Havn't been practising much lately and it just dawned upon me that i have very little effects that requires no set-up or gimmicks. So err, I was wondering if the better magicians around could recommend a few starters/average difficulty materials for me to start working on again.

It need not be cards only though. (Although I think card magic is really elegant ^_^). Would enjoy a couple of close-up impromptu effects. Be it coins or any other random materials that can be easily obtained.

(I highly suspect that this topic is a repost :P )

Thanks in advance :D

Some stuff which i would personally recommend are:

DVDs:

Daryl Encyclopedia of Card Sleights:

These DVDs will teach everything and mostly about Card Sleights, this is really something useful in Card Magic, but it will takes alot of time to practice every sleights and effect taught in it.

Michael Ammar - Easy To Master Card Miracles:

These volumes are one of those which i would highly recommend if you really wish to pick up card magic. The title says it all, Card Miracles.

Books:

Royal Road To Card Magic (They have alot of good old stuff in there)

Card College Volume 1 to 5 (These Book are great for card magic, so don't get them, i wanna own them myself.) :X

Anyway these are some of the stuff for card magic which i in my humble opinion think it will be great for anyone who wishes to start out card magic.Good Day

Edited: Sorry about the extra infomation on books, just my 2 cents worth.

The more popular titles:

Bill Malone On the Loose

Impromptu Card Magic by Aldo Colombini

Brainstorm by Guastaferro

Nice... really swift replies.

Say, where do you get it anyway?

The books are fine... Great for long-term storage :D

you can try finding books at kino or borders, they can ship it in for you too

DVDs, you can try getting from our forum dealers or ship it in on your own

=)

Interesting... you mean it's possible to find magic books in common bookstores? :o

Anyway, already am looking around from our local dealers. (The Encyclopedia has 8 volumes? This is gonna be really pocket burning...)

EDIT: Noticed that both DVDs has so many volumes...

Yup. All bookstores will have books on magic. The quality of the books may not be that high though (haven't read it, but I suspect Card Tricks for Dummys is not very good). I can't find the section with magic stuff in kino, but the books in borders are in the same shelf as the poker books. They have some classic stuff like Royal Road to Card Magic and Expert at the Card Table.

hmm for starters,

Cards

Royal Road or Card College book series(if you can afford them, its pricey :angry: )

Michael Ammar Card Miracles video set

Coins
Bobo coin magic (cheap and good book)

David Roth Expert Coin Made Easy 3 Volumes

Mentalism and other genres...I'm not too sure.

Hope it helps ^_^

:lol: Yupz card college is really pricey that I must agree. But if you're willing to spend the time and effort, I believe it is actually money well-spent as it goes into quite a lot of details for the sleights and effects.

If you get Card College and are serious, you probably don't have to get other DVDs or learning materials already.

It has enough materials to keep you busy for your life.

How about....

1. Born to Perform Card Magic by Oz Pearlman.
Will teach you many basic and useful sleights plus 4 routines which you are sure to use: 2 Card Monte/Ambitious Card/Biddle Trick and one more I forgot. Even if you are not that a beginner, you will still find some useful stuff inside. Unless, of course, you knew all the tricks above.

2. On the Spot by Greg Wilson.
The tricks inside all can be done... On the Spot. No gimmicks, no set-ups, only need plenty of practice. The only thing is it doesn't contain any card tricks but you can find a few very nice coin routines.


I don't really read books so can't recommend you anything on that.

:blink: Oops come to think of it, if we look at what he was originally asking for :huh: IT WAS DVDS :lol: not books

Well he said that he liked books so...

By the way, I went to Borders the other day at Paragon but I ask the woman about a book and she say nothing was found, so was any other magic books. Normally under which section do they place it at?

Kino may be better... you can actually just ask them. In Borders, it's in the hobbies section, near where the card games and stuff are located ^_^ They don't have a good variety tho, you may find some DB stuff in there.

I agree with Nyx, the Card College books rock big time. A worthwhile investment to get the series. It's not cheap but it's really good quality stuff & it's hardcover too, so will last you forever.

hmm, strictly speaking

the card college and bobo coin magic is enough to bring you from beginner to Jedi Master status ^_^

:lol: that's true!! I have it and can testify too :P
I'm in transition already BUT :huh: no time to practise. Only halfway through my first book.
What to do. Gotta protect you guys from enemy invasion <_<

Haha, i guess there's enough choices from me to pick from. Really, thanks alot guys ^_^

I think i'm gonna consider Card College... although I'm more of a visual learner... but i'll see how it goes :P

*Dreams of the Force * :ph43r:

May the Force be with you, Droicut ^_^

Dude.. Read my post earlier

I'm currently looking at Card College and Bill Malone's DVDs... should I get either one or both...?

