I joined The Society of American Magicians and was lucky enough to attend a lecture of Daryl's. He taught me a lot at that lecture. I would recommend to you to buy 1 or all 3 volumes of his Fooler Doolers tapes or DVD's. They have a variety of magic in every volume. Each volume has a few card, money, silk, etc. tricks in them and the difficulty level does not increase with each volume. If you are not sure the type of magic you want to get in to this might be a good place to start if you prefer video vs. book.

Dan

Have a look at Paul Harris's books. There is a ton of very good tricks that require very little in the way of advanced moves. The Wilson book is not bad, I did his sponge ball routine for years. Harry Lorayne's Close-up Card Magic has a Poker deal I still use, (self-workng).

DVD and video are nice to learn from, the drawback is that there are still not that many that are really great and almost all of them are more expensive than a good book. Also new items, or more sadly items that were just done on TV last week are gong to get overexposed or blown.

Do you really want to be 200,000th guy doing the bitten quarter?

The real gems are buried in the books and magazines. I have a lot of videos, but I have a lot more books. If you have to choose between a trick or a book, get the book. I am not against video, I got a lot more out of the David Roth book after seeing nuances in the video, but there was a lot more in the book.

Zazz gives good advise as far as getting the pros to show you the different types of magic. The magic shop is a great place to find out what you need. That implies there are magicians around to keep it open. There is no better way to improve your magic than a magic club, IBM, SAM, even an informal one. You have got to be able to perform for people who can help you fix things before you try them fo laymen.

Mirrors are great, cameras are better, but they will not help you with style.