The magicians are back, with four fantastic new acts packed into one mind blowing evening! Witness the impossible as the line between illusion and reality becomes ever more blurred in the latest installment from Rainbow Wizard Productions.
Entry is £5, with limited tickets available. A second showing will be announced in the near future, but we encourage you to book in advance once online sales open, as shows tend to sell out.
Not suitable for children under 18.
This is an updated version of a post I made last year. If you have any suggestions for additional books or webpages that you feel would be useful to others to learn from then please post in the comments or on our facebook group. The original version of this post can be found here: https://bristolmagic.wordpress.com/2013/10/26/get-learning-with-magic-on-youtube/#more-254
Learning Magic
When people think of magic they will tend to think of ‘The Magicians Code’ – secret designs and contraptions; secret skills that are handed down from master to tutor; occasionally they are allowed a peek into the secret world of magic when they may have been taught how to remove a thumb by their aunt or uncle when they were younger.
Magic is built upon deception of the audience in performance. It is hard, when you first start, knowing where to look for performance material. The illusion of secrecy is powerful – it gives magic an air of mystique – but it can be detrimental to people just starting out. The internet has made it easier than ever, however, to find tricks and information on the performance of magic. What you want to learn and how you learn best will determine where you should start down the road to magic mastery.
Playing Cards
I honestly believe that the best way of starting in card magic is through a book named ‘The Royal Road to Card Magic’. The book teaches all the fundamentals of card manipulation and supplies effects to utilise the sleights as they are taught. You should spend as much time as you can learning things like the double lift perfectly – you will be using it – and the best resource for this would be Jason England’s ‘Foundations’ series. Further reading on sleight of hand is given at the end.
Easy and Self Working Effects
When first starting you need to get used to handling cards and presenting magic. These are some great channels to get you started. mismag822 has some great self working but very impressive effects that you will be able to master quickly and get performing. HowToDisturbReality has some slightly more advanced tricks and xcm tutorials, as does FreeMagicLive. For bar bets check out scam school. DecksandContests (aka 52 Kards) has a range of basic to advanced work including the spread cull, one handed top palm and cold stacking. You can find effects matching your skill level through his website below (second link).
http://www.youtube.com/user/DecksAndContests
http://52kards.com/library/
http://www.youtube.com/user/cardtrickteacher
http://www.youtube.com/user/mismag822
http://www.youtube.com/user/andyfieldmagic
http://www.youtube.com/user/johnnysamoa1
http://www.youtube.com/user/scamschool
http://www.youtube.com/user/STEMMathsMagic
http://www.youtube.com/user/howtoDisturbReality
http://www.youtube.com/user/evancloyd
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheRealHustleA3M
http://www.youtube.com/user/schwarzeneggermagic
http://www.youtube.com/user/FreeMagicLiveVideos
http://www.youtube.com/user/JoeyMagic3point0
More advanced tutorial and performance advice
These channels don’t always have tutorials for what they are doing, and many are things that you will have to practise for some time. Aaron Fisher is a brilliant teacher and watching his videos will put you in good stead especially in regards to double lifts and passes.
http://www.youtube.com/user/aaronbfisher
http://www.youtube.com/user/jlmagicltd
http://www.youtube.com/user/thecardmechanic
Performances
These are mostly performers official channels. They rarely contain tutorials but are rich in ideas for presenting your effects. Make sure to check out sankeymagic, someone that many magicians learnt their first tricks from. also check out Daniel Madison’s revelations series on EllusionistVideos for some advanced tutorials
http://www.youtube.com/user/SankeyMagic
http://www.youtube.com/user/DanAndDave
http://www.youtube.com/user/DeeChristopher
http://www.youtube.com/user/kainoaland
http://www.youtube.com/user/MichaelAmmar
http://www.youtube.com/user/michaelvincent64
http://www.youtube.com/user/HarryLorayneOnVideo
http://www.youtube.com/user/EllusionistVideos
http://www.youtube.com/user/EncyclopediaOfMagic
http://www.youtube.com/user/rpwfx
http://www.youtube.com/user/theboss1976
http://www.youtube.com/user/enduremiller
XCM/Cardistry
XCM looks impressive. Simple as that. I dont recommend performing a great deal of it for people you plan to show magic (unless you happen to be Dan and Dave Buck, there will be a large disparity between the magic and the XCM that you present. XCM suggests familiarity with the cards and if you transition into simple double lifts people will suspect your deception far more readily) however I do suggest learning as much as you can early. XCM quickly improves your card handling skills and helps you know when you’re about to drop the cards – so that you can hopefully avoid it. If you do some extra searching you will find a great deal more tutorials, notably by searching the free section (drag slider to ‘free’) of Theory 11’s ‘The Wire’ section.
