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New to magic?
Hello! So, you googled “How to do magic tricks” and found this article. I have to tell you, you’re one of the lucky ones. Why? Because Vanishing Inc. is the largest magic store in the world, and everyone who works here is a magician. Yup. Everyone. All the people in the warehouse, all our dev team, all the marketing team. Everyone. This puts us in a unique position to be able to really tell you how to do magic tricks.
We’ve been going almost 11 years, and sell more magic than anyone else in the world. So when it comes to knowing how to do magic tricks, we’re pretty qualified! We stock magic books, tricks for mentalism, card magic tricks, coin tricks, and even magic for Zoom shows. We run some of the most loved magic conventions and also carry items like flash paper. We’ve got the largest stock of playing-cards anywhere!
OK, so credentials out of the way, let’s get on with it.
You’ve got a few options here. Initially, we’d recommend you get the card magic basics down. That link will teach you how to learn the basics for free. Then you can progress to more advanced sleight-of-hand.
Many people will start off on YouTube, and this isn’t an avenue we’d recommend. People who choose to “teach” magic there are often not very good teachers. Additionally, they often don’t even have permission to teach the material they’re sharing. Why is this important? Well, imagine you’d made something, and someone else just stole it. That’s essentially what a lot of YouTube magic tutorials are. Theft. Plain and simple. Now, we get that the attraction of YouTube is that it’s free. We get it. You’re just learning, so you want to keep any investment to a minimum. It’s OK. We got you. We’ve set out a whole section of the site where we’re giving away free magic tutorials. I’d recommend you start with this amazing free magic video download from none other than The Real Hustle’s Paul Wilson. In it, he’ll teach you 10 card moves, and then 10 tricks that use those moves. It’s a perfect foundation for learning magic tricks.
We all are drawn to the art of magic for different reasons. What has usually happened is you’ve seen a magician do something that has blown your mind, and you want to learn how to do it so you can blow other people’s minds. A very reasonable thing to want to do. The feeling you get after performing a miracle for someone and seeing their reaction is what keeps us all in the game. It’s like being Father Christmas! Creating a moment of astonishment for someone is a remarkable gift to be able to give. Doesn’t matter if that is for school friends, work colleagues, or friends and families. The thrill you get from sharing that magical experience with another human is second to none. It’s good at this stage to work out why you want to do it though. It will help shape your journey into the rabbit hole of leaning magic.
Here’s a straight promise. If you don’t relish the idea of practising magic, then magic is not for you. You’ll be spending not hours, not weeks, not months but in many cases years honing a move or piece of sleight-of-hand before it’s truly ready to take into the world. The practise is part of the journey and should be fun. If not, then find a different hobby!
Not all practise has to be focused. Most evenings whilst watching T.V. I will have a deck of cards in my hands. Just working away, almost absent-mindedly, at a move I want to perfect.
Then there does come a time for more mindful practise, where you perform the trick as if you were doing it in front of an audience. You work out where to stand, where to look, what to say. You cover every part of that trick that could possibly go wrong, and work out something to do in that eventuality and so on.
Practise, as they say, makes perfect. And practising magic should feel fun.
This is the subject of entire books, but it’s really important to work out who you are when you are performing. This is harder if you’re school age, or performing for colleagues. You can’t suddenly put on a mysterious cape and eyeliner and start speaking in a different voice. But you can work out why you are doing what you are doing. What are you trying to demonstrate? Are you showing off how skilled you are? Are you trying to create some kind of coincidence? Are you sharing a super power you just found you had? The sooner you can answer the question of why the closer you’re going to be to defining your performing persona, or character.
When I was 11, my Uncle bought me The Royal Road To Card Magic and I wanted to show everyone everything I was learning all the time. I was desperate for an audience, and my long suffering parents and kid brother picked so many cards for me before I was even close to ready to being able to perform a trick I feel sorry for them today.
You need to know when not to do a trick. Do not do a trick until you can perform it without thinking about the moves. They should be wholly automatic. That’s why I recommended at the start of this article the 10x10 Paul Wilson course. It will teach you some fairly simple tricks that you can quickly master - technically. Then you can work how your patter or script and then get to practising. But, even when you’ve got your moves, your script and your blocking down, there’s still and right and wrong time to perform.
I’ve found as an adult that when to perform something for someone I meet it’s much better to try and naturally steer the conversation to magic rather than getting out a deck and saying “here, let me show you something cool”. If you can get someone to ask you to show them a trick it is 100 times better than you forcing them to watch something. Try asking people things about their hobbies and interests. “So, what do you do for fun?”. Listen to their response. And, nine times out of ten they will ask you the same question. Boom. You’re in. If you tell someone you’re a magician, most of the time this will start a conversation about magic, and inevitably they will ask if you have anything you can show them. This is ideal. They’ve expressed interest in seeing magic and you are able to oblige. It changes the dynamic wholly and is the way to get the best responses to your magic.
That’s how to do magic tricks. Learn from the right places, practise, and perform at the right times. I hope that gives you a start in learning how to do magic tricks and you enjoy the journey you’re about to embark upon.
