Caring for Jewelry
by: Sue King
Caring for your handmade jewellery is easy and will help your treasures last a lifetime of wear and pleasure. This brief guide takes you through the basics, as well as highlighting some pitfalls to watch out for. But first, a quick word of caution. Before you start any cleaning activity, please be sure that your stones or beads Read the rest of this entry »
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You have seen them tons of times, but have you ever wondered how the magician did the trick? The following are the most basic and probably the most used beginning magic tricks with cards ever preformed.
The first of the magic tricks with cards is the tried and true “Find the Card.” The only thing needed is a deck of cards and good acting skills. To start this trick say the old order, “Pick a Card, Any Card.” Then having a volunteer choose a card which you then “pretend” to lose it among the rest of the deck. This is the card that you find magically later.
The real trick to this beginner card trick is Read the rest of this entry »
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Sep 18
In watching a magic show, one wonders if there are beginner magic tricks that are simpler. Have you ever wondered, when watching a magic show, how the person did the trick? The magic tricks you see on the stage are done with the art of illusion and a bit of acting skill on the magician’s part. Everyone starts at the beginning just like everything else in life. So there are tricks that are designed for the beginning magician. The following tricks are such beginning magic tricks.
The first one is called “The Lighting of a Used Match.”
The tools needed are: Read the rest of this entry »
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Sep 18
To start these awesome magic tricks off, let’s look at this simple card trick then move onto some more difficult but awesome magic tricks. The card trick is called “Balance a playing card on the Back of Your Hand.”
The effect’s secret is the use of a thumb tip which every magician should own. How this trick is suppose to look like. The card is to spin off the deck’s top and levitate between the hands. It can even float around the body of the magician. Read the rest of this entry »
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Jan 26
While the magic tricks are great, most are easy to do. Magic tricks are designed to please crowds, which inevitably forms a majority at most gatherings. Magic tricks are the most popular form of magic entertainment. Self-working magic tricks are effects that require essentially no skill, and can be learned in a few minutes. Magic tricks are often amusing, surprising and make us think. Magic tricks are based on scientific principles but people do not seem to connect magic and science. The best magic tricks are based on simple premises.
Occasionally magicians think that revealing their magic tricks is bad for the art, especially if it is free. Everyone always wonders how magicians perform all those fascinating, incredible magic tricks and illusions? Over the years, hundreds of magicians conjured their names into the history books. Many magicians will work alone because they don’t want others distracting the audiences’ attention while performing the magic tricks. As long back as one might be able to remember there have been magicians and magic tricks. It is very enjoyable watching magicians perform their amazing tricks. People who use magic as a hobby will be able to amaze the audience, while the real professional magicians will astound and mystify their peers.
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There are many kinds of magic tricks, but most fall into one of a few categories. Oftentimes, a magician will specialize in one or a few areas. For those who employ a range of techniques, they will often develop some type of persona or specialty act to differentiate themselves from other performers. Just as other entertainers often find a niche, so too do magicians.
While no type of magic is particularly easy, some types are common for beginning magicians, such as learning sleight of hand tricks. Most magicians know a core base of tricks, and then develop their particular repertoire from there.
Magic is based on illusion and mystery, and all types of magic tricks employ this mystery. This is what is so alluring about magic! Secrecy is of course another major element of magic. Practicing magicians are very selective about who they share their secrets with. People who work with magicians are often required to sign contracts stating they will not share the magician’s secrets with anyone else.
What types of tricks do magicians perform? The following list is a basic overview of magic tricks that are commonly associated with the practice of magic.
Sleight of hand tricks are those that involve skilled hand movements where objects seem to appear and disappear in the hands of the performer. One of the oldest sleight of hand tricks originated in Ancient Egypt. In this trick, the performer hides balls under turned-over cups. As the performer moves the cups around, the balls change positions under the cups. The observers try to watch and guess where the balls will appear, but the magician fools them every time!
Sleight of hand tricks are used with a variety of objects, including card, coins, balls, and other objects. Some magicians have even used live animals. A magician skilled in sleight of hand can perform magic almost anytime, anywhere.
Illusions are those where the seemingly impossible becomes possible. Some of the better known illusion tricks include those where a woman is sawed in half and levitation tricks. Other illusions involve making people, animals, or objects reappear. David Copperfield, a modern-day magician, has made such large objects as the Statue of Liberty and a jet airplane disappear in front of live audiences.
Escape magic is just as it sounds. The most famous escape artist was Harry Houdini, who performed a number of daring escapes in front of large audiences in exotic locations. Suspended high in the air, Houdini would be handcuffed and placed inside locked or otherwise sealed containers and emerge moments later. Escape magic is intriguing not only because of the amazing feat, but also because of the danger involved.
