Magic Books and DVDs for Beginners

Numerous magicians began their education in magic with Mark Wilson's excellent book that covers close-up, stage magic and even large illusions. This one is definitely worth the look and is widely available.

With The Complete Idiot's Guide to Street Magic, Tom Ogden has created a great book that teaches how to learn and perform magic with an emphasis on close-up and impromptu magic. The "street" in the title refers to close-up magic that is performed for strangers in the vein of David Blaine in his early television specials and Criss Angel, in the street segments of his TV series.

The "complete" in the title implies that everything that a beginner needs to learn and master magic can be found within its pages. Indeed, Joshua Jay has written a fine book for beginners. Geared towards adults, it offers a good selection of great tricks, 100 in all; thorough explanations, color pictures and a first rate DVD.

Written for kids, Gotcha! is mostly about magic. But the book delves into various paranormal and other-worldly themes. Most notably, it teaches 18 "freak-outs," many of which are magic tricks. Written by magician David Acer, this is an entertaining book that can entertain and inform a new generation of skeptics.

Stephane Vanel's "Card Trick Magic" offers first rate effects that don't require complicated sleight-of-hand and are easy to learn and perform. The DVD features 12 card tricks and offers an introduction to basic card sleights. The routines here are excellent for beginners.

Not for kids, Henry Hay’s "The Amateur Magicians Handbook" offers an astounding amount of information, but it's a harder read. It's an excellent book to add to your magic library. When I want to kick back and relax, this is one of the books that I like to pull off the shelf, open up and see where it takes me.

Bill Tarr's well-illustrated books, "Now You See It, Now You Don't," offer step-by-step instructions to learn and perform sleight-of-hand with coins, cards, balls, and other objects. This classic comes in two volumes and both are worth buying and studying. While the books feature some routines, they're mostly dedicated to moves. This book provided me my early magic foundation.

"The Long and The Short Of It" explains some intriguing moves with a Svengali deck beyond the standard ones and offers a powerful routine. It also explains various effects that may be performed with a Svengali deck. While most of these can be done with a real deck and sleight of hand, they’re effective routines.

This beginner's magic kit is dedicated to card tricks and promises "with a little practice and the right attitude, anyone can learn enough card tricks to impress a small crowd." The kit consists of two decks of decent quality playing cards, a notepad and pencil and a good soft cover book, "Easy Card Tricks" by Peter Arnold.

This is a magic set, but it includes three books by Karl Fulves: 1) Self-Working Card Tricks, 2) Self-Working Coin Magic and 3) Self-Working Handkerchief Magic. For the price, you can learn lots of beginning magic tricks. On the other hand, the books lack flashy graphics so they're not for everyone. I think that young kids would be disappointed with this one.