A couple of days I noticed something weird about the 10 of Hearts in a deck of cards I’d just bought. If I grabbed both sides and pulled hard enough and fast enough… Well, watch the video and you’ll see what happens.
Okay, I confess, it wasn’t the card that was weird. It was me. But how did I get to be this way? Glad you asked…
A few years ago, Larissa and I went on a camping trip with some high school friends of mine on Vancouver Island. We had a really fun time, playing Bohnanza and walking by the river.
Just prior to that trip, I had–for reasons I can’t remember–become curious about how difficult it would be to learn some basic sleight of hand. I was probably thinking that it might be fun to make things disappear and reappear for my kids once I had some. (I don’t think Larissa was pregnant with Calvin at that point.) So I had looked up a couple of tutorials online, and during the camping trip I spent a bunch of time by the campfire with little pebbles in my hands, practicing making them disappear.
After that trip, I spent a bit more time learning a couple of basic techniques with playing cards, but my interest fizzled out before too long and I stopped thinking about magic.
Fast forward to May 2013. Larissa, Calvin, and I were at my sister-in-law Rosalynn’s wedding. During the reception, I got the idea to see how my young nieces would react to a bit of magic. I pulled off my wedding ring–it was the most appropriate object I had to hand–and practiced my technique a couple of times to see if I remembered it. Luckily, it was an easy thing to remember, so I crouched down and made my wedding ring disappear from my hand and reappear on my finger. The girls seemed to like it, and suddenly my interest in magic was rekindled.
Over the last five months or so, I’ve been teaching myself a ton of new tricks and techniques, picking them up from a variety of sources. When I’m watching TV I quite often have a deck of cards in my hands–or my wedding ring–and I’m doing the same thing over and over and over, and then asking Larissa to watch me do the trick for her and tell me where I’m making mistakes. She’s put up with me, very much to her credit!
At this point I’ve got maybe 20 different card routines or effects that I’m semi-confident in performing. (I even created a couple of the routines myself!) I also have a handful of non-card tricks, including some things that use my wedding ring, and lately I’ve been trying to expand my non-card repertoire some more.
I’m always looking for chances to practice my performances, and I’ve usually got a deck of cards on me these days (or if I don’t I’ve got my wedding ring!), so if you’re interested in seeing what I’ve been working on, all you have to do is ask!