Mentalists are another form of magicians who appear to read the minds of strangers. In front of live audiences, mentalists will recreate drawings done by audience members that are unseen to the magician, but visible to the audience. They will also read the minds of strangers and perform an array of amazing mental tricks. The mystery of the mentalist lies in the performance in front of a live audience. Some mentalists in modern times have even created tricks for television where they seem to read the minds of viewers!
How and where magicians perform varies a great deal as well. Street magic, close-up magic, and stage magic all offer amazing performances in vastly different settings. Street magic is as it sounds, performed outside and in the spur of the moment. Street magic often includes sleight of hand tricks, although a variety of magic is performed this way. One of the most famous current-day street magicians is David Blaine, who performs a wide range of card tricks, disappearing acts, and even levitation on the street.
Close-up magic is performed indoors or out, and often involves such things as card or coin tricks. It is performed just as it sounds–in close range. The audience is small, and the magician sits or stands in the middle, which adds to the allure–when people surround the magician, he or she has little room to “hide” anything. Additionally, when the audience is so close, one might assume the observers could easily see the magician’s tricks–but this isn’t the case!
Finally, stage magic is just as it sounds–magic performed onstage. These magic tricks date back in history to the 1700s, and are often very elaborate performances. Stage magicians offer an extensive range of tricks from sleight of hand to making large objects float or disappear. Oftentimes large animals are involved. There are a number of present-day famous stage magicians, including Siegfried and Roy, David Copperfield, and Penn and Teller.
A great place to start is with “Learn Easy Magic“. It starts with the absolute basics. There are 4 books each one dealing with different area of magic. One book for doing tricks with money, one for doing tricks with cards, one for doing tricks with everyday objects and even on for doing mind reading illusions.
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This is not one of our normal posts. We found this guide on playing cards. We always assume that everyone understands playing cards but maybe we should not assume that. Since playing cards are such a big part of the magic trick selections we decided to include it. But it does not fit into one of our regular categories so we are going to post it into a new misc category.
Varying by colors, numbers and shapes, the set of 52 playing cards, figured with distinguishing motifs have been entertaining us for years. Games played with cards can be seen from our low stake tables in our garage to the tables with the highest stakes at WSOP.
The cards are now not only used for playing card games, but are adapted for other uses, such as magic tricks, telling fortunes using cartomancy, and things like building a house of cards. It can pretty much be said that playing cards are now part of our lives. Though it is not hard to get a chance to play cards with anyone, it is pretty difficult to figure out what language is spoken at the table on the first try.
Along with numbers, there are shapes on each card to separate the numbers. The shapes are called suits. There are four suites: Spade, Diamond, Heart, Club. The spade, which is the highest in suit ranking, is shaped like a leaf, colored in black, and is the highest ranked card. Often times, the Ace of Spade has a big spade in the middle rather than a regular spade, due to a tradition started from taxes.
The diamond, colored in red, is the second in ranking and is shaped like a rhombus shaped like a four-sided diamond.
The third in ranking is the heart, colored in red, shaped like the heart. The club, the lowest rank of the four suits, is colored black and takes the shape of a three-leaf clover.
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Dec 12
Today we are writing about the e-book: "Learn Easy Magic". Learn Easy Magic is written by a magician named Bryan Dean, a professional magician for over 30 years. If you are an old hand at magic you probably remember the MagicTalk website. That was Bryan creation. Bryan is a well known magician and has some great credentials.
First off, lets make sure we are clear, these are e-books not real physical books. When you look at the product page they show pictures of what look like real physical books but what is really being sold are e-books that you can download right after you purchase the e-books.
Now, besides that little deceiving part on the sales page, the content of these 4 e-books you get is great! Bryan’s writing style is is very easy to read and very easy to understand.
I have seen and purchased lots of magic guides in the past and many of them are hard to understand and make learning magic harder than it really is. Not these, they are easy to follow. Bryan has a real knack for teaching the art of Magic.
You get 4 e-books: Magic with Money, Amazing Card Magic, Mind Reading Magic (my favorite), Magic With Everyday Objects.
Magic with Money Summary (from the sales page):
Have a few loose coins or bills in your pocket? Then, you have the ability to perform for HOURS — with little or NO preparation! The magic tricks in Magic With Money are the SAME magic tricks that PROFESSIONAL magicians perform themselves.
In this 66-page eBook, you will learn:
Three of the BEST ways to vanish a coin. You’ll be able to perform some of these within minutes of reading them (especially, the one on page 10)!
At a bar and want to have a "sure bet"? Here are some amazing bar "betchas" that may win you a free drink or two!
Secret money magic that some of the pros (including myself) use almost everyday to impress their clients and friends.
