Hello all - wanted to introduce myself. I've been reading through the Café for several months now but only just registered (had to figure out a legitimate way to overcome my gmail address!).

I've been fascinated by magic, illusions and effects since being introduced to Doug Henning as a kid. My mother was fascinated with him and we went to see him perform in The Magic Show on Broadway (grew up in New York) and needless to say it was an influential experience. That coincided with a gentleman opening a magic shop down the street from my childhood home, within which I spent just about every spare moment through my early teens. As I learned various effects I would constantly perform for family and friends, and even did a few shows at birthdays for my younger sister and her friends.

But as high school took over and other activities took up my time, I drifted away from Magic and while I still enjoyed watching someone perform effects - good, bad, or middle-of-the-road - I just didn't have time for it anymore. I was an adult, working on a career, and I have a wife, mortgage, responsibilities. The years flew by!

Suddenly, I'm 48 years old and suffering from a chronic illness. This past summer I had to have some significant surgery to help my condition (thankfully it did!), and I wound up with three months of downtime, recuperating from surgery. As it happened, just after I got home from the hospital was the two-year anniversary of my mother's passing, and while trying to find some way to spend my time, I tripped across an old DVD of The Magic Show. Sometimes serendipity strikes, I guess. Of course I watched it and it rekindled my interest. I started reading an old book of card tricks I had buried in my home office, and slowly began learning and relearning effects old and new.

One challenge I face is that I suffer from pretty severe joint pain most of the time, which means sleights vary from difficult to impossible - my fingers literally won't always do what I tell them But I'm working to overcome that to an extent, and have drifted over to mental magic and mentalism and away from cards and coins - a combination of fascination with some of the mental effects and avoiding items that I physically struggle with. Admittedly I find myself more reliant on gimmicks than I had expected, as my ability to do the simplest card moves are quite a challenge.

I'm certainly an amateur, strictly a hobbyist, but I'm having a great time reintroducing myself to Magic. I get great joy out of being able to whip out a trick and run through a small performance for friends and family again when we're out to dinner, wandering around a park, or just relaxing. One of the neatest things to happen recently was to completely blow one of my best friends away with a simple effect while sitting in a restaurant. What fun!

My goal is simple- to continue to improve on the effects I can do, to expand my knowledge and to continue to learn, in part through interactions with the folks here, on the Café. The information so far has been enlightening. Thanks for having me!

Welcome RiBo,

I'm glad to hear your condition is improving.

Despite the challenges, it seems like Magic is exactly what you need in your life.

The discussions here are great fun and at least you can limber up a little with all the typing you're sure to do.

Have a good time and remember to come up for air occasionally.

-Mary Mowder

Hi RiBo!

Welcome aboard. There are a bunch of us that get together on Mondays in Kissimmee at Wizards - a wonderful showcase of some top notch magic talent.

If you want to meet up sometime, just message me!

Keep it magical,
Joe

Thanks Mary - nice to feel welcome! No matter what I find magic to be an uplifting subject, so you're undoubtedly correct!

And Joe, I've been reading about Wizardz lately, and will be sure to drop in for the fun and camaraderie. Probably will be a couple of weeks due to stuff going on with work, but I will definitely check in. Thanks again!

Welcome RiBo,
Enjoy the re-learning of the Greatest Art form for healing.
Keith Shazam

RiBo, on Monday (2/16), the always entertaining Harry Allen from Daytona Magic will be performing.

Do you want to meet up? Be prepared to laugh as Harry is a funny guy with a funny line for everything.

Let me know.

Hello RIBO~!

I first met Doug Henning when he was about 17, at Abbott's "Get Together" in '64.(The GTG began in the '30s in Colon, Michigan as a rather casual "convention" of magicians. PercyAbbott, who owned the Abbott Company needed a gathering of magicians to sell PROPS to. He conceived the idea of a GTG as good business, and a fun social gathering. It "paid off" (in the middle of the DEPRESSION!).

