Saturday Night Contest - Falling In Love

CaseyRudd

Director of Operations
Team member
Jun 5, 2009
3,393
3,801
Charleston, SC
www.instagram.com
Hey guys, hope everyone is having a great start to the weekend! Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, and that means there's 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 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 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 magic or cardistry?

Post your responses in THIS forum thread by no later than 7:30pm EST tomorrow, Sunday, February 14th. 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. Happy Valentines Day!
 

FTL_FTK

Elite Member
Aug 31, 2015
67
103
When I was about 7 a magic show used to air on T.V. on Sunday mornings. On it I saw a sleight of hand trick where in the end a handkerchief turned into an egg. Then the magician showed how the trick was done and, after finishing the exposed view, he showed that the egg was real by cracking it open. I was floored by that ending, and that's what made me fall in love with watching magic.
However, it was until recently, while watching Michael Vincent's appearance on Penn & Teller Fool Us, that I became inspired to learn how to perform card tricks.
 

willtupper

Elite Member
Apr 28, 2009
283
335
I can narrow it down to these three:

1. My father showing me, over and over, the classic beginner "Four Burglars" effect. Blew my mind, every time.

2. Watching David Copperfield make the Statue of Liberty disappear.

3. David Blaine's first special. Especially the bit with the Dallas Cowboys.

Good luck, everyone!
 
Dec 30, 2014
279
344
I started to love magic since before I can even remember. My Granddad was really into magic so he used to show me all sorts of cool tricks. Then when I was 12 I think I remember watching Dynamo on TV and seeing the amazing tricks and reactions (The reactions are always the best part :)) I thought to myself I really want to be able to do that sort of thing and make people feel that way so I started via the only way I knew how... youtube, and then eventually I was lead here :)
I just really wish my Granddad was around today so I could show him what my magic was like :)
 

theSunnyG

Elite Member
Mar 3, 2012
386
315
My first experience with magic is also the first time I fell in love with magic - so I guess I do believe in love at first…sleight.

I believe I was about 5 when this happened - a cousin showed me a simple card trick; the one trick that I think every layman knows, pick a card, peek keycard position, replace it, spread it, you know.
But I would ask him to see it over and over and over again, and every time it would floor me.

From then on it was magic sets, the first I remember being a Paul Daniels one (oh did I show my age!…)

Then that interest dissipated, because at that age you're not really ready to learn sleights or read the classic books. So it wasn't until David Blaine's special that it reignited a once forgotten love.

From there during that time, there were 2 sites that provided magic, Ellusionist or Penguin - and I'm sure like many, my first big introduction into card magic was Oz Pearlman's 'Born to Perform'.

This is where I first learned the Biddle Trick, ACR, Transpos and even now, I still believe those to be the hardest hitters, the simple stuff!

And, well I'm here now so I guess, the rest is history.
 

Tower of Lunatic Meat

Elite Member
Sep 27, 2014
2,435
2,029
Texa$, with a dollar sign
Taken me a couple hours just to delve in to the mind palace and find how I FIRST got into magic, as opposed to when I picked it up a second time a year and a half ago.

I was watching cartoon, as young kids would do. And I saw an interesting commercial for a series of magic tricks.

Also helped that the lead kid in the commercial is Danny Tamberelli of 'Pete & Pete' fame, which I was my favorite show then.

I didn't have enough money to get one at the time. But my dad, a KMart manager, brought one home. It didn't have a box or instructions--but it was all there: Crystal Cleaver.

took me the greater of an hour and a half, but I figured out how it worked and the order to do it in and I was hooked. I loved how ingenious it was and wanted more of what this 'magic' was about.

The rest is history...until I moved to Arizona and I don't know what happened to my magic kit...Then Then picked up magic again 20 years later.
 
