Hi all,
I have started magic for a few weeks, and aiming at mastering the following tricks by December and wonder what you think about those goals for a beginner:
Extreme burn 2.0
Stand up Card Monte
One coin routine by David Ross
Some mentalism routines involving notepads
Ambitious card from Daryl (with the amazing ultimate ending)
maybe some ring and rope routine

Thanks
Pierre

Sounds like a very ambitious list. If you've only been doing Magic for a few weeks, I would focus on just one or two of those items and give yourself the December deadline. Maybe a small routine with two of those tricks?

Get yourself some Eugene Burger books, he talks a bit about the value of practice and how to do so. Let me know if you're interested and I'll look up some specific sources.

Agree with Erikdobell
really ambitious list, I do think Ambitious card is really difficult to master within few weeks
I been doing ambitious card for more than 5 years now, but I still find something is not right

I do think the word master not only mean sleight, but constant perform to people, know when, and why you do the move you do.etc
Ascanio has elaborate the word "master" a bit more

I remember the only routine I master when I start magic is salt shaker through the table

I wrote this whole paragraph and deleted it. If you are really committing yourself to magic - you will answer your own question in due time.

Rather that give you specific authors and such, I say part of your learning is failure - as long as you are ready to deal with the can of worms you are opening.

That is a really ambitious list. I don't think you can ever really master something in a performance art, but if you mean, "get it to a place where I can show it to other people and not crash and burn" then I think trimming it down to one or two items would be a good idea. Stand Up Monte, if you can get the sequence down, is killer, and you'll really be able to impress people with that. But, if it was me. I'd advise you to work on Ambitious Card, and here is why. Once you get the basics down, you can add different phases in, move things around, change presentational structures etc. Like learning a song, and then doing your own solo. You'll be able to find something that works and make it yours. Good luck with magic and don't give up on it. You'll have some hard knocks, but it is worth it if you can stick with it.

Hi Pierre,
I hope people will respect your positive intentions, and good luck with your ambitious list.
When I started getting into card magic, Daryl's Ambitious Card DVD was one of my first purchases. I have found that I am more of a book learner generally, and you may well be different, but may I recommend that you broaden your research and training input on Ambitious Card? Roberto Giobbi's Card College series is great for learning sleights that you can then work together into a routine. You may then find that you come back to your original intention of closing with Ultimate Ambitious Card.
I don't know the working of all five of your list, but it strikes me as rather sleight-heavy.
If you want to achieve 'mastery' in a short period - for personal satisfaction, peer group performance, or to give a sense of progress while you work on your preferred skills - why not look at some genuinely self-working tricks? I won't advise which - there are topics on the Café addressing this exact issue.
Yours aye,
Jay

Best advice I was ever given, focus on less, go for quality routines and quality props/equipment. Put your time into practice and developing the routine/ writing a script. I ignored this advice for a while. Eventually learned it was really on target if you want to take magic seriously. Learn less, learn it well, learn to entertain with it not just perform it. A handful of routines developed in this manner is far more valuable than a hundred routines you are capable of performing.

You are trying too hard to learn quickly. Also you should decide exactly what it is you want to achieve, you mention mentalism, thisis very different to magic. I would think first about what you want to learn, close up, parlour, stage ? And then tailor the things you learn to fit that.

These are too hard. They require more time than you have. A show by December is doable though, if you have a bit of cash to spend.

Better choices along these lines that are achievable in a short time would be:

1) Extreme Burn 2.0. Keep this. It can be done sleight-free, and is a TV quality effect. As an aside, Patrick Page is the original creator of this effect, he called it "easy money".
2) Pick three card effects from Big Blind Media's self working card tricks DVDs. Concentrate on presentation. This is professional-grade material, don't sell it short.
3) Invisible deck. Search the Café for presentations. Again, this is on TV all the time. This can be presented as mentalism.
4) Hopping Halves. This is a gimmicked coin trick, but you end clean. Again, this is very easy to do, but presentation is the important thing.

Don't think that just because these are easy effects, they're not worth it, or that you should be "aiming higher", i.e. focussing on sleights. These are all TV-quality effects, at professional level.

My dear grandmother used to say to me, when I had put too much food on my plate, and couldn't eat all of it, "Your eyes are bigger than your belly!"
You don't have a plate. You have a whole smorgasbord table! If you attempt all that in one month, I can almost guarantee that you will have INDIGESTION!!! --you might even "upchuck" the whole meal!

It's good to have goals, but, there are limits to how much one can learn and how fast one can learn it! {Unless one "belongs" to MENSA with an I.Q. of 500!)

The Chinese have a wise saying: "THE JOURNEY OF A THOUSAND MILES, BEGINS WITH ONE STEP."

