How did you get started in magic?

Nov 30, 2007
821
0
This is the question we all recieve after we perform a show or a trick. It is a question that I don't have the answer to for myself. Someone always asks me it and I honestly don't know the reason. I have no explanation to why I got started in magic. I often think very hard and try to think of what could have sparked my interest in magic. It is often frustrating for me to not know how I got started.

So what is the point of this thread? The point of this thread is to ask everyone how they got started in magic. Evreyone has a very interesting story wheter it was watching a magic special on television, growing up with a magician in your life, or being fascinated when someone walked up to you and pulled a silver dollar (or quarter) out of your ear.

Some may not remember, although I bet that many people will know how they got started. I want this to be a thread with everyone participating (like a lot of Saturday Night Contests). Please help and contribute to this thread to make a thread that is not something that is just thrown down as a post, but rather a well thought out answer.

I really believe that if everyone participated in this, it could be really cool. Personally I will be very interested in the responses. Hopefully, we can also get some artists's involvement in this thread. Please think about your answers and take your time, there is no rush. I will put the link to this thread in my signature and you can find it when you want to by clicking on it. Thank you everyone for participating!

-Hunter
 
May 24, 2008
402
0
I got started after seeing David Copperfield in Las Vegas. I searched magic store online and found penguin and i grew from there.
 
Sep 3, 2007
2,562
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Europe
It all started back in... 3rd Grade. I got a little magic kit from a Scholastic Book Order, in which they would send you some tricks, the instructions, and each time they sent out a book order, you could order again, and get new tricks with new instructions. From the sounds of it, it was kind of like Randall's magic kid. ;)

Then, after a while, I kind of lost interest, and rarely performed. Until 5th grade, when my Dad sent me a package. In it, was Nicholas Einhorn's Practical Encyclopedia of Magic. It was basically a compacted version of MWCCIM. And I took off from there. I pored through that book, and for two whole years... I worked out of that book alone.

Then, two years later, my Mom came home from the city with an early birthday present- The Royal Road to Card Magic. I sat in my room, and literally absorbed more information than I could handle. For about another year... this was what I worked out of.

Then, I was introduced to Penguin Magic, and the rest of the online community. I was amazed at all the stuff there was out there that I had never seen before. All that time doing magic, and I had no clue. So I ordered some books, DVDs, and then my magical career skyrocketed, and I'm going strong today.

So yeah, for about... 4 out of my 6 years, I worked out of basically two books and a cheap magic trick. Just for those of you who think beginners shouldn't start with books, or can't start with books, or books won't take you very far. I don't take that crap from people- especially beginners.
 
I've been doing magic a bit over half a year, not sure how much but around 6-8 months. It all started when I saw a trick, I can't remember what one but it boggled my brain. After a bit I figured out a sleight :)D) part of it, that being the double lift. This concept blew my mind and I worked it out and tried it and it blew others away. The simplicity of the double lift and it's astonishment to others amazed me. From there I looked up "magic trick" on google, got a few freebies that were of course 'meh', but then I found online magic stores.
I found E first and learned some things there, I got Army of 52 (and of course a gaff deck), Crash Course 1 and Ninja. I worked with these and ended up here after and not too long ago I started getting things from penguin.

As to how I got into magic, it was my perception that got me into it, the spectators trait. I perceived the double lift and then it just fueled me to progress, another reason I love that miraculous sleight.

~PaCo
 
I have been doing magic since i was in Year 3. But that was only little magic sets and stuff. Then in 07 I went to England for a holiday. And in Harrods I saw this guy do Dlights. I was amazing I bought them. And my obsesssion grew from there.

JDEN
 
Sep 1, 2007
1,529
1
32
San Francisco, CA
I had that fleeting interest in magic that most young children have at one point or another, but mine grew as I got older. I received a bunch of large kids-show props for a few birthdays, until I realized that stage magic was not my niche.

I went online and eventually ended up stumbling on none other than Ellusionist. I bought a couple decks, a DVD or two, and started practicing. I quickly came to realize Ellusionist just did not have the best quality material around, so I looked a bit more and found Penguin. They had a lot of great beginner material, so I stuck with them for a while.

For a short time I messed around with the exposure community, but realized how wrong exposure was. I quickly left, and was pretty much off of online magic for a while. Then I discovered a little site called whatistheory11.com, and I've been here ever since.

David
 
My dad's friend Jim is a magician and he got me interested in it. He never did any type of sleight of hand and still doesn't because his previous job made his hands terrible for it. Even though he doesn't do any sleight of hand he still isn't that bad of a magician.
 
Dec 17, 2007
858
2
Canada
Picture this, a young me at a young age seeing a magic show at a geology center seeing the magician shrink a deck of cards was amazing. Then David Blaine's street magic special aired and I saw him levitate my eyes popped directly after, the commercial from Ellusionist said you to can levitate like David Blaine so I pestered my mother to buy me the $50 VHS tape of How To Do Street Magic. And I loved to perform. A few years later my grandparents bought me a cool magic kit form the mall with D'lites,Pen trough dollar,Invisible Thread,and a Svengalli deck. Each came with a instruction video but also 1 on 1 training with a magician witch taught me so much. Then a few years later I had a teacher who was a "secret magician" who told no one and he taught me and showed me penguin magic. Present day with years upon years of slight of hand a magic training I have become a good magician but a great actor. And can amaze anyone. What magic has done for me was broke social barriers at school and people in general and got me tons of free deserts. So if you are a young aspiring magician reading this never stop because the great end in life is not knowledge but taking action on knowledge.


