Hey folks! 
Long time lurker, not posted much, but I figured I'd take a minute to introduce myself.
I'm a 30-something husband and father, and I started doing magic when I was 8 years old after seeing David Copperfield walk through the Great Wall of China on TV. (I think we all have a similar story) My grandmother got me a few tricks for my birthday that year (egg cup, popcorn-dye-box, svengali deck, stuff like that.)
I was fortunate to learn from some great teachers that 'took me under their wing' and taught me a lot of stuff about magic, showmanship and making effects 'my own.' I became a big fan of JC Wagner (God rest his soul) and Doc Eason and loved the stuff that they used to do. I used to attend Hank's convention weekend on Cape Cod and blow all my paper-route money on books, lecture notes and videos.. Fun times..!
In my early 20's, the 'scene' started changing with the proliferation of the Internet. Clowns like Herb Becker and Valentino were running around exposing anything they could, the local magic shop closed its doors for good and to ice the cake, I broke a hand. Needless to say, I 'took a break' from actually practicing and performing, but have always been a fan of the art and history and have a decent collection of books and antique magic.
A couple years ago I was going through some old boxes in my office and pulled out my close-up pad and a deck of cards and started playing around. Shortly after, I found T11 and have lurked on the forums and have seen some incredible stuff coming out of the folks on here and it's been quite inspiring! As a community, we are very lucky to have this kind of access to some of the most talented folks in the art.
Anyways, if you've made it this far, I apologize for the length of this post and I hope to see you around!
PS, I've read the forum rules. I love the spelling/grammar one.. ;-)
Long time lurker, not posted much, but I figured I'd take a minute to introduce myself.
I'm a 30-something husband and father, and I started doing magic when I was 8 years old after seeing David Copperfield walk through the Great Wall of China on TV. (I think we all have a similar story) My grandmother got me a few tricks for my birthday that year (egg cup, popcorn-dye-box, svengali deck, stuff like that.)
I was fortunate to learn from some great teachers that 'took me under their wing' and taught me a lot of stuff about magic, showmanship and making effects 'my own.' I became a big fan of JC Wagner (God rest his soul) and Doc Eason and loved the stuff that they used to do. I used to attend Hank's convention weekend on Cape Cod and blow all my paper-route money on books, lecture notes and videos..
Fun times..!In my early 20's, the 'scene' started changing with the proliferation of the Internet. Clowns like Herb Becker and Valentino were running around exposing anything they could, the local magic shop closed its doors for good and to ice the cake, I broke a hand. Needless to say, I 'took a break' from actually practicing and performing, but have always been a fan of the art and history and have a decent collection of books and antique magic.
A couple years ago I was going through some old boxes in my office and pulled out my close-up pad and a deck of cards and started playing around. Shortly after, I found T11 and have lurked on the forums and have seen some incredible stuff coming out of the folks on here and it's been quite inspiring! As a community, we are very lucky to have this kind of access to some of the most talented folks in the art.
Anyways, if you've made it this far, I apologize for the length of this post and I hope to see you around!
PS, I've read the forum rules. I love the spelling/grammar one.. ;-)