Dec 21, 2015
79
36
I was 7 years old my mom had just died on April Fool's day. That fooled me. To this day no one knows what exactly caused her to die.. Her death certificate said's some sort of food poisoning, but I don't think so. Anyway when she died, she passed away in the bathroom at like 8 PM. It was late the ambulance came took her to the hospital, they did what they could, but she died later that night. Then my aunt picked me and my brother up to stay at her house for a while ( my father needed to be alone, this hit him quite hard ), and she has this WHOLE room dedicated to pool, darts, and cards. The whole blackjack table the lot. For me back then as a kid. This was one of my favorite places. We played cards and then somebody started doing card tricks. I don't exactly remember who...maybe one of my cousins or my uncles who were all there. ( my mom was very missed it was all a shock to everybody ) I don't remember why....but something in my 7 year old mind CLICKED. I knew what I wanted to do. He did his own version of a ambitious card routine.

Ever since that day I've ALWAYS been practicing. Still am. RIP mom. Her birthday was last Tuesday ( February 9th )
 
Sep 6, 2015
29
43
The first trick I ever saw was when my father made a Chapstick tube disappear and then reappear under the sheets of his bed. At my young age I had no idea how it was done and I started to become intrigued in magic.

This interest slowly died away until I saw David Blaine's street magic special. My inner magician sparked again and I have loved practicing sleight of hand ever since.
 

RealityOne

Elite Member
Nov 1, 2009
3,744
4,076
New Jersey
My son was 6 years old and in his first year in Cub Scouts. After they finished the requirements for their Tiger badge, they were on to doing electives. One of the electives was "magic." I had always loved magic. I saw David Copperfield in 1987 when I was in college. So I decided to put on a magic show and teach them a couple of magic tricks. The problem was that I didn't know any magic tricks.

So I set out to research magic tricks. I found a website that had several easy card tricks for kids (one of which was the 21 trick). I also found magictricks.com. The owner, Peter was great to talk to on the phone. I found a bunch of magic tricks I remembered from my childhood such as the ball vase and drawer box. I also picked up a change bag, some gaff cards (http://www.magictricks.com/7-in-1-packet-trick.html), spellbinding boxes coin trick (http://www.magictricks.com/spellbinding-nest-of-boxes.html), a thumbtip flag blendo, an invisible deck, a stripper deck, a devil's handkerchief, a magic milk pitcher and a magic candy maker (http://www.magictricks.com/candy-factory.html).

I put together an hour show for the boys. I knew that merely showing them the tricks wouldn't work. So I developed a presentation for all of the effects involving the boys and making it entertaining.

We started like all Cub Scout meetings start, with the Pledge of Allegiance. But we didn't have a flag. One of the sisters of a scout helped me out. I had a red silk and a white silk but not a blue silk. They boys pointed out that there was a blue silk in my pocket (how convenient). I then stuffed the silks into my hand and produced an American Flag for the Pledge.

I had a card selected and returned to the deck and it appeared as the only reversed card. I then showed the boys how to do the effect by reversing the bottom card (part of the elective was for them to learn some magic). I then went to do the effect again and had the card reinserted into a spread. Somehow, I managed to teach myself to do a side steal palm to reverse the card in the deck. I then followed up by using an invisible deck and having a card named by a spectator reversed in the deck.

I did an effect where two boys (twins) had their parents each select a card and return it to the other deck and the boys, without any coaching, were able to find their parent's cards. The boys each had a half of the deck -- one had all the black cards and the other all the red. I then shuffled the card, repeated the trick and then showed that the deck was again separated into red and black cards.

I had one scout borrow a $20 bill from their parent and we used the drawer box to make it disappear and then reappear. When the boy returned the bill to his dad, it was a $1 bill! I had the boy reach into the Devil's Handkerchief and pull out a card wallet. The dad was told that I thought his $20 bill was in the wallet, but to hold it up to the audience and pull out the first thing he felt. That was a card which was a Joker. I assured him that I wasn't joking and that the next thing he pulled out of the wallet would be it. He then pulled out the "IT" gaff card. Finally, he pulled out his $20 bill to the audience's applause and his relief.

I then found a scout who didn't have a neckerchief. With a blue silk, an orange silk, a change bag and some magic, we made a Tiger Cub neckerchief appear. I still have one of the neckerchiefs in with my silks in case I ever do another Cub Scout show.

I did the ball vase routine but instead of the ball appearing back in my pocket where I had put it (which is what everyone who had the trick thought would happen, it appeared in the shirt pocket of the child that was helping me. It is amazing what a little sleight of hand can do.

