Hi everyone,

My name is Nikos, I come from the south of Greece (although I currently live in Lithuania).

I am a sysadmin for a small company here, whereas my main duty are the servers we run on the web. My hobbies are Unix/Linux/computer-network security, magic, and cooking.

I have been in and out with Close up Magic and card tricks for some time now (no, I'm still a muggle) and everyday I get more and more fascinated by the subject. I follow a lot of tutorials that can be found online and I spend a few hours every day practicing sleight of hand while I'm doing other stuff on the computer. I guess the feeling of seeing what can be done with a deck of cards and empty hands is simply amazing.

I have (don't ask me why) never actually thought of looking up a forum for this craft until I recently by chance stumbled on to this fine Café here. And ever since I seem to be as hooked browsing through these forums as I am watching performances and tutorials online.

Whilst I am new to the subject, I do understand and respect the rules of the magician, specifically the secrecy that comes with this craft, and seeing how people here are all so friendly and helpful and still keeping the secrets, it seems that I may have found a new favorite place to hang out whilst enjoying my coffee and fumbling with a deck of cards, and most importantly, to learn.

Can't wait to meet a lot of you and dive in to some nice discussions.

Have a great day and simsalabim with you soon

LoKii

@LoKii,

Welcome to TMC. Read, engage, learn!

Enjoy your time with us, and always pay it forward.


Dave

Welcome LoKii,

You're in luck. While not all online tutorials are bad, many of them could lead a newcomer far astray with old methods, crufty handling and poor performance advice.

You will be lead to some better sources here. Better to pay for good advice from an experienced performer that free advice from a poor performer exposing someone else's secrets.

Many of the Members here came into Magic via the web video path so it is not all bad.

Hope to see you in the fora.

-Mary Mowder

Thank you both for your warm welcome.

Yes Mary, I agree whole heatedly. While I am willing to spend money for books and maybe the one or the other trick I must say that I have learned a bit from YouTube tutorials, you know, like card forces, shuffles, some basic sleight of hand techniques and so on. I like to believe that the old-school methods are always best, for example making your own trick decks like Svengali, stripper, etc... and also I enjoy the performances from the older crowd in general. Nothing beats good experience.

By no means does this mean that I don't like the new generations of magicians, or tutors, I have found some very interesting stuff from younger people as well.

In due time I will learn a lot thanks to your community here, and most importantly of all, I hope that at some point I will be able to also contribute to this Café.

Regards,
LoKii