"Be careful what you wish for."  It's a phrase that often sums up my life.  I struggle with the concept of manifestation, but it happens... and sometimes, the "gift" is both a blessing and a curse.  For example, let's recap the past 6 months: 1. I recommit to magic 2. I begin writing about my journey 3. Surprisingly, other magicians read the blog and respond 4.  One of those magicians is Jeff McBride, who suggests that I apply for a Mystery School scholorship 5.  I'm accepted 6.  Non-magician friends read the blog 7.  A non-magician friend offers me my first booking That's the "Fairytale" side of the story, the part that both surprised me and made me humbly grateful.  There was, however, another narrative going on behind that story: 1.  My wife and I randomly stumbled on our dream house and made an offer 2.  We spent weeks organizing, dumping, then moving 26 years of accumulation from our old house to our new one ...

The name "Jay Sankey" needs no introduction in the magic world, but for the benefit of my non-magician readers, let me just say that he's among the most inventive minds in magic.  He has created tricks that have become legendary, performed by the uber-famous in their television specials.  He is a deep thinker, concerned about the present and future of magic and what it needs to do to evolve as the rest of the entertainment world evolves.  He's also funny as hell.  Like many magicians, he took the stand-up comedy by-pass for a time, and has been known to post hilarious and quirky videos on his YouTube channel.  He writes, he performs, he speaks his mind... which has, at times, upset some members of the magic community.  Still, nobody can deny his drive and passion for the magic arts.  For the past decade, he has also been one of my best friends. To this day I'm not sure how we found each other.  I think I discovered one of his videos an...