Magic Videos

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Magic videos or video lectures are the blood and water of any magician. The effects you can perform are directly proportional to the number of video lectures you own. Basically, videos are where a magician can learn most of the different principles of magic other than just doing the key-card method or double lifts with cards. Every month, there’s always a news video out on the market and magicians who want to get updated on tricks are always on the lookout for releases.

Ever since magic has been taught, magic books were always the primary teaching medium. But books present a lot of disadvantages to learners. First of all, it is can be very hard to follow any written instruction specially if the trick can be very technical on written form. Also, magicians don’t get a visual idea on how an effect should be presented in real life which might cause the magician to miss a lot of important points or subtleties.

What are the best videos to start learning magic with?

Aside from getting a magic starter kit on your local magic store, card magic will have to be the first things any magician should be good at. On a survey done on The Story Circle forums, 3 titles were reviewed to be the best video lectures for beginners. They are the following:

Crash Course to Street Magic, published by Ellusionist
This will have to be the most-recommended video because of production quality and the number of tricks taught. A lot of performing principles were also demonstrated very clearly and the instructions are very easy to follow.

Born to Perform Card Magic by Penguin Magic / Oz Pearlman
The tricks on this one are similar to Crash Course but there are not as many. While the production quality is equally superior and that performances and instructions are easy to follow, Born to Perform just falls a tad short on value for your money.

Encyclopedia of Card Sleights by L&L Publishing / Daryl
In this series of 8 volumes, world-renowned champion magician teaches viewers the most-popular card sleights ever developed. This set is literally an encyclopedia for those wanting to get deep into card magic. Beginning magicians are advised to get either the Crash Course or Born to Perform first to test the waters and dive into Encyclopedia for a complete learning experience.

Easy to Master Card Miracles by L&L Publishing / Michael Ammar
The Easy to Master sets have always been controversial in that magicians feel that it gives away classic card tricks and principles easily. The reason for this is that magicians who like to go on a somewhat shortcut into card magic can just get this 9-volume set. The quality of the effects taught on the series is nothing but the best card magic has to offer and Michael Ammar’s teaching is top-notch. Combine Easy to Master Card Miracles with Encyclopedia of Card Sleights, and you have a complete formula in becoming a killer-magician.

But which videos are good and which are worth my buck?

With the sheer number of videos out on the market, magicians done with the above titles will probably have a hard time fishing out the best of the best in terms of quality and tricks taught. What we suggest is to ask fellow magicians before buying a video that caught your interest. A lot of videos are merely glorified with marketing efforts but offer mediocore tricks and some relatively unheard-of titles are usually the ones who have the best material for your repertoire. Look for reviews first before investing. You can also ask Story Circle members for their opinions by emailing thestorycircle@yahoo.com or by joining The Story Circle Forums at www.thestorycircle.net.

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