The Hocus Pocus Blog

Magic tricks are a blast to learn and practice just for fun, but have you ever thought of turning your love for magic and illusions into a means to earn a part-time income? You don’t have to be one of the great magicians of the day to make some extra money….Copperfield, Houdini, Derren Brown….they all started somewhere! Besides, magic tricks appeal to variety of age groups and types of people so you can always find a paying audience. Children and adults alike are intrigued with magic shows, from simple street magic tricks to elaborate performances with illusions such as those conducted by Copperfield.

One great benefit of learning magic tricks is you don’t have to copy one particular style. Mix and match the magic tricks you learn to offer variety to your audience. If you plan to use your talents to entertain kids, go for simple magic tricks they can understand. As for adults, they are usually intrigued by all types of magic. Just keep your audience in mind when preparing for performances. Your attire and conduct should reflect the type of audience you’d like to attract. Will your show be humorous, sarcastic or serious? Will it be family friendly? (more…)

Have you ever watched a magician performing, and thought about getting started with learning magic tricks yourself? Here we’ll look at 10 good reasons why you should act on that thought, and start learning to perform magic tricks.

1 Entertain Family and Friends

If you know a few good magic tricks, you can have some real fun performing them in front of family and friends, it definitely adds something different to an event, and creates a real talking point. Also, many magic tricks can be performed with items you can find almost anywhere, like cards, coins and table napkins, so it needn’t require a whole load of equipment. That means it can be easy to improvise a quick magic performance in many different social situations.

2 Put On A Show For Kids

Kids love magic tricks, and being able to perform some magic at kids parties is a really good skill to have. Parents are always looking for ways to entertain their kids at birthday parties, so being able to mention that you ‘can do a few magic tricks’ might lead to you getting involved in a performance. Keep it simple and involve lots of humour and audience participation, and it’ll go down a treat. (more…)

Tricks in ready supply, from wholesalers or on dropship can be listed ‘Buy It Now’ on eBay at just a few pounds profit apiece and still make cumulatively very good profits. The secret is to buy a few tricks individually from wholesalers or dropshippers (preferably wholesalers because you’ll get a discount on bulk buys later) and test the money making potential of those items. You should estimate price potential by auctioning your test products over a few different auctions (regular and Buy It Now), then check what prices are achieved and how many Second Chance Offers are possible.

Having finished testing, you then need to decide whether to stick to auction format or use ‘Buy It Now’ coupled with multiple product listings. You can check what other magic tricks sellers are doing for the same or similar products by sorting through eBay’s magic trick categories. Tricks old and new usually go under ‘Collectibles > Fantasy / Myth / Magic > Trick’ in both the USA and the UK. Note that ‘Collectibles’ USA style (the correct spelling), is spelled ‘Collectables’ on ebay.co.uk. Check out current and completed listings to get a feel for starting prices, listing types, finishing results from tricks similar to those you propose selling. (more…)

The going might be a little rough to begin with as you come across anything and everything to do with magic tricks online, but with a little patience and a little judicious trawling, you should be able to come up with a site or two (or three or ten!), which gives you information and instructions on a great many different magic tricks.

You will be able to find not only free magic tricks online which deal with coins, and cards, but also those magic tricks which deals with disappearing acts, rope tricks, illusions, escape tricks and more.

Of course, if you are only just beginning, you will first want to try some of the easier free magic tricks online which you find. These can help you to get a good start on your magic trick repertoire. From there you will then be able to move on to the more difficult magic tricks. (more…)

When it comes to being a magician or even learning the skills that help one effectively entertain their family and friends, knowing how to execute a few magic tricks becomes a very necessary part of the process. No matter how complicated or amazing the magic, there is always a secret that in many cases, is rather easy to achieve. Magic tricks have the power to captivate and fool an entire audience into thinking there is no way to explain what they have just seen. For onlookers, not knowing the secret is part of the entertainment – once the secret has been revealed – the trick has lost most of its appeal. But for magicians and other performers, knowing the secret is part of the delight that comes with achieving magic.

A wide range of interested parties uses magic to their advantage. Some people, such as magicians and clowns, use magic as their main source of income. Others, like the simple hobbyist, enjoy being the life of the party or center of attention when they are able to entertain their peers with magic. Self-working magic tricks involves effects that do not demand a high level of skill. Instead, they are usually learned rather quickly. Many people consider the magic tricks based on simple principles as some of the best. (more…)

Many common magic tricks are easy to learn and only require common items such as matchboxes, cloths and coins to perform successfully. The most common tricks are playing card and coin tricks which are both a good way to practice technical and audience distraction skills.

Card tricks are one of the oldest forms of conjuring and perhaps the best introduction to learning magic tricks and performance for beginners. Whilst you can buy special card kits and find free magic tricks online, you should start out with a normal deck of playing cards and learn specific card magic techniques that don’t rely on props.

Start small and practice, practice, practice

Some magic tricks can be complicated and take months to perfect the illusion of reality. As a beginner or novice it’s important to start small with more simple tricks that require far less practice and patience. You’ll get results faster, gain confidence and experience the rush and delight of being a magician for the first time. (more…)