I have been performing for 69 years. 20 as a part time professional, and 49 as a full time professional. I think I have "mastered" 7 or 8 tricks. (None of them are "BOX TRICKS"~)

A teen aged magician "wannabee" once asked HOWARD THURSTON (the early 20th Century "David Copperfield") "Mr. Thurston! How many tricks do YOU know?" Before Thurston could reply, the young fellow continued, "I know 218!" Thurston, whose show travelled in a railroad box car, said, "I KNOW about 10."

May I recommend that you scroll up and reread ALL of the above posts. Then read them AGAIN.

I just reread YOUR post. It appears to me that you have ATTEMPTED to BUY SOME TRICKS, so you can become a magician NOW!

It doesn't work that way!!!!!!!!!!

I recall buying an EGG BAG (An egg bag is not a trick, the egg bag is a prop. I had an old professional for a mentor, (Senor MARD0) He took the time to give me personal coaching on the egg bag. Mardo "knew" the egg bag!!! He had even originated a technique with it.

Now, let me interrupt that train of thought>

The "rule" for putting a new trick in one's act, is SIMPLE!

1. Learn how the trick is DONE.

2. Learn how to DO it.

3. LEARN HOW TO DO IT SO THAT IT ENTERTAINS AN AUDIENCE!

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>To be continued immediately after I have my lunch.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I'm back. (I skipped dessert.)

I learned how the egg bag prop "worked", with Mardo's explanatllon, in less than 5 minutes.

After an hour's coaching, I could DO it. Those were the easy parts!

I practiced Mardo's ROUTINE for weeks. I rehearsed it with the rest of my act, for more weeks. I made a few changes in the routine, practiced it some more, and rehearsed it again.I put it in the act BETWEEN two strong tricks, and tested it before an audience, a dozen times. I tweaked it a bit, and practiced it with the tweaks. Another audience test! A few more tweaks! the audience liked it! Each show, it got better Finally, after several months of work, it became a good routine. But, I didn't feel it was mastered, until I had used it for well over a hundred times before a paying audience! I've done it thousands of times since then. It plays for any age group!

I just looked at your "list" again. You have a "collection" of SECRETS & PROPS, They are not tricks. They are not magic, they are not effects.

A few definitions and thoughts for you to burn into your memory:

"MAGIC" is NOT INHERENTLY ENTERTAINING.

A TRICK only exists while it's being performed. (Like music, when you stop dragging the rosined horsehair over the catgut, the music no longer exists! THE PERFORMER, HIS PRESENTATION, AND PERSONALITY ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE PROP. A PROP is merely a "tool" (same as a sleight)used in performing the trick.

If the performer using his personality, and his presentation, performs the trick well, the audience will likely be entertained by the EFFECT (which they saw, or thought they saw) and MAGIC will probably happen in their MINDS.

You aint gonns learn how to DO, all those items on your list, in a month!!! LEARNING HOW TO DO THEM SO THEY ENTERTQIN WILL TAKE LONGER.

So! Select one, and FOCUS on it as you practice.

If you are serious about performing, I suggest that you read Tarbell. (7 volumes/about $20/volume.) You'll never regret that purchase.

OMG, thanks so much guys, I am still reading your kind replies one by one!

Thanks Dick. Much appreciated that you took the time to reply over your lunch! I understand what you are saying, and will let you know how I manage to DO a few tricks so they become really entertaining. WIll keep you posted !!
I'm still at phase 1, learning the technique

Thanks Charlie, I am not familiar with 2/ and 4/ but will clearly check them out this week end.
Many thanks again : )

George, I am targetting to perform in front of small groups of people in bars, or simply in the street. I assume that this limits somehow the effects I can go for.
Thanks agaian for your reply: )

When you're GREEN, you can get RIPE! When you're RIPE, you just get ROTTEN! (Look at ME!)

Wwhokie1, yes, I aim at foccussing on a few tricks. But getting really good at them. THis includes Ambitious card, 3 card Monte (I'm learning 2 methods). Extreme burn is a bit challenging as I am based in the UK and I find the magasine Cuttings effect less strong.

Jay Store, I really enjoy the technical part, and I'm not too fond of self working tricks. But I need to reach that second part, where I experiment the effects. I will perform to friends and family this week end, so will see how it goes.
Many thanks for your reply : )

Rklew64 - yes it is all about dealing with the fear of failing. The only thing you should fear is fear itself?

Been doing it a few weeks and you want to "master" them by December? No chance. There's a possibility you might be able to do them, but not master them. I've been dabbling for a few months now, but still not totally happy showing anyone other than my wife more than a couple of effects.