Greetings to all Café members and lurkers.
My name is Jeff, and I am a recovering magic enthusiast in denial. After nearly 15 years of not participating in the art I fell in love with as a child, the magic bug has once again infested my soul.

As I approach my 40th birthday, I realize that I miss the fun and excitement of learning and performing magic, and have decided to jump back into the game.

Interacting with other magicians has always been one of my favorite parts of the brotherhood. In the late 70's and early 80's, I was active in the L.A. magic scene, and regularly attended the meetings of both the Hollywood chapters of the I.B.M and the S.A.M, as well as enjoying visits to The Magic Castle. I lacked the self-confidence to do much public performing, but always loved the art of magic, and took lessons and collected many books and manuscripts. I attended local conventions, and one year had show seats next to David Copperfield for 3 nights.

We both had a good-natured laugh when a magician took the stage with a poor imitation of David... I'm sure the performer didn't know he was in the audience! It was a lot of fun, and a magical memory I'll never forget. Meeting and talking with Muhammad Ali at another convention was also a tremendous experience. I had a print shop and was honored to create and produce business cards for the champ. You never know where magic will take you!

What a thrill it was to rub elbows with people like Gerald Kosky, Joe Berg, Arnold Furst, Blackstone Jr., Dai Vernon, Albert Goshman and countless other great and helpful people. These amazings folks are gone, but I will certainly never forget them.

I suppose ebay was partially responsible for sparking my renewed interest in magic. Although I've always kept a box of favorite effects, over the years my profession has caused me to move many times, and I've lost or given away most of my books and magazines. I wrote a few columns in 1981 for Magic Manuscript, and I could not locate one copy in my possesion. You know the rest... ebay to the rescue! I know I should have stuck with computers 17 years ago instead of running away to Las Vegas to become a dice and 21 dealer. It's been a fun ride, but being a dot-com zillionaire would probably be pretty cool!

For the past 10 years, I've been involved with casino management, and have trained personel and helped open casinos in many parts of the country, including Mississippi, New Orleans (Way cool place!), Florida, and Connecticut. I always tried to visit the local magic shops and grab a magazine to see what was going on, but never really jumped back in.

The Café is a magnificent resource, and I hope to make many new friends and gain a wealth of information through this forum, and of course contribute to the effort whenever possible.

See you in the Café,

Jeff

Welcome! What a fantastic first post, it was great reading. This site is fantastic but bewarned... Visiting this site can result in large expenditures of time and money on magic. Look forward to reading more of your posts, and welcome once more.

One other thing, I know I would be very interested in reading more about your experiences working in Vegas, and I'm sure other's would be too. Perhaps if you don't mind and have the time, you could post about it in the 'It’s not magic, but...' forum? Either way, enjoy your stay here.

Hey Jeff,
Welcome to The Magic Café! What a great post! Looking forward to your posts!

Best Regards,
Rod Lages

Welcome to the Café, it sounds like you will be a great asset to us.

Hi Jeff!

You'll find a lot of recovering magic enthusiasts here - this is great therapy for us all.

Look forward to your insight and expertise!


:cheers:

Welcome aboard, Jeff.
Speaking as a fellow "twice-bitten" addict, I can assure you there is no cure for the second time around!
With your wealth of background experience, I'll be looking forward to your posts.

Welcome to the Café. It will be great to have you with us. Will be interesting to read your posts.

Hi Jeff
I liked your resume it seemed very sincere to me. Welcome to the Café and please have a cup of strong Turkish coffee on my bill.

Welcome, Jeff. You are among friends and the fellow (magic bug) bitten.

You are just starting the prime of life! Welcome, and enjoy!

Welcome! It's good to come back from a break, an to bring a fresh perspective along with your experience. You named some of my favorite people.

Welcome to the Café, Jeff. Alot of us have take a hiatus from magic at one point or another but somehow we always seem to come back. It's great to have you at the Café. Enjoy

Dave

Welcome Jeff Jay,

I hope you enjoy your staying here. I hope you will post a lot interresting subjects for me and other Café members (magicains). Let your staying be magicall and let this forum have a lot of help to your magicall career. I am looking forward to your replies.

Best regards,

Douwe

Welcome Jeff!

I'm another of those twice-bitten folks. I predict it will stick this time.

Jim

Hello!

Wow a very interesting life story!

Gerald Kosky - dead
Joe Berg - dead
Arnold Furst - dead
Harry Blackstone, Jr. - dead
Dai Vernon - dead
Albert Goshman - dead

Somebody had better warn David Copperfield!

:)

Welcome Jeff

Welcome Jeff, Hope your stay here with the little bunnies will satisfy your curiosity. I'm sorry if I sound jealous maybe I am. I would give my shirt to learn magic from those guys.But let's not get into why that wouldn't get me anywhere. I hope your stay here will be pleasant and lasting. And let the magic you have learnt increase your creativity, Oh by the way do you like sugar in your coffee

Hey!!! Welcome to the magic Café! I'm very interested in reading your posts.
- Evan

Hi Jeff, nice story. I just started getting back into it myself. The best part of the second time around is that I actually have the money to invest now!