The Magic of Downloadable Tutorials

By Austin Hackney


It wasn't so many years ago that any aspiring magician would have to seek out an established master and try any which way to persuade him to share his magical secrets. Then, as magicians realised that some exposure helped rather than harmed the profession, a number of books became available. Sadly, even the best of these books could be painfully esoteric and difficult to interpret. Not only that but books and DVD formats can till be prohibitively expensive. Modern beginners in magic are wonderfully lucky that they can now find practical demonstrations of almost every kind of trick available to download from the web: but are these tutorials any good? I think so. Let me tell you why.
Well, I've already mentioned the cost of books and DVD formats which can run into hundreds of dollars for a single effect. If you are already an established professional magician with a clear purpose in mind then that might well be a reasonable investment. However, magic is always more popular and there are others who are either just starting out or simply want to learn a few good tricks to impress their friends. Now, they definitely shouldn't have to pay such prices for tricks that they probably won't be able to perform anyway because they don't have the fundamental techniques.
Any professional knows that the mechanics of a trick are only half of magic performance. And whilst the more profound technical and psychological techniques of magic take years to master, there's no reason why, if the instruction is clear, comprehensive and above all visual; there's no reason why anyone shouldn't learn some great, really stunning tricks that don't require years of professional experience to do.
And that, it seems to me, is where the modern trend for instantly downloadable magic video tutorials comes in.
Not all of these video tutorials are produced by professional magicians (although a lot of them are) but I think that's a good thing because it shows just how accessible good magic has become. Obviously I would advise anyone thinking of learning some magic this way to use their common sense and ask some sensible questions before going ahead and paying for a download. For example:
Is it a reasonably established site?Is there a money back guarantee?Is it a secure transaction system?Is the download guaranteed to be virus free?Can you watch the demonstration video free before buying?
If you can tick all these boxes, then it's almost certainly a genuine service and you are likely to get a good start in magic using one of the easiest, quickest and most effective methods of learning available today.
If, after such a taster, you realise that you do want to go ahead and take your magic learning up a level, then you can still keep it very cost-effective (even free) by signing up to one of the reputable magic teaching sites where you can learn all the fundamental techniques and principles of magic performance and even how to go about setting yourself up professionally.
Another good place to get advice and insight as a novice is to join one of the many cool magic forums on the web. Many of them are frequented by top working magicians.
So, whether you think you might go on to take your magic seriously, or you just want to impress your friends with some stunning effects, I think that downloadable magic video tutorials can be a really great way to get started.
Austin Hackney is a performing magician, entertainer, theatre practioner and writer of many years standing, always keen to share his experience and encourage the novice. His website, The Magic Tricks Homepage is a great free resource for magic tutorials, articles, visual guides, eBooks and more. If you want to learn magic well, not just a huge number of tricks but solid performance skills, the site is well worth a visit. You can download magic video tutorials here which is a great way of learning and building a repertoire.
View the original article here