In my youth I learned the basics, mostly from books (Bobo's Coin Magic, Mark Wilson's Complete Course) and a lot of practice! Then "life" took hold with many priorities. Fast-forward decades, and now my "night-job" is technical director for a number of local theatre productions. I oversee all technical aspects of a production, but special FX, gags, and illusions are of particular interest to me to add a bit of spice, sometimes subtle, sometimes more overt.

I am really glad to have found the Magic Café forum; while I'm humbled by the expertise the regular contributors have here, I strongly agree in the concept of openly sharing exerience and tips to further the craft. I learn daily from the ingenuity of my theatre tech students, and hope to impart some grains of wisdom in them as well. Incorporating "straight" magic into "theatre magic" seems a natural evolution to me, especially this year since, among other productions, we are doing Pippin and the Artistic Director and I agree the only way to do it right is with legitimate stage magic.

I'm getting ready to add to my old book collection and from what I've read here will probably start off with "Wels' Great Illusions of Magic" and some plans from Paul Osborne (or at least Classic Vol. 1). I'm pretty confident as a builder (at least in wood - have a LOT more to learn more in metalwork), and I like that Wels' drawings are very detailed, but I think I'd do OK with Osborne's scale drawings as well. We have a lot to build this season, which will include a few of my own designs, which I'll share here if anyone tells me (after a show) that they were any good!

Huge thanks to the hosts of MC forums. I know how much effort it is to run a BB/forum (my day job is in computers and networking). OK, I've talked about myself way too much now. Back to research and learning!

-Ken

Welcome Ken!

Welcome to the Café' Ken

Sounds like your a busy man Ken, well hopefully you have time to spare to enjoy the offerings of the members on the Café. Looks like you maybe helpfull as well to us here with your exsperiance in theatre now. Looking forward to reading any post you may add.
ENJOY KEN!

“Always remember in the Café' we must welcome the future, remembering that soon it will be the past; and we must respect the past, remembering that it was once all that was humanly possible”

Rick Anderson

Thanks, Zendor, for the warm (and first) welcome, and thank you, Rick, for the nice words and great quote! Very well said.

Ken