How to Do Magic Tricks

My little escapade into learning how to do magic tricks started about three months ago.

Here's the deal...

(By the way, you can click on any of the links here to go to the sites I'm talking about.)

My wife and I were planning a birthday party for my daughter who was turning five. We wanted to do something special (five has always been my lucky number, and I thought it was kind of milestone year for her), so we thought about what kinds of things she and her friends really got a kick out of.

One of the things that kept popping up was magic.

I mean these kids went nuts anytime a magician showed up at their school, or was at a party, or whatever.

So we said, "Okay, let's get a magician."

Then I had a bright idea.

I said, "You know what. Why don't I learn how to do a few magic tricks and I'll be the magician instead."

The next day after my wife stopped laughing, I started hunting around for books, videos, websites, or anything else that would teach me a few simple (but not TOO simple, know what I mean?) tricks I could do at the party.

Most of what I found was complete garbage. (I hate saying that, because I'm a pretty positive person, but there's really no other way to describe it.)

What I found was either a) too hard, or b) too simple.

I mean really, have you seen some of these sites that say they'll show you how to do magic tricks, and then you watch the demonstration and you're like, "Well, maybe David Blaine can do that, but let's face it, I'm no David Blaine."

Then there's the other end of the spectrum. Sites or books that teach you tricks that are so mind-numbingly simple that even my daughter's five year old friends would be bored stiff.

All I wanted was something that would teach me tricks that were right in the middle. Easy enough to learn with a little practice, but not so easy that you'd get bored with them after about five minutes.

Are you like that, too?

Luckily, about a week before the party I did find something.

This is the only resource I found that taught me what I needed to know quickly. (Click on the link to check it out.)

I went ahead and bought a copy (just about everything out there that's free is a total waste of time by the way) and in a few days I was proficient enough that my wife and daughter were suitably impressed.

And a few days after that, when I got REALLY good at it, I wowed everyone at the party.

Awesome!

What I really like about this book is that it's right in the middle in terms of skill level, like I was saying above.

You can learn some really cool tricks, but it's not going to take you months to learn any of them.

And then if you want to move on and progress after that, maybe you can pick up a full DVD course or something. But that's not what I was after at the time.

Anyway, I hope that helps.

(BTW, I also found a couple articles on learning magic that I thought might be interesting, as well as a video. I posted a couple of those below. If you want to check them out, great. If not, just ignore them.)

Seriously, you can spend hours searching around trying to find the right resource, but I'd suggest at least checking this out (again, just click on the link to go there).

I really do think it probably has everything you're looking.

So you want to learn to become a magician. Whether it's to impress your friends, have fun with your kids, or maybe even as a way to earn some extra money (or you're considering it as a possible full-time career), learning how to do magic tricks is a rewarding adventure.

If you're a beginner, you're probably looking for some easy magic tricks to get you started, so let's cover that first.

If you look hard enough, you can find easy magic tricks for all types magic -- coin tricks, card tricks, even street magic tricks.

If you have an idea of the kind of magic you want to specialize in, great. But if not, that's fine, too. The beginning magician will probably want to try various magic "specialties" to see if one really catches your imagination.

Or maybe you want to dabble in a few, creating a repertoire that's truly unique and that expresses your particular interests or skills.

No matter what type of magic you choose to specialize in, one thing is common to them all -- practice.

If you have any desire to perform magic tricks in front of someone besides your dog, it's going to require some practice on your part.

But the great thing about practicing magic is that it's actually fun. Learning the sleight of hand required for coin or card tricks, or the unique character acting ability for street magic, is darn fun.

And, as you progress and become more proficient at the various skills required, the sense of accomplishment and confidence you'll receive is well worth the effort you're putting in.

Even with things such as easy magic tricks, you will find that a lot of thought, practice and diligence needs to go into it, before it comes out the other end as a good magic trick which can be performed flawlessly in front of an audience.

The great thing about magic if you're just starting out is that learning your first batch of tricks is not hard.

It doesn’t matter how old you are, how smart you are, or what kind of personality you have -- if you want to learn, and are willing to practice a little, you'll find that learning magic tricks can be relatively easy.

Of course, as you advance and take on more advanced tricks, things get "trickier" (no pun intended), but you don't need to progress to these until you've mastered the basics. By approaching your magic education this way, you'll be able to gradually build up your repertoire as your skill level increases.

Above all else, don't treat learning new tricks as though it was a job or a chore. Magic is fun. And you want to learn how to do magic tricks because you want to have some fun with it, right?

So roll with the punches and don't take things seriously. If you make some mistakes early on, that’s fine. You can't expect to be perfect your first time (or even you second or third time) out.

Depending on how seriously you want to take it, a part of learning magic tricks, especially if you, especially if you want to earn money by doing them, also means that you'll need to learn to be an actor -- at least a little bit. But that's for some time down the road.

When you're just starting out, the most important thing is that YOU yourself believe in your ability to pull off the trick. Once you believe it, it's just a small jump for the people you're performing for to believe that you can do magic as well.