Hello one and all. Thanks for reading my brief introductory post, I felt it was only right to introduce myself, so here I am.

Welcome billy-not-a-boy,

Tell us about yourself in and you interests in Magic.

-Mary Mowder

Hi Mary Mowder ...

well where to begin? I'd go back to the beginning, a long time ago in a galxy far, far away; but that would just be plain silly; so perhaps we'll start with:

I'm fairly new to Magic. I showed a little interest when I was a child -my uncle was a working magician doing kids parties and the such- but lost all interest as I grew. I guess it's not fair to say that I LOST interest, more that other things became more interesting. I am now a father, and my uncle no longer works (in magic circles, if you'll excuse the pun). One day however upon visiting my family, my uncle gave my then four year old son some paddles and he absolutely loved them.

This re-kindled in me an interest in the Magics, and I set about getting my hands on one or two things just to pull out in order to entertain my son and his little friends. I didn't really know what would work and what would not, so I limited myself to things that I would most likely always have about my person. I immediately thought about elastic bands and I sought out some tricks. Dead man's handcuffs was great, SLR (souvenier linking rubber bands), and Melting Point seemed like good purchases too. I visited a local supplier to get these and whilst there I picked up a stripper deck, thinking that I could maybe do some card tricks without the need to master any sleight of hand.

Time passed, many online stores were frequented, new and fresh cardicians were explored ... and here I am eighteen months later, the proud owner of roughly 240 different playing card designs (yep, I got sucked in to collecting playing cards), and a firm believer in the Magics to be found in a simple deck of playing cards.

I started off by purchasing packet tricks, and decks of gaffed cards thinking that this was how one "does magic" with cards, but found there to be problems with this approach; how does one get the gaffs in and out of play without raising suspicion? why does one only have little groups of four or five cards in a funny little wallet? What if they want to inspect the cards after the effect? Who wants to only see one trick? ... I don't like TRICKS.

So, I decided to actually do some magic instead. I picked up Liam Montier's "Elmsley Project", which I believe is a fantastic study of Alex Emlsley's Ghost count, the Jordan Count, The Underground Elmsley, and John Bannon's Bullet Count. I spent ten minutes in the morning, the afternoon and the evening just practicing the Elmsley count for about five weeks, until at last I was ready to show the world ... erhem! The world was ready, but I was not

This first "show" (more a failed demonstration) was a real eye-opener; I was nervous as someone that is really nervous! and I completely ballsed up the effect. ~I knew this and it made things worse, so much so that I abandoned midway through. Leaving my audience (of two) stunned and not understanding why I had stopped. Of course they had no clue, because they did not know what I was doing or where the trick was headed!! Lesson one was brilliant, and it enabled me to lose a bit of fear (eventually).

I've become a big fan of, and subsequently, quite friendly with Liam Montier, and I have studied his other "projects" with great dilligence. I cannot recomend highly enough his works; The Forces Project, The Controlls Project, The False Shuffles Project.

Anyways, next on my agenda was Ian Moran's "The Cullfather", which again I would have to say is an excellent study in culling; this too I approached with a ten minute session morning afternoon and evening every day for about five weeks before feeling that I was ready to unleash this technique upon my poor unsuspecting "subjects".

I have found this technique (the ten minute sessions, three or four times a day for a number of weeks), to be extremely efficient way of learning sleights, and I am grateful for the advice I received from Dominic Reyes in this respect.

I'm currently using this approach to all of my magic, but just can't seem to get my classic pass to the standard I would like. I know that it will come over time, but I want it now! hehe. I've found some good material for helping with my passes; there's a great DVD by Randy Wakeman called "The Pass", Alex Pandrea's "The Brick Pass" and "The Diagonal Pass", also "The Butterfly Pass" (I can't remember who that's by, and I apologise for this short-coming).

Wow, I didn't know I was going to be writing an essay! I've got so much more to say with regards to my journey so far, and where I'm at, and where I want to be, but for fear of alienating anyone reading my drivel I will draw it to a close now, with the caveat that I will reveal more should the request be forthcoming.

Many thanks, and I hope I've not bored.

Wow, you were really forthcoming. I'm glad you found your way back into Magic.

Stephen Leathwaite did the Butter Fly Pass project.

Not too many people use "Ghost Count" to mean the Elmsley, even though that was his name for it. So, full marks for trivia.

Your method of practice is a really good one and a good safeguard against Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

I'm into cards but not collecting (I like working with bikes).

I also do Crazy man's Handcuffs and Melting Point (By the way if you extend your forefingers you will not be flipping of the crowd. LOL)

-Mary Mowder

Haha, I never even considered flipping the crowd until now! But to be honest, I don't do much with the bands at the moment, I mostly do cards.

I really love the work form John Bannon, David Solomon, and Simon Aronson .. which of course leads one directly back to Marlo... having recently re-watched Andi Gladwin's "Multiple Revelation Project" after reading a bit of Marlow I was saddened to realize that he was pretty much doing all of Marlo's revelations, though I guess having a visual to go with the textual is not necessarily a bad thing.

Another great source has been J K Hartman; "After Craft" and "Trickery Treats" hold some brilliant stuff -and I'm only about 20-30 pages in on each!

Hartman gives a modified Marlow move (I think it's the visual retention move) in After Craft, which Paul Pickford has pretty much mastered and presented in his "V.S Project" which I find to be a magnificent utility move, and I've most recently been practicing that, it just opens up the door for some pretty awesome effects.

Generally I carry around a couple of decks of cards (I've made up Rob Bromley/Peter Nardi's Extractor 2, with a really cool "Timeless" deck) and I use this to do a card to wallet effect using Stephen Draun's "Real Man's Wallet" (which I use as my every day wallet, for added authenticity), and I picked up a great leather packet trick wallet that I've got stuffed full of packets too -I no longer have issues with doing packet tricks, since I find them an ideal distraction when putting a gaffed deck into my pocket to replace with a real deck

One of my favourite packet tricks is an Oil and Water I took from one of Nick Trost's "Subtle Card Creations" volumes, I use four red backed and four blue backed blank bicycle cards and this effect is a real killer.

I love card magics and it seems that almost everyone I show them to loves them too, which is pretty awesome in my book.

And to my mind a really great newish face on the scene is Joseph (Joe) Barry, I love his relaxed and seemingly care-free approach. I get that this style won't work for everyone, but the informality of it is what I like, it fits in with my "style" so beautifully ... what with me not being a "performer" but rather a hobbyist cardician (dare I even call myself a cardician at this point, haha)

Is there much that doesn't lead us back to Marlo?

Hypnosis ... I also dabble with hypnosis.

I first read Clarence Wenger's "How to be a Hypnotist" about 20 something years ago, and I used to do a few parlour games with it, I even used it seriously once or twice including helping a guy to quit smoking. Ths is something else which I kind of forgot about, but recently re-kindled after reading Anthony Jacquin's "Reality is Plastic" and then getting hold of his Manchurian Approach

I'm not sure.

He claimed a lot of credit and I'm not enough into cards to know.

Although I'm probably best at Close-Up Magic, the bulk of my shows are Children's Birthday Parties and Family Shows (which I like very much).

-Mary Mowder