Over the last few years XCM has developed into something completely separate from magic itself and has become knows as cardistry. An art form based around spinning and flipping cards all over the place. Some of the big names in this style of card manipulation are Zach Mueller, Tobias Levin, Noel Heath and Andrei Jikh
http://www.youtube.com/user/Kardistry
http://www.youtube.com/user/thevirts
http://www.youtube.com/user/CardShark88
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheCuso
https://www.youtube.com/user/zachmonky
https://www.youtube.com/user/dealersgrip/videos
https://www.youtube.com/user/238662Jikh
Books
Magic is best documented through its literature. Whilst there are far too many books for me to list here, I will reference the fundamental texts for the different branches of magic here, and only books that I have read and can testify to. I have placed them in the order I think you should consider reading them. Links have been provided for the most essential books.
Card Magic:
Coin Magic:
Mentalism:
General Magic:
Theory:
This week we began the transition from teaching into sessions, with a less formal teaching section with more one on one time. The transition means that we can walk you through a lot more effects in a lot more detail, making the sessions more valuable to you. However, this does mean that you’ll have to prioritise effects – you’re unlikely to be able to remember everything. The best way of dealing with this is to focus on what you want to learn, what you want to perform, and what we can help you with.
This week we taught ‘Crazy Mans Handcuffs’ – A rubber band effect where the bands penetrate one another. This effect is taught all over youtube. I suggest this video:(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uQdaUSUyHs)
The second effect taught expands on what we were teaching last week. Popularised by David Blaine, the effect is titled ‘Two Card Monte’ (originally known as ‘Be Honest, What is it?’). The effect requires a triple lift, a top change and some audience management. The best place to learn these fundamental moves is from a magician named ‘Jason England’, a well known card sharp, who has a series of videos titled ‘Foundations’ that explain moves such as these in great detail. If you don’t want to fork out for this series then I am certain that you will find the moves well explained on youtube, or you can talk to the committee to find out our handling and the subtleties we use. For the effect itself however, I recommend this video: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm0EcpCkCi8)
Next week we will be continuing the transition into sessions. Whilst not required, we highly recommend looking online for effects that you can bring with you to the meeting and get some performance tips and experience with (especially since finding and learning these tricks typically takes only as long as it takes to watch the video). Finding your own preferred effects is the core to becoming any good at magic, and in a fascinating pursuit. Anyone that has performed the invisible deck, or any of the effects that we have taught you thus far, enough will tell you that at some point or other, because these effects are so well known, you will eventually get called out. With a little research you can find tricks that both suit your character and personality, and that will not have been seen by anyone that isn’t (or wasn’t) a magician.
I will be following this post shortly with an updated version of a post I made on this page last year with lists of youtube channels that you can scour for free information. I will also be putting in the most important books relating to magic and its performance as well as some dvds I can whole heartedly recommend.
Happy learning;
Sam
This week we had our first session on card magic. Card magic is the most popular form of magic to perform simply because of its scope – from self working effects to hardcore gambling routines to XCM (eXtreme Card Manipulation – yes, that is a thing). All paid members should have received a deck of Bicycle playing cards at the meeting to practise with. If you are a paid member and have not received a deck please talk to a member of the committee at one of our meetings. Additional decks can be bought from the society for £2.
Before getting started in card magic there are some important things to note:
To get you started however, and to give you something to try with friends, this week we taught a self working effect. The effect is called ‘Thot Echo’ and can be found in Card College Volume 1 by Roberto Giobbi.
PERFORMANCE VIDEO COMING SOON (I Promise …)
After unboxing your deck, removing the ad cards and jokers and shuffling the cards stack the deck as follows:
– Take out all the spades from the deck
– Put these in numerical order on the top of the deck with the ace uppermost
– On top of these place 11 indifferent cards
So from the top (when held face down as you would deal) you should have: 11 indifferent cards, followed by the Ace, then Two, then Three and so on up to the King, and then the remaining 28 cards.
