talkmagic.co.uk

Hi everyone.

Having browsed the forum for a couple of days all I can say is wow, there's so much here! You certainly know your stuff and more importantly you have the greatest respect for the methods. Great stuff.

That's enough flattery .

To give you some perspective, here's a very brief point-by-point history of my interest in magic:

Became interested when I was very young.
Learnt a few basic tricks.
Developed an unhealthy obsession for Paul Daniels. (for those too young to remember his show, think Swap-Shop era David Blaine with "proper" sideburns and a Bunco-Booth.)
Learnt more tricks.
Learnt a few basic coin and card sleights from a book - real magic at last!
Got really confused and frustrated trying to learn more "real magic" from the book - it was too much for young brain and fingers to handle.
Started building airfix models. =(

Well, thanks to these forums and the research that followed, I can feel myself getting hooked again. About time too!

My main interest lies in close-up stuff, to perplex friends and small groups of people in the pub or at dinner-parties.
Whilst I am eager to jump-in and buy all the Kevin Parker stuff and M5/Raven/Bertha/Subterfuge, I am concious that a good grounding is very important as very many tricks rely on, or benefit greatly from the basic techniques. I imagine there's nothing worse than totally blowing a really good trick because of a lack of basic technique.
For this reason my early learning will consist mostly of "bread-and-butter" stuff, with maybe a treat or two along the way if I feel I deserve it:

- Modern Coin Magic DVD by JB Bobo. (where can I get this in the UK?)
- A similar DVD on card magic (any recommendations?)

Once I feel I have a good grasp of the important techniques I'll try some of the more advanced pk/vanishing techniques I mentioned earlier.
(hopefully)
So that's it, my hello. A bit longer than I expected but (hopefully) better than the "Hi, I like raddish" introduction which i had on standby. =)

Any comments, suggestions and advice welcomed and appreciated.

Thanks! (and happy new year!)

Nice intro, brought back memories.......ahh the bunco booth , happy days things seemed much simpler then.

Anyway welcome to TM and I'm sure you'll get all the advice you need, it really is a great bunch of people.

Welcome

Nice to see you here, you'll find a lot of posts about Paul Daniels on TM - have fun searching and browsing the archives!

Welcome to TM. I once had the honour of experiencing Paul Daniels at the Maths institute in Oxford, where we invited him to give a talk on Magic and Maths! As usually he was full of wit. From a mathematical point of view he presented a very nice party piece where a man and a woman are tied together. Their task is to get free! It can be done, but it requires quite some ingenuity and the solution is quite mind-boggling! I will try to find out the name of this really great party piece.
Daniels finished with a mental effect (the only real magic and the only part that were not explained) where numbers chosen by the spectators when summed up produced the same sum Daniels already had predicted. For me, Daniels choice of method was interesting.
Essentially I am aware of three fundamentally different ways to achieve the effect (from the spectators perspective they would look relatively similar). By changing the effect slightly even more methods are possible. Daniels just used a simple sw**** which resulted in a long-standing ovation. Yes, Daniels is brilliant!

Welcome, hope that you enjoy your stay at TM

Dydd da iMage and welcome to TM!
I hope you enjoy yourself here.
Best greetings from Iceland!

Welcome to TM.

Paul Daniels was my idol when I was little, he's the reason I'm doing magic now.

Thanks for the warm welcome. It's really encouraging to find a place full of magicians who are so friendly - some of you also getting your first inspiration from Paul Daniels, as I did. (Incidentally, when I was a wee 'un I wrote to Paul and he was kind enough to send me a postcard signed by his good self. I can't tell you how pleased I was , I still have it somewhere.)

Soren - That show sounds amazing. I have never seen a pro/semi-pro magician perform stage magic (or any magic for that matter) live and would really like to. The tieing-up piece sounds intregueing, I'd be grateful if you could let me know what it's called when you remember.

Gunnarkr - I wasn't expecting a Welsh-speaking Icelander! Now, it gets windy here in Wales but I didn't think it gusted strong enough to blow any of us up to Iceland. You've got me thinking, there isn't a collony of displaced-by-wind Welsh up there, is there?

Well, it's time for some tenkai practice I think - thanks again folks!

No no, I only know one Welchman 'round here and he's not wound up at all

Regarding your question in your initial post, I can find a few places in USA that sell the JB Bobo DVD but not in the UK. On the other hand, I would reccomend (as so many do) the 5 DVD version of Royal Road to Card Magic with R. Paul Wilson.
It's priced at £ 51 at NUMS Currently awaiting stock and £ 59.99 at MagicBox UK Seems to be in stock

Don't confuse this with the 4 DVD version which is much cheaper, but rubbish, compared to the 5 DVD set.

Good luck on the magical path!

Paul Daniels was in panto in my town this christmas, I couldn't help but feel a bit sad for him.
I must admit I didn't go so I don't know if he did any magic, but it seems like a bit of a waste doesn't it?

I'm sure you'll find it useful here, I've been lurking and have found so much already...looking forward to playing a more active role...

...I really should get working again!

Paul Daniels...I'd say he was the main fella as I was growing up...he did/hopefully still does some great stuff!

Paul did that Panto just for fun (and probably a few quid!), his main activity is still magic and he's still the tops for many of us - perhaps he's just not really a panto performer?. Check out http://www.ipswichmagicalsociety.co.uk/ and the Review of the Magic Day last year where Paul got a well deserved standing ovation.

welcome to Talk Magic

Thanks once again for the warm welcome!

I've been busy lightening my wallet since last posting - the Modern Coin Magic DVD has been ordered and is on its way (I'll consider gettting the book too, does anyone feel the two are neccessary or is the DVD alone sufficient?).

Additionally, like even the best made plans, mine hasn't quite survived first-contact as intended - I didn't plan on getting a Raven so soon but I simply couldn't resist its draw. One should be fluttering (squawking?) its way over to me as I type, along with The Raven DVD.

I'm pretty exited about learning again and am really looking forward to practising and compiling some short coin routines. I'll concentrate more on the Modern Coin Magic DVD to begin with, learn the essential moves and practice tricks involving them before integrating the Raven into my routines.

Gunnarkr - thanks for the card magic DVD recommendation. Before realising there are two different titles with the same name I very nearly ordered the significantly cheaper, 4 DVD version. I've held back from ordering either version for now as I'm undecided which to go for. Without wishing to turn this into a product review is there really no comparison between the two products?
Can you apologise to your Welsh friend for me please? I'd never intentionally wind-up a fellow countryman. You can tell him that it is indeed still raining here.

Mandrake - thanks for the link however I can't find the review at the moment. It is late so I'll take another look tomorrow incase I'm having a dumb moment!