I'm going to go ahead and assume that this is going to inspire more than a couple groans.

I saw the movie Now You See Me yesterday and absolutely loved it (plot holes and all). This piqued my interest in magic and I've been walking around with a deck of cards practicing basic skills constantly. (A deck is next to me as I write this). Anyway, I thought joining something like this would help me get a bit of a jump start in magic. I've taught myself a simple card force and have been practicing shuffling constantly. I'm working on basic flourishes as well along with trying to learn simple tricks. Any help you all could offer would be greatly appreciated!


And yes, I will be trying to learn tricks outside of card tricks, I just like card tricks.

I also started om card magic, about 13 years ago. My father got married and my new cousin came in from Pa. We learned some stuff from a website, I think it was card trick central or something. We performed all of the next day and that's when I realized that peoples reactions are so much fun. 13 years later and I make a fair living on the side doing what I love. My biggest recommendation I have for you: Learn sleights, learn skills. When I first started doing magic, I bought a ton of props and gaffed decks. 13 Years later, hundreds of dollars gone, and I have no clue where 90% of them are. I'm not saying don't buy a Svengali or an ID, what I am saying is invest time to learn things you can use forever, not just props you lose. Just my 2 cents. I wish you the best of luck. Where are you from? Also, how old are you? There is a TON of knowledge on here. I hope you can find as much useful info as I have.




- PJ-

I'm eighteen and if you look below that silhouetted rabbit it says I'm from Oklahoma (I think I put that there).

Thank you for the advice, I think I actually have a Svengali deck hiding somewhere that I bought years ago... I think I'll go look for that. What's an ID deck? I've read through quite a bit of stuff on this site and the terminology has my head spinning in most cases.

Welcome Spock10194,

I like cards and flourishing too.
If you have a dedicated place to put gaff decks, trash decks (for tearing and getting dupes,) etc... then you'll live less stressed than I do. LOL

I'll see you in "The Workers".

-Mary Mowder

ID is an Invisible Deck, I just bought my first one last week! I don't know how it gets overlooked, or how I overlooked it anyhow. It kills and I've probably used it 70 times if I've used it once since I bought it July 5th.

Sorry, I didn't see the Oklahoma..... That's where I spent my basic training weeks, Fort Sill. I never have any desire to live there EVER AGAIN. No trees to stop wind and it's either 574123541 Degrees outside or its freezing at 17 degrees and the wind is blowing 40 MPH.

Spock, feel free to look me up on facebook as "P.J. Synenberg" I'm willing to help you any way I can. I had a mentor as a young man and he taught me a ton of stuff, If you're willing to listen and learn, I'd be willing to help you as much as I can!


Magically Yours,
P.J.

Also, the reason for the Acronyms is so people who come looking for secrets and exposure, are sent off with their head spinning and have gotten nowhere

Hahaha fun! I suppose I'll learn all of these things the hard way, it's probably more fun that way besides. Thank you for your offer! And yes, the weather in OK is crazy; it's rained the past two days and the day before that the temperature was in the nineties!

Welcome! Sounds like you're off to a good start.

I recommend making a modest monetary investment for a copy of a time-tested book:
The Royal Road To Card Magic by Jean Hugard & Fred Braue.

Only $5 for the E-book (PDF file) at the lybrary:
http://www.lybrary.com/the-royal-road-to......-35.html

The greater investment -- and the one with the bigger payoff -- will be your time spent learning and *practicing*.

Hi Spock,
Let me welcome you to our beautiful Café. As you have noticed it is one of a kind;unique.Absolutely the best the best place about magic ever.You will find this as a invaluable source that you can not buy even with money. The people are so friendly as well as being helpful.The Café is such a the unique place for Magic. It is ever expanding and has over 55.000 members throughout the world. It will make a great contribution to your magic perspective. Do not forget to post often. You will find many new friends and many new ideas here. I predict you will like the Café.Please grab a chair and begin to type your next post while you have a cup of strong Turkish coffee on my bill.
We are glad that you have joined us.

Inigmntoya: I'll definitely check out that book. I've already gotten several recommendations from several people, so obviously I can't buy everything. I'll make sure to do my share of investigative work on everything. I'm glad to know I'm heading in the right direction!

TORA: Thank you for the welcome, as well as the virtual coffee