And I guess I'll be purchasing the volumes individually... can't afford the entire series at a go... -_-

Card college teaches mechanics, focuses on moves and slights. The malone dvds focus more on routines and, through example, an effective way to perform them. (well, effective for Bill Malone)

imho, how you perform is much more important that what you perform.

Bill Malone's are easy to learn, especially for left handed people like me.

Because Mr Malone himself is a lefty too. :D

Think it was llamalamer who gave me the advice that the best way to learn sleights was to learn tricks. And it's utterly true for me.

I think Royal Road is still the best, best, best. But be warned that the way it teaches is what is considered the "classic" way of Jean Hugard's time, which is basically teach a sleight and then teach 5-10 effects using that sleight, then moving on to another sleight. So learning from old literature like these becomes a cumulative thing.

The "new" way is give you the effect, then break down how to do each move or sleight or whatever.

I don't know how Card College is like, or the Bill Malone DVDs, and I'll suggest you think about these two approaches to teaching magic, maybe borrow a couple of books or something to see which suits you before buying anything. Best of luck. ^_^

Bill Malone - On The Loose Volume 1 - 4

He teaches from routines, magic effect, sleights, how to get a job, presentation and more.

This DVD is 1 of the DVD which i like the most, although he's a lefty, but the instruction is clear enough for a righty like me.

Whatsmore he teaches alot of nice magic effect, so in my own opinion, this is a good investment beside Card College.

Good Day ~

Actually, I quite like Ellusionist Crash Course 1 & 2 .Quite good

Erm dude, I don't get your meaning..? :huh:

Also I want to ask one question. Getting sets of volumes DVD like Card College or Bill Malone etc, are they really good? Do they teach indepth and systematically? Because so many content in one DVD sometimes I cannot memorise the tricks inside and even worst when they talk some chim stuff then is confusing.

Oh.. sorry.. Thought you were referring to bookshops in general. Guess I should read posts more carefully..

I guess this is the main thing that's really hindering my decision. I'll consider my budget and work with it before deciding anything.

Actually Card College is a Book, Volume 1 to 5. If you do have the time to read, consider getting the first volume and actually start from there, you might find something interesting and good.

For Bill Malone DVD Volume 1 to 4, it's more on like an effect stuff, 1 effect after another. He will explain a little on how to get a job, how to get paid and so on.

This is a good DVD, but you might have to put in some time in practicing the stuff in there, i am still practicing volume 1 to 4. Got Short Term Memory This few Days.

Easy to Master Card Miracles DVD Volume 1 to 9 is also good, you can see from the word itself, EASY TO MASTER. Quite alot of good and old effects, but it's a good set to actually learn from.

Good Day ~ :lol:

i own both the card college and bobo modern coin magic. it is two thumbs up for card college and it took me years just to read through it. becaause it is in words, you have to you your imagination to understand the trick, see how the flow of the trick goes. it will be a lot easier to understand if you have a bit of knowledge of some sleight. but a great book! and i never regret getting it.

for the bobo mordern coin magic, i just gotten it and it was a bit difficult to understand some of the moves. to help me with that, i got magic makers mordern coin magic to help me, the difference with the dvd and book is, it is more visual on the dvd but content wise, there is more on the book, it goes into greater detail explaining how it is done.

anyway, my take on dvd and books are, if you are a beginner, goes for the dvd, it helps you visualise how the trick is done. go for books once you reach a certain level as it would be easier to understand. and books are easier to resell... haha.

Adrian
to entertain. to amaze.

I used to think that card college is very good, and i still maintain this view. However, I recently think that learning sleights through video seems to be a better medium than words. The reason being video can convey many other things that words simply cannot tell, or are too complicated to convey.

Yea. And not to forget that Second hand DVDs are more marketable then second hand books. Books tend to look worn down the older it gets. DVDs generally look new. You can sell the DVDs and get a much better return with DVDs. But having said that, it is Books still contain more information