Hello fellow Cafe members,
First and foremost, I Hope you and all of yours are doing well. I'm working on starting a magic club at my local library in Medina, NY. Money is kinda tight and I'm trying to fund this entirely by myself so looking to see if you could give me any advice on doing do or maybe resources for cheap supplies for the participants? Non monetary donations, especially magic books and DVDs would be appreciated as well so that people could have a little library to borrow from and look up older tricks that time had forgotten. Thank you for your time, and deeply appreciate any help even if it's just some good advice.
Many thanks to you, my fellow conjuror,
Billy Effner

Billy, I want to wish you luck with this and maybe make some suggestions, but first, could you give us a little more information. What age group is this for? Will you be teaching the magic to newbies, or is this a club for magicians only?

Tom

I plan on teaching all ages and making it not exclusive to just magicians and want to welcome all who just love magic and learn and share with each other as well. Getting people together, networking and making friends. Would be like a jumping off point in the art for newbies and a place for more experienced to help teach and share ideas with each other.

Sounds great. First thing is to have your plan in place so you can take charge from the get-go. Next, I would start having meeting even if the group is very small to begin with. Ask the library if they can get beginner magic books for their shelves. Most will probably have a few on magic, balloon making, juggling, etc. But there are a lot of good beginner books out there. Also check out ebay for some cheap books. You can find the Complete Course in Magic by Mark Wilson (a good one to have) for five dollars.

It’s much easier to get things done once you have a group of likeminded people gathered together with all having the same goal in mind. Make it a fun meeting while encouraging each member to help find new members. By teaching magic, you are creating new magicians.

I would start the first meetings with a simple introduction and get-to-know-each-other session, followed by a brief discussion on what the members hope to achieve from the club. It's important to create a safe and friendly environment where everyone feels comfortable to share their ideas and experiences. I would never force members to get up and perform but would give them the opportunity to if they wish to. The meetings are a great place for the beginners to practice and get feedback

As the club progresses, you can organize regular meetups where members can share their magic tricks, teach each other new techniques, and discuss the latest trends in the magic world. You can also invite experienced magicians to give talks, demonstrations, and workshops. This will help members to learn from the experts and improve their skills.

To keep the members engaged, you can organize competitions, events, and shows. This will give them an opportunity to showcase their talents and get feedback from their peers. You can also organize charity events where the members can perform for a good cause and give back to the community.

For more talk on magic clubs check out the "So Happy Together" section down in the General magic part of the Cafe

Tom

When we introduced the S.A.M. sponsored Society of Young Magicians group in our area, several of the local adult members often donated magic tricks and other items from their own accumulations. Depending upon the item, we used these as prizes for the youngsters and/or object lessons...

It's good to acknowlege the supporting members (in any form) in your monthly newsletter and Assembly reports. People LOVE to see their names in print.

Hello Billy,
perhaps your magic club should have a website with all the information about the magic club right from the start. On the website there could also be a section with links to copyright-free magic books on the Internet. Here is an interesting collection of links to such books:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Magic/comments/......ld_book/
These companies sell cheap magic tricks:
https://www.ezmagicrobbins.com/
https://www.loftus.com/
Have fun and good luck!

You mention it will be at the local library. In the library, look in section 793.8. There should be some books that can be borrowed also.

Thank you all so much for your advice. DO any of you have any experience using King Magic to buy goods from. Thinking of getting Svengali decks for the classes from them and maybe a few other items in bulk. Any suggestions?

Billy, I thought about this topic today and curious if you got the club going.
And if so, how is it going?

Tom