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ColinB Regular user 129 Posts |
I just wondered what everyone's earliest magic memory was, which vital spark first lit your desire to pursue the secrets of magic?
As a young child in the '60s, I remember watching TV magicians produce budgerigars from silks. I naturally thought this was really happening, so I would sit for hours massaging my mother's silk scarves, completely optimistic that at some point I would feel a budgie's body materialise between my fingers. Then, one day, the headmaster of our school announced that a magician had been summoned for our end-of-term entertainment. My excitement was tempered when, during breaktime, a nondescript fellow arrived carrying a closed wicker basket that cooed with live doves. These he later "conjured" during his show. I was so disappointed and indignant, I reported him to the headmaster. "Sir, sir, I saw him bring them birds in a basket." "Oh, well," was all the headmaster could offer by way of compensation, and he likewise sank in my estimation. |
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Danny Hustle Inner circle Boston, MA USA 2393 Posts |
Wow, is this a good question.
My old man was a second turn singer/comic in the waning days of Vaudeville and the beginnings of cabaret. This being said he had an unusual array of friends who were all entertainers of some type or another. It was the summer of 1966 and I was three and a half. I had been in bed and was awakened by laughter coming from the kitchen. I could smell the coffee and spent Lucky Strikes before I finished padding across the living room floor. When I pushed open the kitchen door there were six or seven people sitting around the table with my folks. These people always made a fuss over me and I was pretty happy to see them. My uncle Tootsie swept me up into his lap with a hearty, “How the heck are you Danny boy?” Tootsie was not my “real” uncle, he was one of my old man’s best friends. He was a comic/magician who drove a brand new Mustang convertible and dated only the sparkliest of women. My mom always said Tootsie was, “as smooth as a bucket of butter.” “Danny Boy, let your ‘ol uncle Tootsie show you a magic trick.” He took me off his lap and stood me on the floor. Showing me the front of his hand he reached over and yanked his thumb right off! I could not believe it! He was holding it in his other hand and it was still wiggling! Everyone at the table was breaking up at my look of slack jawed astonishment. Uncle Tootsie then said, “Now watch close Danny Boy as I stick it back on. The hand, my little pal, is quicker than the eye!” As he went to stick his thumb back on something went terribly wrong. With a small jerk, his thumb went skittering across the kitchen floor with a metallic rattle. “Darn it!” was the only thing he could say as he tried to retrieve his thumb with only his four remaining fingers. The other people sitting around the table were screaming in hysterics as Uncle Tootsie, still wearing his baggy pants, went scampering across the kitchen floor, the tin thumb tip squirting from his four fingered grasp each time he reached for it. That was almost 40 years ago and I still don’t think I’ve ever laughed as hard, or as honestly, at anything I’ve seen since. Last Thanksgiving, I sat around my in-laws kitchen table having coffee when my three and a half year old son and my four-year-old nephew asked me to show them a magic trick. With seven other adults all around the table I brought the house down with a Vernet thumbtip, and a bit borrowed lovingly from my Uncle Tootsie. When the laughter died down I was surprised to find I needed to excuse myself. I sat in the bathroom wearing a stupid grin and waited for the tears to dry up. Such a silly thing, sometimes it is the silliest of things that reminds us about the people make the biggest changes in our lives. Uncle Tootsie passed away in 1970. The Luckies, as it turned out, were not all that lucky. I miss him a little just about everyday. Best, Dan- "MT is one of the reasons we started this board! I’m so sick of posts being deleted without any reason given, and by unknown people at that." - Steve Brooks Sep 7, 2001 8:38pm ©1999-2014 Daniel Denney all rights reserved. |
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ColinB Regular user 129 Posts |
Thank you, Dan. Great story. Indeed, it's strange how the seemingly small things loom largest in our memories.
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Alan Jackson Elite user Cardiff, UK 432 Posts |
Seeing Al Koran on the television (a very old, small, black and white one). His Five Star Prediction baffled me for decades until I eventually discovered how it was done.
There are 10 kinds of people: those who understand binary numbers, and those who don't.
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Gary Veteran user Market Harborough, UK 367 Posts |
My dad vanishing a coin. And he still gets me every time!
"I can see clearly now, the brain has gone"
- Anon |
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stevehw Veteran user Collinsville, Mississippi 303 Posts |
The earliest influence I can remember was watching Mark Wilson's Magic Land of Alakazaam on television.
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Indus New user 78 Posts |
My earliest memory was watching stars of magic, I loved it so much I insisted that I needed a magic set. So after a while my parents went out and bought me a magic set, god I loved that thing. Since then my collection has just slowly grown
"A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimension."
--Oliver Wendell Holmes |
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stevenamills Veteran user 397 Posts |
An early Mysto Magic set I received for Christmas. Good Memories.....
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Beetroot Loyal user 267 Posts |
Watching Paul Daniels on TV and, in particular, watching him perform his Chop Cup routine at a local solo magic show.
It was good to see this trick on the Greatest 50 Magic Trick special on British TV recently. |
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Callin Regular user Portland, Oregon 123 Posts |
To be honest, I cannot remember a time I didn't love magic. I have a line toward the end of my stage show that says:
"I first discovered magic when I was five years old. Now, there's not much I remember before that, so you could say for my entire life, from my first memory until now, I have been called to this art." I wish I could say it was first seeing Mark Wilson on TV or my uncle or father sharing something magical with me that began my magic career, but the fact is, there is no actual starting place for my magic. I guess its simply a calling. Thanks, Richard Green
Callin's House of Magic
The Pacific Northwest's Largest and Oldest Magic Shop. Established 1953. Visit us at www.callinsmagic.com Ask me about the New Jerry Andrus Movie "A Thing of Wonder" is Available Now! |
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thanos4182 New user 72 Posts |
My earliest memory of magic, I must have been for or five years old. My dad showed me his hands empty, snapped his fingers and instantly produced a 3 musketeers candy bar for me. Since then I was hooked.
