A lot of people both old and young want to get involved in magic, but don’t know how. The good news is you don’t need any fancy props, or a lot of money. You just need some time, practice, and the desire to be the best.

1. Step 1

   Learn some basic card tricks. You don’t have to be a master of sleight of hand to impress with cards. It’s all about presentation. Use a simple principle like the the key card to help you locate a card, or use a simple force so you know way ahead of time what card is going to be chosen. Then reveal this card in a dramatic way. This can be anything from a card on the ceiling to one of my personal favorites, the lie detector. You pretend you’re good at telling when someone lies and ask the person questions about the card, telling them to mix in false answers with real ones. Call them on the lies and play it up.

2. Step 2

   Learn some basic coin sleights. The french drop and the shuttle pass are the first two you should learn. You can do so much with these two moves.

3. Step 3

   Get two books: The Royal Road to Card Magic, and Bobo’s Modern Coin Magic. These two books will teach you everything you need to know to be able to perform miracles.

4. Step 4

   Practice, Practice, PRACTICE. This is the key to doing a trick well. You need to practice enough to where you don’t have to look at your hands as you’re doing the trick. This will allow you to misdirect the audience at key moments so they won’t see the magic moves.

5. Step 5

   Create a persona. This doesn’t have to be radically different then who you really are, and probably shouldn’t be, however you do need to have your magician character polished. It can be anything from the cool guy, to the wizard, but just have it polished so when you’re performing magic, it all goes smoothly.

6. Step 6

   After you have mastered a few coin and card tricks, learn the Cups and Balls. This is essential to being a magician and the sleights you learn performing it, will help you through out your career. Then expand to other tricks and effects.

7. Step 7

   Eventually choose a branch or branches of magic you want to specialize in. This way you can focus on what interests you the most, and what you will be able to have the most fun with.