Title says it all. What reasons swayed you into performing or wanting to study a particular branch in magic? Why stage? Why close-up? Why card? Why coins? You get the idea. I'm just curious as to see why people choose to master may be one field over another. I know many magicians delve into multiple branches but everyone has their favorite branch of magic over all others. why?

Well, like you said- I'm one of those guys who likes a little bit of everything. I don't really have a favorite, but lately I love practicing and learning card and (much more slowly) coin magic. The reasons are: I can perform for a long time with very little props and the more I learn ungaffed, any shuffled deck card magic, the more I like it. Coins I just started learning because I feel a magician should be well rounded enough to do some things with ungaffed coins.

I also love all things silk. I just think it's beautiful, easy to pack magic.

The first magic trick I ever learned was a card effect using the Si Stebbins Stack. I was 11 years old and cards was just always easily accessible to me so I've stuck with it ever since.

Cups and balls was the first trick I learned.
I have loved it ever sincs.

The bonus is, it can be used close up, on stage, anywhere.

Early influences included seeing: Goshman, Gertner, Buckingham, Jennings. Cornelius and others led me to
Coin specialty and close up.

Bergen, Wences , Winchell, Johnson and Flowers led me to ventriloquism and puppets


Harris
Aka dr laugh

I do gambling routines mostly because , many years ago,I picked-up the book Gambling Scams by Darwin Ortiz. Then I purchased his vhs tapes and built up a nice few gambling effects that I could do close-up. Laypeople are interested crooked gambling methods and the life of being a cardshark with appearently super-human powers, that WOW! factor in gaming routines, well there is nothing like it. People are blown-away and that is why I do it.

I am also working on a Q & A act from Voodini's e-books. It's a one hour show, it's just me answering people's questions. I am still in the practice and rehearsal phase of the act.

If you can get your hands on Ortiz's book Strong Magic, it will help you find your own persona.

I do children show's mostly.But I
love close-up magic the best.
Todd

It’s the money!

I have an old silk cabbie left over from my younger days that I used with AstroSpheres (lost my balls) (no comment). Got a Silk to Dove perch that no longer works, and Chinese Sticks with a broken string. Completely lost one of my 15 inch Linking Rings %$#@!?!?! Replacing everything would cost hundreds dollars.

I can do Mentalism with a borrowed pencil and a piece of paper.

That’s my story and I’m sticking with it!

I do steampunk so brass, wood, leather appeal.

I have a historically accurate California gold rush gig (busking), so anything that looks right for the period works. My character is an old, retired gambler and con man, so gambling tricks are essential. I don't particularly like card trick but have to do them. Also do spirit slates to illustrate spiritualism cons. Etc.

A lot of the audience is kids, so I do various magic tricks. Also betchas and a variety of stuff.

Lots of arthritis in my hands so I avoid coins and other slights that require much dexterity.

Rope tricks would be good but I don't like them.

I love any kind of penetration trick.

Mentalism bores me but I do some tricks that I like.

Bizarre and "paranormal" magic is my bag purely because I am interested in the paranormal and work with it as entertainment. Adding magic to my tours and parties seemed a natural step and keeping it dark, spiritual and a little un-nervingly creepy is key to carrying it off.

I prefer to watch mentalism but perform bizarre.

I prefer performing with everyday objects as they are always accessible and people love giving me items to perform with. I also prefer close-up magic as it is much easier to set up and I believe magic is most powerful if the audience is holding the item while the magic is happening right at their finger tips.

I started out doing stage and parlor shows. Now that I am older and do to medical reasons and limitationsI've switched to mostly close up. A little coins, a little cards, a rope and cups and balls or sometime chop cup.

Despite being a complete novice, I'm finding myself attracted to doing cups-and-balls routines, as well as card tricks and visual type effects like color-changing silks, vanishing boxes and such.

Gomerel, I'm a big steampunk fanatic myself and have been trying to think of ways to incorporate these into my magic. I've got a brass-tipped wand and am looking into brass cups and leather balls, as well as the Steampunk Bicycle cards.

I think there is lots of potential. Like a hand chopper with lots of gears and stuff.

I too am a novice as a performer, even though I've performed the occasional trick or two for years, it is only recently that I've actually become a devoted student. So, because of my novice status I haven't really chosen a particular area, but what I've mostly been practicing lately is card handling. It is one area that I'd like to hone my skills greatly, because it is something you can do anywhere with only a deck of cards. I also like the idea of learning the sleight of hand or flourish of hand efforts. I've spent the last eight days or so just learning one small little thing - spinning a card on my finger. The instructions I found that were both readable and viewable (book and video) did mention that it would take some time to master this skill. That was why I set about acquiring this skill thru practice, practice, practice. I have probably spent at least an hour a day for the last eight days practicing this little flourish AND I'm happy to say that even though it has taken a lot of practice AND even though I cannot YET consistently do it, I have been able to see my improvement from day to day. It was small steps, small improvements, but I was able to actually start to get the card to spin for a bit... now and then.

Now I'm hoping that this wasn't something many others picked up in an hour or two and that I'm somehow challenged in my abilities to learn and develop hand manipulations and sleights, because I like the idea of a skill acquired thru real effort and real practice and hard work. A skill gotten thru great effort would be a skill to me that would be of great value.

Since this is kind of the area where I'd like to be much more proficient - sleight of hand or flourish (not sure exactly HOW to label it, since it could cover such things as coins, cards, or even cup and balls) but I guess you could call it close up magic and it most definitely involves tricks done intimately and in close proximity to the spectator.

And the reason I want to focus my efforts in that area is because of the target audience for whom I want to perform - friends, family, and (when they're a bit older) my grand kids. I've got a pair of grandkids who are a pair - of opposite twins (boy and a girl) given birth by my daughter about 17 months ago.

AND... I would think a magician's choice (funny to say it like that, since I don't really consider myself a "magician" just yet and I was ready to say "people" rather than magician, but realilzed many or most of you here in the café ARE truly magicians. Me, I'm maybe an apprentice to the apprentice to the magician)... anyway... the choices made on areas of study or proficiency would have to be governed by your choice of the audience or type of audience for whom you'd like to perform. If your ideal or target audience is children, then I don't think specializing as a mentalist would be the best branch of magic to pursue.

I'm sure there are many other factors that might help you choose OR choose for you that branch of Magic that is best suited for you or that you are best suited to perform.

The audience's reaction.

I haven't really focused on any particular area (yet), but a variety of reasons I find that enjoy card stuff probably the most, followed by rope, and cups and balls, and mental magic.