You are going to ask your spectator(s) to cut the deck into three approximately equal piles. Request that they cut the top third to your left and then the middle third to your right (You have a big margin for error with this [anything from 11 cards to 23 will work perfectly], but if someone mishears you or tries to mess you up by cutting outside this range then simply ask them to recut ‘a third of the deck so that we can have three roughly equal piles.’
You say “The pile on my left came from the top of the deck. Now, I don’t know what card is on top or near the top or anything like that but I can see that you’re quite a sceptical person – that’s a good thing although it can get you into trouble sometimes – so you might think that I’m trying to throw you off. Similarly with this pile [the original bottom pile, in the middle of the table] – you might think that I know the bottom cards. But you cut this pile here [on your right] from the centre of the deck. Is there any way that you know that I could have influenced exactly where you cut, both times that you cut? [they respond ‘no’] In that case, without letting me see, take a look at the top card and burn it into your mind. Make sure that you will remember it.”
Now, shuffle that pile up. In fact, shuffle the middle packet as well. And the one on my left. And, in fact, memorise the card you’ve shuffled to the top of that [the far left packet that was originally on the top] as well to make it even more difficult for me”
Now reassemble the deck by placing the right hand pile on top of the middle and then both of these on top of the left hand pile making sure that your spectators see that this is completely fair.
Due to the way that we stacked the deck beforehand the first card that they will have cut to [The original middle pile] will be one of the spades, in this case the 7 of Spades. Underneath this will be the Eight, Nine, Ten, Jack, Queen and King of Spades and a number of indifferent cards. In the original top section [your left] you will have 11 indifferent cards followed by the Ace, Two, Three, Four, Five and Six of Spades (17 Cards total). By collecting the cards from right to left you are able to find the cards by simply looking through the deck.
If you know how to then complete a false shuffle (if you don’t then skip this step). Pick up the deck as you claim that you will find the spectators cards based upon their reactions. Spread the top half of the deck and look for any spades. This is the portion of the deck that your spectator picked their first card from (Plus some indifferent cards from the bottom) and so will contain the Seven through to King of Spades. The card they picked will be the lowest value spade in this section of the deck, in this case the Seven. Remove this and place it on the table.
Now add Ten (10) to the number of the first card. In this case the total will be Seventeen (17). The Second card that was selected will be the seventeenth card from the face of the deck (since we know that the original top pile contained 17 cards). Remove this card and place it on the table.
Play up the reveal however you wish, but I recommend asking the spectator to name the cards before turning them over so that they cannot change their minds.
This is Thot Echo. The effect is difficult to explain but a few reads of these instructions and some thought will leave you with an effective trick to amaze your audiences with.
Also taught this week were some basic card sleights. The vast majority of card magic takes place using a number of fundamental sleights. Notably: forces, controls (of a single card, a stack or the entire deck), peeks, false lifts and turnovers (double, triple etc.).
In the session we taught the Hindu Force and the top card control. These are both taught really well in The Royal Road to Card Magic, but you can also easily find tutorials for these on youtube (Hindu Force – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eg5OHLu8Nys; Overhand Shuffle – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UCY4-GTlZY)
Next week we will be teaching some rubber band magic and another basic card trick. We are also beginning the transition from teaching into sessions over the next few weeks and so the meeting will be less formal with more small group teaching.
Greetings all
Last night we met up again at Smoke and Mirrors for the second magic society meeting of the year. It was nice to see a few new faces as well as those who turned up last week. After catching people up, and a performance from Marcin, we got started with the teaching for this week.
Magic tends to be presented in one of three, very broad, ways. Magic (a conjuring illusion – the coin vanishes, the lady gets sworn in half etc); Demonstrations (you show the audience something that you can do – gambling routines are a great example of this, but other ‘tricks’ also fall into this category. The last 10 minutes of Derren Browns latest show ‘Infamous’ (you can find this online) is a great example of this); and psychological performances (predominantly mentalism – indicating an ability to read peoples minds through a certain medium. This also encompasses the ‘dark side’ of magic, that being performers who use these techniques and methods to act as fraudulent psychics).
This week we are teaching a fundamental technique in the performance of mentalism (for entertainment purposes only).
Think of a number between 1 and 10 now, stick to that number. When you have done that, select the following line.
