My Beautiful Mentor

Oh what a lucky man I am....

Recently I have had the opportunity to attempt to teach someone I work with some magic. His name is Gary and he is an older man like myself. He wants to learn some simple card tricks. I decided to teach him some self working card tricks. This is not as easy as I thought.
I have come to realize that through the last 7 years, by hard work and diligence, I have become rather smooth at this craft. Yes I am tooting my own horn. If I don't blow it, no one else will! :)
What I am trying to say is that my patter, or what I say during my card routines, as well as all my magic effects has become somewhat ingrained. The verbiage said during an effect or performance is just as valuable as the actual physical mechanics of the trick. They go hand in glove.
So, here I am trying to teach this fellow some magic and he is not taking notes, his hands are dirty from working on airplanes, I give him some cards and because he uses dirty hands as he practices they are looking extremely shabby which affects the way they work.
This all brings me to my mentor Tom Frank.
I never realized how gentle of a teacher he was and is. OMG!
What patience he had with me.
It is all I can do not to pull my hair out with this man.
I must be careful not to crush his excitement and exuberance.
And yet, his work is so stilted and jerky. ( I must have been the same, how could I not be?)
As I type this I realize that compared to the masters in our craft, men like Alan Ackerman, Juan Tamariz, Harry Lorayne, Bill Malone, Darwin Ortiz, Daryl Easton, and so many more, that I most likely look stilted and jerky to them as well.
Patience...
I want to thank my friend and mentor Tom Frank, and others that were there for me in the beginning, men like Steve Ameden who constantly told me, "soft hands." And "don't give up."
I find it amazing that they even put up with me.
I am having so much fun with this wonderful art.
What an amazing journey!