How To Learn Magic For Adults

OK, you’re not a kid anymore. You’ve been watching Penn and Teller’s Fool Us, David Blaine, Criss Angel, Justin Wilman or Dynamo and you’re thinking to yourself that you’d love to learn magic tricks, but you’re an adult. You're magic enthusiasts, but unsure where to start? So what do you do? Fear not, we’ve got you.

Vanishing Inc. Magic has been manufacturing and selling magic tricks, playing cards, books and DVDs for adults for over ten years. There’s no cutesy magic sets here, but our staff (all of whom are magicians) are here to guide you in the best ways you can learn magic as a grown up. If you're interested in money magic, mentalism, card tricks or sleight of hand, we've got you. We're the largest retailer of magic tricks and props in the world. We also run some of the best magic conventions. From flash paper to [playing cards](/playing cards), we've got you. So when you've graduated from bar bets and card magic basics, we can help.

Everyone is fascinated with magic tricks, but what most people don’t know is the mechanics of performing a lot of magic is actually quite simple. The hard part is “selling” the trick to your co-workers, friends and family. As a kid, maybe you got a magic kit and loved showing your family your mad skills as a magician. But, now you’re an adult, what can you do? This page will guide you through the options available to you.

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Showing Magic Tricks To Your Friends and Family

Initially, you’re going to be overwhelmed at the sheer number of magic products available in every magic store. From street magic, to card magic to coin tricks. At Vanishing Inc. we’ve got around 15,000 items in stock at any given moment. So how do you go about picking what will work for you? And what would be some good tricks to learn for your friends?Here are the step by step stages to performing magic to go through:

• Find a trick. As I just said, there are thousands of tricks out there. So how do you pick? Well, you read guides like this of course! We’ve also got a live chat service on the site (you should see it in the bottom right hand corner of this very page) and you can always contact us and one of our team will be there to help answer any questions you might have. Just hop on the chat and ask someone to recommend a card trick and we will. Every single person that works at Vanishing Inc. is a magician, from the warehouse staff to the marketing team. We’ve all been where you are right now and we’re very willing to help.

• Practice. Once you’ve decided on a couple of tricks you’d love to show at work, or at your local bar, you need to practice. Now, this isn’t just learning the secret. It’s everything. The moves or sleight of hand you need to do has to be worked on for weeks, or months until you can do it mechanically - i.e. without thinking about what your hands are doing at all. This is because the real secret to good magic is the performance, not the mechanics. If you can do the secret moves without thinking about what your hands are doing, you can concentrate entirely on what you are saying and how you are holding yourself. This will help elevate your performance.

• Rehearsal. This is different from practice, although may sound similar. Rehearsing a trick is wearing what you will be wearing (you’d be surprised how much clothing can sometimes aid or hinder a good show). Saying what you’ll be saying. You need to have worked out what you’ll say during the trick. No one wants to hear lots of umms and errs throughout your trick. You need to know where you are going to stand and where you want your audience to stand. Where your props are going to be. A great British magician called Fred Robinson always kept a deck of cards in the same inside pocket, facing the same way so he could talk to his audience, maintain eye contact, and remove the cards from his pocket and the card case without breaking that all important eye contact. It’s a great idea to video your rehearsals on your phone, so you can watch them back and see how you look, how you sound, and work out ways to improve your blocking and script.

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Learning Magic Tricks From Books

Here at Vanishing Inc. Magic we love magic books. We produce more magic books than anyone else in the industry because we believe that if you learn magic tricks from books, you’ll be learning the best way you can. When you read the instructions, your memory works in a different way from when you watch explanations. You’ll have to figure out how to hold the prop, or coin or cards. And figure out exactly what to do. This will put you leaps and bounds ahead on your journey to learn magic to show your friends.

Learn Magic Tricks From Magic Video Downloads

Years ago, this would have been called “magic VHS’, then “magic DVDs” but it’s 2020, and the easiest way to learn magic if you are a visual learner and not a fan of books is via magic video downloads. Good news, we’ve got thousands of them, on every variety of magic you can possibly image. And we’ve even got free magic download too. Here are some magic downloads we think you’ll enjoy.

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Magic Downloads

Woody Aragon - The Show
Woody is a magician from Spain who is loved all over the world. This is a performance we recorded at a magic convention we run in London England called The Session. It’s a full show and you can watch it for inspiration!

