Hey there, my name is John. I'm 32 and from Summerville, SC. I've recently been browsing around the Café and learning quite a lot of useful information... so I thought this would be a good time to register! I'm one of the leaders of our Children's Church on Sunday mornings and have been looking at various magic tricks and illusions that I could use as object lessons. This has sparked my interest in magic and it's growing by leaps and bounds. I've purchase quited a few items within the last 2 months to add to my insatiable appetite to learn:

Books:
The Expert at the Card Table by S.W. Erdnase
Encyclopedia of Card Tricks by Jean Hugard
Now You See It, Now You Don't by Bill Tarr
The Second Now You See It, Now You Don't by Bill Tarr
Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic by Mark Wilson
World's Best Coin Tricks by Bob Longe
Elastrix Vols. 1-2
(and many more)

Video/DVD:
The Art of Card Manipulation Vols. 1-3 by Jeff McBride
Expert Coin Magic Vols. 1-3 by David Roth
The Band Shark by Dan Harlan
Magic With Rubberbands Vols. 1-2 by Dan Harlan
Extreme Rubber Band Magic by Joe Rindfleisch
The Complete Introduction to Coin Magic by Michael Ammar
The Complete Cups and Balls by Michael Ammar
Pinnacle by Russ Niedzweiecki
Xtreme Beginnerz by De'Vo
Showoff With Cards by Magic Makers
Xtreme Koin Magic by Joe Jesse
Daryl Does the Full Monte
(also many more)

As you can see... I have a LOT of information to absorb and
practice. I have a few elementary tricks that I can use in
my lessons, but not right away. I would still like to practice
them to make sure I get the right effect that I need. Ahhh PRACTICE....
how I wish I was naturally talented at palming, misdirection, and such,
but alas I am a humble amateur(who NEEDS to practice.. BAD! ;-) )

Anyway, I love your site and I'm certain I'll be visiting VERY often!!
Take care all! Look forward to seeing you guys/gals at the Café!

Hey jim,
Let me start off by welcoming you to the Café and by saying, that's how much you've gotten IN TWO MONTHS!!! Looks like you'll be busy for a while. Also what do you prefer to do, cards, coins, rubberbands, looks like your pretty general right now.

Yeah.. been spending a good bit of time at the library also and reading/perusing various tomes on various tricks and effects. It's hard to nail my interests down to just one thing right now. I started out looking for chemical magic for an object lesson with a color changing liquid. That was a sort of success... I found the routine, but the chemicals were either hard to find or expensive. That led into cards and card manipulation... card manipulation culled an interest in sleight of hand and impromptu tricks... which led me to check out coin manipulation and sleights.... while searching for more info I came across the CMH and it's varying forms which led to an interest in rubbber band magic. Right now I seem to be hooked on learning about sponge balls/cups and balls.

This has pretty much been an information gathering period for me. It all goes back to the fact that I'm trying to reach children and youth. I want something that I can do that will appeal to them. Coin sleights, band magic, and sponge balls appeal to me at the moment because they seem to be fairly impromptu, and I can use borrowed items and such without a whole lot of setup. But I'm not giving up on the rest... there is a lot that I haven't even begun to check out yet: mentalism, thimbles, silks, IT's, TT's, etc. My problem is putting the books and videos away long enough to practice anything. I'm working on that...

Thanks for the welcome!

Lol, yeahs its pretty funny cause when you first get into your completely obsessed. You want to spend all your money on it and buy everything you can (come to think of it I'm still obsessed).

Hi,

Welcome to the Café and glad you decided to join us. Sounds like you've very enthusiastic about your new found passion. They say once bitten by the magic bug it's with you for life.

There's a few forums on here that will be really helpful to you. The New to Magic forum gives invaluable info and advice from many seasoned professionals so please don't hesitate to ask a question. With your interest you may also want to check out the forum that deals with Gopsel magic.

Thank you very much. The Café covers so much that I didn't even know Gospel
Magic was on the "menu". I have yet to check out all of the forums, but it is nice to know that there is one I can go to for ideas.

I do believe I shall enjoy my dining experience here... I can come every day, not eat the same meal twice, and always leave full and satisfied. It's just going to take a while to get through every item on the menu. Thanks for the welcome!

Welcome to the Café!

As Crystal had said check out the Gospel area as there is a lot of info to take in
Zippy

Thanks Zippy... I'll do that. Right now I'm just amazed at all of the information that's available! I don't see how I'm ever going to get my number of posts up... it'll be a good while before I'm finished going through the existing topics (don't wanna ask any questions that have been asked 30 times already, ya know) And, being a beginner myself, I'm limited to the amount of information I can give. Oh well, everyone has to start somewhere right? I'm enjoying myself immensely here, and the other members are just great! Couldn't ask for a better group! 'Til next time!

John

Welcome to the Café jmizell!

You have a wealth of great material there and I look forward to reading your posts in the future!

any help I can give you, just give me a shout!

Justin