So You Want to Learn Card Magic?
What do David Blaine, Justin Willman, and David Copperfield have in common? Outside of money and TV shows, they do kick-ass card tricks. The best part is that most of the things they do are actually in your grasp once you understand the fundamentals of card magic. So grab a deck of playing cards (I recommend Bicycle or Superior Brand) and let’s get to work.
Let’s get good at the basics!
Like with any skill, magic is a constant refinement of the fundamentals. So where do we start learning the fundamentals? Learning card magic has never been easier with so many resources but the issue is that without proper guidance, the number of resources can seem a bit overwhelming. I want to hit on three topics I think every magician should spend more time thinking about, but maybe particularly useful to a beginner. These are three things I’m always learning about and trying to refine.
Presentation
Ultimately magic is just storytelling. It’s not once upon a time - it’s about the here and now. And you need to hook them into the present moment and make them care about the playing cards. What are you demonstrating? Is it intuition? Sleight of hand? What are you doing?
As a writer, I have a lot of thought about what makes a good presentation, especially in card magic. It needs to be clear but still engaging. But how can you experiment with presentation if you don’t have anything to present? Enter self-working card tricks.
The less you have to do, the more you can spend time focusing on how to be engaging with your audience. Most self-working tricks rely on mathematical principles or special procedures. This means that the performer doesn’t have to do any complicated moves and can spend more time making the magic more engaging. The ability to present these self-working card tricks will carry over to all aspects of magic.
You can probably find self-working card tricks all over the internet but I want to offer two resources to get you started.
Card College Light series by Roberto Giobbi is a gold mine for these self-working miracles. John Bannon is also a master at creating interesting effects with minimal moves. Move Zero is an entire DVD set that teaches some of the strongest card magic that involves only the minimal knowledge of card magic.