No Touch Aces
Juan Tamariz also hails from Spain, and is widely regarded as the greatest living magician. In this simple trick, four aces are placed on the table and your spectator picks one of the aces. Three cards are then dealt onto each card. You wave your magic want and all of the aces jump from their own piles into the one the spectator selected at the start. And you never have to touch the cards.

Roleplayer
Ben Earl fooled Penn and Teller and now you can use his very clever thinking to fool your friends and coworkers. Ben says this is his strongest card effect - and he’s not wrong. But the best bit? It almost works itself.

Con Cam Coincida
Paul Wilson is a writer, film maker, TV star and magician. This trick has been performed by many famous magicians - indeed Shin Lim has chosen it several times when he has performed on television. Devious in method, but incredibly easy technically, this trick is perfect when you want something to involve more than one spectator.

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Magic Gimmicks

Probably the technically easiest way to impress your friends, family and coworkers is to buy a gimmick or two. This is a specially made magical prop that is engineered in such a way that it does most of the work for you. This leaves your mind free to concentrate on the performance, rather than sweating over remember the sequence of events or the sleight of hand you need to use to perform your miracle. There are gimmicks for all skill levels, some are better placed to be used by professional magicians. Here’s a selection of gimmicks we think will work well for you.

Scotch and Soda
This is a very specially engineered coin set that will make it look like you can do miracles. But there’s no sleight of hand needed. Although there are many variations, essentially you show two coins, the spectator selects one and the other coin vanishes. It’s classic. It’s visual. It’s perfect.

Svengali Deck
An incredible trick deck of cards that allows you to perform miracles. You can show the cards to be different, the spectator picks one, you place it cleanly into the centre of the deck, but with a wave of your hand it rises to the top of the deck. This can be repeated multiple times. The deck can be cut into a dozen small packets, the spectator choses a packet and their card is on the top of that packet. You can even show all the cards to be the chosen card and instantly show them all to be different.

WOW3
A wonderfully clever gimmick. You slide a card into a plastic sleeve, show it is not the selected card but with a mere wave is vitally morphs into the signed chosen card. People will scream at this one.

Roller Coaster
A brand new trick that’s hugely popular right now. It allows you to cause a coin to appear inside an upside down glass. There are some variations of this that require a little slight of hand, but there are simple ways to do it too. Looks - and sounds - like real magic.

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Mind Reading Magic

Mind reading or mentalism as it is sometimes known is getting more and more popular. When you can tell someone what they are thinking just by looking at them, it can impact adults in a really deep and meaningful way. Now, to be honest with you, almost all mentalism is much more about the acting than the technical side of it. If you think you’ll be able to pull it off, however, you’re going to be able to create real magic moments for your magic show.

Legacy
Very strong yet very simple mind reading. You talk about your grandfather and how he was a gambler. He had a lucky hand of cards. He left them to you. You show the 5 cards and ask the spectator to name one. You then prove that you knew all along which card they would name.

Glance
Professional magicians all over the world use this. And for good reason. It is spectacular. You hand your spectator a magazine and ask them to think of any word in there. You then reveal the word they’re thinking of. You’ll get not one, but two beautifully designed magazines that are specially printed in a way that allows you to read their minds.

Marksman Deck
Luke Jermay is a legend in the world of mystery, mind reading and mentalism. This cleverly printed deck of cards allows you to perform real miracles with no sleight of hand at all.

Memory Arts
Memorizing a deck of cards sounds like an impossible feat. But Sarah and David Trustman have worked out a way to teach you how to do it just by reading their book. A mixture of techniques and lush graphic illustrations will allow you to learn the order of a deck of cards, and once you have that key skill down, you can work real miracles.

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Rubber Band Magic

What is more innocious than a little rubber band? Not much. Rubber band magic is so popular because you can always have a couple of bands in your pocket or around your wrist and be ready to go at a moments notice.

Ultra Crazy Man’s Handcuffs
Crazy Man’s Handcuffs is a classic of magic, and this download takes it a step further. If you’ve ever wanted to learn this amazing trick, this is a great place to start.

Rubberband Volumes 1-3
This is the daddy of downloads. 3 volumes of rubber band magic covering everything you could ever want to know about this genre of magic.

Touch
Hanson Chien is a rubber band master and in this download he’ll teach you Touch and nine other new rubber band tricks.

Bound
The first trick where two rubber bands link and it’s performed completely by your spectator. Simple, direct and wonderful close up magic.