Saturday Night Contest - Valentine's Day!

[CaseyRudd]

Hey guys, hope everyone is having a great start to the weekend! Today is Valentine's Day, and that means there is all kinds of love in the air. This week's contest has to do with love, but not the kind of love you're thinking about. Let me further elaborate.

For this week's contest, we want you to share with us the moment that you fell in love with cards, puzzles, magic, or cardistry. What was it that you saw, learned, or experienced that got you hooked with either genre? Was it a trick/flourish that you saw performed? Was it putting together a puzzle with your family? Was it learning a new sleight or cardistry move that gave you the spark? Did you attend a convention or meet up with other magicians/cardists? Whatever the moment was, we want you to share it with us. What made you fall in love with these hobbies?

Post your responses in THIS forum thread by no later than 11:00pm EST tomorrow, Sunday, February 15th. Once time is up, we will select TWO responses at random, each receiving 500 Elite Member Points and 3 Decks of Love Me Playing Cards, shipped on the house, anywhere in the world.

We are extremely excited to read your responses. We hope everyone had a happy Valentines Day!

 

[Luis Vega]

For me is when I saw a magician (I think it was stephan vanel) doing card manipulation… I swear to god I thought it was actual magic… it was amazing… I was puzzled for days and I started to research card magic and then I learned the snap change… I felt on top of the world doing it for people… what days those were

 

[Lauren E]

The earliest moment I remember was performing a card trick that I learned from my brother for kindergarten show and tell. Even at that age, I loved seeing the wonder and smiles on people's faces. I think the idea of taking something ordinary and using it to add a touch of whimsy into life- whether it be through slight of hand, a beautiful cardistry flourish, or even the delight and satisfaction of solving a puzzle, is what made me fall in love with this world.

 

[neilvinzon]

It was around 2014 when I came across some videos by the Virts (Style and Reintroduction) and Andrei Jikh (Crazy Cardistry), and that’s when I really got hooked on cardistry.

 

[Motte]

Hello everyone,

I’m really excited to read how everyone fell in love with cards.

For me, it started when I was around 8 or 9 years old. I remember coming home from school one day, seeing David Blaine in TV performing some crazy tricks with playing cards and I was completely amazed. It felt impossible, so I couldn’t just look away. Eventually I got my hands on a deck of cards trying to figure out his tricks on my own so I practiced every day for hours, determined to recreate the tricks, that same feeling of wonder and tried to fool the other kids at school with my magic.

Later, in my teens, I learned my first real card trick on a music festival from a girl who was kind enough to share the secret of it with me after trying to amaze her with my tricks which to be honest weren’t amazing at all, but I loved the trick she showed me so much that I still perform it to this day, it helped me unlock new ways to perform many other card tricks and showed me that magic wasn’t just about fooling people, it was about creating moments they would remember.

Looking back, that’s where the key moments I truly fell in love with magic and cards. And that same spark I felt back then is still the reason I always keep a deck of cards on me.

 

[JamesonA]

I think the first time I fell in love with magic was when I got a kit from a kids program. It was interesting, puzzle-esque, and, well, magical. I like playing cards more than magic now, but that was what started it all.

 

[Signature-]

I still remember seeing my friend's purple avengers deck. Love at first sight. Next thing I knew I was getting variety card packs, and what to do with all those cards except learn some magic tricks?

 

[Eliyahu]

My aunt bought me the Klutz book of magic. Wonderful stuff

 

[Nikolay Karagyozov]

For me it was David Blaine with his TV Show and the teeth removing trick. I was literally shocked and had to know how he did it. So I started learning the craft. Never found out anything specific about the method, but still 😀

 

[Amit R.]

Watching one David Copperfield’s specials on TV as a kid solidified it for me.

 

[RyannLim30]

It was back in elementary school when I saw a kid did a vanishing coin trick and had massive reactions, that's when I knew the magic moment that magic can bring, and the rest was history!

