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Angel Freire New user Long Island, NY 72 Posts |
I've been bitten recently also. I've also had a passing interest for years.As a kid I bought a set of t.v. magic cards.Marshall Brodien convinced me that I had to have these. I've read a few magic books ,but recently got Houdini bio , then decided to get back into card magic starting from scratch I got the first 2 vol. of card college.I have a lot to learn but am enjoying every minute of it.
Angel |
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gr8danemom New user 5 Posts |
I own a party business and contracted with performers. A couple of years ago, one of the clowns that we contract started on a chemotherapy program for her liver issues. She became very sick and could not continue. We had her booked and could not find a replacement. Therefore, I put my sewing skills to work to create a costume, did some research on how to perform as a birthday party clown and went to the local clown shop. My son was going to clown with me and perform the magic. He chickened out when we got to the first birthday party. The first magic that we got from the clown store were very simple magic tricks. I was hooked performing as a clown and drawn to learning more and more magic. Once in a while I am hired just to do magic.
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wackyvorlon New user Sarnia, ON, Canada 72 Posts |
I'm 26, and only just starting. I got my first magic book(Modern Coin Magic by Bobo) this week:) My interest is actually attributable to James Randi. Every so often I read the newsletter on his site, and I decided to watch some videos. I found him terribly entertaining, and he sparked my interest in magic.
He often says that his qualification for debunking humbug is that he 'knows how to fool people, and most importantly, he knows how people fool themselves'. I found that to be an extremely interesting sentiment, and am fascinated by the role that suggestion can play in the performance of magic. I find that magic also helps us to remember why we need science - reality is frequently counter-intuitive. When we see the coin vanish, we intuit what occurred based on ideas about the universe that we formed at a very young age. In the case of the magician, this leads us in the wrong direction. |
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ComedyChris New user Missouri 1 Post |
I don't really remember when I first started liking magic. I remember always being fascinated with people who did magic and the like. About two years ago I decided I finally wanted to start doing magic and I bought a few books on card tricks. Then I went to a certain amusement park with my school where there was a magic shop. I met a hilarious guy there who sold me a Zombie Ball, and I have been really hooked ever since.
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Joey911 New user 84 Posts |
I started at age 7, when I saw a Marvins Magic commercial for a cheap magic set. It turned into a life long passion! After moving to more advanced things, birthday parties, and hopefully onto stage!
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black-dragon New user 25 Posts |
I'm still young and I very thank full for that. I really have alway been in magic. at age 4-5 I would make stuff disappear. I would put a cloth over an object and pick it up with the object still in it. I loved it. at about 7 I saw my first magic show in my library I ran out and grabbed as many books on magic as I could. I for got about my love for about 4 years when I saw criss angel on tv.
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Darth Ewok Loyal user Greeneville TN 228 Posts |
Doug Henning and David Copperfield's tv specials made me a fan of magic. but I was prety much just a fan. I'd watch everything I could but didn't really want to do it. I got the urge to learn magic after I saw David Blaine's 1st special. I guess I was in my mid 20s at the time.
I learned some of his tricks, did some IT stuff, but I really didn't get into it, so I stopped. a few years later I was watching tv with my girlfrind and they did a re-run of the blaine street magic special. she'd never seen it before, so we watched it. since I'd seen it before I just watched her reactions to the tricks. she was blown away. she'd not really seen too much magic before. her favorite trick was 2 card monty (i know its really called: be honest) after the show I did it for her and she freaked out. that weekend she made me sit a watch all my old david Copperfield VHS tapes. (this is like 15 specials in one sitting. lol) no sure if it was seeing her so excited about magic or what but somewhere during that magical marathon I became hooked all over again. only this time the bug bit deep. I love magic. its my pasion. if my skill matched my love I'd be the new Vernon. lol. I just wish the darn bug had bitten sooner |
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skogis New user 7 Posts |
I started of with an Joe Labero magic box at age eight or nine, then I stopped a couple of years and got hooked again about an year ago when I went to a friend of mine and there I watched yes Joe Labero's show and here I am now.