Think of a different number now. You are most likely thinking of
Try this out on a flatmate or someone on the street and you will find that if you ask them to choose a number between 1 and 10 NOW, then 9 times out of 10 they will choose the number 7. This is mentalism in its core, idealised form – what mentalism tries to be. It is mind reading with no props or technique or method. In this case all it requires is a knowledge of psychology.
But how can you elevate this to more than just an interesting fact about thought processes? As with most things magic, we’ll use deception and presentation to make this play much larger.
PERFORMANCE VIDEO COMING SOON
You sit down with someone you haven’t met before. After introducing yourself as a performer you explain that the way people sit, the clothes people wear and the way people talk can give away a great deal about that person. You pull out a notepad and write something down on it before tearing the page out, folding it up and leaving it on the table.
“I’m not certain how close I am with this, it sometimes takes a while to really start understanding someone, but what is it you study here?”
“I’m a Physics Masters”
“Interesting – You seemed like more of a left brained person, but you certainly have a more creative side too when the mood takes you. I think you’ll find what I wrote there quite interesting in a minute”
You write something else down and fold it in the same way
“You started a hobby recently. What was that?”
“Wow, I started playing football again last week”
Breathing out, you relax
“Honestly, I thought I was going to be a little off on that one. Let me try one more. In fact, I’d rather try for something a little more important. I’ll explain what I mean: You are not your hobbies or your interests. You are not the clothes you wear or the way you stand. You are the choices you made in the past, which influence the choices you make now, which completely changes the way you act in the future. I’d like to get right at that rapid thought process …”
You write something else down, fold it and mix it into the rest of the pages.
“Name a number between 1 and 10, now!”
“… Seven”
You turn to them and say, “Thank you so much for taking part, it was really nice meeting you.” Before getting up and leaving. A few minutes after you have left, when they open the pages, you will have created something that person will never forget.
As with last week, the mechanics behind this routine will likely disappoint you. If you present it as a ‘trick’, and nothing more then people will figure out the method. But spend the time on it and it becomes a miracle. The mechanics are this:
1) You decide what you would like to force – in the case above this is the psy-force of ‘7’ {Note that if you miss slightly you will breed credibility – it makes the routine stronger}
2) After introductions, take a piece of paper, about business card size is ideal, and write what you want to force on it. In this case you would write ‘7’ (or ‘Seven’ or ‘You will name Seven’ depending on how long your next question will be). Fold the paper and leave it to one side – ideally in a bowl or cup of some kind.
3) Ask the person a question. This could be anything, but aim for something that you can think of a viable method for – Example: the amount of coins held in a closed fist (judged by ‘weighing’ their hand); someones degree (from their body language); and so forth.
4) Now take another piece of paper and write their answer on it. In the case above, I would put ‘Maths? Physics’
5) Ask a second question, for example ‘Which hobby did you take up recently?’ Again, after a pause, write this down and place it on the table. Repeat this until you want to finish the performance
6) Finally you will force your first prediction. The trick to this is to build the force up so that it seems like the most difficult/important detail you will have predicted. You can see how I do this above. Pass the papers to your spectator, mixing them slightly so that they lose track of the ordering (as the last thing they said will be on the bottom, and not the top as it should be)
That is the ‘one-ahead principle’ from mentalism. Simple but very powerful if presented correctly. I encourage you to try it a few times and judge for yourself.
Next week we will be teaching some card effects, and as such will be handing out decks of cards. Because of this YOU WILL NEED MEMBERSHIP. If you do not have membership then you will not receive any cards and, as such, will not be able to follow along. You can sign up for Magic Society at https://www.ubu.org.uk/activities/societies/8917/
Cheers, and hope to see you all at our next meeting.
Sam
P.S. Apologies for the late post, I’ve been snowed under recently and have only just found the time to finish this. Hopefully we will be able to get the performance videos recorded and uploaded before next week.
Greetings all
Last night we hosted our first Magic Society Meeting for the 2014/15 academic year at Smoke and Mirrors Magic Bar. Even with the larger room we managed to organise (many thanks to Mark who let us use the parlour area) we ended up filling the area.