 

[taycandefender]

2024 was the year I starting collecting cards and enjoyed magic but always had a thing for magic but never jumped into full on like I did a couple years ago.

 

[Goku52]

I fell in love with magic because of a friend ! We used to play football together and one day he showed me a trick and taught me how it's done ! That's the point I fell in love with magic and doing magic from that day !

 

[Furrukh]

I am more of a magic person but recently I got a harry potter puzzel back in December from t11. I gifted it to my 15yr old niece and 12yr old nephew and since it was their winter vacation they started making it immediately when they got it. My first initial plan was to let them make it while I make of video of their progress after every hour. They started making it like 2pm on day 1, and I was documenting everything after every hour, by 8pm small pieces of the picture started to take shape in different parts of the room, and by 9pm every hour I went to make a video I started sitting with them for 15 to 20 mins and started searching for pieces they were looking for, day 1 we stopped by 1am puzzle was 30% done, locked the room and went to sleep, next day the kids started after the breakfast and I joined them by the evening by 8pm day 2 it was really beginning to take shape and we joined 4 or 5 small portions together to form a big picture but even at the end of day 2 it was not completed as yet. Day 3 began and this time I too started with them cuz it was started to take my nerves, we were abt 100 to 150 pieces remains and that was the 4 sides of the border and boy we underestimated those borders took nearly 2 to 3 hours to complete those freaking borders, we enjoyed the puzzle so much we got it framed and hung it on a wall and I think given a some reset time we might do another puzzle soon. So solving these puzzles is the new love I have developed

 

[HansR3]

I fell in love with it recently. During a poker game a friend was performing some cardistry moves and I felt like I had to start cause it looked so cool.

 

[Shiwas]

A few years ago I was scrolling through Instagram and saw a picture of theory11's Avengers deck and instantly liked it. After searching it online found more decks that I liked. After that I was hooked on collecting decks.

 

[craigpalms37]

My first love for magic came when I saw the children’s pastor (Pastor Boyd) perform magic on Sunday…gospel magic. I instantly fell in love with magic seeing magic every Sunday and being mesmerized by so many awesome tricks, such as the Chinese Linking Rings, the crystal silk cylinder, the Color Changing Plums, among many others I was just completely mesmerized and definitely bit by the magic bug.
My dad took me to my first magic shop which was the Ted Carothers Magic Studio in Toledo, Ohio area.
I live in Michigan and it was about a 50 minute drive to the magic shop where I purchased my first deck called the mixed up deck, and Svengali deck, I was also shown by a magician behind the counter, the front and back palm vanishing of a card, which was completely amazing to me and very magic magical.
From there on, I was just completely hooked on magic.

 

[yeti8726]

I fell in love with magic when I was about 7 years old. My grandfathers friend (Jack Boat was his name) from Florida came to visit and he showed me a a trick with all the jacks, queens and kings. He had a story that all the lions, tigers and bears escaped from the zoo and he collected all the cards and the zoo keeper (you) cut as many times as you wanted and when you dealt three piles, and the lions, tigers and bears were all back in their cages together. Ever since then, I could not escape the mystery and the love of magic!

 

[StephaneH3]

I would go with the family evenings of group cards playing, like "Passe l'as", or cribbage, or Little Bingo. Those were very fun times and I got hooked on cards forever

 

[ddiep002]

I have always loved magic as a kid ever since watching David Blaine and Criss Angel on tv. I think my first introduction into learning magic was through Ellusionist's How to do Street Magic. It was through them that I started collecting cards (Black Tiger, Ghost, 1800s). I was collecting mostly Bicycle variants (Breast Cancer edition, Wounded Warriors, Humane Society) and I didn't learn about Theory11 until I got the NPH deck. I can't believe how far T11 or just playing cards has come now, there are so many different playing cards with different movie/tv show themes now. I don't think I will ever be done with buying playing cards.