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Devin Knight V.I.P. 2493 Posts |
A lot of people ask me how I got started in magic. Who was my influence.That is a hard question to answer as I was doing magic as far back as my mind can remember, even before I was in the first grade. If anyone was born to perform, I think it was me. There wasn't much magic on television when I was a kid, but occasionally magicians would appear on Captain Kangaroo, International Showtime, Talk of The Town and Ted Mack's Amateur Hour.
As a young child I was fascinated with magic and was what some term to be a child magic prodigy. That is because like some kids who can hear a song and instantly play it, I could do the same with magic. I recall one time in my early youth there was an episode of International Showtime that features the Chavez School of Magic. One guy did cigarette productions. After the show I went into my bedroom, got a box of crayons and immediately knew how to thumb-palm the crayons and produce them. I even figured out how to hide the crayons to make steals. In the first grade during show and tell I was doing magic, believe it or not. Not very good magic, but I was doing it. I recall when my parents would take me to church, to keep me quiet they would give me pencil and paper. Remember I was only 7 or 8 at the time, and I recall drawing pictures showing how to palm balls, coins, etc even though I hadn't seen it in magic books. My early influences were books by Joseph Leeming on magic and in the second grade I had these books checked out almost year round. I had my mother help me read and learn the tricks. By the third grade I was in a school play, I played the role of a medicine man and performed the Professor's Nightmare as part of the play. Yes in the third grade I was able to perform the professor's nightmare and do complex card sleights, despite my small hands. By the 4th grade I had reinvented the Kuma Tubes, also a plank levitation. I also thought up sleeving without reading about it. I would often hide things in my sleeve such as a coin so I could show both hands empty and then later produce a coin from the air. I also thought of black art and was using it in some of my tricks. When I would watch magicians on TV, I almost always knew how the tricks were done. I remember watching Mark Wilson and knowing how almost everything he did was done. I remember seeing a magician doing Mutilated Parasol on TV and instantly knowing how it was done. I saw a change bag on TV and figured it out and had my mom sew me one based on my instructions. It is a good thing I never saw a live magician at a birthday party as I surely would have called out how everything was done. I also remember that by the 5th Grade I had started doing free shows at my friends and relative's parties. By the 5th grade I had invented my own version of the zombie even though I had never seen the trick before. Up to that time, I had never seen a magic catalog. I knew nothing of magic shops. I do remember before starting to school, I would see Adams Tricks in the 5 & 10 stores and beg my mom to buy me a trick. These were some of the tricks I did for classmates in the 1st grade. I think my first purchased trick was the Adams Ball & Vase followed by the Jiffy Nesting Coin Box. All of my magic was gotten from school library books, inventing magic and duplicating what I saw on TV. My first magic catalog came in the 7th Grade. A friend of mine who also liked magic was reading in Boy's Life and saw an ad. He said for 10 cents I could get a top hat and magic catalog. I sent my dime in the next day. He was mistaken, I didn't get a top hat. It was the Top Hat Magic Company that used to be based in Evanston, IL. Did my eye's pop. A whole catalog full of NEW tricks and most were less than a dollar. Yep, in those days you could buy Phantom Cards for 15 cents. The catalog was full of tricks for a quarter and if I recall postage was only 25 cents. Back in those day you could send a dollar to Top Hat Magic and get 3 or 4 tricks including postage. I did this every week. $5.00 would get you a big box of magic. I had grandparents who were willing to help me buy magic. My parents wouldn't buy me magic. So I made weekly trips to visit my grandmothers on both sides and would show them the catalog and say I wanted this. One of my grandmothers gave me $5 to $10 each weekend and all of it went toward buying Top Hat Magic tricks. Within a year or so I had purchased every trick in their catalog! I later added in Vic Lawston's catalog and was placing orders with him and also Douglas' Magicland in Texas. Later I discovered the Robbins EZ magic catalog, and yes over a two year period I bought everything in the catalog! I was hooked on magic. Back in those days, kids could go home for lunch (really)as long as you were back within 45 minutes. You had to live close to the school to do this. My mother would give me lunch money, but I would leave at lunch time and run to grandma's house only about half a mile away and eat lunch there. The lunch money went toward magic. Later I took the bus money given to me, and instead of riding the bus I would run to school, beating the bus there and back home. That $1.00 a week fare went toward buying more magic. My parents got to the point to where they were NOT supportive of my magic, so my orders had to go to grandparent's home where I would go visit and look at the magic. One grandparent lived 14 miles away from me. He called and said there was a package for me. I skipped school the next day and ran to his home so I could see my magic order. You have to remember back in those days, kids stayed out to dark. So as long as I was home by 6PM for dinner, my mom asked no questions. Of course I did get in trouble for skipping school. I continued to buy magic all through high school. At which time I found out about Magic Youths International. I joined the club and made friend with Bill McIlhaney who is now a famous magic historian. He introduced me to Abbott's Magic Co...that is another story and will be continued in a different article on my background. |
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