talkmagic.co.uk

Hey
I just wondered how everyone got into magic? or whats the first trick they learnt or what inspired them. As i think i got into magic in quite a strange way...
I actually was given a card magic set at the age of 8 at a funeral - as kind of a gift to take my mind off the death. So I sat in a corner at the reception and practiced a few tricks in the book. I then went and tried the tricks on grieving family members - without the desired reaction. Many years on I still actually use the first trick I learnt out of that book (karate chop) and it still gets a very good reaction - i guess i have developed a half decent patter

My father took me to Hamleys when I was about ten and got me a Svengali deck.

I got a Chinese wallet in 1974 and never looked back....

i was lying on a couch for 6 days.. cuz of an basketball accident i couldn't walk...
so kinda outta boredom i got into magic ^^

after i could walk a again i never stopped..

I got one of those cheap Svengali Decks when I was like 5 or 6 and I have always loved how mind-reading and stuff like that worked.

.:Ham:.

My ex-girlfriend bought me (My request) a Marvins Magic set - I was 34 at the time!!

My first purchase after this was Torn and my last purchase was Sanctum 2.

I wish my story was more inspiring but sadly its not. I watched a youtube video of a guy doing this n' that and I fell in love.

I once threw a peanut up into the air and it never came down again. I thought that it had vanished and wanted to make it happen again, so i started doing magic. Then i found an old fluffy peanut about 2 months later inside a slipper.

I saw Blaine's first special sometime around new year at the turn of the millenium. As a complete layman I was shocked and completely taken in and I really wanted to learn for myself. Took a bit longer than I hoped though.

When I was a child (Fifties) you could go into any newsagent or toyshop and find a stand of tricks, jokes and novelties in sealed packs from a company called Ellisdons. They also had a shop in Holborn, but later went mail order only. I still have a few of their products, including pocket sized linking rings and a nose flute(!). It has to be said, though, that some of their items were disappointing; the cardboard ball and tube went straight in the bin.

Barry

I began at the tender age of 25 (I'm 26 and a quarter now) after reading Derren Brown's Tricks of the Mind. Royal Road was listed in the recommended reading, and I thought I'd give it a try. My DL is still c*** (not the best), but I do a pretty mean 3 cards across.

I was born with these special powers and shamelessly use them for financial gain under the guise of "doing magic"

It had nothing to do with Paul Daniels Magic Show on prime time BBC - honest!

My grandad made a £5 note vanish and then appear in his mouth.

I was 6 years old, and from then on I've been hooked!

Watching Paul Daniels is what got me started as well.

1963 - CBS Television Network Saturday Morning Line-up -- Two Shows!

THE MAGIC LAND OF ALAKAZAM

SHARI LEWIS & LAMBCHOP

Some years ago I wrote an article that presented the world of magic as a kind of Drug Addiction and painted Mark Wilson as one of the most evil drug pushers the industry has ever known... a few weeks after it was published I actually got to meet Mark face to face and it was he that recognized me. Laughingly he reached out to shake my hand and thanked me for one of the funniest articles he'd ever read about himself and magic.

As my bio would say, I started doing shows in the backyard by the time I was six and seven, even inventing my own tricks such as the Vanishing Beagle. But by the time I was nine I was actually getting cast into corporate shows... being cute, blond headed and blue eyed seemed to fit in with the theme of some mythical Thousand Acre Wood in which a child's Teddy Bear (well... Pooh Bear) and other stuffed critters came to life...

Of course it was a trendy thing back then, seems there was another blond haired/blue eyed kid on the west coast doing major illusions as well... he cheated though, his dad was in the business (re: Greg Wilson)

Between 15 and 20 I managed to destroy everything I'd be "given" by getting into the disco & drug scene of the era... this is the dark side of "success" and as we all know, many a child prodigy in that era went down the same path and most all of them have had a difficult time reclaiming their lives and roles as entertainers or whathaveyou. Between the drugs, dealing with the on-set of chronic pain and various physical limitations (that would later be proven as MS)... well, not much in way of carnal success came my way but when it comes to true "Wealth"... I'm the richest man on earth -- I have lived a phenomenal life and it is all due to my marriage to magic, the terrible mistress.