Dear friend,
I love magic.
I really, really, really do love magic.
The ultimate purpose of magic is to create a feeling of wonder, surprise and amazement in the spectator and that is a very honourable, kind and loving thing to do for someone.
That REACTION in the person is the most important thing, it’s why we do magic – but the slightly amusing thing about this is that WE know how agonising it is not know how something works or when something makes no logical sense and it brings me great joy and mischief to know how to leave no trace or trail behind!
Magic is also genuine and honest (in the most devious way possible) and people recognise that. Often after I perform a magic trick people shed whatever mask they were projecting to the world and become their real self which I love. Isn’t that amazing?!!!
So good on you, if you want to buy a magic trick, you’ve got my respect! You’re about to make the world a little brighter and merrier…
In this guide we’ll be taking you through our complete guide to buying magic tricks! How to buy magic tricks like an essentialist? What magic tricks are the best extra.
Let’s begin…
How to buy magic tricks like an essentialist…
“Many years ago David Devant, the great English conjurer, was approached by an acquaintance new to sleight-of-hand with cards. “Mr. Devant,” said this young man, “I know three hundred tricks with cards. How many do you know?.” Devant glanced at the youth quizzically. “I should say,” the magician responded dryly, “that I know about eight.” (Royal Road to Card Magic)
There’s a lot of magic out there and you are going to waste a lot of your money if your an impulsive buyer. The truth is you need to buy way less than you think you do to become a great magician but you need to be thinking smart. I’ll show you how…
First, we MUST know the objective:
To make the spectator feel SOMETHING (hopefully positive). Most magicians fail or don’t fully grasp how important this is! I don’t care how good you are at sleight of hand if you can’t make your audience feel SOMETHING then you’ve missed the whole point of why we’re doing magic.
So, how do we do that?
We come up with a gameplan. First things first – I’d split magic into two categories.
Impromptu and Non Impromptu.
Impromptu magic tricks are spontaneous, of the moment magic that have no need for prior preparation – these can be colour changing, four ace, sandwich magic tricks it doesn’t matter – the point is you can do it in the spur of the moment!
This relaxed, unperturbed confidence where you show no signs of needing a ten minute bathroom break can be very powerful for a spectator because it shows you don’t care about the cards!
PROBLEM: There are thousands of impromptu magic tricks, which one’s should I buy?
The best of course!
Where can I buy the best impromptu magic tricks?
I’d argue that all magic tricks come from one source…
BOOKS!
I tell you, if you asked any magician—whether a seasoned professional, top-class children’s magician or a member of the magic circle—THIS question…
“Where are the REAL secrets?”
They would most likely give you THIS answer…
They’re in the books.
We couldn’t agree more.
Two years ago, we discovered that many of the best magic books EVER WRITTEN—Tarbell’s course on magic, Expert at the Card Table by Erdanase and Bobo’s Coin Magic are ALL public domain.
Yes, you heard us right, just between these three books nearly 3,000 pages of incredible magic content is simply bouncing around the internet.
(and hardly anyone is using or knows about it…)
Here’s why…
- The content isn’t easy to find (you have to know EXACTLY what to search for and be aware of which sources are reputable and which aren’t)
- Many magic companies make NO effort to ensure this stuff is readily available (but they do profit off product after product that uses effects taken directly from these books and given a ‘modern twist’)
- People don’t know where to start (300 classic magic books is an overwhelming number, and it can be hard to find the really good stuff)
- The magic companies that HAVE collected these books sell them at a ludicrous price and they’re vastly behind the times ($80 for a CD ROM is kind of a joke…)
Here’s what we’ve done to tackle this issue…
- We’ve put all the books in one place (let’s not even talk about the 1000’s of hours this has taken, we’ll get PTSD…)
- We’ve written a commentary for all the ones we think are worth starting with (91 to be exact)
- We’re making this accessible to the entire magic world (let’s just say our price tag doesn’t even get close to $80…)
Here are just 3 out of the veritable 1000’s of effects and routines you’ll learn from this treasure trove of content…
- An incredible force by Theodore Annemann found on page 3 of ‘202 Methods of Forcing’ that is not only invisible but would make a fantastic ‘out’ for any good magic routine…
- A collection of stunning flourishes and fancy card work taught by T. Nelson Down’s on page 29 of his book ‘The Art of Magic’ that has been flabbergasting audiences for over a decade.
- A mentalism routine from Houdini himself found on page 52 of his book ‘Paper Magic’ that’s so audacious your audience would never even believe the method if you told it to them…
As we said, 3 of THOUSANDS of effects, routines, and pieces of theory you’ll pick up studying under the greatest magicians who’ve ever lived right at your fingertips below…
https://thedailymagician.thrivecart.com/classic-magic-book-collection-new/
All sounds to good to be true right?
