My father was a sales rep for an RV manufacturer, and travelled quite a bit. He spent a lot of time meeting with dealers and attending trade shows, and he started dabbling in a bit of close-up magic (I suspect he was influenced by Harry Anderson via Night Court, but I have no evidence to prove or disprove that).

Anyway, a few years later, he'd gotten quite good, and was regularly asked to perform a few tricks every time he attended any sort of group function. He almost always would, wowing the crowd (and me, of course). At one point he had his briefcase of tricks stolen, but over the years he rebuilt his collection of effects (though never to the level it had been at the height of its glory).

Earlier this year, my Dad died unexpectedly (he had not yet reached the age of 60). This was, needless to say, very difficult for me. One of the things he passed on to me was his briefcase, filled with cards, coins, and other mysterious objects ("Oh... so *that's* a Bang Ring!").

So I'm taking up what Dad used to do, trying to learn magic pretty much from scratch at the age of 31. This forum seems to have good advice and information leaking out around the seams, so I intend to stick around and keep reading.

I already knew several tricks on an intellectual level, but performance is, I've discovered, another matter entirely - for example, my father was a wiz with Color Monte, and I understand the theory behind it, but I don't think I'll be able to perform that one for a long while yet. I've just purchased Volume One of the _Tarbell Course in Magic_, so I'm taking my first wobbly steps down the road of magic (and the road certainly looks long from here).

Thank you all for the information I've been able to gather so far, and for all the information I intend to squeeze out of you in the future. Maybe someday I'll know enough to be able to do the same for some other newbie.

-- Jake

Welcome to the Café Jake. This is a great place to visit. Besides reading, don't forget to post. That's half the fun.

Hi Jake,
Welcome among us. Your resume is so nice to read, I liked it indeed. Please do not hesitate to write often and join all the discussions you like. Please have a cup of strong Turkish coffee while you begin to type your next post.

Never too late to practice The Art.

Welcome.