ABSTRACT
Whatever the psychological impetus, this passion for communication has thus far taken me on quite a wild ride through a variety of disciplines. As a very young boy I was drawn to music, especially the harp. Then in my early teens I was bitten by the magic bug and spent much of the next ten years performing at parties and ceaselessly practicing sleight-of-hand. Card tricks, coin tricks, really the “theater of the hands.” I’ve also always tended to approach things in a somewhat analytical fashion, and magic was no exception. Not content to focus on the merely technical aspects of illusion, misdirection, and staging, I spent a lot of time thinking about the psychological and emotional implications of performing “tricks” for people. As a result, in my early twenties I began creating my own routines, writing books on the subject, and touring North America and Europe as a lecturer.
