Meanwhile, other tricks, which magicians call "self workers," are easy to learn and perform so all you have to do is concentrate on presentation. (All of the easy tricks on this site are self workers.)
Starting Out
When I was starting out as a magician, I admit that wanted to go straight to performing the difficult sleight of hand stuff. The problem with this approach was that my sleight of hand wasn't flawless at this point and I had limited experience with audiences so my misdirection was less than adequate. As a result, I would be very nervous and my performances didn't always fare well.
When I look back, as a beginner, I should have performed easy tricks so I could become accustomed to standing in front of an audience and interacting with spectators. And once I was comfortable with audiences, begin to gradually bring in more difficult tricks. I highly recommend this approach to beginning magicians.
Self Workers, No Self Pity
Remember that there is no shame in performing a simple self-working magic trick just as long as you make the experience entertaining for your spectators. And if a self-worker is the only trick that fits your current skill level, so be it as it can serve you well. There's plenty of time to nurture skills and later move on to more challenging tricks.
How can you determine if a marketed trick is at your skill level? First, try and read reviews of magic products. When I write the reviews on this site, I always try to discuss the difficulty of a trick so it's easier for readers to determine if a trick or DVD is right for them. Second, you can post questions in forums so others can offer you advice.
One last thought, these days, in my professional repertoire, I don’t necessarily favor difficult tricks with lots of sleight of hand over self-workers. My stand-up and walkaround sets consist of a mixture of sleight-heavy tricks and self workers.
The key is that regardless of the difficulty of a trick, I always try and present the tricks that I think are most entertaining to my audience and that work best in my current venue.
As a magician, it's important that you always stay within your skill level. This will allow you get out and perform and offer the best path to success.