For my second to last routine, I borrowed the Den Leader's Campaign hat. You have to understand that this is one of his prize possessions. I then took the milk pitcher and poured milk into a funnel made from the Sunday comic section. I vanished the milk and then produced a rabbit from the hat. Well, it was a wind up rabbit but it really surprised the audience because the hat was in full view at all times (or at least it seemed that way).

The final routine was the magic candy maker. You really can't do much else after you give a bunch of 6 year olds a cup full of M&Ms.

A couple of weeks later, word of my performance spread and I was asked to perform in front of the whole Pack (around 35 kids and their parents). I had the Tiger Cubs help me doing some of the tricks I taught them and added a linking rings routine.

At that point, I was in love with magic and in love with performing. That experience very much influenced my performance style. I knew it was about more than just the tricks, it was about the presentation and interaction with the audience.

So, 7 years later, my son is 13 and in Boy Scouts. Those who know me know that I am an Assistant Scoutmaster and that I go camping, hiking and backpacking every month and for weeks at a time in the summer.

As for magic, it is around 150 books, 25 lectures and lots of money spent later and I'm still in love with magic. I'm just glad that my wife loves my magic performances as much as I do.
 

Fox13

Elite Member
Aug 19, 2014
200
171
I participated in local magic show by Alain Coquette. In his final trick, he would randomly select 12 members of the audience and them all disappear at once. I was one of them.

I always loved magic. It always fascinated me. I loved David Copperfield's tv specials. Although I would not start learning magic until about 3 years ago, after seeing Penn and Teller's first season of Fool Us. So I started learning card magic with RRTCM and ECT. Then I wanted to learn more flashy stuff, that's when I got the Trilogy, by D&D, which also triggered an interest for cardistry.
 
Dec 10, 2015
9
6
I fell in love with magic when a magician came to my town. He told jokes and everything, and he was funny. But for the kid I was, seeing him restoring a rope and then throwing it to the public made me want to be like him, one day. Then a friend of mine also got into magic, and we would go around performing magic to everyone we knew. My love for magic hasn't stopped growing since then.
 
Nov 10, 2014
426
337
I got into magic via cardistry. How I got into cardistry... I was watching the National Geographic show Brain Games, I saw Andrei Jikh do a card spring. I set out on a mission to figure out how to do that move. That is how it started. On another note, I know I can't win this, this is a random contest, therefore Brett will win.
 

Khaleel Olaiky

Elite Member
Aug 31, 2013
535
573
Yeah I kinda remember... I started learning magic from Jay Sankey on his TV show for kids about 7 years ago it's not the tricks he learned us that made me love magic, he used to do a performance for a more advanced tricks without learning it, I used to wait to that part of the show because I like it more, Why? you are asking, because the idea that there is always more in magic, there is always something new you haven't seen before, just amazed me I know tricks with with coins but he is still doing something incredible with them how is that possible? a big proof for that is Penn&Teller fool us they are the best magicians and there is something outhere that could fool them.

BTW by now I know most of the tricks that Sankey used to do as a performance only back in the day, they are not that advanced actually, but yeah this concept make me love magic more and more everyday.
 

hobbes22

Elite Member
Sep 27, 2015
22
20
mid America
I’ve got to jump into Calvin’s cardboard time machine and go way, way back to childhood (maybe 7) for this moment. I was at a Lodge sitting on a bar stool drinking --a soda!-- and feeling pretty bored when suddenly an object slid across the wooden bar and stopped right in front of me. I had no idea what this strange contraption was. It looked like a toy but nothing I had ever seen before. The bartender took out a coin and placed it on the mysterious object. The next thing I know, the toy sprang to life and in the blink of an eye, the coin was snatched away and had disappeared! I was completely amazed by this “magical” toy – eventually discovering it was an antique mechanical bank. I suppose that isn’t your typical magic trick but it definitely made a lasting impression on me. Hobbies come and go, but magic and cards have been a constant part of my life in one form or another ever since that day.

Good luck to everyone and Happy Valentine’s Day! :)
 
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