Hello!

My very first post here, though I have visited and read here often.

I'm 52, and as my old friend Jim Swoger, at the "House of Enchantment" in Pittsburgh used to tell me when I was a wee lad, "I wasted the first 9 years of my life", before discovering magic. I've had the bug ever since.

The talented and bright minded old school magician Mack Picknick picked out my first tricks for me, at my parents request, a long time ago. I was a chubby, introverted reading kind of kid, and magic really helped me to get to the point to be more comfortable around people.

Today I write and draw stories featuring Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse for Walt Disney for a living. Magic has always been a relaxing hobby, and like all of the rest of you, I love watching a good performer, and so very much still enjoy being fooled.

I guess I am a coin man, more than anything else. I enjoy watching sleight of hand, more than self working props, and the jingling, disciplined, shiny, simple but challenging nature of coin magic has always been what I like best.

Cards rely too much on numbers for me, and I hate math. I do enjoy cups and balls work, and the classic multiplying billard ball and linking ring routines, but somehow I'm always navigating back to basic coinwork.

I do enjoy sneaky gimmicks related to coin work too.

I've recently been augmenting my sleight of hand with a few coin gaffes. I've owned a couple of Johnson products in the past, but recently have tried some Tango coins, and kudos to a company that is so very, very hands on and accommodating.

In the opinion of this somewhat amateur magician, while their written instructions are very English un-friendly, they overcome this by a lot with their committment to pleasing, and, all of their products that I have handled are excellent and equal to Johnsons standards. Good stuff, made for the worker, not to sit in a box.

Anyways, here I am!

Ta-Dah!

Hi there.
Welcome to the Café.
Your buddy Donald is alive and well here in my hometown of Eugene Oregon. I think it's great that Disney allowed the University of Oregon to use Donald as our Mascot.
All the best to you.
Bob.

Hi Patrick:

Welcome to the Café! Say Hi! to Mickey for me.

Jim

Welcome to the Café. I am as well a coin guy I guess. I tend to shy away from gaffed coins even though I do own quite a bit and love the direct unmatched visual magic they can create, I really just love putting in the work. I mean I love to have a coin palmed and nobody know it. Or to sleeve a coin rather than just shell it. I guess I secretly want to be the magician instead of the coins being the magician. If that make since..

I do feel that simple is better and if you can accomplish the same thing cleaner with a gimmick than you can without you should. Although sometime I feel cleaner often mean less intent. Meaning I feel that if every effect was so direct and clean where does the challenge come in. I love scripting my misdirection to hid a move or a steal. I think that working with these challenges are what create a master piece of routine. I feel this is the reason that there are very few great routines with self working closeup effect. There are many good one but few great ones.
But you take four regular coins and a glass or a table and just look at the routines that have lived on as masterpieces... (STARS)
They become such great lessons on magic.