-Michael
 

The Dark Angel

forum moderator / t11
Sep 1, 2007
2,003
18
32
Denver, Colorado
Eddie I'm sorry not every is as almighty and perfect as you are. Sorry again master for using something that you don't own or have a major part in thank you my liege.


-Michael

I'm fairly positive that he wasn't talking to you. However, I may be wrong. ;)

However, in the future, let's try and look for some already existing topics, alright?

Thanks,
TDA
 
Dec 17, 2007
858
2
Canada
I'm fairly positive that he wasn't talking to you. However, I may be wrong. ;)

However, in the future, let's try and look for some already existing topics, alright?

Thanks,
TDA

I am definitely positive that he wasn't talking to me but I hate when people to that garbage (saying to use the search function in a sarcastic way) Just say you answer can be found here (insert link).

BTW you will probably delete this but JackTheMagician FTW!!!!


-Michael
 
Oct 28, 2007
453
0
Sydney Australia
I have always liked magic since I was young, and started performing some simple tricks back in 2nd grade to fool my classmates.

Magic was always that thing that dwindled in the back of my mind and I never really took a deep interest in.
I got serious just roughly one and a half years ago. One of my friends got into card tricks, and as curious as I got, I was one of those idiots that went on youtube to try figure it out -_-, which now I realized is wrong.

Also I was at a party once and I saw a magician with 2-3 years experience, and I said to myself, "I want to do that one day".

So I guess those two events jump started my fascination in magic. I started off learning on youtube, which is wrong, but I didn't know many other sites/books/mediums which catered for such interests. I then discovered ellusionist, then penguin and finally T11.

XCM I got interested after learning from Cardshark88 and TheCuso's youtube vids lol.

-DL
 
Apr 9, 2008
325
0
Singapore
I've always been fascinated by the magic shows on television. I started to learn magic with a friend when I was 12 years old. During the end of that year, both of us went to different schools. I didn't know any magicians at my school and my passion for magic died.

However, this year, I had a classmate which learnt a few tricks and flourishes. This got me involved in magic again. From then on, I always carry a pack of cards where ever I go.

I'm sure that some of you may think that my passion for magic will die once again if I lose contact with my classmate. I can assure you that it won't. =)
 
May 8, 2008
1,081
0
Cumbria, UK
I was one of those kids that always had a 'My First Magic Kit' for his birthdays (I never quite worked out why...) but then got bored and left. One day I got a deck from somewhere and thought...hey wait, didn't I learn some card tricks?!?!?!?!?! Started playing with cards and it grew from there. Got my first deck of bikes about 4 months ago. Found T11 about 3 months ago.
 
When I was a little kid, perhaps six or seven years old, I was very interested in magic. Somebody gave me a book called "My first magic book". It was a simple book for kids with a lot of simple, illustrated tricks. It wasn't all rubbish, though, it had Out of This World and also a back palm and a coin vanish.
I also learned a few very simple card tricks and got started.
I would sometimes perform at friends' birthday parties, in front of my friends' parents and such. They would, of course, clap their hands politely :p
When asked what did I wanted to be when I grew up, my answer was "a magician".
So, years past away, and I lost interest, until one day, a year and a half ago, I accidently stumbled across Daniel Garcia's Kaos, which renewed my interest in magic almost instantly.
So that's it, pretty much. I'm into magic because I think it's an art, the art of illusion... And this is also why I've found this site and why I like it so much, because it treats magic (and cardistry) as art and not just entertainment.
 
Nov 30, 2007
821
0
Hey everyone, thank you for your responses. Also, I did use the search bar and I found like 11 pages of stuff, maybe more. A lot were unrelated and I didn't look through all of them considering that many were unrelated and there are probably newly joined members that may want to comment on this. I cannot get a good search because of like the 3 letter or 4 letter limit. It is very hard to search this using the search bar. I searched "started magic" like how you got started in magic.
 
Feb 28, 2008
354
8
i'm actually writing a book about why I got into magic... but to sum it all up, it's because of a girl.

But how I got started is different... I just knew these two little tricks for years and then I impressed said girl with a trick about a year ago and then I just started to learn more and more. I just learned a bunch of little things off of Youtube and then off of Born to Perform and E's Crash Course 1. And then I just kind of got obsessed...
 
Nov 15, 2007
1,106
2
35
Raleigh, NC
To quote one of my favorite lines from Mysterious Stranger by David Blaine.

"You don't get into magic. Magic gets into you."

Somewhere between birth and today I became obsessed with magic. Probably started out as a 'How could he do that' and is now something I get to share with others.

No real rhyme or reason to it, deception in the form of entertainment has just been part of my life for as long as I can remember. Focusing a lot more the last two years on perfection and creation.

And even if a thread has been started...going back and putting something on it now will just have the same people who say 'The search feature' saying 'old topic, why'd you bring it up' so If you don't have anything constructive to say, ignore the topic and post on something you might enjoy.
 
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