It was a quiet discussion between friends that night that rekindled my love for the arts. As much as I wish my devotion came from a childhood memory of a magic set bestowed to me by my grandfather when I was a tween; I arrived at the adventure in the oddest way – which always seems quite normal for me.

It all started due to my stubbornness against a cable giant not honoring a $10 coupon on a $185 per month service bill. As my Italian-Irish-German temper grew I spent several years with canceled television service and all the free time in the world. Occasionally I’d have company over and with no television service to divert my guest; I actually had to entertain them with words. This little situation I put myself in with my guest lead to a conversation that made me reach deep into my childhood and pull a missed love from my memory.

“What shows you miss watching on TV?” was the question my friend asked one night while we sat on my couch staring at a blank high-def television screen. It wasn’t the question that took my thoughts back to my early childhood; it was that the questioned turned into “What do you miss seeing on TV?”  Once my ears heard those words it was like I was put into a Hollywood spell. The words of my friend turned into gibberish while the whole room spun and morphed into a room I haven’t seen for over 10 years. As color and life filled the dream room, so did a little boy with his grandmother both staring at a TV anticipating the broadcast of The Magic of David Copperfield. As reality consumed my visions of the past I interrupted my friend mid-speech with, “You know what I miss, seeing David Copperfield on TV.” As I finished my comment I noticed my friend entering a similar dreamscape. I stood silent as I watched his face develop into an expression I will remember for the rest of my life. I could tell he was filled with excitement, so much so that he stood up and started to pace as we reminisced on our favorite Copperfield illusions.

As my friend went to bed that night I’d imagine so did his emotions and memories from our recently discussed Copperfield mysteries. To him it was just a quick jolt of adrenaline caused by the excitement of remembering a lost memory of his childhood. To me it was so much more. That night I went out to my car in the pouring rain and retrieved my work laptop. Due to my stubbornness toward my cable company I lacked Internet services as well. I booted up the laptop and stood anxiously at the Windows boot logo and the slow moving loading bar hoping I could find an unsecured wireless connection. Once the Windows chime announced I was booted up I quickly started my search for an available wireless access point. I had to move to my bedroom to establish a strong enough signal to connect, but it was there on the floor where I fell in love with magic all over again.  

The first night I didn’t catch any sleep. I was too busy going down a wonderful rabbit hole of magic and its history. The more I read about magic the more I was glued to the screen; it was the little boy watching David Copperfield on the TV for the first time again. In the first week I not only read up on what happened with Copperfield and about his show in Las Vegas but I also learned out about other great magicians like Dai Vernon, Tommy Wonder, Bill Malone, Mark Wilson, Doug Henning, and dozens of other wonderful performers. I was literally a sponge, soaking up all the information I could obtain without any distraction. It wasn’t long when I placed my first magic order, The Royal Road to Card Magic by Hugard Jean along with a matching instructional DVD, The Royal Road to Card Magic by R. Paul Wilson.

Today the one book and one DVD have multiplied into a complete book shelf accompanied by multiple desk drawers dedicated to magic. As I continue to learn and develop my skill set I choose to consider myself a student of magic rather than a magician. I hope to utilize the blog feature on this site as a journal into my learning and developing process, to share and receive criticism, and to record my development stages so that I can refer back and eliminate repeating mistakes. My goal is to one day not only call myself a magician but be respected by my peers as a magician as well.