A SE London Magician offers his advice on how to learn Magic.

I’m often asked by children after i’ve finished my magic show how i learn magic.?
Well its actually a hard question to answer without completely blowing the mystique of the art but the honest answer is practise practise practise. Obviously you have to know what to practise but in someways that bit of the equation is relatively easy, purchasing any magic book will give you plenty of things to practise.
Having an idea of the sort of magic tricks you want to learn often helps i.e do you want to be able to perform a show? Do you want to be able to perform a few stunning close up magic tricks for family and friends. Do you want to become a professional magician? Would you like to be an all round magician or specialise in one area? Do you want to learn a trick that packs up small and instantly resets?
Anyway what ever magic tricks you decide to learn it will involve getting a repertoire together and developing the skills required to deliver them with panache.
Once you have identified the skills you want to learn it is time to practise practise practise.
Practising in front of a mirror is very useful and filling your idle time working on moves is very useful. Sometimes i think to learn a certain move i need to do it 1000 times, so its time to stick on a good film, watch a football match or kill time on a long car journey while you hone the move to perfection.
Some moves are relatively simple to perfect others can take for ever and are like moulding a sculpture. You start chipping away at the skill until it slowly comes together and takes shape.
Also once you have a trick or routine broadly ready its worth using guinea pigs as in friends and family to watch your new trick and no doubt criticise it to pieces so you can make the necessary adjustments, sort the angles, develop the patter and slowly mould the trick into a performable piece.
Once it is ready to perform you generally find you carry on learning better ways of doing it literally for ever, practise is pretty well an endless process.
Every trick or slight is different but even with the very easiest of tricks practise is a good idea, practise after all makes perfect.