Hello everyone!

My name is Mitch Hodge. I am not entirely new to magic. When I was in my teens and early twenties, I was a professional magician and clown, and I worked at the local magic shop and for a shop that delivered balloon bouquets and provided entertainment as well as going my own gigs. My last big magic gig was in 1999. Being from that small town at the time (and without the internet), my exposure to the vastness of the magical possibilities was limited to what I would see on TV and what I could read about through sources at my local library and the magic magazine to which I subscribed for a few years. In short, my magic world was small.

I left magic behind to return to university nearly thirty years ago, I moved from Texas to Northern Ireland (18 years ago) to continue my studies where I have lived ever since. While here, I met a wonderful woman who is now my wife, and I was teaching at a university here. In 2018 I contracted a severe case of pneumonia that led to severe sepsis and put me in a coma for two weeks. After coming out of it, I was left with a cognitive impairment that largely ended my teaching/academic career because my working memory was damaged (essentially it slowed my brain's processing speed to half of what it was before). Since then, I have undertaken various different skills to help combat the problem such a learning photography at a professional level, learning two different languages, and more recently taking up magic again to work through routines (which can make big demands on working memory). I have been pouring myself into it even harder over the last few months as I recently lost my son, and focusing on magic has served as a great distraction.

The internet has opened the world of magic to me like never before. So many tricks and ideas are completely new from my previous time, and other ideas and routines which I never knew existed (at the time) are easy to find across cyberspace. In a sense, it is like learning magic all over again. I am amazed at both how much things have changed, and how they haven't in other ways. I also get a kick out of someone performing a trick which they call "old school" and remembering it was the newest and latest thing when I learned it.

In addition to the new tricks I have purchased over the last few months, I also brought all my old stage and closeup magic in Texas back with me to Ireland the last time I was there. I am hoping to start performing later this year after I practice up and get a working routine set in place.

Anyway, I am glad to be here and see this community. I am sure I will have questions--but unlike "the old days," it looks like there are numerous avenues to find answers!

Thanks for being here, and I hope I get to know at least a few of you along the way.

All the best,

Mitch

Lucky you, ireland is a beautiful place, I hope you find some great friends and tricks here.