How To Do Magic Beginner Tricks

Magic is an incredibly secretive world, and it’s difficult to navigate. There are a million places to learn, and each new trick promises perfection (even though this is almost never the case in reality). Ellusionist just launched a new Kickstarter project with a brilliant course on card magic for beginners and pros (take a look via our affiliate link here).

We're feeling inspired to look at all the ways new magicians can discover and learn new tricks. So, if you’re a beginner, here are five steps to do magic tricks: 

1: Choose one place to start

Maybe this is a magic book with a bunch of tricks. Maybe it’s a download with seven tricks. But choose one book or a video tutorial with a few tricks at your level that you can work through. Be sure to buy the best cards for magicians, and get ready to learn a thing or two.

2: Learn everything

Once you’ve chosen your book or a download, learn everything on it. It doesn’t matter if you think you’ll perform it or not–learn literally everything. When you’re starting in magic, you’re trying to widen your base of knowledge. No knowledge is bad, especially in the beginning. Later in your career, you’ll probably choose to specialize in something. But for now, take something and run with it. 

3: Network

It’s common to see magicians who collaborate mention that they’ve been friends for years. When you look at the underbelly of the magic world, you’ll see groups of friends working together to create cool projects. This means that the best way for you to advance is to make magic friends. There are several ways to do this: You could join your local magic club. If you’re between the ages of 11-20, you can go to Tannen’s Magic Camp.

You can DM a magician on Instagram and see if they’ll help you. Knowing a trick is one thing, and getting feedback from experienced magicians is another. It’s vital to grow your network of magicians as soon as you can. 

4: Perform!

Magic doesn’t exist in front of your mirror. It exists in the spectator’s heads. So, once you learn a few tricks, it’s important that you go out and perform them. Don’t worry about getting paid; find a few friends and offer to show them a trick. Be willing to ask them for feedback, too. A magician might be able to give you technical advice, but your friends will be able to give you an honest assessment if you fooled them. Don’t be afraid to ask them, point blank, if the trick fooled them or if they have other feedback. This is part of learning. 

5: Create

Creating original material is the culmination of learning to do magic. It’s incredibly hard and shouldn’t be taken lightly. Once you have a few fundamentals under your belt, try mixing them in a new way. You learned a double lift…what if you applied it in metalism instead of the ambitious card? How could you peek at a word on stage instead of close-up? One recommendation for creating new tricks is to write down five new ideas every day. Most of them will be bad. But over time, if you consistently cull through your notes, you’ll find a few gems.