Aaron Fisher Magic Articles

Aaron Fisher authors some of the world's best magic trick guides and advice for beginners and advanced magicians. His magic articles and blogs about 'performing magic' are known for their authority and dedication to detail.

Learn Card Magic: 8 Tips To Perfect Practice

September 19, 2015 By Aaron Fisher

You want to learn card magic, huh?

Dai Vernon, known to most magician simply as The Professor, famously said, “If you don’t like to practice, you should get another hobby.” While this news may seem harsh, it’s most certainly important if you want to learn card magic. If you don’t like to practice, at least to some extent, you simply won’t progress.
However, I’ve learned from my own experience, and from teaching hundreds of students in my online training program, that the reason many of us don’t enjoy practicing is simple – we don’t know how to do it. Either we don’t understand the practice process, or we have unrealistic ideas or expectations.

The truth is, when you start to practice effectively, you start having fun and making real progress at the same time. (This article on Easy Card Tricks is another great place to start!)

Practice can, and should, be a fun and highly productive thing… learning card magic. In fact, practice can become downright addictive!

Here are 8 ideas to keep in mind so that practicing close-up card magic become the most rewarding part of your day!

Tip #1: Consider The Source

Learn card magic on youtube??? Let go of the idea that you can get any information you want for free on the internet. Sure, you can get a lot of good material and many things to think about. But remember – you’re going to be practicing these techniques for years, if not the rest of your life. The money spent on getting the most valuable information from the most trusted sources (whether on video, book or directly from a teacher) pales in comparison to the months or years you could waste polishing what turns out to be a sub-standard approach.

Keep in mind, deceiving a live audience is a much different than fooling a one eyed, low-rez webcam. Choose the wrong sources to learn card magic from and the only one you’ll be fooling is you. For best results, consult classics by masters such as Tamariz, Vernon, Marlo and their students.

Go Right to the Top

To find out about the important sources for close-up magic, you can do no better than to start by watching this documentary. I was fortunate enough to have many of Vernon’s top students as friends and mentors – and that’s a chief reason my magic has progressed.

Tip #2: Finger Positions Count

This is so important, and misunderstood. Quite often, I work with talented, committed students that take many, many months to truly understand the importance of seeing, and applying the correct finger positions. You must begin to deeply examine each finger position at every single moment of the sleight.

Does the finger touch the cards at the outer, inner, or middle joint?
Is that the pad of the finger, or the tip?
Or the right side of the tip?

At first, these might seem like endless questions, but as you begin to ask and answer them, you’ll begin to see the level of detail required to become a true sleight-of-hand artist. These super fine details are clearly shown in the performance videos of any master close up magician. But have you learned to look closely enough to see them?

Tip #4: Practice in Slow Motion

If you’ve ever had a chance to work with a good video editing program you’ll know what I mean. you look at the time line in seconds, and then in order to make fine edits and cuts, you have to zoom in. Now it takes the same space to display the timeline of a single second that used to display a full minute of screen time. When you zoom in far enough, a single second can be divided into a hundreds of moments.
When you cease to repeat the action of the sleight mindlessly, and begin to investigate the action moment by moment, you zoom in – and the single moment during which a sleight takes place expands before you into an eternity.
Like the character Neo at the end of the modern classic film The Matrix, you can now see things, really fast things, in slow motion. Now, for the first time, you can see the many details, positions and actions required – and how to perfectly sequence them into a perfect illusion.

Tip #5: Practice In Stages

The Practice Process tends to loosely, but inevitably, flow through a series of specific stages.

Research and Development blends into Mechanics and Experimentation. Once you begin to understand the mechanics, you work to perfect them. Once the mechanics come clearly into focus, you begin Refinement and Polishing, which includes eliminating tells and flashes.

Finally,Relaxation comes – and with it, imperceptibility. Learn card magic and breath…

In order to learn a serious sleight, for example the Half Pass, it’s very important to work through these stages more or less in order. You can’t eliminate flashes before you understand the mechanics. You can’t effectively work to understand the mechanics of a technique until you’ve chosen exactly which technique and instruction source you wish to use.

You must tackle the big knobs before fine tuning the smaller ones. For example, you may dream of a perfect shower, but you don’t build the toilet before digging the foundation. You’ll just have to rebuild the toilet later!

This is one reason a magic teacher can be so helpful in the learning process. Your teacher can help you see what demands your attention today, and show you how delaying work on some seemingly crucial detail will ultimately lead to better results in less time – and of course, more fun practicing card magic.

