I didn't want to post an introduction, but I saw that some people were sent to the garbage area when they posted and didn't have one. So what the hell.
When I was 8 I went to see my uncle and he bought me two books, a science one and a magic one. I burned through the science and forgot about the magic after the summer ended. I've always enjoyed watching magic shows and seeing magic tricks, and during my 8th grade school year I learned a couple of silly card tricks. Basically forcing a certain card to the top, or a specific position and then counting it. I then got into yo-yo's and computer games and forgot about magic again.
10th grade I messed around with some gimmick tricks, but I was very much into computer games so I didn't really care, I also got into chemistry at this point and it was my passion. Now I'm in my third year of college, I just turned 21 and I'm going for a chemical engineering major. I had a coworker a couple of months ago, while I worked for this restaurant waiting tables who would do little coin tricks if he had to deal with a bad kid or when he was bored. He was pretty decent at least to my eye. Shortly after that I developed a habit of spinning a pencil/ pen on my fingers like a coin walkl. I couldn't get a good enough hang of it, so I can do the first 3 fingers fast then the return is slow.
I was at work a couple of days ago and while bored tossing my wine tool in the air and spinning I wanted to try to do a coin walk. I couldn't get it so I went home and looked for a tutorial. Found a good site and they had some other types of coin manipulation, palming, back palming. No real tricks just handling. Then one of the tutorials for a coin walk speed had a link to some magic tricks with coins.
I use another very active forum somethingawful, and after not seeing any threads on magic, I figured it's the only topic they don't discuss. So I searched for magic forum and to my dismay found the only active one was european, this one. I looked and saw it was pretty good, and then I purchased two magic books online.
After practicing my coin walk for around 2 hours it's still pretty bad and forced and I can't palm a quarter very well. But I read that it's good to keep it in that position for minutes at a time during the day to get used to it. I also have very skinny fingers so if I try and hide the quarter between them perpendicular to the back of the hand it's pretty noticeable and between my pointer and middle finger it doesn't even stay unless I get it on the knuckle.
This previous semester I took a stage makeup class and I learned some really cool effects using liquid latex and wax, as well as other effects. My favorite was the image linked in this, I basically covered up my eye, but I got the picture about 30 minutes after it was applied and it was a rushed class period so I couldn't finish up the application below the nose so it looks bad at that point. I had to buy my makeup at a local magic shop, and the guy was very helpful. I'll probably go there this week to see what he has to offer in non makeup.
But I live in the US, Raleigh, NC, so nowhere near the UK.
Geez for someone who didn't want to type an introduction I sure went all out.
