Greetings!

Thought it would be good to introduce myself. I'm Paul Adams from Liberty Lake, WA (that's between Spokane and Coeur D'alene, ID, about 2 miles from the stateline). Beautiful country up here and MUCH more affordable than San Diego (I moved from there to here about 18 months ago). I live up here with my wife and 3 kids and have taken to snowboarding and boating (two of the greatests pleasures of this area... among many).

I've been interested in magic since I was about 7 years old (I'm 36 now). I remember seeing a magician visiting our school and I was hooked. As a matter of fact, I was in 2nd grade and my mom tells me that it's magic that got me to learn how to read (apparently, I was struggling with it). I would visit the library almost weekly to get whatever books I could find.

I was an extremely shy kid who would love to do magic, but feared performing in front of others. I would eventually overcome my fears (momentarily) and kick out a few tricks for family or the closest of friends. Such a shame, looking back, that I didn't really learn how to perform. I did REALLY enjoy reading Showmanship for Magicians, but it didn't help with the fear.

As a child, I would love to go to Balboa Park in San Diego, to watch the jugglers, mimes, and magicians. I even remember going to NY City when I was about 12 and having one of the 3-Card Monte sharks on the street corner chase me off cause I kept telling this lady where her the red card was. I thought it was just fun, but I bet I could have gotten hurt if I caused them to lose too much money.

When I was old enough I would save up some money and ride the city bus to Chuck Martininez's Magicians World (Brad Burt was just a lowly employee at the time) and spend HOURS and HOURS browsing through the glass cases. I'd eventually find as much as I could for whatever money I had, and start breaking things open and learning them, even on the bus ride home.

For some reason, my magicical activities seem to always turn on and off. For years I'd go gang busters and then I'd do nothing for a few years after. It's been like that since the teen years. I did visit a few IBM (maybe it was SAM) meetings when I was a teenager, but never got too involved. It was tough to get to the meetings without transportation (can't remember why my parents didn't take, but they didn't).

Never-the-less, I've learned my fair share over the years and enjoy doing a few tricks here and there for friends or family. I really do love the art, but find myself so limited in time.

Just recently, I've been working with the Youth Group at our church and have volunteered to do some fun little breaks in the evening (telling jokes, top 10 lists, etc) and it dawned on my that I could do a few magic tricks with a message. A quick Google search for "gospel magic" brought me to this forum. It's absolutely fabulous and I'm finding myself spending TOO much time on here just reading and reading (and reading).

Well, thought it would be good to introduce myself and let you all know who I am. I'm a lover of the art and look forward to getting to know you all as I hang out and learn.

To YOUR success,
Paul Adams

Oh... forgot to share one of the coolest things that ever happened to me.

One day, after a round of golf, I was sitting in the country club and a friend of mine was bragging to someone else about my magical skills. Eventually, I performed a couple of card tricks and was noticed by the lady working behind the bar. She asked to see one of my tricks and I showed her. She said she was very impressed and then introduced herself... Joanie Verner.

Ok, so who is Joanie Verner? Well, she's Dai Vernons daughter-in-law (I guess Dai changed his name from Verner to Vernon at some point). Well, you can imagine, I was FLOORED!! Unfortunately, this was just a couple of years after Dai had disappeared, but he lived with her for the last couple years of his life. She told me about all these big name magicians coming to her house all the time to visit Dai. WOW!! Right in my backyard, who would have known.

At some point she said "wait here" and left. When she came back, she had an autographed picture of Dai (8x10) and a cool little card wallet that was designed for his birthday (I think it was his 90th) at the Castle. She told me about his days doing sillouhettes when he was in NY. The card holder has two opposing sillohettes of Dai (by Dai) on the cover. She said she wanted me to have them cause she knew I'd appreciate them (BOY DID I!!!). She also invited me to stop by some day so I could look through all of his stuff. WOW!!! I mean WOW!!! I never did get over there and unfortunately, I've moved to Washington now. But, if I ever do get back down there, I'll have to stop and see if she's still at the golf course.

Thought everyone would enjoy that story. Maybe someday I can upload a picture of the items she gave me.

Paul

Hi Paul,

Okay I'll be the first to say WOW and thanks for sharing that story. I also enjoyed reading your introduction and glad you decided to join us. Welcome to the Café!

The Café is full of friendly people - over 12,000 from 80 different countries around the world! Just scroll down and view all the topics and pick a favorite or two to start. Have fun!

Thanks for joining my little website, I'm sure you'll find plenty to keep you busy here. Enjoy.

Thank you both! What a wonderful resource.

This forum is not just the best I've seen in the magic community, but, the best I've seen in just about ANY community. I frequent a lot of business related forums and none are put together as well as this one.

Does anyone know what came of a discussion group years ago (all email based discussions) that was about magic? It must have been about 1997-98 and required that you actually apply (proving your knowledge/love of the magical arts) before you were allowed to participate. I don't remember the name of it, but it must be archived somewhere. A lot of great discussions on there that should be preserved for the rest of the magical world.

Paul

You have a great screen name !!

Excellent story, thanks for sharing it.