But than we ran headfirst into another problem, and it was very frustrating!
That project sold in the thousands—but ever since we created it we’ve been acutely aware of one big problem….
For a lot of people these books are difficult to read, and so bulky it’s hard to find the really good stuff.
Our friend Danny Goldsmith (considered by many the world’s best coin magician) recently lamented to us that he learns better from video and struggles with classics such as Bobo—that would otherwise undoubtedly hold so much power for him.
So we came up with an even bigger and better idea…
We’d create a VIDEO collection of 138 of the BEST tricks from our library of 368 classic magic books!
…and we did!
First, we spent hours upon hours pouring over these books, sifting through the material, and finding the very best ‘hidden gems’.
A lot of them were Impromptu!
In fact, while creating this project we quite literally found the method for one the best selling magic tricks of 2023 in a single throwaway paragraph written by Theodore Annemann.
(this is no exaggeration, check out trick 39 of this project upon purchase to see the proof!)
Next, we spent nearly two weeks practically living in our studio, filming high quality videos going over each of these tricks and making them as EASY to understand as possible.
Remember, you don’t need to learn ALL these tricks, simply handpick your favourites, from our favourites and keep performing and practicing them until your amazing!
Our goal was to do ALL the hard work for you.
We’ve taken these tricks, added our own modernizations, touches, alternate handlings and most importantly brought them into the modern age in the form of video.
We’ve also made sure the original excerpts are right below the video because reading and watching can create an even better experience!
This was a mammoth task (have a sneak peek)…
But, who’s to say you can’t do better?
Knowing x amount of impromptu magic tricks is WAY less important than knowing the principles of impromptu magic tricks.
About 6 months ago, Ollie Mealing told us about a simple system he uses to create incredibly fooling magic that can be performed anytime, anywhere—with ANY deck of cards.
If you don’t know Ollie, here’s what Derren Brown had to say about his work…
“Magnificent. So rare to be fooled and delighted.”
This system is based on one laughably easy principle that pretty much every magician on earth is aware of.
Click the link below to learn the system that unlock’s infinite amounts of impromptu magic tricks (as well as 8 bonus effects using the principle)!
https://thedailymagician.thrivecart.com/base-final/
To summarise what we’ve covered so far…
- Magic is brilliant so you’re awesome for wanting to buy it!
- Magic tricks are split into two categories, one of them is impromptu – you can buy many of the best impromptu effects in our ‘classics’ and or learn a simple system to create your very own!
Finally, we’ve got non impromptu magic tricks (the second and last type of magic)…
While this category is VAST, our favourite type of non impromptu magic tricks use…
The Memorised Deck!
A memorized deck is a deck in which the position of each of the 52 cards (from 1 to 52) has been committed to memory.
The two benefits to this are as follows:
- For any CARD in the deck, you instantly know the POSITION of it.
- For any POSITION in the deck, you instantly know the CARD there.
For example, if someone were to ask me where the Jack of Hearts is in the deck, I’d be able to instantly answer them by saying ‘20’.
Likewise, if someone were to ask me what card was at position 44, I’d be able to tell them ‘The 9 of Clubs.’
Sounds simple, doesn’t it?
But dig into it just a little and you’ll start to realize how many possibilities this opens up.
In fact, the overview above is perhaps a little too basic.
What the memorised deck REALLY is is a deck in which every single card acts as a ‘key card.’
I won’t get deep into ‘key cards’ here, but any experienced card handler should instantly recognise the power of this.
(This distinction is not unique to me. I was first introduced to this concept while reading Juan Tamariz’ incredible Mnemonica.)
Nearly EVERY effect in card magic can instantly be made stronger with the addition of a memorised deck, and the amount of effects it adds are truly extraordinary!
If you’d like a complete collection of books that explore effects using the memorised deck than click the link below…
https://thedailymagician.com/memorised-deck-books
BONUS: Essentialism Sleight of Hand Project
While magic tricks may be split into two categories there are five sleight of hand techniques that are going to be useful no matter what type of magic you are performing.
These are…
- Switches
- Controls
- Forces
- Palming
- False shuffles
That’s it. Once you’ve mastered these 5 techniques, you’ll be able to perform some of the strongest card magic ever invented, impromptu or non impromptu!
We’ll make a course covering these 5 techniques in the future, if you want to be the first to know about it, sign up to our email list HERE!
Thank you for reading our complete guide to buying magic tricks! We hope you enjoyed it!
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