This is a repost of something I posted to boards.ie

In this current time of youtube magic, there seems to be a demand for ‘Instant Gratification’. People don’t want to learn magic, they want to be able to do it.

This is bad.

People want to skip the foundations, people want to be able to watch a video on youtube and show it to all their friends a few minutes later. This harms our art.

When you go out and preform tricks to the public when you are not ready, you give magicians in general a bad name. I am nearly willing to bet that almost every person here who preforms regularly has met people who dislike magic simply because they have only ever been exposed to bad magic.

So this post is for all the people who want to get started in magic the right way. The way that builds a solid foundation in the art that will allow you to properly develop as a skilled preformer.

Please note, I have tried to provide the ISBN-13 below where I could, but at times I could only find the ISBN-10. Book shops should support both anyway.

Where do I begin?
Every one has to start somewhere, and the best place to start is probably with something that gives you a bit of variety. It can be intimidating to be faced with something like Card College, or Modern Coin Magic when you don’t have the experience behind you to appreciate it. So here are some books that I would recomend picking up. Most of the books here can probably be ordered direct from your local bookshop.

Mark Wilson’s Complete Course in Magic : ISBN 978-0894716232
The Art of Magic & Sleight of Hand, Nick Einhorn : ISBN 978-0754810926

Where do I go from here?
Once you have had your good solid introduction to magic, it is generally time to focus on one area at a time. Magic has a really broad spectrum. There is an awful lot of different skill sets out there. From cards, to coins, to sponge magic, to stage magic, it can be quite intimidating. Most of the books that are seen as ‘classics’ focus on one specific area. Most magicians typicially find a ‘favorite’ type of effect quickly, so hopefully you should not have too much difficulty deciding where to move on to next.

Card Magic
The Royal Road is recognised amongst most magicians as the book that every card magician should start with. I agree to some extent, but in my opinion you would be better off with Card College. It is much more detailed and easier to understand. But it is also much more expensive. The Royal Road will probably set you back ten or fifteen quid, where as a complete set of Card College will probably hit you for the tune of 130-200 USD.

The Royal Road to Card Magic : ISBN 978-1406793918

Card College (5 Volume Set)
Vol 1 : ISBN 978-0945296188
Vol 2 : ISBN 978-0945296157
Vol 3 : ISBN 978-0945296225
Vol 4 : ISBN 0-945296-33-9
Vol 5 : ISBN 978-0945296447

Coins
There is probably only one book that most people will recomend when it comes to coins, and that is Modern Coin Magic. While there is a huge ammount of material out there that focuses on cards or mentalism alone, coin work seems to lack alot of the specialist work. (Then again, I have never really been into coin magic, so I could very well be wrong). That being said, on most ‘Lecture’ style DVDs (Most magic DVDs are in this format) you will find at least a couple of coin effects, so it is important to know the basics.

Modern Coin Magic, J. B. Bobo : ISBN 978-0486242583

Mentalism
Mental magic is quite a different beast to sleight of hand. It generally requires much much stronger preformance skills. Alot of what you do will totally rely on you convincing the spectator. There are very few succesful magicians that have both a strong mentalism act and a strong sleight of hand act. Most seem to choose one or the other. There is really only one book to get you started here though, and it covers pretty much every foundation that you will need. From billet (Small pieces of paper used for predictions) work, to blind folded driving.

13 Steps to Mentalism, Corinda : AISN B000NUJ6AM

Sponge Magic
Sponge magic is a firm favorite both with magicians and spectators. It is very visual, and can be made very entertaining. Steve Dacri has released a great new DVD set called ‘The Sponge Ball Tool Box’ which is a great start. It comes with a DVD, some sponges and some other gimmicks to help improve your routine. I wont provide a link to the product as I don’t want to promote any specific online store. A google search returns plenty of results anyway.