Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Live, private sleight-of-hand magic lessons via Skype


I started out in the entertainment field as a close-up sleight-of-hand magician. I worked my way through college by table-hopping at a variety of restaurants, from casual Mexican to high-end and high-priced cuisine. And, really, there is nothing more fun than when someone hands you a cigarette, or coin, or napkin and says, "do that magic thing," and they end up yelping in amazement at what just occurred right under their nose.

Now, through the miracle of technology, I will be taking on a limited number of people to teach them fun and funny sleight-of-hand magic with common, everyday objects like playing cards, cigarettes, coins, napkins, salt, matches and lots more. Throughout the lessons, I also like to include some magical effects which, although amazing, are very simple to learn without a lot of practice.


Over the years I developed not only a repertoire of the magic effects which worked very well in a restaurant setting, but also the comedy that I added to each routine (called "patter" in magic circles). When doing close-up, sleight-of-hand magic you should not just do "tricks." Instead, you need to put together a routine which consists of a string of different fun, amazing and funny bits of business. I will work with you to find your own personality and collection of magic effects that you are comfortable with.

A magician shouldn't approach an audience with a "look-how-cool-I-am" attitude, but instead share the wonder and amazement of each stupid little trick you do. :)

If you're interested in trying out a lesson or two, just visit this link. You can sign up for 30 or 60 minute private lessons, and I will do my best to set up a time that is convenient for both of us.

Books and DVD's are a great way to learn sleight-of-hand magic and I still recommend both, but in my past I always found that I could tackle much more ambitious prestidigitation manipulations when someone taught me one-on-one. With a personal, private lesson you get to see exactly what it's going to look like, and I get to see (and objectively critique) how it looks to the spectator. Until together, we create that Wow! factor.

Hope to hear from you.

Currently, I am only accepting adult students.