Magic supplies in Hoover, Jefferson and Shelby counties, Alabama

Hoover's Riverchase district and the I-459 corridor are full of regional offices that hold client lunches, award nights and year-end parties in hotel ballrooms. Those audiences are adults who sit through speeches; a five-minute mind-reading spot wakes a room in a way a card trick across a ballroom cannot. The Mental Die — Brass gives you a prediction you can hand to a guest to inspect, and a PK Ring — Silver moves objects with nobody touching them. Both pack into a jacket. If the style is new to you, read mentalism versus traditional magic before you buy; the mentalism collection lists what we stock.

A lot of Hoover's paid magic happens at round tables: fellowship-hall dinners, Rotary lunches, an anniversary party at a club off Lorna Road. The working kit for that is small and resets fast. A Three Cups and Balls — Chrome Finish set gives you the oldest routine in the art with a finish nobody sees coming, and a Vanishing Card Box makes a signed card's case disappear in the hand. Lay them out on a close-up mat so the table cloth isn't fighting you. The close-up collection has the rest.

Get to a Ring 35 meeting in Homewood. The club takes amateurs as well as working performers, and an evening of watching members try new material teaches more about pacing than a month of videos. Check the club's site for the month's date before you go, since a holiday can move it.

For props, resist the box set. One gimmicked deck, such as the Svengali deck, and one object routine will carry you through your first family dinners. Our magic tips for beginners is a good first read, and the beginner collection is a short list of things that survive them.

We could not confirm any walk-in magic shop trading in Hoover or elsewhere in Jefferson or Shelby County. The mall's toy and novelty shelves carry boxed tricks, but those are built for one evening, not for repeat performance.

So Hoover magicians mostly buy online, and the club is the place to ask whether a prop is worth it before you order. Our product pages list what is in the box and whether written instructions are included, so you know what you are getting.

Hoover is one stop on a ring of suburbs around Birmingham: Homewood and Vestavia Hills sit between them, and the club's library meetings are about fifteen minutes from the Galleria. An hour down I-20/59 is Tuscaloosa, with a university crowd that books entertainers for formals and alumni events, and Huntsville and Montgomery are each about ninety minutes away. For the whole state see magic in Alabama.

Hoover hosts large tournaments at the Hoover Met complex and conferences at the hotels along the interstate, which brings in hospitality suites and sponsor receptions. A strolling magician at those events needs material that plays standing up, surrounded, with drinks in hands. Sponge balls that multiply in a guest's fist and a borrowed-coin routine with the Transparent Coin — Half Dollar both work at chest height. For a short stage slot after dinner, a set of linking rings read across a banquet hall.

We send orders to every address in Hoover, on both the Jefferson and Shelby County sides, under the same terms as anywhere else in the US. Most of the range comes from our supplier, so we don't quote a delivery date; order before a booked date, not the week of it. Unopened items can come back within 30 days of delivery. The detail is on our shipping and returns and refunds pages.