Since the people on The Magic Café were the ones who have been my defacto mentors and were the source of my inspiration to actually start down the magic road at age 50 by assuring me it was not too late, I wanted to tell everyone that I did my first performance last night! It was very short and it was done at my first magic club meeting, so the audience was simultaneously the scariest (only in my mind) and the most supportive group possible. I have learned so much from this forum about what performing magic means. I have been a performer (as a singer/songwriter) for most of my life. So that definitely helped. But magic is VERY different for me, and your advice has been invaluable.

Most important, I think, was the idea of presenting myself and my personality to the crowd first and foremost. The other big thing that stuck with me was that I had to infuse my own personality into the tricks I was doing. How did all that manifest? I did 2 minutes. The first minute was getting the crowd to laugh and trying to make friends with them. The second minute was my take on David Roth's Flurry, but using it as a sort of - this may sound weird - extension of my personality. Does that make sense? I am NOT the kind of guy who ever has been the center of attention at parties. I'm naturally very shy and self-conscious. So even though I had practiced every move in the Flurry many hundreds (if not thousands) of times, I performed it as though I had a LOT less practice. This was in line with what the crowd likely expected from this beginner. And then I sort of acted surprised to find the coin not in my hand, or where I actually "found" it when produced. It was like - "I'm sure I'm not going to fool anyone in a room full of magicians, and I'm just a beginner so.......etc." This allowed me to surprise them (at least a couple of times) when the coin WAS produced from somewhere else, or it turned out NOT to be in my hand:).

Anyway, I had a great time and it turned out to be the best possible crowd to do my first performance for - short as it was.

And of course, my first magic club meeting (SAM) was fantastic. I was made to feel very welcome, and everybody was friendly and supportive - lots of smiles and fun everywhere. So it's full-steam ahead. I have so much left to learn (obviously) and so many areas of magic I haven't even tried yet, since I'm only 3 months into my studies:-P.

Just wanted to report this milestone here, since here is where it all started. Thanks to everyone for all the help and advice!

Cheers!

Ken

That's great to hear everything went well for you.
I hope that was the first of many more performances for you.
All the best to you, Bob.

Thank you, Bob!

Ken