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longbeach Regular user Toronto, Ont 141 Posts |
BY the way Danny, Great story.
I believe I have said this before, but I had a magician come to a birthday party when I was quite young. I will never forget seeing him put a big blue sponge ball in my hand, then 3 balls exploding from my little hand when i opened it again. |
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MOTO42 Loyal user Whitehouse Texas 225 Posts |
Danny: That story brought a smile to even my normaly apathetic heart. Cheers
The earliest, clear, memory of magic that I have is of going to a magic show in Tyler Texas, about 10 years ago. The first magician to come on was blinded by the spotlights and walked clear off the stage into the orchestra pit below. I hope he's alright, I don't think he was consious when they took him to the hospital. They had someone who was not going to do a routine that night stand in for him, it was one of the greatest lessons in "The show must go on" that I've had. Before that I only remember an on/off fasination with magic.
"One man's miracle is another man's warm-up"
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Jeff Chesnut New user Ada, Michigan 56 Posts |
I grew up in a small (2,000 people) rural community in northeastern Colorado--60 miles from the nearest McDonalds. Three or four times a year, our community arts council brought in some kind of community entertainment. I could care less about the bluegrass bands, classical singers, or (I'm not making this up,) the trained pig show. But I never missed the hypnotist or the magician.
The earliest show I can remember was the night of the "Thrilla in Manilla" with Muhammed Ali and Joe Frazier. I remember that because the result was announced at intermission. I don't remember what effects the magician produced, I just remember being fascinated that someone could do what seemed to me to be impossible. As a young boy with an active imagination, I thought being a magician must be the most wonderful, glamorous thing you could be. Even though I'm now 43 yrs. old, I still never want to miss the magician or the hypnotist. I still feel a sense of wonder when I see someone do the impossible. I still think that being a magician may not be glamorous, but is definitely cool. |
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Greg Arce Inner circle 6732 Posts |
Three memories: I was five years old and at my friend's party his mom had hired a magician. I was blown away, but I can't remember exactly what he did. I made my father take me to a magic shop to by a book on magic. As I walked into the shop the dealer was doing the Insurance Policy to someone. He had me pick a card and, of course, it was the wrong one. I think I remember the Policy card was either the seven of clubs or nine of clubs. The book I bought: Magic Secrets by Kajar... I still have it.
One more thing that I didn't think about for the longest time and then it hit me one day. I was a young boy learning how to read and the first big word I could read on my own was 'magician'... it was in an ad in a comic book that had hypnotic eyes looking at you and read: Do you want to be a magician? Greg
One of my favorite quotes: "A critic is a legless man who teaches running."
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ALEXANDRE Inner circle 3024 Posts |
The magic store at Disneyland where I went to a million times while growing up in L.A., The Magic Castle, the local Hobby shop that sold magic/jokes, and a flight attendant friend of my parents who would come over and amaze the $h*t out of me.
Now I'm the one doing the amazing.
HERE'S A SECRET ...
http://www.lybrary.com/mystic-alexandre-m-354.html |
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ed rhodes Inner circle Rhode Island 2885 Posts |
Mark Wilson (The Magic Land of Alakazam) and the nameless magician doing a Chop Cup on Captain Kangaroo.
"...and if you're too afraid of goin' astray, you won't go anywhere." - Granny Weatherwax
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Jonathan Townsend Eternal Order Ossining, NY 27297 Posts |
Quote:
On 2002-10-27 02:14, ColinB wrote: I noticed that people can say one thing, do another and tell you they believe a third thing while insisting that other people should believe a fourth thing and that you should believe a fifth thing - all at the same time. And that's not including the congruence aspects of how they are saying one thing with part of their bodies (in action or posture) while conveying different things in terms of voice tonality, word inflection, eye motion and contextual gaps like missing steps, putting things in wrong places, hesitating etc. * edit - I left out the IMPORTANT thing - that they are sincere in their beliefs, statements and actions. so once I got a clue about that - I was hooked on "how does that stuff work" and so magic started very early for yours truly. Stuff like card tricks came much later - after a couple of years of theater and music.
...to all the coins I've dropped here
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bottlemaster New user Nottingham, UK 36 Posts |
My Grandpa doing the old extending thumb trick. I used to love it...
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funsway Inner circle old things in new ways - new things in old ways 9982 Posts |
I was 8 years old and on a nature walk guided by a Forest Ranger. He pointed to a flower alongside the trail and explained how rare it was. Then he picked it -- held it to his nose and it vanished! He explained that everyone has a choice in the wilderness -- to appreciate things selfishly, or to allow others to enjoy the magic. He then moved his leg and showed the flower still on its stalk.
That night he did some magic effects for everyone at the Campfire -- but that single simple trick has influenced all of my magic forever.
"the more one pretends at magic, the more awe and wonder will be found in real life." Arnold Furst
eBooks at https://www.lybrary.com/ken-muller-m-579928.html questions at ken@eversway.com |
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