What’s the Best Way to Learn Magic?

I’ve been studying magic for more than sixty years, and here is one of the important lessons I’ve learned: knowing the secret is where the work begins, not where it ends.

I’ve performed professionally since 1978. I’ve done close-up and stand-up, written eighteen books of original material, lectured around the world, and coached and consulted for Penn & Teller: Fool Us. Through all of it, I’ve remained a student of magic, constantly trying to deepen my understanding of methods, techniques, and the psychological structure of magic. I've used several ways to tackle this task.

Find Someone Who Knows More Than You Do

Whenever possible, learn from a teacher. Find someone more skilled than you are, ideally someone who understands your magic goals. A good teacher will help you build a solid foundation and develop sensible practice habits. He or she will also spot problems you don’t yet have the experience to recognize.

I’ve always sought out people who knew more than I did. Direct instruction is valuable, but you won’t always have access to the person whose knowledge you need. Fortunately, valuable information has been preserved both in print and on video.

Read Widely Before You Choose a Direction

If you’re just starting, read books that offer different types of magic. Look into card tricks, coin tricks, mental magic, or whatever else catches your eye before you decide where to concentrate. You’re not merely shopping for a trick whose secret you’d like to know. You’re finding out what kind of magic appeals to you and what kind of performer you might become.

Notice whose work you enjoy, and ask yourself why. Then ask whether that style would feel comfortable on you.

Choose a Trick That Suits Your Personality

A trick can be excellent and still be wrong for you. Maybe the presentation calls for a manner that feels unnatural. Maybe you admire a performer so much that you copy his delivery without asking whether it fits your personality. (I’ve been guilty of this. It doesn’t work.)

Choose material you can perform comfortably as yourself. You’ll have enough to think about without also impersonating someone else. Here are some questions to ask. Does the trick interest you enough to spend hours practicing it? Does the presentation suit the way you talk? Does it fit the way you naturally deal with people? Can you make it part of your own repertoire?

You don’t have to answer every question about your future in magic right now. You need a good place to begin.

Knowing the Secret Is Not the Same as Knowing the Trick

You’ve probably run across some version of this claim: learn the secret and you can do the trick. Usually the person making the claim is trying to sell you something.

The method is only one component of a performance. You also need solid execution, thoughtful patter, a sense of story, and the ability to manage an audience. All of these take time to develop. An audience doesn’t experience a secret. They experience what you say, what you do, and how you involve them. You may understand exactly how a trick works and still have a lot of work ahead before you can perform it well. Once you accept that, your practice becomes much more productive.

Practice Until the Trick Is Smooth in Your Hands

When you’ve chosen a suitable trick, practice it at home until the handling is smooth. And pay attention while you do it. Where do you hesitate? Which moves feel awkward? Do your words fit what your hands are doing?

Repetition helps only when you’re attentive to what you’re repeating. If something keeps giving you trouble, examine it. Get advice if you need it. Your goal is to become so comfortable with the trick that you can concentrate on the people in front of you. Your engagement with the audience will help turn puzzles into moments of astonishment.

Begin with Friends and Family

When the handling is smooth, show the trick to close friends and family. Performing for another person introduces things you can’t fully rehearse alone. A spectator may answer a question in a way you didn’t expect. An instruction you thought was clear may cause confusion. A moment you were sure would be impressive may get almost no reaction. Take note of all of this. It’s useful.

Go back to practice, make adjustments, and try again. Then begin showing the trick to strangers, in appropriate situations.

Expect friends and strangers to respond differently. Friends know you; strangers don’t. Study those differences. Were people following the effect? Did they understand what you asked them to do? Where did you get a strong reaction? Where did the performance lose momentum?

Don’t assume a weak response means you need a different trick. You may need clearer instructions, better execution, or a presentation that gives people a reason to care. On the other hand, don’t become so attached to a line or a piece of handling that you refuse to change it. Your affection for it won’t improve the audience’s experience.

What I Learned from The Pothole Trick

The Pothole Trick, from Workers One has been in my professional repertoire since 1988. It has also given me a continuing education in audience interaction.

I begin by showing a business card with a crude map of the street where I live. I ask a spectator to describe her own street, and I sketch a second map from her directions. A hole punched in front of my house represents a pothole. The pothole moves to another spot on my card. Then it leaves my card entirely and appears in front of the spectator’s house. The plot is memorable and logical, and the handling matches what you’d see if I really could move a hole. At the end, the spectator keeps my business card in an impossible condition.

Those are real strengths. But the routine still depends on my ability to work with the person helping me. When you ask someone to describe her street, you don’t get a standard answer. People give different amounts of information, and they react in ways you haven’t anticipated. Getting used to those possibilities changed the trick again and again. I learned by performing it, watching what happened, and adjusting. Knowing the method couldn’t have given me that experience. I had to get it in front of audiences.

That’s one reason I urge students to be observant. Your audience is giving you information throughout a performance. You have to notice it and be willing to use it.

How Do You Know When You’re Ready?

For a beginner, I suggest this progression. Read widely and find material that suits your personality. Practice at home until the handling is smooth. Perform for close friends and family. Then try strangers, in appropriate situations, and study their reactions as you keep refining the trick.

I wouldn’t attach a timetable to any of this. Telling me you’ve spent a month learning magic tells me nothing about how well you can perform it. Only when you start getting strong reactions from strangers should you consider yourself ready for a real performance. That gives you something more useful to assess than whether you remember the secret or can get through the moves: is the magic having its intended effect on an audience? If it isn’t, keep working. Get advice from someone knowledgeable. Find the parts of the performance that need attention, then practice and try again.

Remain a Student

You’ll change as you gain experience, and so will the way you perform. Material that once suited you may need a different presentation, or it may no longer belong in your act. Be willing to make those decisions.

The best way to learn magic is to build good foundations, practice thoughtfully, and seek out people who have the knowledge you lack. Then take what you’ve learned in front of an audience and pay attention. After more than sixty years, I’m still doing that. If you are interested in booking a lesson with me, click HERE for more information.

If you’d like to study my written work, all of my Workers books are available in one downloadable ebook.