The night kicked off with introductions and some details about the structure of magic society this year:
Following introductions, you will have seen some amazing magic by Alex
Our first taught effect this year is possibly the best explained effect in magic literature that I have had the fortune of coming across. The effect is a simple coin trick as presented by Derren Brown (A phenomenal performer that I highly recommend looking up) in his book ‘Tricks of the Mind’. Imagine you are sat with your friends having a coffee. You have your phone, some change, maybe even a lighter sitting on the table in front of you as you talk. At some point in the conversation you lean in, take a breath and say “watch” …
PERFORMANCE VIDEO TO COME
You pick up one of the coins from the table and clasp it in a fist – it is giving you some difficulty. You open your fist and let the coin fall to the table – “I’m sorry about that … I tell you what, let me try again.” Leaning forwards once more you pick up a different coin. You show it to your friends before placing it in the other hand. As you focus, your hand gets warmer and, little by little, the coin melts into your hand. You slowly open your hand before reclining into your seat, exhausted.
I feel that this effect can teach you all the basics of magic. It takes very little technique, but there is a great deal of theory and psychology that goes into making the effect play as well as it can. As mentioned previously, this effect is explained in great detail in Derren Browns ‘Tricks of the Mind’ and to re-explain it here would be a disservice to the trick. I highly recommend the book, even if it is your only venture into magic, due to the breadth of information it contains. If you dont have a copy, you are more than welcome to borrow mine to read the effect, or, if absolutely necessary, you can find copies of the text online using google. Otherwise, you are of course welcome to ask me to walk you through it at any time.
Presented correctly, your friends will non cease (potentially rather annoyingly) to ask you to repeat this feat, make the coin return or show them something else. Do try to restrain yourselves from gloating about your companions ineptitude immediately after you have finished.
We concluded the evening with some further performances by myself and Marcin.
Despite overrunning quite substantially and some having to leave before the end, the evening seemed to run smoothly with people picking up the effect very quickly. Be certain that you take your time with the trick, and run through the moves legitimately a number of times to understand what it should feel like without the coin.
To conclude this bloated post, please note that we have a facebook poll running at the minute (https://www.facebook.com/groups/uobmagicsociety/) to get some feedback on the meetings. If you have a minute spare, please comment and/or vote on this so that we can make the sessions better for you in the future. If you haven’t already joined the page, we post a lot of messages and videos regarding magic society and magic in general there, and is a good way of keeping in contact and communicating with us.
Finally, our next meeting is coming up very soon – Monday 6th October – at the same time and place as our previous meeting: Smoke and Mirrors at 8:30. If you didn’t make it to our first meeting we have some directions posted to the facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/groups/uobmagicsociety/) about finding the venue.
Cheers, and hope to see you all soon
Welcome all to Bristol University Magic Society
We have had record sign-ups this year at freshers fair and are now working hard preparing for the first few weeks of sessions.
At Magic Society we are aiming to give you a friendly and open environment to learn magic and meet new friends, as has been the case over the last two years.
Our committee consists of:
Samuel Evans – President
Marcin Górny – Secretary
Alex Morton – Treasurer
You can keep in contact with us through:
The society email for any inquiry’s or professional bookings at:
bristolmagic@gmail.com
This WordPress page for general society updates at:
https://bristolmagic.wordpress.com/
The society facebook page for discussions and updates in relation to the society and magic in general at:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/uobmagicsociety/
If you would like to be kept up to date on society news please join the facebook group and send an email to bristolmagic@gmail.com asking us to add you to the mailing list.
Cheers and hope to see you all soon!
Doug showed a few effects near the end of last weeks session, but due to time constraints had to rush through a little. He’s put together some videos on the Magicsoc youtube channel to walk you through them again, and this time you can pause as much as you like!
Part 1 (2 Card transposition):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewZippzIdKw
Part 2 (2 card transposition – Two cards swap places on a wine glass before finally swapping with a signed card lost in the deck {side note: if you don’t have a wine glass handy then you could put the signed card inside the card box, and put the other on top}):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uaAS-5AuKg
Part 3 (Sandwich effect – find selected card between two red aces):
After a committee meeting recently we decided that it is important for you guys to know where to look when you want to learn some tricks outside of magicsoc. Youtube is a great resource for free effects these days, so we’ve put together a list of some pages to get you started. All are categorised so that you can look at the stuff you’re most interested in
Continue reading
Our committee has doubled in size! Three new positions were created at the AGM (Vice-President, Chair, and Social Secretary); the committee next year will consist of:
The magic competition was won by Marcin, who won a stash of magic:
Magic Society is in good hands for next year!
Bristol University Magic Society 