One of my FAVORITE coin tricks that I always performed in my shows. You’ll love it! (Page 27.)
19 tricks and vanishes with coins and bills! You can entertain for almost an HOUR with just these tricks!
I am excited and ready to learn more, send me there…. Ok, you can order the whole package here.
Amazing Card Magic (from the sales page):
Not just the run-of-the-mill "pick a card, any card" tricks… these are killer card tricks that you can do anywhere! 55 pages of the BEST card magic you can perform! And, they are all EASY to do. You’ll be doing them within MINUTES!
At a party, your weekly card game, at a bar… anywhere you want to astound your friend… these card tricks are classics that will just stun your audience!
How about learning some card tricks you can do over the phone?!? Wow. If you want to really astound someone, do a card trick where THEY are holding the cards and doing all of the work — over the telephone! (I have a few of these in Amazing Card Magic!)
Shuffle the cards at a card game and cut right to the four Aces! (Your friends may never want to play cards with you again.)
A Poker card trick where you win every time! (I’ve used this myself a bazillion times! I love it.)
Special mind reading card magic that will just kill ‘em. Believe me, they will be begging you to know how you did it.
19 of the BEST card tricks ever taught. These are ALL YOU NEED to perform for over an hour of great card magic.
I am excited and ready to learn more, send me there…. Ok, you can order the whole package here.
Mind Reading Magic Summary (from the sales page):
This is my personal favorite of all 4 of these books, it really rocks!
Now, you can read the minds (or appear to read the minds) of your friends!
I am excited and ready to learn more, send me there…. Ok, you can order the whole package here.
Magic with Everyday Objects (from the sales page):
People just want to learn to do a few amazing tricks other than cards tricks, if you know what I mean.
So, imagine being at a party and picking up two corks from some wine and amazing the whole room! With just two corks!
What if you could entertain a whole room at a party — with nothing at all?!? (You’ll have to read Page 41 for this one!)
Learn some magic with paper napkins (at a bar or party, for instance) that will just have them sitting there with their mouths open trying to figure out what happened!
Learn magic that I personally perform when I go to parties and social events. These are tricks that I do to "show off", not as a "professional magician"… but as a party guest… just like YOU!
76 pages of amazing magic you can do ANYwhere!
Now at the time of the writing of this review there was even a bonus book being offered that was called "The Beginners Guide To Magic". Not sure if that is something that will be included forever or if it was just a promotional item.
The cost of all 5 of the books (4 books we reviewed and the extra beginners guide) is $47. That is an awesome deal for this many magic tricks.
You can order the whole package here.
We give it 5 Magic Wands!
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Over recent years there has been a lot of interest in magic tricks, with the popularity of shows by David Copperfield and David Blaine an obvious indicator. But magic tricks don’t have to be confined to the professionals – anyone can perform magic tricks. You just need to learn how the trick is done!
Some tricks require you to master a number of special skills like the force (getting someone to take the card you want them to without them realizing it) and the pass (swapping the top and bottom of a deck of cards without being seen). But the trick here doesn’t require any special skills to learn. It just requires a little bit of preparation. This trick is known as The Lost Ace.
After introducing a pack of unprepared cards, the performer removes the four Aces from it and lays them on the table in plain sight. The remaining cards are then handed to a spectator with the request to ensure there are no duplicate Aces in the pack. After this has been done, the conjurer picks up the four Aces and requests the spectator to shuffle them into the pack.
The performer then asks the spectator if they are sure they have all the Aces in their possession. After receiving and affirmative answer, the performer reaches into a pocket and produces the Ace of Diamonds. Upon inspection of the pack, this card is found to be missing!
Like all magic tricks, once you know how it’s done you’ll wonder how you could have ever fallen for it.
Previous to the trick, the performer removes the Ace of Diamonds from the pack, and places in a pocket. The cards laid on the table consist of the three Aces and the Nine of Diamonds, which is used as a substitute for the missing Ace of the same suit. To conceal the side pipe of this card, the Ace of Clubs and Ace-of Spades are made to cover it. With a little practice this can be done in an apparently careless manner of arranging the cards on the table, and finally placing the Ace of Hearts over them.
The trick then proceeds as described, the four cards (supposed to be four Aces) being shuffled into the pack. Then after the Ace of Diamonds is found to have vanished from the pack, the missing card is produced from the performer’s pocket.
This trick is simple to do, but it is sure to entertain your friends and family as they wonder how on earth you did it!
A great place to start with Beginner Card Tricks is with Learn Easy Magic. It starts with the absolute basics. There are 4 books each one dealing with different area of magic. One book for doing tricks with money, one for doing tricks with cards, one for doing tricks with everyday objects and even on for doing mind reading illusions.
** For some more recomendations on products from us visit our recomendations page.
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