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Hello! I am Steve. I've been interested in magic from a very early age. The moment I became hooked was on holiday in a small cafe in Benidorm. I was about 10 years old and cocky about knowing everything about magic (of course I knew nothing!). My dad and I were having a coke in the cafe when a magician came onto the stage and started to perform his act to just the two of us!

He came out onto the stage holding the linking rings and I said to my Dad, "I know how this is done, there's a [am I allowed to say this on the forum? probably not!] secret thing in great detail in a loud voice"

The magician heard me and came over and passed me the two linked rings and I looked all over them and pulled them apart to no avail, then he passed me the next solid ring, before (and I realised this a long time after the event) passing me one of the rings I'd already seen as if it was the last one. So I'd seen all the solid rings, and held the two linked ones. He'd totally proved me wrong on my theory, which I later learned was absolutely correct - he was really good.

So this lead to me learning the tricks, starting with those awful masked magician shows 15 years ago, then regular trips to the Blackpool convention with a friend of mine who was a professional magician. I bought stuff and played with it, and showed it off at friends parties and pubs and things. So I'd been playing and learning for about 10 years, and never really had the confidence to perform in public.

Then, a friend of mine came to me with a dilemma. His kids were performing at the school talent show, and they had an adults category with no volunteers. He plays keyboards and writes comedy songs, so he's been roped into performing a couple of tunes. He came to me and said, "look mate, I need someone else to do something, can you do a ten minute act in front of a load of 10 year olds?"

So I did. With no previous experience, I took a couple of book tests, a multiple out mind reading trick and some marked cards and made a cheap mind reading act. It was rubbish, so I improvised a version of something I'd seen Derren Brown do on tour at the time (Something Wicked This Way Comes, the trick where he tells people to lie or say the truth, then tells them off for having "the walk of shame!" etc). It went down well (did it with the parents on stage after doing the rest with the kids) and I won first prize, a small box of Mint Tray. F***ing get in!!!!

However I really enjoyed doing it, and around this time, another friend, a professional juggler asked me if I could attend a cultural exchange fair in Poland, doing card tricks in the street. No script, no "act", just mess about with playing cards and entertain people for a couple of hours each day in exchange for a free holiday.

I had a lot of notice for this, so I got out everything I had ever bought over the last 10 years. Bruce Kalver's head shrinker, Paul Green's Classic Force DVD (damn he made that look easy, the best £15 I ever spent), I even went back through Royal Road and really studied the basics. I came up with about 30 mins of my own act, trying to stay clear of tricks people may have seen before, and basic my tricks around false shuffles, forces and other stuff so I could improvise and change as I went along. I also bought another couple of Fournier marked decks (which I absolutely LOVE) so that if I was about to turn over a card, I could see in advance if I'd messed it up and not look a pratt. That's nerves for you - I had never performed for real to strangers before and I had to be good to ensure the people paying for the trip got their value for money.

It went brilliantly, and the crowds loved it. I mean, they really loved it. There was a table from one of the other attractions and I ended up behind it, doing all sorts of card magic, the head shrinker, and a version of the "sock epaulet" that John Lenahan did on Stuff the White Rabbit many years ago (I watched them all on VHS before I went, for ideas). John Lenahan said the sock trick was OK for me to do as it was not his own and was in print somewhere (Thanks Facebook for allowing me to chat to all my childhood heroes!!!!).

So here I am, taking it all very seriously now, attending Blackpool this year as someone who actually performs in public. I'm concentrating on practising sleights and move over tricks from books, and would like to put together a "perfect five minutes" as Rudy Coby said in Blackpool a few years ago.

I have 6 months until the 2011 Poland event, and have already been asked to do it, and I can't wait!!!

Looking forward to being productive on this forum. Also, anyone still reading, what's the best glue for me to use on my Alpha deck when the original glue loses it's sticky?

Hi and welcome! Not sure about the glue but usually 'Blue Glue' aka repositional glue has many 'magical' applications . Our Search Function might point to some threads with ideas.

Welcome! Thanks for sharing your story. And well done on moving into the realm of performance. I love the theory and study - but it is only when you perform that it is all worth while!

Hiya, welcome to TM

Wow, a good story, the magic bug has biten again!
Welcome to TM. Have fun.

Hi and welcome to TM

Nice to read a very good introduction for a change

Hi, welcome to TM