Best tricks less than $100

[Alex Burden]

Hi, I am going to make my first online purchase and want to make it under $100. I have pretty much decided but want to hear some of your opinions first. The only tricks I currently have are Pressure by Daniel Garcia and the Invisible deck. I love street magic the most and mainly card tricks but have some money tricks and am looking into more.
The tricks I am looking at are definitely Dresscode by Calen Morelli, Stairway by Marcus Eddie (only 7.95 so why not?), and the ones i am probably going to get but not on theory11 are Greed by Daniel Garcia and Extreme Burn 2.0. I have taken a lot of thought into what to order and for the extreme burn I was debating Prophet, Extreme Burn 2.0, or Hand Out 500. Which do you think is the best? I also am thinking about switching Greed for Rapture by Edward Boswell. Thoughts?? Any replies will be great and keep in mind I want it under $100. The price for the ones I want is $98 but if i got Rapture instead of Greed it would only be $88. Please help! Thanks!

 

[chriswiehl]

Hey Alex, Welcome to the forums here. So a few questions. How long have you been doing magic for. that will greatly influence what i say you should get.

out of what you named. I would get extreme burn for sure. Between Greed and Rapture, it really depends. if you want a card effect, get rapture. if you want another money trick, get greed. Rapture has some nice things to it, but you need to decide if you are performing or not. I have friends who swear on greed and they carry it everywhere they go.

INvisble deck is great, get that, learn it and then make your own. INvisible deck eventually stops working if you use it a whole lot because it looses its magical powers the great wizards give to it. but with enough work you can make your own.

Stairway is nice, but if you want some killer rubber band magic, there are other sources, like Touch by Hanson Chien, which i ALWAYS use.

i know you wanted to choose between those, but there are other awesome tricks that, depending on your skill level may be worth it.

I am a little biased to my own releases, but one thing for certian. I ALways carry around extreme burn 2.0. Better than hand out or any of the other switches of its kind.

 

[magicmitch]

Hi, I am going to make my first online purchase and want to make it under $100. I have pretty much decided but want to hear some of your opinions first. The only tricks I currently have are Pressure by Daniel Garcia and the Invisible deck. I love street magic the most and mainly card tricks but have some money tricks and am looking into more.
The tricks I am looking at are definitely Dresscode by Calen Morelli, Stairway by Marcus Eddie (only 7.95 so why not?), and the ones i am probably going to get but not on theory11 are Greed by Daniel Garcia and Extreme Burn 2.0. I have taken a lot of thought into what to order and for the extreme burn I was debating Prophet, Extreme Burn 2.0, or Hand Out 500. Which do you think is the best? I also am thinking about switching Greed for Rapture by Edward Boswell. Thoughts?? Any replies will be great and keep in mind I want it under $100. The price for the ones I want is $98 but if i got Rapture instead of Greed it would only be $88. Please help! Thanks!

IMO you should not get rapture, It is quite akward showing the box and is not as clean as the video suggests, when showing it and there is really no reason to make a card box dissapear, only to not do a trick with the deck. Definately get dresscode. I was talking with australian illusionist Cosentino about it and he said he was seriously considering putting it in his show for the distortion tour. The method is ingenious and I'm suprised he didn't.

 

[Justin.Morris]

I did Stigmata tonight. So good. I need to do that more.
Liquid Metal is brilliant.
On the Spot is SO useful for more than card tricks.
I'm currently enjoying and called The Boof. Excellent and practical card material.

 

[Craig Browning]

And Here I Go, Yet Again. . .

Why get single effects?

$100.00 in budget would give you access to dozens if not more than a hundred+ effects if you go the book route. Of course you will want material that ties to the direction you wish to take you magic, but it's far less expensive to buy a couple of books from which you will probably end up with at least 3 effects from each that you will actually perform vs. paying the same $30.00 -- $50.00 for a single trick that more than not, ends up in a junk drawer and rarely used once the method is discovered. . . sorry, but that's been the story of more single effects than most would wish to admit to. . . I have a small ton of such pieces that I plan on liquidating in the not so distant future.

What I don't have on this liquidation list is the many books and magazines that I've obtained over the past decade or so. The quickest way for a magician to become impotent is to sell off knowledge, no matter how elementary or poorly presented it may be (and I've seen some horrid material). Books are your friends no matter how old they might be; must of what you see on the market today is based on information you'll find in those old books. Far too frequently it's exactly what you find in those old books just given a different name and maybe packaged slightly different; using white board vs. slate for an example.

BTW. . . videos aren't much better a venture than single effects; for the price of one DVD you might get a dozen effects vs. a book of the same price range where you'll get a few dozen effects to consider (in most cases). . . heck, add a few more bucks to that budget and get the complete Tarbell Course in Magic and you'll have HUNDREDS of routines large & small, to work with and more importantly, you'll have most of the basics that you need for developing YOUR OWN MATERIAL, which is worth it's weight in gold if you learn to actually see how to transform something based on that yesteryear thinking.

Chrisweil already pointed out that our knowing what you study & experience level is will allow us to better serve you. I'm giving you credit by assuming you've at least read the Mark Wilson Course and hopefully, studied it to some degree. If not, then you have your answer -- INVEST IN a couple of solid & proven introductory courses in Magic, especially those that will help you in developing solid slight-of-hand. Master that one niche area and you will be able to do most anything, anywhere with whatever is available.

Hope this in-put helps you out.

 

[RickEverhart]

First, I'll give you the answer you "want" to hear. If I were in your shoes I would purchase Stairway and Extreme Burn 2.0 and pass on Rapture only because it is not really something that I see being practical and a "worker" at gigs. Stairway and Extreme burn are items you can carry on you and be ready to perform instantly and then repeat it over and over again at other tables and such. They are instant reset effects which dont' require you to palm anything off or ditch anything.

Now, I'll give you the answer you dont' want to hear, but after 12 years in magic, is the better option. Listen to Craig and invest in a few volumes of the Tarbell Course or any other books that are loaded with effects. Any of the Art of Astonishment books are outstanding as well. I am currently looking through lecture notes from the 70's and 80's and finding gems everywhere.

If you make a DVD purchase of $30 or so, and don't like the effect, you are basically hosed. If you buy a book as Craig has mentioned, you have 50-100 effects to choose from. Even if you only find 3-5, and you put them in your arsenal...you've made your money.
The down fall is that you will have to read and put some time and effort into learning said effects.

The problem with today's generation (including myself still at times) is that we want "instant gratification" and then we move on to the next thing.