I’m starting this blog to answer some of the most popular questions I get asked when performing magic for people. This question is the most common one, because there’s a lot of mystique around magic as a genre because of all of its secrecy.
The short answer
There is, fortunately, a short answer: I saw someone do something totally impossible with a deck of cards and it made me want to learn. This was partly so I could understand what I had just seen, and partly so that I could share the wonder I just felt with others. This is why I now do what I do - I remember that feeling of utter astonishment and I really enjoy sharing it.
The longer answer
I had been tangentially interested in magic as a kid. I had a kid’s magic set, I learned a couple of very simple tricks and moves, but this was all when I was about 7 or 8 and, as kids do, I relatively quickly moved onto my next obsession (I believe it was Yu-Gi-Oh cards). I always kept a bit of an interest in it, but it was never at the forefront of my mind.
The interest restarted when I was about 20 years old, back in 2018ish. My minor interest in magic led me to watching a TV show called “Penn and Teller: Fool Us” - a reality show in which magicians try and “fool” Las Vegas headline magicians, Penn and Teller (I hate the word "fool", but it’s the word that magicians use to mean “the other person doesn’t know how the trick works"). I watched the first episode and was immediately hooked. I highly recommend seeking the show out if you can find it - it’s still going, after many years, and several of my friends have actually performed on it.
This first episode had an incredible line up, but the two stand-outs for me were comedy magician John Archer, and sleight-of-hand artist Michael Vincent. John Archer is hilarious and an incredible magician, and I highly recommend you watch his act:
But the real artistry that drew me in was Michael Vincent. His suave, sophisticated style, along with his INCREDIBLE sleight of hand, really stuck with me. For the record, I’ve now been doing magic for most of my adult life, and I still get hypnotised seeing sleight of hand as good as his: that’s something you can only learn through a lifetime of dedication. If you want to see his act, it, like John Archer’s, is available on YouTube:
After this, I decided I wanted to learn magic. I did a bit of research on how to do this, and dove into it headfirst. How did I start learning? What was the process like? Well, that’s another frequent question that I get, and to find out the answer, you’ll have to wait until next time! Thanks for reading.
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