Reddit reviews Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic
We found 15 Reddit comments about Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Recommended for ages 12 and above.Great GIFT for the magic hobbyist or professionalShipping Weight: 4 lbs
Magician here. Head on over to the sidebar at /r/Magic - there's plenty of information on exactly where to start.
For my money, there's no better place to start than a cheap book. For card magic, look to "The Royal Road to Card Magic". For coins, grab "Modern Coin Magic". For general magic, pick up either Mark Wilson's Complete Course or Joshua Jay's Complete Course.
None of those books should run you more than fifteen bucks. Grab a copy and just read it until you get bored.
Also, please, don't ever learn magic on youtube. The thing that's hard for those new to magic to understand is that it is a craft that has been worked on for thousands of years. Every secret, every beautiful piece of magic ever invented has been based on the work of others, which couldn't have existed if it weren't for the work of others even before them. Every secret, as minute as you can imagine, deserves to be shared with the express permission of the person who put in the hours, days, and years of work it took to discover that secret. YouTube magic schools rarely give proper credit, and truthfully, they rarely teach a magic trick very well at all. You can also never be truly sure that a YouTube magician is worth their salt, whereas you can see--from the fact that these books are decades old yet still being heralded as some of the best magic books out there--that we magicians think they are worth reading.
Bottom line: youtube will teach you secrets. A good magic book, like the ones I recommended, will teach you how to be a magician.
At this point, total is $500..
Instructions to student:
Read and study Three Uses for a Knife and Strong Magic. Notice the theories at work in other forms of media beyond magic.
Watch Johnny Thompson and Ammar vids and observe the theories in practice. Work through Amateur Magician’s Handbook and Ammar vid.
Read Five Points in Magic.
Read Essential Dai Vernon and note how the five points work with those effects.
Read Conjurors Psychological Secrets.
Learn and practice Thompson effects.
Pick and choose through remaining books what you want to learn.
Keep re-reading theory books and modifying your routines.
I would recommend Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic. It's a tried and true classic that covers card tricks in great detail as well as coins, sponge balls, and larger illusions. In other words, it's well-rounded.
With the money you save, you could pick up a deck of cards, a few sponge balls, and maybe a few quarters/halves from the bank.
I second the recommendation on the book route, I personally think a lot of the kits on the market are geared for a younger age group.
http://www.amazon.com/Magic-Complete-Course-Joshua-Jay/dp/0761149872
http://www.amazon.com/Mark-Wilsons-Complete-Course-Magic/dp/0762414553
bring him to LA to visit The Magic Castle...
Check the side bar for the proper way to learn card magic.
Have him check out Scam School tutorials on YouTube.
Buy him a brick of bicycle cards (costco cheapest), some rubber bands, and a roll of quarters.
Joshua Jay's Complete Course in Magic and Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic are the two most comprehensive and affordable magic books out there.
Definitely books and instructional DVDs as opposed to gimmicks and one trick. This book is a great place to begin.
Hard to say, depends on how far into magic you are, but here's a book that should be in every magician's library:
https://www.amazon.com/Mark-Wilsons-Complete-Course-Magic/dp/0762414553/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1512052771&sr=8-1&keywords=mark+wilson%27s+complete+course+in+magic
If you are into cards specifically, and don't have them, here are three books you should own (and I would suggest reading them in this order):
https://www.amazon.com/Royal-Road-Card-Magic/dp/0486408434/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1512052913&sr=1-1&keywords=royal+road+to+card+magic
https://www.amazon.com/Expert-Card-Table-Treatise-Manipulation/dp/0486285979/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1512052934&sr=1-1&keywords=the+expert+at+the+card+table
https://www.amazon.com/Expert-Card-Technique-Close-Up-Table/dp/0486217558/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1512052952&sr=1-1&keywords=expert+card+technique
Here
This book has the basics in almost every kind of magic. Cards, coins, rope, spongeballs, etc. There's even some cheap stage illusions you can build yourself.
http://www.amazon.com/Mark-Wilsons-Complete-Course-Magic/dp/0762414553/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1347715705&sr=8-1&keywords=magic+course
This is all you need starting out for awhile.
Then I recommend picking up the books "Royal Road to Card Magic", "Modern Coin Magic", and "Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic"
As for YouTube, there's a lot of bad magic tutorials on YouTube. So be careful of who you watch.
Besides Chris, I would recommend watching Alex Pandrea, 52Kards, and SankeyMagic.
PigCake is a pretty good teacher as well but he can be sort of crude sometimes so that's up to you.
Xavior Spade also has good stuff but he also teaches a lot of advanced card moves.
Get a good book like: Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic
Invisible Thread, thumb tip, variety of colored silks
First off, pick up Mark Wilson's Complete Course. It's cheap, TONS of info (Though maybe a little dated), and at least an introduction to almost every kind of magic out there. Play around, see what you like, then learn to specialize in that.
Not in any particular order, but any of these would be perfect for your young 10 year old aspiring student of magic! None of these will break your bank! :
The Magic Digest by George B. Anderson I picked up a used copy of this book 5 years ago for around 2 dollars. In my opinion, you should acquire a copy for your son for cheap before the prices go up! Don't worry about getting a pristine/good copy, my copy is in "acceptable" condition, but that doesn't take away from the secrets and advice it holds. It's an old book, but it's excellent! It is filled with solid advice for magicians of any age and very solid magic all throughout. It still falls into the realm of a "beginners" book, but I'm definitely not a beginner in magic but was still blown away by its content! Most of the tricks are self working, some use very basic sleight of hand that is also expertly taught in this work. This is truly a book I wish I could have had earlier on in my study! I simply can't recommend this enough!
