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Hi - I'm Mike Stoner, otherwise known as "The Stoner". I've been getting into card magic for a while and thought it was time I signed up for the forum.

My interest started when I bought a cheap "magic pack of cards" in Woolies (R.I.P.) that I'd now know as a stripper deck. It was brilliant - I could do amazing tricks straight away! I was hooked and made the classic mistake - thinking that trick decks were the way to go. I bought Svengali, Mirage, Brainwave, Phil, Rama, etc but quickly realised that they didn't seem right somehow (and rough and smooth isn't reliable enough!).

So I then got a couple of bicycle decks and the Royal Road (of course!). Since then I've spent a few weeks getting my fingers round the basic false shuffles, false cuts, pinky breaks, fans, spreads and so on. It's great fun and I seem to be making progress - maybe not day to day but definitely week to week.

Over Xmas I got a few "goodies" that I'm not really ready for yet - Army of 52 DVD, Extractor and, err, all five volumes of Card College! Plenty to be going on with there! I also got a Shadow Masters deck, which is now a firm favourite.

My wife is already getting a bit bored of being the guinea pig for my slightly amateurish tricks, but luckily I also play guitar in a couple of bands (Rough Justice and Replicant) which gives me plenty of opportunity to try things out on unsuspecting punters at our pub gigs.

When you start playing guitar you spend all your time just trying to hold down chords - you can't think about playing a whole song let alone a ripping guitar solo. I suppose in the card magic world I'm back to that point all over again, but I'm enjoying it so far.

Looking forward to reading and posting on the forum.

Cheers,
Mike

Hey Mike,

Nice intro. Welcome to TM mate!
Hope you have fun here!

Taf

Hiya Mike, welcome to TM. Have fun here

Welcome...

In bands eh... well we should have a chat as I am in radio!

Hi mike and welcome to tm.

'allo 'allo Mike and welcome to TalkMagic.

Wow, I'm sure our very own Elite Member of TM, Replicant, in Hertfordshire, will be thrilled to find out that you have a band named after him

Besides fiddling with magic, I play the keyboard in a band as well.
I hope that your nick doesn't indicate what you do after gigs ...

Welcom to TM Mike.

Thanks for the welcome guys.

Good to hear that there is someone on the forum who has named themselves after my band - must be a fan!

Being called "Stoner" can cause problems, especially when going through customs into the US!

Hi Mike and welcome to TM

Hello and welcome to TM. I have never heard you play, but with a name like Replicant, you must be quite superb.

Welcome.

Hi Mike and welcome to Talkmagic

Replicant wrote:Hello and welcome to TM. I have never heard you play, but with a name like Replicant, you must be quite superb.

Don't worry - we are! Especially our sublime version of "War Pigs". I'm sure you would approve.

Hello Stoner,
I'm new to this forum too, so doesn't feel quite right to say it yet, but I'll say it anyway. Welcome to TM!
I love card magic too, and also started with the RRTCM - I still use so many of the techniques I learned from that book. My wife is bored of my tricks as well, but when she is amazed, then I really know I'm doing well! I also play in a band http://www.chailosim.com and have been trying out magic after gigs too.
What are you working on at the mo?
Have you tried sponge balls / coin / etc?