This type of clarity become much easier after you’ve shepherded a few sleights to perfection the hard way. Eventually, you begin to understand the process, and develop intuition about when elements to focus on now – and what to save for later.

To Learn Card Magic – Start Where You Are

The most effective magicians learn to practice a technique in stages. In this video, I’ll show you an example from the Pathways Complete Card Magic Training System. As you’ll see from this video, our approach to practice changes as a sleight develops.

https://youtu.be/lBOO7sdRjIc

Tip #6: Remember the Big Picture

This one took me years to learn! Many card workers practice sleights in a vacuum, as though moves are meant to be performed with the audience staring at your hands – almost as a demonstration. During our first several years learning card magic, this is a particularly easy mistake to make.

No move is an island. During the early stage of Research and Development, you must factor in how the sleight is to be misdirected in performance, and how it will be structured into routines. These factors will help you choose the exact approach you’ll choose, and the source you’ll learn from.

As a rule of thumb remember this: There is no secret action that is designed to be burned by the audience. None.

Only choose sleights that can be covered in performance, and incorporate that eventual goal into nearly every practice session. This way, the finished product will not only look good to the eye, but even better, contribute to the finished illusion of magic that truly astonishes and audience.

Tip #7: Go to the Mirror

While very few sleights are truly invisible from every angle, like the Gravity Half Pass, you shouldn’t waste too much time working on sleights unless you know, through your Research and Development, that they are angle efficient – that means they can be executed invisibly from most angles. And that any bad angle can be covered in performance – and still leave the impression of an imperceptible sleight.

Many popular sleights sold on magic sites do not meet this ancient, all important standard. But once you have found and chosen a sleight that does, and once you’ve developed a good sense of the basic Mechanics, your work is ready for the next stage. Go to the mirror, or your webcam, and practice working the sleight until you see nothing – absolutely nothing!
mirror How does the move look from your left?
How does it look from the right?
How about super-close?
Or further away?
Your job as a close-up magician is to know how to adapt a sleight to each one of these situations, and make sure that when you perform, nobody can see a flash, or sense a tell. No one can do this part for you. Some workers make the decision not to flash – others don’t.

Comedians have a term called ‘laughing ears’, for comics that get off stage and imagine that everyone was laughing during their set.

Magicians have ‘deceiving eyes’ – its a similar problem. It comes when you convince yourself you’re not flashing because you want to believe you’re not flashing. Again this is an area where some real instruction from an effective teacher can be invaluable.

Go to the mirror to learn card magic– it’s a hell of a good teacher. And stay there until the work is done. If you’ve chosen a sound technique and a good instructional source – you know it’s possible. So now do it!

Tip #8: Patience is Key

This makes the rest of the process possible. When I first began connecting with my mentors like Larry Jennings, Michael Skinner and Johnny Thompson, I was shocked and scandalized when they told me that even the simplest sleight would take over a year to learn, and that advanced moves like the pass would take several years of practice. I simply couldn’t understand what they meant. I thought If I worked hard enough, I could cram five years of practice into five weeks.

Turns out – the masters were right. This process takes time, patience and caring. You have to want to do it because you love doing it.

And that’s the good news – because much of the time, we tell ourselves it’s a question of talent. And that’s not true at all. If you love card magic, and you want to practice – and you’re willing to spend the time it takes, and get the help you need along the way, there’s good news. You have what it takes to become a real close-up card magician. I’ve seen enough students by now to know.

You’ll never REALLY learn how to do magic. But if you spend a few years paying attention – you’ll learn how to learn magic. And if you can do that – your practice will yield fruit beyond your wildest imagination. You’ll amaze and astound – everywhere you go!

Your Turn: We’d all love to hear about YOUR practice process. What’s worked for you? What hasn’t? How has your practice process changed along the way? Let’s make this a discussion we can all learn something from – and thanks for practicing the art of magic with me!

Oscar Magic Trick Revealed

September 19, 2015 By Aaron Fisher

Don’t Shoot the Magician

aaron-fisher-reveals-neil-patrick-harris-oscars-2015-magic-trick Except for a handshake or two at Hollywood’s Magic Castle I don’t know Neil Patrick Harris personally. However, it’s clear to me that he and his team worked hard to put together a piece of amazement for the Oscar’s audience.

There’s been massive criticism about his performance since the broadcast, so in response, I’m going to reveal the real secret behind NPH’s Oscar act. We often look at these events exactly as we would if we were normal audience members – because NPH’s performance was not an official ‘magic show’. But as magicians, we owe it to ourselves to examine his work at the 2015 Academy Awards critically, from the perspective of who we are: fellow magicians.