Like many of the the teens who came, he had a "sleeping bag, and a toothbrush!" (The kids saved most of their money to buy PROPS & BOOKS!!!) I knew who he was through my pal, the late Dennis Loomis. The GTG is CASUAL. When old friends would meet, their first questions were: "When did you get in?" and "Where are you staying?" (Local folks in Colon would rent their "guest rooms" to the magicians--there was no motel (and, there still isn't!). So, I asked the "standard questions. Doug had his sleeping bag under his arm, and an "overnite bag in his other hand. I said, "It's going to rain tonight!" He smiled and said, "Yeah!" I was sharing a motel room in Bronson, a few miles away, with my friend Chet Kubit. I looked at Chet, with a "question" in my eyes, and he nodded. I said, "Doug! Chet and I have a big motel room, and there's room for a rollaway bed. Come and be our guest for the week." Doug's face "lit up" and he accepted. (The motel manager put in a rollaway bed, and charged Chet and I $2.00 a nite! That's how Doug and I got acquainted. For the next 4-5 years, we wrote letters (before internet!) and met every year at Abbott's. The late Jerry Conklin had a big house and about a half dozen magicians (sometimes more) would "bunk out" at Jerry's "YMCA". I tell more of the Henning story in my book, which is "coming out" in a few months.

If I may make a suggestion, I think it would be wise of you to change your "Café name". Bev Bergeron lives in Orlando. He is retired, but his professional clown name is/was: REBO. The local IBM Ring is named after him. Bev is a good friend of mine for about 30 + years. He worked at Disney for many years, and, also with Mark Wilson on TV for years. He might think it strange for you to adopt a name so close to his well established name.

Now, refer to your final paragraph in your first post, above. A few definitions of terms may be helpful.

TRICKS,like music, only exist while they are being performed. You can't "whip out a trick"! You can only PERFORM TRICKS! EFFECTS are what the spectator sees--or thinks that he sees. You can improve on your PRESENTATION OF A TRICK, so as to make it entertaining to the spectator. --That, hopefully, will "improve" the EFFECT that the spectator perceives. This is due to the fact that MAGIC IS NOT INHERENTLY ENTERTAINING.The performer's task is to make MAGIC entertaining to the spectator, with the performer's personality and the performer's PRESENTATION.So, you cannot buy a TRICK or an EFFECT at the magic shop! All you can purchase is a PROP, and/or a SECRET, which you use to PERFORM a TRICK! Those are the "hard, cold facts.

I started performing for $$$ when I was 13, in 1945. I made a living, performing all over the U.S. for most of my life. I'm now 83,retired, but, still do some casual dates.

Don't panic because your physical situation makes sleight of hand difficult or impossible! MAGIC is "5% sleight of hand technique, 5% esoteric principles of science, 5% perceptual illusion, and 85% PSYCHOLOGY. Use psychology!!!

Welcome to our "motley crew"!

Wow, my sincere thanks for the comment, Mr. Oslund. This is exactly the sort of thing I am discovering (or more correctly: rediscovering!) about the magic community - a true sense of camaraderie and people from all over the place, with all different skills and experience, going out of their way to help one another.

Your story of meeting Doug Henning is absolutely fascinating! It's really great to read about something that was both so casual and yet so significant and doubtlessly influential on a young man like Doug way back then - just a heartwarming and touching story that is especially interesting to me given my history of meeting him, fascination with his performances, and watching him on stage, television, and now on video.

Thanks also for reinforcing my feeling that despite my physical limitations, I can rely on performance and psychology to perform while continuing to learn and improve. I had kind of inherently known that presentation is much more important than the actual sleights - but it's nice to have someone with your knowledge and history re-confirm it.

One last thought - I've of course heard of Mr. Bergeron, but haven't yet had the pleasure of meeting him. I do know that he spent a good bit of time performing at the Diamond Horseshoe in the Magic Kingdom (I've also done a couple of stints at Disney, though not in the entertainment area) - but I had no idea he performed with a stage name of Rebo. Regarding my forum name, it's one that I've used for years and is simply a concatenation of my first and last names (RIchard BOza - "RiBo") and certainly wasn't intended as a knock-off of Mr. Bergeron. As it's my actual name, does it seem disrespectful to Mr. Bergeron to keep it as my forum name? If so, I'll see what I have to do to get it changed.

And again, thank you for such a warm welcome, wonderful story, and a touch of education!

Thanks Joe - I would love to go, but my wife and I are out of town for the long weekend, not returning until Tuesday the 17th (I'm posting from my hotel right now!). I'll be looking into what's going on at Wizardz for the next two weeks though, and will reach out if I can make one of those dates.

RiBo, no prob. Next Monday (2/23) Eric Jones will bel performing & lecturing -- this guy's a fantastic coin man.

Let me know if you want to meet up. Your wife is invited and will love the show!

Joe