Master Of Illusions: A Guide To Card Tricks And Magic
Magic and illusion refers to an art with the intention of entertaining an audience by staging tricks or creating illusions of supernatural or natural means. A magician, or one who performs magical acts, carries different connotations that refer to various types of effects, such conjurors, mentalists, and escape artists. Performing magic and card tricks can introduce an explosion of fun for families, relatives, friends, and even complete strangers, depending on the magician’s skill level. Highly reputable magicians may break into their careers by performing on the street and private parties. Impressive illusionists may even make it onto stage and onto national television if they’ve proved themselves worthy of the attention.
A lot of the magic and card tricks seem impossible to the naked eye; however, scientific studies have shown that the brain’s own deception comes into play at the advantage of the magician. Magicians have the skill to manipulate this deceptive pattern within the brain that makes these tricks or illusions appear supernatural or at least out of the ordinary. Learning the vast majority of magic tricks does not require any special powers. In fact, any one with enough dedication and a little extra money to spend can learn some of the most popular magic tricks and master the art of illusion.
- Magic Through the Ages: A web page providing information regarding the history of magic, famous magicians, free tricks for amateurs, and a magic quiz for novices.
- Tricks to Amaze Your Friends: This page provides a selection of magic tricks that can be used to amaze your friends. Tricks include the Haunted Quarter, The TellTale Temple, and more.
- The Most Famous Magician You’ve Never Heard Of: The National Public Radio presents a special on Howard Thurston, a famous magician that even overshadowed the tricks of Houdini.
- PBS Kids!: Magic Tricks: Disappearing Quarter and Salt Shaker: An outline of two basic magic tricks that kids can do.
- The Basic Rules of Magic: An article introducing the basic rules of magic tricks.
- Good Tricks: Free Magic Tricks, Watch, Learn and Entertain: A web page introducing free magic tricks with video instruction.
- Magic!! – This page of resources is all about Magic. Put together by Jerrie S. Cheek from Kennesaw University.
- How to Perform Magic Tricks Professionally: A how-to guide on becoming a professional magician.
- Street Magic: A free e-zine dedicated to teaching street magic tricks.
- Bartender Magic: An archive of free magic trick tutorials with pictures and comprehensive instructions to woo a street audience.
- Strange Magazine: The Art of Honest Deception: An article that discusses the use of honest deception while performing magic tricks.
- How Does the Card Trick Work?: An article explaining how the basic card trick works.
- Harry Houdini’s Famous Tricks: A brief history of the famous magician, Harry Houdini, including some of his famous magic tricks.
- The All Magic Guide: A guide that provides magic tricks of every kind.
- Our Brains Intrinsically Mislead Us: An article summarizing how the brain intrinsically misleads us when magic tricks and optical illusions are employed.
- Narrative of Magic: An entertainment show displaying the art of illusion and magic tricks.
- Blifaloo: Learn Magic Tricks: A growing list of magic tricks and illusions offered for free to interested parties.
- Magic Central: Amazing Magic Tricks and Illusions: An archive of various magic trick and illusion videos.
- Haunted House: Magic and Illusions: A Halloween-themed website introducing free magic tricks, illusions, magic card tricks, and various other magical services.
- Mighty Magic Tricks: A compilation of videos displaying various magic tricks.
- Magic Tricks and Illusions: An amateur video database of magic tricks and illusions.
- Learn Magic Tricks for Kids: A video database of magic tricks by amateur magicians.
- How to Levitate: A how-to guide for parties looking for instruction on how to levitate.
- Famous Magicians: A comprehensive list of famous magicians, including modern magicians and former magicians.
- Famous Magicians and Legendary Wizards: An extensive list of magicians and legendary wizards starting from folklore to modern stage performers.
- The Biography of David Copperfield: A biography detailing the life and magic tricks of modern magician David Copperfield.
- Harry Houdini Biography: A biographical essay detailing the life of Harry Houdini.
- Doug Henning Biography: Rotten Tomatoes-sponsored biographical entry on famous magician Doug Henning.
- Mathematical Card Tricks: Much of magic is based in science and math. This page explains the mathematics of some card tricks.