How To Do A Magic Trick

So you want to learn how to do a magic trick or two? You've come to the right place. You'll be surprised to find out that those cool magic tricks that you often see aren't so hard at all. They would require some practice to learn but there are quite a lot of magic tricks that you can do with very little practice.

First let's discuss the different types of magic illusions so you'll have a better idea on which particular tricks you want to learn. You will eventually have to learn more than one magic trick farther down the road and it's good to have a broader view of magic in general.

There's a myriad of magic tricks you can do. You have to chooses one which one you to learn before you start your exciting and fun journey to becoming a magician. Below is a list of the classifications of magic tricks.

• Production – In this trick, the performer appears to make something out of nothing. You have probably seen a magician pull rabbits out of a hat. That's just one example. Some magicians produce a wide variety of objects seemingly out of thin air. The ninja move of appearing out of nowhere in a puff of smoke is also considered production.

• Vanishing – This is the opposite of production. The performer makes an object, an assistant and himself to disappear. One of David Copperfield's most talked about performances is the one when he made the Statue of Liberty disappear.

• Transformation – One thing turns into another. A magician turns a pitcher of milk into a white pigeon. Cards change color. Transformation can be considered to be a combination of vanishing and production. That means the performer makes one object disappear and make another appear. Thereby creating the illusion of transformation.

• Restoration – An object is destroyed and then restored to its original state. A newspaper is torn into pieces, an assistant is cut in two, and then restored.

• Teleportation – The performer moves an object from one place to another. Keith Barry performed a combination of restoration and teleportation when he burned a bill with a volunteer's name on it and later teleported the bill inside the lighter the he used to burn the bill originally.

• Escapology – Is exactly what it sounds like. It's all about escape. Harry Houdini's most famous performances are escapology demonstrations.

• Levitation – Is making something or someone float, including the performer himself. Criss Angel did an amazing levitation performances when he floated from one building to another.

• Penetration – This illusion makes a solid object appear to pass through another. Could be a the performer passing through glass, rings linking and unlinking, swords appear to impale an assistant inside a box, etc.(This isn't about sex, silly.)

• Prediction – This isn't the oracle style prediction. An example of this is when a performer tells exactly how much change a spectator has in his pockets.

Now that you know the many flavors of magic illusions, you now have a clearer perspective on how magic tricks are performed. Remember that a magic performance can be a combination of the the types mentioned above.

The next step would be to get instructions on how to perform specific magic tricks. The easiest tricks to learn are card tricks and coin tricks. You will find that there are many links on this page with instructions on how to perform specific magic tricks. Please do check them out.

After getting the information you need, the next step would be to practice until you have perfected the performance. Don't even attempt to show the trick to anyone until you are confident that you have fully mastered the trick. The good news is that you'll find quite a lot of instructions online about easy to learn magic tricks. Again, you can visit the links on this page. Start with the easier ones until you gain confidence to try the more difficult and more challenging illusions.

Now let's talk about the actual performance. Magicians rely on misdirection to convince the audience that they are doing something amazing. Smoke and mirrors were often used by early magicians and they are still some of the most useful tools of the modern day magicians.

For beginner tricks, the misdirection you need to learn is to lead the audience's attention away from where the action really is. You need to remove any doubt that there's trickery involved. Well, modern audiences will naturally assume that there's trickery involved. That's why it's very important to learn the art of distraction. However that's a topic worthy of another hubpage so stay tuned.

Sleight of hand is another tool that magicians use to hide the trickery. This is where practice is very important. A performance short of being perfect won't be as impressive as a flawless performance. Fortunately, you won't have to learn sleight of hand until you are ready for the more advance illusions. What you need to know at this point is that the hand can be faster than what the eyes can follow.

Showmanship is a skill that you might want to learn if you want to be a successful magician. You want to make the audience think that you exert a lot of effort in doing a trick even if the trick is really simple. Let them “inspect” the props that you use to fake authenticity.

And that's how you do a magic trick.

Related Hubpages:

Criss Angel Magic Tricks Revealed