Big Magic for Little Hands: 25 Outstanding Illusions for Young Magicians by Joshua Jay Despite his young age, the author Joshua Jay is without a doubt one of the most knowledgeable and thoughtful students of magic that I've encountered over the years. This book is a fantastic example of why I have this opinion about him! I picked this up a year ago for one of my co-workers kids that loved watching some of the magic I do. I was humbled to have my co-worker tell me that because of me and some of the tricks I taught his father, that she too wanted to learn magic. I was so humbled that I wanted to do her father and her a solid and get them both a quality magic book that was suitable for a 7 year old. I got wind of this and ordered it. After reading half the book over the weekend before handing it to her father the following Monday, I was so inspired and blown away by the content in here that I ordered a copy for myself to study also. The magic and advice in here is that solid and it I don't care if it's targeted at young magicians! I still learned from it! Fantastic!
Magic: The Complete Course by Joshua Jay There is a nice mix of basic sleight of hand and self working tricks in this big book for an outstanding price! The magic taught in here is top notch and this book encompasses many, many areas of magic! Heck, they even tip a way for an aspiring magician to make something like an Invisible Deck, which is considered by many top professionals to be one of the best "special decks", with a common household item. I've tried it myself and it works beautifully in a pinch! This book even comes with a DVD to accompany some of the amazing content in this work!
The Magic Handbook by Peter Eldin This holds a special place in my heart! I believe it was 1988 when my grandmother gifted me this very book when she thought I was "outgrowing" my Fischer Price magic set. This book is outstanding and it's easy to tell that Peter Eldin has a deep love and respect for magic as an artform. There is only a few basic sleights in here, but don't let that scare you or your son. I was 5 when I started learning a lot of this stuff and thanks to the clear illustrations and text, I had very little trouble learning basic card handling from this as well as ways to conceal a coin. One of the highlights for me in this was a very unique handling of a classic coin trick known as "The Miser's Dream". Your son will have the ability to seemingly and continuously produce coins out of thin air and get this...without sleight of hand technique....This version is still a "go to" for me...Need I say more? :D
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Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic This book truly lives up to what the title promises. I would be hard pressed to find a more comprehensive course in magic for 15 bucks! Sponge Balls, Cards, Coins, Mental Magic, Stage Illusions that can be made at home, solid advice from a legend, information that I haven't found elsewhere, among other things! This book will keep both and your son busy for a long, long time! Self Working tricks, basic sleights and tricks to accompany them, great methods, inspirational food thought. I simply wouldn't feel right not recommend this to anyone who loves magic!
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Karl Fulves "Self Working" Series: All of these are dirt cheap and worth any students time and study regardless of age or experience! Collect them all or simply pick a subject that your son favors! This series encompasses mental magic as well as magic with cards, coins, numbers, paper, rope, handkerchiefs, and household objects! Any one of these will serve your son well.
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Scarne on Card Tricks and Scarne's Magic Tricks I would recommend getting both of these together. There are hundreds upon hundreds of quality tricks from some of magic's legends including: Paul Rossini, Dai Vernon and Harry Blackstone to name a few! All these tricks were re-worked by those magicians with the help of John Scarne to eliminate most or all sleight of hand while not sacrificing the clarity of effect! These two books are classics for a reason! Highly recommended!
Lots of recommendations here for sure and yes these are all books, but I'll even recommend a fantastic and entertaining DVD for you and your son!
Amazing Magic and Mentalism Anyone Can Do by Jay Sankey 39 stellar tricks that are as fun to learn as they are to perform. Very basic sleight of hand tricks and even some self working ones taught by one of my favorite teachers, Jay Sankey!
TL;DR: Just click on the links provided. Hope you like what you see! :)
Second bob on posting in /r/Magic. However, I wanted to give you two quick specific recs. Mark Wilson's Complete Course is a classic, and it runs the gamut from cards, coins, rope, stage, etc. I personally found this book extremely useful in advancing my magical knowledge. The second is Josh Jay's more contemporary course. I haven't actually read this one, but everything JJ does is so good that I'm comfortable recommending it.
Feel free to PM me if you've got any other questions; I'm always happy to help out a new magi!
Okay, couldn't find my box, but I managed to dreg up what I remember as far as books go.
This book is a good start for coin magic and sleight of hand in general. Be warned though, the coins you will need for this might be slightly hard to find (silver dollars, half dollars) but is worth it. For whatever reason people think that the bigger the coin, the harder it is to work magic with it. This is false. The bigger the easier and the better looking.
This book is a good start for card magic. Sometimes it is a bit hard to understand (as all books are) but this is pretty simple and will give you some good pointers.
This book is my all time favorite. More card magic, but more advanced than the previous one.
And lastly this book which gives some good tricks, teaches some good things. Much of it is based on props and stage magic, and much of it isn't. A good read.
And lastly some advice: if possible find someone who knows how and is already practiced. That makes it MUCH easier. And stick with it. Once you learn something you never unlearn it. I have not practiced in near 5 years and I can still pick up a deck of cards and mess with them. Learn a few versatile tricks and learn some flourishes. The tricks can fascinate, and the flourishes look pretty, but only when used together does it really blow people's minds.