So you want to do magic? Do you know what kind of magic? Hopefully, you don't want to walk through the Great Wall of China or make the Statue of Liberty disappear just yet. All magicians started small, and the best ones started at a very young age. If you don't fit this criterion, then magic probably isn't going to make you rich and famous, but you can certainly earn a bit of money and impress your friends with just a little bit of skill. It's also a great way to introduce yourself to new people and strike up a conversation.
Street Magic* or Bar magic is very popular at the moment, thanks probably to David Blaine. This is performing magic where you can just walk up to someone in the street or a bar (this is great as an opener for chatting people up) and do your trick, or tricks. This means using everyday items like coins, matches or beer bottles and other small items that will fit into your pocket, rather than cumbersome specially made props. A lot of these tricks will use fake items, such as fake coins which will need to be bought from a magic shop. Others can be found in books and don't require anything special.
Card tricks* can be used for street magic and bar magic but sometimes you will look a bit funny carrying cards to a bar. The best way to learn card tricks (other than taking a course) is from a book*. You can buy books that deal entirely with card tricks using normal playing cards. A magician who can't do card tricks isn't a real magician in most people's eyes, so this is a must.
You should really try to get a well rounded set of magic skills. Some magicians (such as Paul Daniels) are criticised by the magic community for just using tricks that don't require any skill. They will always work and there is very little room for error. Many in the magic circle think that magician skills such as palming objects and misdirection are what make a truly great magician. There are some tricks that anybody can do because they simply involve a fake item, like a trick coin. Palming and misdirection* are very useful skills that can work anywhere and without props. You can go on courses to learn these but if you're not trying to make a living out of magic, there really isn't much point. There are countless books on magic skills so just pick one or two that look good and develop some basic skills.
It's not essential for you to learn these special skills as there are plenty of magic shops that will sell your magic tricks that will work by themselves. Merchant of Magic* is probably the biggest and best known of these. Merchant of Magic* sell pretty much any magic related props and an endless list of magic books. If there is a specific trick that you are looking for, chances are that Merchant of Magic will have it. One essential item to purchase from Merchant of Magic* is a good quality deck of cards, such as bicycle cards. Poor quality cards do not glide over each other very well and in extreme cases can ruin a trick. Most card tricks require perfect alignment of cards and a cheap packet may give the game away.
An interesting area of magic is psychological magic, such as telepathy. Some of these tricks rely on fake props while others rely on little known psychological tools and knowhow. Derren Brown* has made psychological magic very popular lately, using a mix of hypnotism, neuro linguistic programming and knowledge of statistically likely psychological patterns. He has a few of good books on the subject which can show you some useful little tricks but he won't show you enough to be just like him, so don't get your hopes up. It takes a lot of work and a lot of experience to get anywhere near that kind of level. But you can certainly pick up some clever tricks. However, one of the books that he wrote, Pure Effect*, revealed a little too much information so shortly after releasing it, he voluntarily withdrew it and it is now completely out of stock. Second hand copies go for a small fortune now.