The more we understand what goes into another magician or performer’s job, the far better equipped we are to do our own. If you want to do a great magic show, or perhaps even host an awards banquet or event, you have something to learn from the 2015 Oscars.

Pick A Great Effect

If you watched the Oscars, you saw the highly talented actor, and fellow magician, Neil Patrick Harris host the show. Toward the very end of the 3 hour and 20 minute broadcast, he performed a version of a classic mind reading magic trick. He revealed a previously sealed envelope to show he had predicted, long before the evening began, virtually every unscripted or truly spontaneous moment of the broadcast.

It’s a great trick when done well and hundreds of performers will tell you it’s a bonafide classic.

Choose Presentation that Fits the Event

As Ricky Jay’s director, leading playwright and dramatic thinker David Mamet once theorized, award shows excite us because they allow us the chance to see our ‘stars’ under unusually human circumstances. Over a three hour event, our normally composed and controlled stars can’t help but reveal small glimpses of their real selves. At least for me, that’s a big part of the drama and fun of the Oscars.

Harris chose a presentation that not only highlighted those human moments, but allowed them to resurface and crystallize in the minds of the audience. Recalling those rare moments of humanity in his presentation of a classic effect was a strong choice.

Never Forget Show Host Rule #1: Show Runs Late; Host Gets Hate

Though I don’t know NPH’s thoughts and opinions, I do know he’s a professional of the highest order. That means he may be disappointed with some of the critics – but I’d say he’s not surprised.

He knows that hosting a show is, by design, a thankless job. It’s the first job you receive when you start out as a variety stage entertainer. All of the greats know this because they lived it well before any of us heard of them. Performers like Steve Martin, Billy Crystal and Ellen Degeneres learned to host, or emcee a show, from the ground up.

The role of the host is simple: facilitate the show. Keep the damn thing moving, and fill time between segments only as needed. The host is NOT supposed to take a lot of time for themselves or attempt to upstage the headliners.

Therefore (and all the pros know): if the show goes well, the host is largely forgotten. If the show runs long, the host receives ALL of the audience’s frustration, boredom and anger. The host represents the public face of the production, despite having little control over the event.

Oscar hosts know well in advance the show will run too long. They know there will be so many cues, commercials, musical numbers, retrospectives, nomination announcements and award announcements, that’s it’s going to be a very long night – and too many bits will be required for anyones taste. By the last hour of the broadcast, people will be begging for Gaga, Best Picture and Bed.

It’s a no-win scenario. And while I don’t have any inkling to Chris Rock’s reasoning on turning down the gig, I bet at least a few of those thoughts ran through his head.

Three Cheers for NPH

NPH had the courage to take an almost impossible gig and play it with style. He had great energy, and used that energy to make sure that magic, the art we all hold dear, played a feature role in the show.
Movies show the magic of modern myth; the wonder and the mystery at the center of the human experience. Movies do this so well that most people feel a great film offers a more magical experience than any magician’s trick.

NPH did an incredible job of representing live magic during a show devoted to the celebration of the moving picture. He reminded anyone watching that there is no substitute for the magic you can experience when a true magician shows you a miracle in real time. He proved that not all magical experiences are made from special effects, bits of film and great music.

Because when a real magician predicts the future, you have to wonder, if just for a moment… “Was that possible?”

I’m hopeful that many young people watching the broadcast saw, for the first time, that a real magician can do something even the most powerful movie cannot: allow us to question the reality we live in and whether or not we can make the impossible possible in our own lives.

Perhaps a few viewers watching the show discovered the seed inside themselves that will eventually result in a rarity: a real magician. To those of us who want magic to thrive, grow and evolve toward its rightful place in this jaded world, that’s what winning looks like.

And to NPH, I’d like to say thank you on behalf of all of us. You did the job with style and talent. To you, Derek and the rest of your team – Bravo!
With Warmth,
Aaron

The Real Secret of Rehearsing

September 19, 2015 By Aaron Fisher

I’d like to introduce you to one of my friends and mentors: Christopher Grant. He’s an amazing thinker, and a great inspiration to me. On my request, he graciously agreed to write this wonderful guest post for us on the lost art of rehearsal for magicians – and why it’s essential that each and every one of us rediscovers it for ourselves.

If you love this post – as I believe you will – and you’d like to see more of the same in the future, please let me know by dropping a comment below. There are no secrets here (or at least these SHOULDN’T be secrets), so please share this important wisdom and pass it out to your friends.

