trial. Right?? :)

In conclusion, I feel I have a good general understanding of the
principles and effects that can be accomplished using sleight of
hand.

In conclusion, I feel I have a good general understanding of the
principles and effects that can be accomplished using sleight of
hand. If you want my advice it would be to learn everything you can
about doing card magic without gimicks, and perhaps even learning what
there is to know about pure mentalism without and trickery. That is
where the real art is.

I've been fixated on coin magic now for a few years, and have got
almost no where trying to learn to do it with pure sleight of hand. I
get all of the principles now, understand the mechanics, and the art
to concealments, productions, and vanishes. The only thing is that
with coin magic, you always have to use gimicks. And with good coin
magic, just having some trick coins isn't enough. You need mechanics,
holdouts, pulls, and ditches. It is far easier to just have two coins
to start with, and throw one a way, before revealing the second in
your other hand.

With cold reading, psychic phenomenon, & card tricks you don't ever
have to do any of that. There isn't ever a point to buying a packaged
card trick, or a trick deck. And there is no reason to buy a gimicked
trick to convince someone you are psychic. Doing those sorts of
effects are far more impressive, unless you have the time any money to
buy all of the hardware you need to put on a show in vegas, or new
york. You have to know what the good tricks are as well, so you need
to be able to network with other professionals. So just learn the
classics first & you will get your foot in the door.

My favorite book on card magic is the "Royal Road", and I have the DVD
set to go with it. I've read all of Banachek's books on psychic
phenomenon, & read through many other books on cold reading. I've put
the time into understanding mentalism, and don't ever use any gimicks
except for maybe a deck of tarot cards. But it will still take me
years of practice to learn the art of preformance.

People on these groups even can appreciate some of my skill with
psychic phenomenon. But today I just simply have the flue, and am
sick. I caught it from my mom, who had it yesterday. I can't blame
her though, because we can play "Which is Which" all day long. The
blame game you know? That's the real secret to magic.. Witch is
Witch. My dad felt that ultimately we could all just blame the
monkeys for our problems, because we all evolved from them. So he
didn't like to blame any other person, and took responsibility for
himself. But even the most powerful magician doesn't work all by
himself, and has influences and guides that have helped him along the
way. There are just too many witches to ever have a real witch
trial. Right?? :)