So I guess I sould give thanks to Joe Labero Eric |
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trickytrav Veteran user 391 Posts |
Always loved magic as a kid,my uncle used to fool the hell out of me with his ball and vase and other tricks.I always knew a few self working card tricks but one day when in my late twenties I bought a cheap Svengali deck and never looked back.
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MikeOB Loyal user Doylestown, PA 217 Posts |
This ia great thread. I was in kindergarten when my friends mom took us to see a magician in NJ. I got hooked, I dragged my mom all over New Jersey at the time to Abracadabra Magic Shop (out of his basement), Amazing Randi's store in Red Bank and Mecca Magic. I used to save all my newspaper money to buy magic when I was a kid. I still have some of the stuff I bought when I was a kid. Squared Circle and candle through arm still held up pretty well. Moved out to LA, I got hooked again when I had to scout locations for a film and scouted the Magic Castle. Milt Larsen gave me an invite to come have dinner and watch the shows. I was so amazed at the magicians there. I met my wife in LA and started dragging her all over Southern Cali to magic shops. Moved out to PA and now drag my wife and kids out to magic shops in Philly area. I stopped and started up again throughout my life.
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Hybrid Hunter Regular user Sydney, Australia 140 Posts |
Last year we had a christian event and I was one of the leaders helping out, I decided to help out as entertainment and the option to do magic was available, and I was always interested in magic but never delved into it much until this opportunity came along. I learnt a few tricks and bam, that's how I got started and now I want to get better.
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John T. Sheets Inner circle Las Vegas, USA 1105 Posts |
I have been interested in magic for as long as I can remember. I was about 8 or 9 years old when I ordered the "Nickles to Dimes" effect from a mail order catalog (Johnson Smith, maybe you've heard of them). I thought I was going to order this magic, sit at home every day changing Nickels into Dimes, then walk to the corner store to trade the Dimes in for more Nickels, and do it all over again. It was a bummer when I got the trick in the mail. I laugh now, I was young. I remember thinking "magic doesn't work like this".
I also, remember watching Doug Henning and Copperfield on TV. I think seeing them on TV kept me interested.
www.johnTsheets.com
See the "Quantum Bender 3.0" trailer here... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkTVw9FjonE See my Dove Act here... https://youtu.be/Ms7_u46Qpp0 See the "Energy Bender" trailer here... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpJOfL0k8xA See the "Table of Death" in Las Vegas trailer here... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YivizLAKD7I |
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rmoraleta Special user Philippines 767 Posts |
I was biitten by the Magic Bug at an early age, around 8 or 9 years old.
My father bought me Magic Books, maybe because he saw me watching The Wonderful World of Magic hosted by the late Bill Bixby. |
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Austin113 New user New Jersey 67 Posts |
Quote:
On 2007-11-27 11:40, Darth Ewok wrote: I can relate to this a lot. The magic bug bit me in 7th grade. I learned a LOT, but by 9th grade, it wore off. somewhere between the limited amt of tricks I knew and people getting tired of the same effects, I just lost interest and stopped. 11th grade, I went to a girl friend's junior prom with her and there was a big sleep over. the following morning, a few people were playing cards. when the game died down, I decided to show my date one or two tricks that I clearly remembered. she loved it so much and begged and pleaded to show her more. I could only remember another two or three tricks before I ran out. That weekend I went back home and dusted off all of my magic supplies and I've been back in the game ever since.
The method is not the secret.
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pepka Inner circle Uh, I'm the one on the right. 5041 Posts |
Several things contributed to my beginnings in magic. When I was 11 or 12 I saw the movie The Sting and was so fascinated by the card sequence performed by Paul Newman, (actually Scarne.)
