For my recent 34th birthday, a friend of mine got me what may very well be the coolest birthday present I've ever received.
She asked me if I wanted to join her for a drink on the Sunday after my birthday up at the Iron Cactus (a local Austin Mexican restaurant with a sizable bar). I said I'd love to and showed up at the requested time. The place was completely empty save for the bartender and maybe 3 other patrons. We had a drink or three and before long I noticed a guy moseying around the bar wearing all black. He greeted the few other people in the bar before coming up to the two of us and introducing himself. I was a little caught off guard, but he soon introduced himself as a magician who frequented the Iron Cactus and asked if he could perform some illusions for us.
I excitedly told him he absolutely could and that I loved magic. He began his little show. They were really, really good! In fact, he was just an all-around spectacular performer and I was shocked that this guy would be doing rounds at a nearly-empty bar. After two or three different feats, he apologized and asked if he was interrupting anything. I told him no, and that the lady sitting with me thoroughly enjoyed magic as well. He continued.
After two more illusions (both which were even more phenomenal than the previous ones) he started chuckling a bit and asked my friend if he could tell me. I had absolutely no idea what was going on here. Once the wheels started turning, I look over to her and exclaimed, "You got me a magician for my birthday?!"
At this point the magician chimed in and pointed out that not only did she get me a personal magic show, but for the next hour and a half, Cody the Magician would be showing me HOW to perform the illusions he had just performed for us. I was truly overjoyed with this as I have always wanted to learn how to perform some basic magic. It was just awesome and I could not have been more surprised. I even got to have an intelligent conversation with him about some of my world favorites, most notably Derren Brown, Ricky Jay, and Jason Latimir.
Once he left we practiced one of the card tricks for about an hour before heading off to a party. Twenty minutes in, we performed that card trick to a handful of people and left them completely stunned. I have now successfully pulled off ONE impressive card trick.
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