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Jeffini New user Atlanta 52 Posts |
I was eight years old and saw an add in the back of the boys Life magazine that said "1,000 tricks for $1". Even back in 1967 that was a deal... I had a dollar and told my mom I just had to get that book. She said it was a catalogue, but I had no idea what that meant. I just knew I had to have the book with the thousand tricks. Well it came and then there were a thousand little hand-drawn pictures of amazing tricks... And I said, "Mom...I just have to have that... ". Well you get the idea. After a couple of tricks through the mail, we discovered Johnny's magic shop down town in West Palm Beach. My mom would get her hair done every Saturday and let me walk down the block from the store on my own to visit the shop. (Boy that was a different world). Johnny showed me my first sleight of hand, sold me my first real tricks and taught me how to present the effects. He explained patter to me and helped a bunch. Did my first show at age nine and a bunch since then.
That first book for a dollar sure has cost me a lot over the years . . . But it has sure given a great return on investment too. Jeffini |
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aheads Regular user Stockholm, Sweden 188 Posts |
I saw Paul Zenon in Great Yarmouth, England when I was about 11 or 12 years old. I bought his photocopied pamphlet of easy-to-do tricks (including how to tie a know in a cigarette) after the show. I still remember the paper, the drawings and the glass of Coke and Prawn Cocktail flavoured crisps I ate during the show.
Magic has always been at the back of my head and my natural curiosity leads me back to it's secrets over and over again. It's only now that I'm starting out in the "performing" side of magic but I still feel that small boy excitement every time I see a magician. I want to believe.
All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream
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ablanathanalba Loyal user Can't really boast with only 288 Posts |
I got a nice Adams suitcase of magic when I was a kid, which I played with for a couple of years then eventually was sold in a garage sale. Ten years later I learned a few self-working card tricks. Twenty years after that I finally took it up in earnest, and I haven't looked back since.
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islayhawk New user 11 Posts |
I used to get tricks etc from Ellisdons when I was very young. Always had an interest in magic but never done anything about. Then along came old age and Grand Children,so I started learning tricks with Coins, Cards etc to amuse them. I will never be public performance standard but it baffles them and close Family - so that makes me happy. Maybe I can encourage my Grand Children will take up the Art.
islayhawk |
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Codyreese New user Salt Lake City 56 Posts |
I was 6 or 7 and and was shown a sponge ball trick by one of the janitors at my school. I begged him to teach me how to do it. He promised that if I helped him clean up the lunchroom everyday for the rest of year, he would teach me at the end of the year. The naive 6 year old that was me figured that was a great deal and sure enough at the end of the year he taught me the trick and gave me my own sponge ball. This sparked the interest in me. A year later and my older sis got a Harry Blackstone Jr magic kit which I promptly stole and made it my own.
We moved all over the place as a kid and I was constantly kept busy with various magic books. I started performing locally at the age of 16 and worked several magic stores and kiosks. Slowly my interest faded after having a family and not finding time to practice and stay up to date. Add into that a child passing away, my wife cheating on me, divorce, her taking my daughter out of state and being laid off of work all within a few years, magic definitely fell to the wayside. Last year in June I was able to fight in court and successfully get my 6 year old daughter back, my ex was neglecting her and there were several instances of violence in the home. About 3 months ago she started showing interest in magic and that sparked my interest in it again. We joined our local IBM chapter last month and are having a blast since. |
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1KJ Inner circle Warning: We will run out of new tricks in 4385 Posts |
Quote:
On , Dougini wrote: Wow! What a story. Amazing. Kudos to you. KJ |
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1KJ Inner circle Warning: We will run out of new tricks in 4385 Posts |
I'm not sure if any story can follow Dougini's.
I got my start at age 8. My father had a work associate who would come to the house and every time, he had a new trick or stunt. To this day, I still remember the first card trick he ever did, and to this day, I do a few variations of the same trick. I don't recall his methods, but I use a few advanced methods. I also remember how he would smash a can over his hand and come out unharmed. What really impressed me about him was what I learned about him as an adult. he used magic as a way to connect with people. he went on to start a company he sold for over a billion dollars and has since sold many companies. I think magic is an avenue to thinking about things differently and learning what makes people tick. KJ |
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Cardflipper New user 61 Posts |
My father got me started. Magic has been an on again off again hobby for many years for me.
