Good day friends. My name is Jason I am 42 years old and I am a magic rookie. I grew up loving to play poker and fell in love with magic when I read Harry Houdini's biography when I was in middle school. Although I never practiced I loved watching it and really appreciated the craftsmanship that great magicians have and the effect they can have on people of all ages. About a month ago I was in a local costume store and they had some small magic tricks and some decks of cards and I bought some marked cards and started playing with it and next thing you know I have The Royal Road to Card Magic, Expert at the card table, and Expert Technique along with some coin magic books. I have defintely caught the magic bug. I am really interested in close up magic with cards and coins. I know I am probably not the norm as most of you have probably been doing this since you were a young lad but hopefully an old dog can learn new tricks and old tricks for that matter. Well I look forward to chatting some of you up for advice and possibly some critiquing.

Welcome 42yo_Magic_Abecedarian,

And welcome to Magic.

The local Magic Shop where I live (Grand Illusions) is also a costume shop. I know that some of the costume clients are turned towards the Magic side because Steve Johnson and his parents have a positive and guiding way with curious potential Magicians. I'm glad to hear you had such an experience.

I would caution you about poker and marked cards. LOL Way more dangerous than Magic tricks.

-Mary Mowder

Welcome Jason!! I have been doing magic for over 40 years. It's a learning experience. Visit here often and learn all you can. Magic has made my life worth living!

Hi Jason,
Welcome to the Magic Café forum. You are closer to the norm than you think. Many adults rookie magicians learning card magic using Royal Road.

Welcome Jason. I'm a reltively recent student of this Art too, and funnily enough, you and I hve gone for the same books. I got The Royal Road to Card Magic as my first purchase. To be my foundation builder, if you will. The I had to have an advanced challenging book to dip into on the side, enter Erdnase and The Expert at the Card Table and I have o ly recently picked up a copy of the Expert Card Technique. I also have Bobo for all things coin magic, as well as a couple of pdf (public domain) coin magic books by T Nelson Downs, those are great.
Feel free to send me a private message and we could discuss more openly which moves we can do and where we are up to in those books, things we struggle with or find easy, you know...if you would like.
I want to trade tips and info with someone on a similar level to me, (as well as gaining knowledge from those that have gone before me and are performers/pros already). Unfortunately we cannot openly discuss many things regarding effects and tricks until we can get into the secret sections here, where you can openly discuss secrets. . Once we post 50 posts we can go in.
Anyhoo, welcome.