Magic, it's like a bad penny

It's been a year since I renewed my interest in the art on conjuring. Magic is one of those hobbies of mine that, once ignited, turns me into an obsessive compulsive sponge. One year and over 20 DVDs later and I'm hooked; line and sinker included.

As I may have implied, this is not the first time I've gotten carried away with a new hobby. My first major obsession was with magic, oh, back around 1975. Then along the way I got sucked into music, guitar, home brewing, game programming, fishing, song writing, recording and then full circle, back to art of magic in December of 2006. Things always have a way of coming full-circle now don't they.

The second phase of my obsession started when my 8 year old son needed a magic trick for his cub scout magic show. There was no Internet when I was a 13 year old magician. I gleaned all of my knowledge of the art by checking every magic book and magician biography from my school and city libraries.

Looking for a magic trick for my son's show, I found a web site called Penguin Magic and a whole new, magical world, previously unknown to me, was opened. After a couple instant trick downloads, my hunger for magic grew out of control.

My first DVD was Oz Perleman's Born To Perform Card Magic. Wow, did this material blow any any card tricks I had previously known. It wasn't so much the tricks but the techniques. These basic building blocks that so many routines were built upon; time tested, digital maneuvers that require muscle memory and repetition to acquire. It became clear that learning these sleights would take a great deal of practice and patience to perfect.

This blog is the story of my journey and hopefully, other aspiring, amateur magicians may follow along and we can all learn from the wisdom of the collective.