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rklew64 Inner circle 1265 Posts |
Marshall Brodien
Bill Bixby The Great Ballantine |
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robwar0100 Inner circle Buy me some newspapers.Purchase for me 1 Gazette and 1747 Posts |
A friend's dad asked me to think of a number between 1-4, and he accurately predicted it. Then, he asked me to think of a number from 1-10. He got it a second time. It got me hooked.
I heard for David Copperfield it was a Svengali Deck. For Mac King, I believe his grandfather showed him the trick where he placed a toothpick under a hanky, snapped the toothpick in half and it came out restored. I am in the midst of putting together a series of magic classes for elementary school children, and I was thinking about these things. As someone who has been performing for decades, I think it is easy to forget the wonder and amazement in simple effects. Bobby
"My definition of chance is my hands on the wheel," Greg Long.
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Payne Inner circle Seattle 4571 Posts |
When I wss 13 my family went on vacation to Southern California. We went to Knox Berry Farm where I bought my first trick at the Magic Cave magic shop. A set of Adams Linking Rings. The guy who sold them to me was a young Mike Caveney who was working in the shop that year.
"America's Foremost Satirical Magician" -- Jeff McBride.
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5ublim3 New user 100 Posts |
Ive always loved watching magic, most everything of what I saw was on tv. Last summer though I happened to buy my first trick when I took my daughter to Disneyland and we stopped into the magic shop there
On curves ahead, remember sonny, that rabbit's foot, didn't save the bunny.
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Amro New user Room 217 51 Posts |
During a party at university some students of physics showed a couple of tricks (e.g.instant ice). It was like a fun science lesson. A friend turned to me and said in a somewhat commiserating tone: "How sad you psychologist can't show tricks like that." Naturally, I did not want to acquiesce in that assertion. So long before I knew that there was something called mentalism I was trying to deduct "tricks" from the psychological phenomena that I read about during my study.
I still do not know much about magic except for mentalism and I would like to keep it that way. I love to be surprised and wondering how something was done. |
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Amazing Magic Co Inner circle 1712 Posts |
Two things got me hooked ... 1) Seeing Doug Henning in The Magic Show on Broadway. 2) Bill Bixby in the television show "The Magician." Needless to say, I was spellbound.
Dan. |
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Tree Loyal user Wiggle Wiggle 295 Posts |
Steve Martin at Disneyland back in the 70's
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Wizard of Oz Inner circle Most people wish I didn't have 5150 Posts |
T.V. Magic Cards...followed by T.V. Mystery Cards...then the T.V. Magic Set.
I obviously watched too much T.V., so Marshall Brodien rescued me from being a total couch potato.
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
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neemdog Loyal user 231 Posts |
The Maryland Renaissance Fair!! That place is pure magic, and if anyone's been there, you can understand the effect it would have on a kid. The magicians there were all so nice--let me spend so long in the shop just gawking at tricks, picking up a few for myself to start out. I owe those guys so much.
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Wandervolk New user Germany 8 Posts |
Haha, actually, I came to magic through football.* I had a rather complicated fracture in my hand due to a football injury a while back and started to learn a few sleight of hand tricks for rehab (stuff like coin roll and the like). I've gradually grown more and more curious and, well, here I am.
*Actual football, that is. Not the silly thing where you throw a leather egg around. |
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Joey_Z New user Wisconsin, USA 89 Posts |
I think that the seed was there from Doug Henning's tv specials (and Muppet Show appearance) when I was a kid. But it grew due to two events years later. The first was a magic sales kiosk outside of a casino where I was blown away by a scotch and soda demo. The second was picking up Hay's "Amateur Magician's Handbook" around the same time. These events combined with living in a city that had multiple magic stores ensured that I was hooked. (wish I had a single store now!)
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DeanW New user 9 Posts |
David Copperfield and his TV antics in the 80s, and a Svengali Deck closely followed by a Marvin's Magic Dynamic Coin set. Loved these effects.
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