Learn Magic – Where To Learn Magic?

by deltasigma123 | Oct 28, 2008 | Learning Magic

Aspiring Magicians or Curiosity Seekers

With the proliferation of the internet and online video from YouTube, many people have been uploading the secrets to magic tricks on the internet.

As a result, many people have searched the internet for secrets to magic tricks. Among these people who surf the net for secrets to magic tricks, many of whom are merely curiosity seekers. Secrets to magic tricks should never be revealed to curiosity seekers because the secrets are not meant for them. Curiosity seekers merely cheapen the value of magic tricks. They will even go round exposing the secret to everybody, destroying totally the trick that was designed and crafted to entertain everyone.

Free Magic Tricks From The Internet

So one obvious way where you can learn magic is from the internet.

If you have found your way to this website, you would have already been surfing the internet in search of magic tricks. Nevertheless, is that the only way you want to learn magic?

It is not true to say that nothing comes free. However, things that come free and easy are usually not of much value, at least the people who receive them do not esteem them highly.

Moreover, do you really want to perform magic tricks where the secrets are already made known to many other people who have learned about them from the internet? Instead of amazing others you will probably get the response, “I know that too! What is so amazing about that?”

Learning From A “Magician”

The other common and easy way to learn magic tricks is to learn from a ‘magician’. This can be done by visiting your local magic shops and buy a magic trick from the shop if they provide that kind of service. Besides that, you may be fortunate or perhaps unfortunate enough to meet a ‘so-called magician’ who is willing to teach you magic tricks personally for a fee.

I do believe in the benefit of having someone who is experienced in the craft of magic to guide you personally step by step. However not just anyone who claims to be a magician is truly a proficient magician. Even if they are, they may not necessarily be good teachers who know how to guide you.

My biggest objection to learning from such ‘magicians’ is that the fees that they charge for teaching you are too unreasonable. In my early days of learning magic, I have personally paid as much as $100 for a magic trick which I find too unpractical to execute after learning its secret.

In addition, I have also paid several hundreds of dollars for just one or two hours of personal tuition for learning magic.

The length of time is too short for you to master any difficult moves (called sleight of hands). You may want to learn these basic sleights and practice them on your own for a reasonable length of time and return to that person and ask for more guidance to perfect your moves. However that is not the deal you are getting. You certainly do not want to pay several hundreds of dollars and sit there for two hours practicing a particular move.

In case you are thinking that you just want to learn a few simple tricks in that one or two hours instead of learning some difficult moves, then you might as well spend ten to twenty dollars buying a book and learn more than a dozen magic tricks in them. If you want something more visual, buy a DVD and watch it.

That brings me to my next point.

Learning Magic From Books And DVDs

Having addressed the issue of free magic tricks on the internet, the most common avenues to learn magic nowadays is from books and videos in the form of DVDs. Although some magic books may be expensive, but there are also many magic books that are very cheap, costing less than $10.00. In fact you can find books that teach you as many as 50 magic tricks or more for an affordable price of less than $10.00. If you are serious about learning magic, you should consider investing some money into books.

If you do not have much cash to spare, just get a book which you can afford. You will find that you need a considerable length of time just to master every single trick taught in the book.

In this modern era where videos are available in abundance, DVDs have become the media of choice particularly it stimulates both your visual and auditory senses.

As a result, secrets to magic tricks are released in the form of DVDs more than they are released in the form of books. DVDs certainly have the edge over books. You can learn magic tricks from DVDs visually as well as replay them over and over again.

Learning Magic From DVDs Versus Learning Magic From Books

Nevertheless, there are several drawbacks if you compare DVDs with books. DVDs are commercial media produced for commercial purposes and so they are relatively more expensive than books in terms of value. If you buy a book on magic with the same price of a DVD, you would have access to many more magic tricks than you would from a DVD. Since DVD is the media of choice, whatever magic tricks you learn from the DVD are also known to many other people who have bought the same DVD as you have.

It is easy to watch every magic tricks presented in a DVD but it is not easy to read and learn every magic tricks in a book. So the secrets to the magic tricks found on DVD are not as exclusive as those magic tricks found in books on magic. In fact, there were premium magic tricks that were usually released in the form of books first before they were released on DVDs. Magic tricks that are taught in DVDs are usually taken from books that were published long ago.

Learning Magic The Old School Way

Professional magician Michael Close says in his DVD that he is an old school magician in that he believes in learning magic from books on magic instead of from DVDs. He explained that magic books explain more clearly on many subtleties of a magic trick needed for learning whereas DVDs do not.

Another local magician I met told me that the really good magic tricks are found in books and not in DVDs because magicians write books to leave behind a legacy. It is understandable that it requires time and effort to read and understand from books on magic but the real gems are buried deep within the book. So if you want to find real gems for magic, you will have to dig for it from the books.