How It All Began… part one

I'm often asked how I got started in magic, and most people assume I received a magic kit as a child. I did, but I never used it.

The truth is that I didn't start practicing magic until I was almost thirty years old!

I had seen the first David Blaine special back in 1997, or ‘98 (I wasn't nearly thirty at that time!) and that show blew me away. It stuck with me for a long time, but I didn't think for a second that I could do any of the feats he performed.

Fast forward to several years later and I'm living alone on a small island, with no TV and limited money, but full access to the internet and my cat, Tia.

After a while I had exhausted all of the funny cartoons and parody songs I could find online, and I was wondering what to watch next. I remembered the Blaine special and decided to watch that again. This led me to a couple of other magic shows and it made me keen to find out if this was something I could do.

I had seen books advertised for years, but I was always afraid to invest in any. I thought they might just show tricks like ‘Pulling your thumb off’, or ‘How to ‘steal’ someone's nose'.

Eventually, I decided to take a chance. I ordered Magic For Dummies for around £15 and waited for it to arrive…