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Coin magic is the manipulating of coins to entertain audiences. Because coins are small, most coin tricks are considered close-up magic or table magic, as the audience must be close to the performer to see the effects. Though stage conjurers generally do not use coin effects, coin magic is sometimes performed onstage using large coins. In a different type of performance setting, a close-up coin magician will use a large video projector so the audience can see the magic on a big screen. Coin magic is generally considered harder to master than other close-up techniques such as card magic, as it requires great skill and grace to perform convincingly, and this requires much practice to acquire.
A trick deck is a deck of playing cards that has been altered in some way to allow magicians to perform certain card tricks where sleight of hand would be too difficult or impractical.
Roy Walton was an English card magic expert.
The Ambitious Card, or Elevator Card, is a magic effect in which a playing card seems to return to the top of the deck after being placed elsewhere in the middle of the deck. This is a classic effect in card magic and serves as a study subject for students of magic. It is also known as the "Trick that Fooled Houdini", as Harry Houdini was unable to determine how the trick was done when it was performed for him, multiple times, by Dai Vernon. Most performing card magicians will have developed their own personal Ambitious Card routine.
David Frederick Wingfield Verner, better known by his stage names Dai Vernon or The Professor, was a Canadian magician.
Self-working magic is a commonly used term in magic to refer to tricks that work simply from following a fixed procedure, rather than relying on trickery, sleight-of-hand, or other hidden moves.
This is a glossary of conjuring terms used by magicians.
The hat-trick is a classic magic trick where a performer will produce an object out of an apparently empty top hat.
Close-up magic is magic performed in an intimate setting usually no more than 3 meters from one's audience and is usually performed while sitting at a table.
The Tarbell Course in Magic is a notable encyclopedia of magic amongst professional and amateur magicians. It has eight volumes; the first five were part of the original home-study correspondence course compiled in 1928 by Harlan Tarbell, the remaining three volumes being added on later.
Platform magic is magic that is done for larger audiences than close-up magic and for smaller audiences than stage magic. It is more intimate than stage magic because it does not require expensive, large-scale stage equipment and can thus be performed closer to the audience and without a stage. Many of the tricks performed by platform magicians are sufficiently angle-sensitive as to make them impossible to perform as micromagic. Most working magicians are parlor/platform magicians.
Al Baker was a professional magician. Al Baker was an inventor of many tricks that he marketed including his Dictionary Test, Al Baker Slates and his version of the Rice bowls. Many of his silk magic effects were included in Rice's Encyclopedia of Silk Magic. Al Baker opened a magic shop with Martin Sunshine in Times Square. Al Baker also regularly contributed to The Sphinx and other magic magazines.
Jean Hugard was an Australian professional magician and author, often co-writing with Frederick Braue. Among his better known works are the books The Royal Road to Card Magic, Encyclopedia of Card Tricks, and Expert Card Technique.
Peter Kane was a British magician born in England. Kane created some memorable close-up magic effects. He contributed many routines to various magic periodicals.
Lewis Jack Ganson was an English magician who became one of the most prolific writers in magic, going on to write and edit more than sixty books on the subject.
William Ellis Stanyon was a professional magician and magic dealer in London.
Francis Carlyle was a professional magician who was a regular and popular performer at Hollywood's Magic Castle.
The art form of card flourishing, commonly referred to as cardistry, grew out of simple flourishes used in close-up magic by magicians in the 1990s to early 2000s. Chris Kenner's notable two-handed Sybil cut from his 1992 publication Totally Out of Control has carried great influence and gave birth to a series of advanced flourishes which today represents the foundation of the performance art. Sleight of hand pioneers Dan and Dave Buck popularized cardistry on the world stage with their instructional DVD releases from 2004 and 2007. Journalist Kevin Pang of Vanity Fair characterized the art of card flourishing as, "It's yo-yo tricks performed by cardsharps with the street cred of a Parkour video. There's a name for it: cardistry."
Bruce Cervon was an American magician who was best known for his close-up magic, both through performance and invention. He published a series of books and helped to create a permanent record of the magic of Dai Vernon through The Vernon Chronicles, and Bruce Cervon's Castle Notebooks.
