talkmagic.co.uk

Howdy folks,

let me introduce myself. My name's Sandy, I'm 27, and live in Dalkeith near Edinburgh. I've been performing magic since I was 9 years old, when my mum bought me a Paul Daniels Magic Set for Christmas.

I progressed from that to Houdini magic sets, which were very exciting for a young magician, and contained many clever wee props. My interest grew further on my first visit to Florida, when my dad took me to The Old Town Magic Shop (now Magic Max) in Orlando (I was so fascinated, that Verne MacCarthy threw me out of his store in Miami, because I couldn't stop watching him perform! I must have been there for hours!). I came away with Instant Magic You Can Do (with some IT, slush powder etc.), and several close up tricks like Scotch & Soda and a decent TT.

After working my way through Mark Wilson, a wee bit of Bobo (not a big Coin Magic fan), and RRTCM, and my all-time favourite, The Kingfisher Pocket Book of Magic by Peter Eldin, I was performing magic everywhere I went. Several years and large orders from Magic Max later, I was working as a part time semi-pro doing children's parties, youth clubs and nurseries, and doing not too badly.

When I started uni, I found that I didn't have a lot of time (or room) for my magic, and decided to concentrate on a website, which I hope some of you remember, called The Magician's Corner. I had contributions from a guy called Loki (who will deny he ever wrote a column), and also an American strong woman turned escapologist, Cindy Morrison, and ran the site successfully for around 7 years. Magic Max even had a web banner on the site, that they bought advertising for! I had to give the site up, because it was becoming so popular that it was taking over my life, and my hosting company wanted to charge me a fortune, and that's pretty much where my magic career ended....until now! I've watched shows on TV etc. with great interest, but haven't felt like performing until now.

My wife's been getting on at me since my children were born to start my magic up again, and recently, I've given into her badgering, and re-discovered my love for my lost hobby. I must admit it's been flustrating trying to learn card sleights from scratch after 9 years, knowing how good I used to be, but it's slowly coming back. I'm currently practising my stage routine to perform for children again, and hope to do so professionally again once I feel confident enough.

Anyway, sorry for the long intro, I hope some of you remember me from The Magician's Corner, and hope to post more when I get back into the loop.

Yours in magic,

Sandy
aka, Magic Max.

Welcome to TM, Sandy. It's great to hear your enthusiasm, and I hope you get some great value out of this site.

KG

Living where you are, I'm sure you've visited the Magic Max shops there. Stepping into them as a youngster was truly magical, especially as we've only got one bricks and mortar magic shop in Scotland (that I know about) that's mostly a joke shop. Thanks for the welcome!

Hi and welcome to TM

Enjoy your stay

FRK

Living where you are, I'm sure you've visited the Magic Max shops there.

Actually, I have not been there. But now that you have mentioned it, I am planning a trip this weekend.

I've been concentrating on the training DVDs and books that I have and haven't ventured to the magic stores in the area. It's probably a mortal sin for a magician to say something like that, but at least I'm an honest fellow. I have, however, checked out their website and am excited about visiting .

best tip I can probably give you is resist the urge to buy as much as you can, instead, get one of their nice catalogues if they still do them, go home and study it before deciding what you want. The last time I was there, I was there with my mum and dad, and I spent my entire $250 holiday allowance on tricks within 1 hour of getting off the plane! My dad had to bail me out for the rest of the holiday, and I had to wash an awful lot of dishes when I got home!

They do a fantastic packet card trick called Cruisin' Cards. It blows the mind of anyone that sees it, you can carry it anywhere, and it resets instantly. You show a fan of 20 cards, and mention that they're all different. You hand 10 cards to your helper, and ask them to square them and put them behind their back. You then ask them to mentally select any two cards from your hand, and you square your cards while they bring theirs back to the front. When your cards are turned over, the two cards the spectator was thinking about have vanished from your packet, and have appeared in his! Brilliant, brilliant trick, and very easy to do.

They've got a lot of nice parlor magic too, and everything is pretty well made. I'm still using the props I bought there 10-12 years ago, and they still work just fine.

And just to repeat - I don't work for them or anything, I used to call my act 'The Old Town Magic Show' as most of my props were from there, but changed it to 'The Magic Max Show' (which sounds more like a children's magic show anyway) when they changed their name. My tricks are about half theirs, and half from the UK now, but the name's stuck...

Thanks, Magikmax. I'm looking forward to the experience. I guess I'll just have to add one more thing to the list that I have to resist purchasing from.

Welcome to TM!

.:Ham:.

Welcome hope you like TM

welcome Sandy

it makes a nice change to have a long and interesting intro.