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I am nearly 32 and only just started taking a real interest in magic.

It seems that a lot of people have been into it all their lives and been practising for years.

Did anyone else start taking an interest in magic later on in life? I realise your 30s is not exactly over the hill, but I do wander if I've left it a bit late to become really good at it, what with the knowledge sinking in more slowly these days!

I've been interested and practicing magic since I was about ten (on and off for a few years but always there). Derren brown allegedly started when he was in collage. He's now a highly skilled celebrity magician, I'm still a nobody.

Whether you are young when you start learning magic is like whether you study in drama school, helpful but not really important.

I first started when I was about 8 but didn't get going seriously until I was 20.

I was at Junior School so it must have been pre-Thatcher when Callaghan was Primeminister.

stardust wrote:I am nearly 32 and only just started taking a real interest in magic.

It seems that a lot of people have been into it all their lives and been practising for years.

Did anyone else start taking an interest in magic later on in life? I realise your 30s is not exactly over the hill, but I do wander if I've left it a bit late to become really good at it, what with the knowledge sinking in more slowly these days!

Well I only developed a proper interest in my mid-30s, and have already drifted away once (back now in time to turn 40). If you have any preconceptions about needing half a lifetime to be any good check out
http://www.kevinmcmahonmagic.com/
Kevin was 24 when Channel4 sent him on a 4 week crash course and he came out the other side a full time professional (that was a lot of 4s ).

The experienced guys on here will most often advise you to learn a handful of tricks VERY well, don't be overwhelmed by the enormous volume of material that exists.

V.E. Day wrote:I was at Junior School so it must have been pre-Thatcher when Callaghan was Primeminister.

What's a Callaghan?

I was 20 when I started, and I'm now professional. It's not really about how long you've been doing, just how much thought and practise you put in.

Oh, I'm 24 by the way.

Seven. First pro show at sixteen. Then took a ten year break.

Started at fifteen, just casually, then had a break for about a year and half, been properly into it again the last two years, I would say, but all the stuff I did before helped and I learnt a lot quicker.

I think a break can be important, as it helps you to become more enthusiastic(sp?) the next time you find magic again, that's what I think anyway.

Started with a casual interested at 29 (am now 31) after buying a few basic tricks from the magic stall at Covent Garden. Took to it obsessively about 6 months ago. You are never too old... especially at 32.

My interest started around 7 when i first watched Doug Henning. One of my earliest memories of the show was his signed silk vanish to apple, it was brilliant. My young mind couldnt fathom how it could possibly happen. After that I watched every magic show that was on, Doug Henning, David Copperfield, and Paul Daniels.

At about 8 I got a Paul Daniels magic set for christmas and thats when I started practicing, I also made alot of props from things like cerial boxes and stuff. A year or two later I was at my local library looking through the books, and couldnt believe my luck when I stumbled upon about 6 or 7 magic books. The first one I borrowed was Royal Road to Card Magic, this was the first of many ''borrowings'' of this book.

Around this time I realised my local Joke Shop had a magic section. So I started hanging around the shop, spending my pocket money and watching the magician behind the counter demoing effects for the customers. This was the first time I saw the Vernon/Mora wand spin vanish. At age 11 I bought Mark Wilsons Complete Course in Magic - I still have it.

I have been a student of the craft ever since

jim

I started about 2 years ago...I'm 41 now, a late bloomer.

DaveM wrote:Started with a casual interested at 29 (am now 31) after buying a few basic tricks from the magic stall at Covent Garden. Took to it obsessively about 6 months ago. You are never too old... especially at 32.

First trick at seven from the same place (dynamic coins). Multiple sets later, marvins magic and stuff. Started taking it more seriously about a year ago

I started when I was 20, I am now 30.

I put in alot of practice from the off and I have been pro for nearly 7 years.

Practice, practice, practice.

Thanks for all the replies. It's reassuring to know I am not quite too old to begin something new!

And thank you for the tips as well. I am definitely going to follow the one about just practising a few tricks until I am very good rather than becoming overwhelmed with everything that's out there! I have just been randomly adding things to my wishlist, but I am having to be very disciplined in not spending lots of money, which I am sure is what a lot of people do when new to magic, (and I can see why!)

I am working my way through Mark Wilsons course and then I hope I will have a better idea of where to begin!

stardust wrote:I am nearly 32 and only just started taking a real interest in magic.

It seems that a lot of people have been into it all their lives and been practising for years.

Did anyone else start taking an interest in magic later on in life? I realise your 30s is not exactly over the hill, but I do wander if I've left it a bit late to become really good at it, what with the knowledge sinking in more slowly these days!

I didn't start until I was nearly 40. I got into magic in two ways, really. When I started writing in 2003 I didn't have a lot of work in so I thought it'd be fun to learn to conjure instead of worrying. Just something to do with my hands, really, and I have absolutely no idea why I thought of it. I'd had a deck of tarot cards since I was a teenager, but it never occurred to me to get them out. I went online to get a deck of cards and a book of tricks and found a huge and thriving industry.

But... I've also been really into psychology since I was a kid. Seriously! But I didn't know that's what it was until I was a teenager. I was just naturally interested in influencing people. Any road up, when I was a teenager, I also developed a keen interest in artificial intelligence because of a program I read about called ELIZA by a guy called Joseph Weizembaum of MIT, and which mimicked a Rogerian therapist (well worth the read in Wikipedia). What's incredible is that if you trot out the canned responses the program gives people, they tend to warm to you and open up to. So, that was my "trick" for years. People know they can talk to me.

Fast forward to 2003. Someone in the pub said that I must know the same stuff Derren Brown was doing. I'd never heard of him, so I watched the show, realised he was using a lot of posthypnotic suggestions, had a good look at hypnosis and started lurking at hypnosis.com's forum. That was just when I thought it was a good idea to learn to conjure, and why I say I got into magic in two ways. Someone on the hypnosis.com forum said Brown used a book called the 13 Steps to Mentalism. I thought it would be about psychology or hypnosis, and when it wasn't I started thinking about everything I'd read about how the mind processes information and started thinking about what became Naked Mentalism.

I never did learn to conjure. After a few weeks, I got a stripper deck and an ID and never looked back.