Enjoy,

Aaron

The Secret of Rehearsals

by Christopher Grant
Vice President, Patient Services, Johns Hopkins Medicine International

Board of Directors, Aaron Fisher Magic

The trick started going wrong. For whatever reason, my mind wandered and the cards did too. I was performing a routine that I have done a million times and the reveal was going to suffer if I didn’t do something – quick.

I didn’t panic because I had my outs – not just in technique but in presentation and script. I simply applied my techniques, used script and presentation to create an off-beat of misdirection and came to a strong conclusion – and the audience’s reaction proved that they had no idea.

The real secret was not “outs” but rehearsals. Rehearsals are part of my discipline in close up – investing at least 100 hours for every minute I perform.

Rehearsing seems to have become a lost discipline in magic. Its evident in the products that I see advertised and pumped through the many channels. All promise the buyer the ability to perform magic: “No moves required.” “No technique needed.” “Perform within minutes of learning.” “Fool-proof gaffs or utilities.”

Admittedly, I was a prolific purchaser of these products. Consumed by my desire to add to my portfolio of “tricks” I bought everything that was easy to perform. The problem was that I wasn’t learning magic. If I performed any magic, I had to use 5-6 different decks. I wasn’t building up confidence. I wasn’t cultivating my artistic sensibility – I was simply trying to throw grenades at a small-refined target.

Having spent over 20 years in theater, I know the value of rehearsing. The rehearsal process allows the theater artist (director, designers, and actors) to evolve the written word into a living breathing and dynamic experience. When I got into magic, I realized, like many, that magic is a theatrical art and the same rules apply.

Rehearsals are fundamental to the art.

The rehearsal allows you to create and develop “your voice” to the play. Thousands of artists will approach the work (trick or routine) in the same way, but those that separate themselves from the pack try to discover how to make the words their own.

Along those same lines, the artists are honing their characters. They work to develop actions that are intentional. There is an inner monologue that reinforces the intention. There is a back-story that gives context to the words and action. The same is true in magic and close up.

Finally, the rehearsal develops confidence in the artists. As they whittle away at the words and actions, their understanding deepens and actually allows them more flexibility to explore areas with more confidence – deepening their character, role and intentions.

An acting coach once told me that the real reason people are nervous on stage is that they are unprepared. They haven’t rehearsed. They don’t understand what they are doing.

The secret to rehearsing is that you won’t spend countless dollars on tricks that don’t encourage rehearsing.

The secret to rehearsing is that you will develop techniques that allow you to become more confident – more of an artist.

The secret to rehearsing is that you will develop a deep and abiding character that transforms tricks into experiences for your audiences.

The secret to rehearsing is that as your confidence increases, you will be drawn into deeper and more complex techniques that nurture real growth in your artistry of magic.

I once had a jazz music teacher who told me that the only difference between the professional musician and me is that the professional rehearses at least one hour a day – consistently. That is the only difference. And he was right. The secret of rehearsals is powerful, compelling and will set you apart from your peers.

by Christopher Grant

Vice President, Patient Services, Johns Hopkins Medicine International

Board of Directors, Aaron Fisher Magic

An Easy & Amazing Card Trick

September 19, 2015 By Aaron Fisher

In this robust video tutorial, you’ll get step-by-step instruction on one of the greatest easy card tricks ever devised. Along the way, I’ll show little known secret handlings and approaches you can use to turn this trick into a true miracle. Whether you’ve performed card tricks for many years, or are just starting out, you’ll find invaluable information to help you create more powerful magic – and get stronger responses from all your performances! Please enjoy – and leave your comments below. I’d love to read your thoughts.

Ever have this happen to you? It never has to happen again – Click here to find out how!

You Flashed!

How to Turn Your Tricks Into a Real Magic Show

September 19, 2015 By Aaron Fisher

Do you have a handful of tricks, a desire to perform, and no idea what to do next? Or like so many of us, can you only perform one disjointed trick after another? If you can answer yes to either one of these questions – then you’ll find this post to be particularly useful. (Also, check out this article on easy card tricks.)

Wisdom from the Masters

Michael Skinner, one of the greatest magicians of the last century, was a first generation Vernon student and a truly gentle soul. He was kind enough to have dinner with me once a week when I lived in Las Vegas. Mike was a true gentleman. No matter who you were, or where you came from, he was gracious, giving and kind.

If you ever saw him perform – you knew in an instant you were in the presence of a true master. Mike mostly taught by example. Observing your mentors in the field can often teach you more about magic than you can imagine. But I heard Michael give a particular piece of advice to many students over the years – including myself – in order to turn a collection of tricks into a top quality close-up show that can be tailored to any audience or occasion.

