Hi, borderjs. Welcome to the Magic Café! Activity comes and goes. Many of the people who post on here are active magicians - which means they have gigs to perform, practice and rehearsals, and might even spend time with their own family! Some of the sub-forums are not that active; others seem to have a new post almost every 5-10 minutes. And some are just waiting for a new person to jump in and ask some questions.

Go for it!!
Ed

If we post good questions, we get good responses, which is something to think about.

Hi I am fairly new here myself but I can tell you I have recieved nothing but good advice on this site whenever I have asked a question.
There are some very nice guys on here and honestly, some of them have an absolute wealth of knowledge.
IMO if you want to learn and have a question ASK!!! as it would be foolish not to take advantage of the knowledge some of these guys have.
Sure there may be some people not so helpful, but that is true wherever you live and wherever you go.

Agreed. This works in dealing with magicians both on and offline, in my experience. I know that sometimes I get a little riled up and full of myself, dealing with others in my troupe, but I at least try to remember to keep a good perspective, and to just hope others do as well.

Eric, you must be a great guy because I lived in Montana for four years and met my wife of forty years when she was a nursing student at the Montana Deaconess Hospital in Great Falls many moons ago. She graduated from MSU in Bozeman. I love Montana and all the great fly fishing out here. And I have great fondness for all Montanans.

And you seem quite intelligent from your post.

And I'm really only trying to help you here.

But do you think you might promote yourself better if you had a more positive avatar name?

Even if you're into bizarre stuff, which is the only conclusion I can draw, don't call yourself Awful. How about Awesome?

Since you're new to the Café, welcome aboard and never, NEVER be afraid to ask a question. And I sincerely don't mean to offend you with my comments here. You just seem too nice to call yourself Awful. best, bob

Hi there, Bob. My stage name is actually Eric the Excellent (usually with as many other E-words as I can talk an announcer into memorizing. Eric the exceedingly enamoring, enormously entertaining... etc.)

The reason for my last name being Awful is because I signed up on the Café well before I got into performing... and I happened to be going through an obsession with Ray Stevens at the time. ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnoBTXeX8ww )

Hit me up with a PM sometime! I'm going through the nursing program at Montana Tech, so I bet we have a lot to talk about.

(And perhaps I will look into changing that avatar name...)

Hi Eric,

I knew you were a nice chap.

And your stage name is far better! The E-words are better than the A-words, of which there are far fewer, but I think you get my meaning. Good job man.

If my wife is correct, Montana Tech is in Billngs; she still has family there. Haven't been to Billings in years, but one of these days.

Anyway, the thread started with someone who said the Café folks are an unfriendly bunch for newbies. I hope you don't believe that because as we Noo Yawkas say, "It just ain't right!"