If you're just getting started, you'll be happy to know there are a number of magic tricks for beginners that don't require lots of time, practice, and fancy equipment. In fact, just about the only thing you'll need to polish is your banter and presentation.
Let's take a look at some magic tricks for beginners ...
The Vanishing Coin
Most magic hinges on banter (how well you tell a story that surrounds the trick) and since this is such a simple trick, some good banter will serve you well here. You'll need a coin and a table where you can sit.
Place the coin on the table and press down on it with your index, middle and ring fingers. Slide the coin toward you. When it arrives at the edge of the table, two things happen. Secretly, you let it drop into you lap. At the same moment, you press your thumb against your index, middle and ring fingers as if you're grasping the coin and you raise your hand into the air as if you were holding it. Blow on your hand, open your fingers, and your audience will be stunned to see the coin has vanished.
This is a simple trick that you'll only need to practice a couple of times before you have it nailed.
The Balloon That Won't Pop
You've probably seen this magic trick before. A magician pushes a needle into a balloon, then pulls it out without the balloon popping or losing any air. Cool, huh?
Well, it's fairly easy to do. All you need is an inflated balloon, a long pin that's easy for the audience to see, and a piece of transparent tape. In preparation, stick the piece of tape on the balloon where you plan to insert the pin or needle. You want to make sure the tape is applied evenly so that there's no chance for leaks and so that it's invisible to your audience members.
When it's time (in other words, after a little banter about how delicate balloons are and how you've never tried this trick before, etc.), insert the pin into the balloon through the piece of tape. Don't rush. Take your time. And carefully roll the pin into the balloon instead of just pushing it in.
Practice a couple of times until you get amil baba a feel for how the tape holds the seal of the hole in the balloon.
The Incredible Coin Balance
In this trick, a coin will magically stand on edge in your hand and remain balanced there.
You'll need a large coin (a half-dollar, for instance) and a straight pin. Before attempting this illusion, you'll want to practice keeping the straight pin concealed in one hand.
Okay, with your other hand, remove the coin from your pocket and show it to the audience. The banter in this case is about how you intend to use the power of your mind to make the coin stand up between your fingertips. If you want to add an extra wrinkle, you can use a coin from the audience instead of your own coin. It doesn't matter.
Place the coin flat on your face-up fingertips. The straight pin should be concealed under the coin, between your fingers. Raise the coin to a standing position with your hand (the pin is raised at the same time, so that it's supporting the coin). Once the coin is standing on its edge, supported by the straight pin, remove your other hand and the coin will magically remain standing on its edge.
As with all these magic tricks for beginners, practice it a few times until you get a feel for how it works and how you can make your movements and banter as smooth as possible.
You know what separates a great magician like Chris Angel or David Blaine from an ordinary one? They take a basic magic effect and design it into a master illusion. Now you can be the next Chris Angel. All you need to understand is basic magic design.
Most people think that there are thousands of magic tricks out there. In reality there really are not that many. According to Dariel Fitzkee, author of The Trick Brain, there are only 19 basic effects which govern all magic tricks and illusions.
All nineteen of those basic effects rely on some form of magical apparatus. Sometimes the items are real but the majority of the time the items are tricked or faked to accomplish some magical effect.
It has been my experience that there are only three basics that govern how all 19 magical effects work. All magic tricks are made up of one or more of the following:
1. Camouflage
Every magic apparatus from the smallest to the biggest illusion makes use of camouflage. This is the most important fundamental in magic. Perhaps you want to produce a big item from a box. You can use camouflage to make the box look smaller so as to suggest the big item doesn't fit. Maybe a piece of apparatus has a secret pocket to make things appear and disappear, camouflage can hide the secret pocket.
2) Secret Movement
You can also make things disappear or appear or even seem to come alive with a secret movement. You see an empty box, as the magician closes the door a screen on the inside drops and when the magician opens the door again, it appears a horse, bicycle, or even an elephant has appeared. Perhaps you've also seen the recently popular trick, The Floating Card. The magician spins a playing card around his body, or perhaps he floats it between his hands. The power for this comes from a small and practically invisible thread and the movement of the performers body. The whole feat loses its mystery if the audience were to suspect the actual means by which the effect is produced.
3) Mechanical Transformation
The final of the three is the mechanical design to produce a visible transformation. Perhaps you've seen a magician take a red scarf and pass it through something and it comes out blue. Perhaps a silk that changes into a cane. Torn and Restored effects also fall into this category. Perhaps you have even seen in a comedy show a clown or other performer pull out a gun and when fired a sign comes out the end that says "BANG". Tricks like Metamorphosis that are done under cover are usually governed by some sort of secret movement and are not transformations in the true sense.
By learning the three basic concepts of design, you'll be able to create and make magical apparatus that is unique to your magic act.