theory11 — Magic Tricks & the World's Finest Playing Cards

WH Holiday Giveaway - Winners Announced

Congratulations to those who won and everybody who entered. I also would love to see some of those stories! I hope everybody who received a gift will be able to benefit greatly from it. Thanks to Wayne for doing this, I'm sure he's helped far more than he realizes.

Peace
 
Congratulations to all the winners. :) I didn't win, but its awesome though that you offered all these prizes and actually took the time to read through every single entry. I'm grateful for that alone. :) Again, congratulations to the winners. Wayne, your awesome for doing this contest.

-Doug
 
congrats to the winners and a heartfelt thank you to wayne for a great contest. if people are interested we could all share our stories on this thread, i know i still have mine in my email. haha
 
Here was my entry:

Hi Wayne,

My name is Teddy L------. I am fourteen and a freshman at high school, where I participate in the magic club. Magic has always been important to me. Ever since I was little, I have had magic kits and tricks. I have always loved performing. Unfortunately, I stopped doing magic for a while. About two years ago, I started up again, this time taking it seriously. I especially like close up magic (cards, coins, spongeballs, etc.), and I do a little mentalism, but mostly it is with cards. I started performing for birthday parties last year and I started making business cards and flyers. I hope I continue practicing magic for a long time. I think it's great that you are having this giveaway. I really appreciate it.

Now it's time to flatter you. You and Daniel Garcia are actually my two favorite magicians, especially when you work together. I loved the excerpts from your videos I've seen, especially Control and Ultragaff. Being a teenager with a relatively strict mother, I cannot buy all of your videos, or many other magic videos I am interested in. Things I do have include Thread, Stigmata, the Daniel Garcia Projects, Digital Dissolve (I love "the name" part), and Mark Wilson's Encyclopedia of Magic.

My mom works at the Valerie Fund, an organization here in New Jersey that helps children with cancer and blood disorders. Every year they have a couple Christmas parties for the kids who are in treatment or have been treated and their families. I started volunteering to perform at these parties last year, and I am practicing for the one on Monday. Last year, I went to the party with my spongeballs, my Invisible deck, my trusty deck of Bikes, my Svengali deck, some coins, etc. I was really nervous. I get nervous whenever I'm about to perform. But since I love magic so much I go through with it, and after 10 minutes I'm in the zone. I did it, and I had a lot of fun. I also did it this year with my friend. We did mostly the same effects, but we also loaded a few forced cards into some people's rolls. It was great. Looking back, I must have seemed like a little kid who thought he was David Blaine (or Wayne Houchin). But I'm proud of myself, and I look forward to doing it again.

Thanks so much for reading!
-Teddy L-----
 
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Name: Robert Sowinski

Age: 13

From: Toronto, Ontario. (GTA)

Magic type: Close up/ parlour.

Dear Wayne, “Take a chance" is what I live for everyday. I always wanted to do something different and unique- to have that sense of achievement and wonder in my life, that’s when i decided to “Take a chance" with Magic... It all started off with a good old trip to Quebec City here in Canada, expecting nothing but boredom, i was 6 years old. As me and my family toured the city and studied its culture, everything came to a stop. I saw a huge crowd of people standing around one man, applauding for something i yet did not know. This man was a busking magician. As I walked into the crowed, stood there watching the man perform the impossible in front of my eyes, a simple coin vanish- and i was already hooked. My dad handed me a 10 dollar bill, as i dropped it in his hat, i asked " how did you do that?" he said " MAGIC", i will remember that moment for the rest of my life. I wanted to do magic forever now, but i was only 6 years old. I didn't know where to start or how to achieve my goal to be a magician. I started to walk to the library everyday with my mom and would rent tons of magic books, have my mom read them to me and would sit in front of a mirror and practice some goofy magic trick i learned. At 10 years old, i took my first trip to the magic shop. When i walked through the doors of the shop, it was like another world. Cards springing in one corner, some older guys learning some new discovered sleight in the other, but i just stood there and watched, i knew nobody! i was introduced to the owner as he handed me a book. I flipped through the pages; it was Mark Wilson’s course of Magic. I studied the book day in and day out. Magic was truly what i loved and started becoming more and more serious about it when i turned twelve. I was a fast learner, and started learning more advanced material and even got to hang out with those older guys that were at the shop now that i had more knowledge. I learned allot from books and other people, but i knew there was a time when i had to be myself and have my own style. I now practice my craft everyday, getting myself out there and perform regularly. I try my best to never give up no matter how hard it is to make it, i try my best to bring the most unique magic to the world and break the line between Illusion and Reality.

Inspirations:

Paul Harris: For the most unique creations.

Penn and Teller: For amazing Magic and humour, as well as good advice!

Slydini: For amazing misdirection.

David Copperfield: For breath taking illusions.

Everybody at THEORY 11! : For giving back to the magic community and amazing magic concepts!

Wayne Houchin: For creating magic that has connected all over the world and has got people very far, and for giving back to the magic community with all your great advice to keep us moving forward to get magic further than it is now.

Dai Vernon: For his precision in cutting edge card magic and for fooling Houdini.

Houdini: for letting people believe that anything is possible even if it had to take strength, sweat, blood or tears, he “ ESCAPED” his problems.


Have a Merry, Merry, Magical Christmas Wayne!

Robert.



Heres Mine.

Robert. S
 
My story – well you asked for it, so here it is (the reason why I do magic).

Okay, a few years ago their was this festival on, I live near a park and the festival was on at the park, it’s a big one called “feast” (you can see it on Google I think), and feast is where there is a huge picnic by the lake (the lake in the park) last year around 10,000 people went (or something like that), and everyone hangs about in the sun, and lots of performers get hired. Theirs mimes, comedians, variety, sideshow, plain weird, magicians, jugglers and lots of others. So their we were, my family, and we were walking around and we saw this tent, and these two benches around, and someone saying their was going to be a show in 5 mins, so we sat their and then this man in a thong (no joke) came out and got about 15 people to come in the tent, so we walked in, and their was a bathtub on the floor, filled with water, and the man talked to us about how in his family their was long line of people who could breath through their eyes, and he talked to us for about 10 mins, then what he did he took a deep breath and went into the bathtub face up so we could see his face/eyes, and after a about 30 seconds, these tiny little bubbles started to come out from his tear ducts, and everyone in the tent was completely silent, just looking as all these little bubbles went through the water from his eyes, and after about 1 min he cam out of the water and everyone was silent, exept for a quite “whoa” near the back of the crowd, and he bowed, a man in a thong just bowed to us and everyone just clapped, he then said “this is what I do, I travel around and I perform this, if you want to give a donation then thank you, if you don’t then that’s okay to”, then everyone came out the tent, I could see that he was doing well that day and our family gave him £5 ($10) and he said thanks, and we went out of the tent.


this is just the story though ;)
 
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