I still use the advice I’m about to share with you – and I coach my private online students to do that same. The advice is simple – but it’s golden.

Bundle your tricks in groups of three.

Michael was famous for having the largest close-up repertoire in the world – literally hundreds of tricks. He found that by collecting his effects in sets of three, he could ensure each performance would always have a clear beginning, middle and end – and consistently build to a satisfying climax in performance.

“So Aaron, does that mean I can only do three tricks at a time?”

Of course not! You can do one set of three tricks followed by another, and another, and another. Don’t get me wrong – it’s always nice to leave the audience wanting more, but when you have a good crowd warmed up, relaxed and ready to go along for a ride, it’s one of a magician’s great joys to be able to deliver the full meal deal – a robust experience that takes the audience as far out of their daily lives as he or she possibly can.

Grouping your tricks in sets of three helps you in several ways. You’ll always know what effect comes next. Each effect will build on the last – and that best of all, you’ll always have a great closer waiting just around the corner when your spidey senses tell you it’s time to wrap it up. Prepping this way in advance gives you real and deep confidence, and allows your audience to feel safe and secure that you know how do your job. They, in turn, can relax, and feel safe to give themselves over to your care and the show.

Now creating a magical experience becomes much, much easier.

That’s why I always recommend Michael’s advice to my online students. Now, once you’ve got that down, take it to the next level…

Does the scene below sound familiar? Click Here Now.

Be able to play Magic Jazz.

Let’s assume you have ten tricks you feel are ready to meet the world – but you’re not sure how to put them together. Great! Follow Michael’s advice and put those tricks into groups of three. But don’t stop there.

Use your list of tricks to make as many three tricks combinations as you can. Make sure each group builds to a climax and that each trick transitions nicely into the next. As you go through this process, you may add a few new tricks, and/or some variations on tricks you already do to fill out any holes in the sets you’re building. At this point, each set is merely an idea. So the more ideas you have, the more likely you’ll end up with some you really like. You won’t know which sets play well until you start performing them in front of real people.

When you’re putting these sets together remember: your ambitious card routine may appear first in one set, in the middle of another, and as a closer in a third set. You may end up with 7 three trick sets, and include that ambitious card in many of them. Once you start performing, you may discover that your ambitious card routine always fits happily in the middle, or that with one or two modifications, it can work great as an opener or a closer too. Much of the time, It will depend on the mix of tricks in a set – and how each effect balances the others to create an effective combination.

This process gets incredible results for me and for my students. You get to know your material intimately and consider it deeply. Then, as you begin testing the sets in performance, you see what a trick can do for you – as well as its limitations. You’ll also see why some of your tricks fit well together – and why others don’t. The insights you’ll gain from this exercise will make your magic stronger on every level.

Once you have a bunch of sets, and several tricks that appear in different positions in those sets, things start to get really exciting. You become empowered to choose – in real time – exactly the right amount of show to give to your audience without them ever sensing the slightest calculation on your part.

Here’s a scenario to show you how this approach works in the field.

Let’s assume you’re ambitious card is the closer of Set A but the opener of Set B. You’re performing Set A, and as you get into the ambitious card closer, you notice the crowd is warmed up and really with you. You can just feel it in your bones that this situation calls for a bit more magic. Thanks to your preparation, you can finish your ambitious card and then move into Set A – exactly as if you had just finished the opener of Set B. You’ve got another middle and closer lined up and ready to go. You can feel secure knowing it all fits together perfectly – like a polished, prepared and perfectly paced show.

Once you have enough three trick sets, and enough tricks that appear in different positions in those sets, you can use the perform epic sets of jazz magic – and always know you have an underlying structure to ensure your performance doesn’t devolve into a disconnected display of random tricks.

Relax. It’s all about the process.

If this post seems a little challenging, don’t worry. It’s more than possible you’re not at this stage of the game yet. But there’s good news. I’d be happy to help you. We’ll start just exactly where you are and go step by step. It’s a lot of fun, and a hell of a lot easier than going it alone. Just drop me an email and let me know a bit about you and your magic. I’ll get right back to you with suggestions for what YOUR next move should be. It’s my job to help magicians get the effects, skills and confidence they need to do magic they really love. So drop me a line – I really do look forward to hearing from you.

Now it’s your turn.

Do you perform? If so, how do you group your tricks? Do you find there’s an average attention span your audiences have for your magic? Do you think that’s hard-wired into your venue and gig? Or is it the way you approach the your magic that makes the difference.

There are so many different facets of this issue – I’d love to read your perspective.