Magic: An Introduction

Magic is a performing art. Its true secrets lie not in the tricks themselves but in the personalities of the people performing them: how they establish rapport with their audiences while deftly directing their attention both physically and psychologically for the purpose of honest, entertaining deception.

Students in this class will learn that lesson well. After introductions, they’ll watch a 25-minute presentation that is, essentially, a crash course in magic covering a bit of my background and the fundamentals of magic, including its theories, science, categories, classifications, and nomenclature. There will be demonstrations throughout the presentation and a Q&A session afterward.

Participants will then learn the basics of playing cards and practice holding, shuffling, cutting, dealing, and spreading a deck in preparation for learning a mental-themed card trick. Although there are hundreds of thousands of good card tricks out there, I handpicked this one as the first lesson because it incorporates some of the key fundamental principles discussed earlier in the presentation with an emphasis on performance and psychology. 

Any students who are interested in running through a practice performance in front of their classmates can do so at this point. Afterward, I’ll wrap up the class discussing the possibility of future Outschool classes and encouraging students to watch my follow-up video tutorials and to practice what they learned as often as possible outside of class.