I went to a boarding school and my roommate and I would often stay up late at night and gamble, blackjack was our game. The only way I could shuffle was overhand and I discovered a way to cheat. Well, I thought I had discovered the wheel or something. Many years later, when I got serious, I found out someone of course had thought of it long before me. It was the all around square-up peek. I learned to Juggle at an early age, about 13 or so. I juggled all through high school. By now, I had learned a few simple tricks. 21 card trick, Svengali etc. When I was about 17 or 18, I found my way into a magic shop to buy some juggling supplies. A guy there showed me magic with cards and I told him I knew all about trick decks. He insisted it was real. I went to the drug store, and came back with a deck of Bikes. "Do it with those." He did, and I haven't juggled since. |
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Tokyo Williams Regular user NYC 126 Posts |
In 4th grade, while perusing a flea market with my parents, I stumbled upon a magician/vendor. I had already been impressed with my dad's basic coin vanish, but this guy presented stuff that caused quite a paradigm shift in my tiny eight-year-old brain. I left with a .50 Color Vision cube and the early stages of the prestidigitation infection. A few months later, my grandmother bought me a magic book (Eldin's The Magic Handbook), most likely as a self-preservation tactic after seeing the same freakin' Color Vision trick ad naseum. After that, my fate was sealed. I began searching for magic books in every library, used bookstore, and flea market I could find. While I did purchase a few tricks as a middle schooler, I more or less immediately moved on to either buying utility items (billiard balls, TT, etc) that I could incorporate into my family parlor magic shows in multiple ways, building/gaffing my own items from stuff around the house, or simply resorting to "clean" manipulation acts. It appears I was one of the lucky ones whose obsession with magic only ate up all my spare time, and not my piggy bank. Through high school and college I performed with a local clown troupe and made extra cash doing the ubiquitous birthday party scene. I also began to expand my circus arts acts, with ballooning, fire eating, juggling, etc.
After college, I stopped performing for people, packed up most of my stuff, and tried to figure out what to do with my life. I was still a magic enthusiast: I compulsively buy vintage magic books at every used book store I find. A few years ago, I started browsing the Internet and found forums like this one, and found resource sites like the Learned Pig Project. Given my fetish for early 20th Century magic books, this site led to many lost hours; I would have better off with a less addicting hobby, such as meth. Now I'm about to turn 30 and have moved to New York, and have unintentionally started a complete relapse back into my old ways. I finally fulfilled my boyhood dream of owning the complete Tarbell (thank you, CraigsList). It's still more of an intellectual exercise...I read a lot but rarely perform except for a few friends. However, I'm beginning to make plans to host a few parlor shows (why not, that's what those incredible brownstone parlors are for, afterall), especially since I've been revisiting my long-time fascination with spirit shows, seances, and mentalism. I have no idea who the flea market magi who started me on this path was, but if I ever meet him, I'd like to give him a sincere thank you and a handshake, at least before a long line of my family members, close friends, and girlfriends queue up to punch him in the face.
I have nothing to say
And I am saying it And that is poetry. -John Cage |
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Tablic New user 100 Posts |
I've always had a long of all things mystical, whether in fiction or reality. Then about 10+ years ago, when I was a Cub Scout, there was a magician performing at the Blue and Gold ceremony, and the one effect that he did that hooked me forever was that he performed something similar to Dishonest Abe, except that the coin grew at his fingertips... and everything was cemented when the group of kids, myself included, were allowed to inspect the giant penny, and I remember wanting to keep it, but alas, I could not. That's what started me into magic, and I've never once looked back... although I solidly got into performing after receiving the beginner's magic kit from Scholastic
... and I still have never been able to find that trick to this day either... |
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fxdude Loyal user Hollywood 241 Posts |
I visited the Houdini store in San Francisco and they were demoing the Hovering card trick. I thought it was so cool looking that I had to buy it. I got it home, practiced it a bunch, and found that I didn't end up really liking it. I was caught once and got discouraged. Two year went by and my uncle finally gave me a few of his old tricks and I fell in love with it. I still have the Hovering card and I still don't like it. I recently visited the Houdini store in Vegas and saw them demoing it again telling people how easy it was. A women asked what would be good for her 12 year old son and of course they pushed the Hovering card on her. I told her not to waste her money and get something more like the 21 cent trick.
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gaddy Inner circle Agent of Chaos 3526 Posts |
Jeez, dude... I hope it wasn't ME that sold you that piece of rip-off junk. LOL!
*due to the editorial policies here, words on this site attributed to me cannot necessarily be held to be my own.*
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