Nigel: I run a school-based magic club and I do intend to allow the children to produce a magic themed video; not to develop teaching strategies but to maintain their enthusiasm and to keep momentum proceeding by using a wide range of possible session activities. As for my own personal preferences, I do not own a very large magic video library. Most effects that I learn come from the pages of a book. In my opinion, this is the most cost effective way of learning new tricks although, I must confess, I do feel that it is certainly not the most time efficient. Learning sleights of hand or effects from a book demands a high level of active concentration and I do find it difficult to maintain this for an extended period of time. However, watching a video (or DVD) is a far more relaxing and passive way to pick up new skills. My only wish is that this from of media could be less expensive. As for the availability of videos, my comments regarding price do have the benefit of ensuring that only those who are seriously involved in learning secrets purchase these and so I don't feel that the use of magic videos is doing serious harm to this art.

Andy D.: I think it is the next logical step after books. There are loads of books, and as more people switch to learning through videos, then more magicians will jump on the band wagon. And now of course you have DVD's...................whatever next!!

Rich: Me and my friend once got very bored one afternoon and decided to teach the camcorder several sleights, with proper fades and introductions and everthing, and even transferred it to tape, but that's about as far as we got. And I would say that the explanations on there were perfectly reasonable and would help anyone learn the sleight. Like Michael's video, it was quick, cheap and looked cheap as well, but it was full of advice rather than fancy magicians. I've seen a lot of videos on the market, and to be honest, I would rather pay £5 for a cheaply made video featuring some complete unknown magician teach me sleights, rather than pay £25 for some world-wide superstar to teach me the same sleights. It's really the privilege of seeing these magicians that you're paying for, and not much else. They say that you get what you pay for, but I pay for good material and good explanations, not a few tricks and watching some Vegas magician wow an audience himself. On exception though is Ammar's ETMCM series, which I do think is good value for money, as he wastes no time and goes really in-depth into 10 excellent card tricks, one of which I use regularly.

Huw: I don't know if Moderators are supposed to post questions in this thread. If not, well, hey I'm just gonna break the rules :evil: ... Based on the radio show, “Desert Island Discs,” here's my question: You are stranded on a desert island. You get the choice of taking 3 record/CDs (audio), 3 books (magical), 3 books (non-magical) and 1 luxury. What would you take?

Fill in this List: I would take to my desert island: 1) Three Audio Records or CDs.  2) Three Books (magical/mentalism related).  3) Three Books (nothing to do with magic).  One Luxury.   As on the radio show, you get to take a copy of the Bible and The Works of Shakespeare whether you want them or not.  So you can't choose either as one of your books. Oh, and you are not allowed to try to escape from the island, so your luxury can't be a boat or radio transmitter.

Mike: I would take to my desert island:

Three Audio Records or CDs 1. Look What I Did - best of Joe Walsh 2. Thick as a Brick - Jethro Tull 3. Echoes - Pink Floyd 

Three Books (magical/mentalism related 1. The Books of Wonder - Tommy Wonder and Steven Minch 2. Now you see it now you don't - Bill Tarr 3. The Magic of Milt Kort - Steven Minch. 

Three Books (nothing to do with magic) 1. The Meriam-Webster dictionary 2. The Stand - Stephen King 3. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

One Luxury 1. A Walking Liberty Half

Sean: I would take to my desert island:
Three Audio Records or CDs
1. Lighthouse Family - Whatever Gets You Through The Day
2. Red Hot Chilli Peppers - By The Way
3. Travis - The Invisible Band
Three Books (magical/mentalism realated)
1. Psychological Subtleties (sp? )
2. Modern Coin Magic
3. RRTCM
Three Books (nothing to do with magic)
1. LOTR Trilogy
2. Fin
3. Dark and Deadly Pool (Not sure of the authors)
One Luxury
1. MY GIRLFRIEND!

Nigel: I would take to my desert island:
Three Audio Records or CDs
1. Whatever Gets You Through the Day - The Lighthouse Family
2. Time - Electric Light Orchestra
3. The War of the Worlds - Jeff Wayne's Musical Version

Three Books (magical/mentalism related)
1.The Art of Astonishment (Any book from the three) - Paul Harris
2. Card College (The next of whatever I was presently reading) - Robert Giobbi
3. The Magic of Michael Ammar - Michael Ammar
Three Books (nothing to do with magic)
1. Angela's Ashes - Frank Court
2. Neither Here Nor There - Bill Bryson
3. Sophie's World - Jostein Gaarder
One Luxury
1. One bath - fully plumbed with hot water

Huw: OK, so here's mine...

I would take to my desert island:
Three Audio Records or CDs
1. The Man Machine by Kraftwerk
2. The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars by David Bowie
3. The Art of the Prima Donna by Joan Sutherland
Three Books (magical/mentalism related)
1. Tarbell Course in Magic – volume 4.
2. Tarbell Course in Magic – volume 5.
3. Tarbell Course in Magic – volume 7.
Three Books (nothing to do with magic)
1. The Mabinogion (in Welsh)
2. A Welsh dictionary
3. The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
One Luxury
1. A large supply of pencils and paper.

(Actually, my real luxury would be another 100 or so books, but that's not allowed)

Jon Snoops: I would take to my desert island:
Three Audio Records or CDs
1.Michael Jackson - History
2.Nellyville
3.2Pac Greatest Hits
Three Books (magical/mentalism realated)
1.AoA1
2.AoA2
3.AoA3
Three Books (nothing to do with magic)
1.Lord of the Rings
2."Dark matters" trilogy or something along those lines ,by Phillip someone. I can't remember the title but it was something like Northern Lights, Subtle Knife and something.

3.C++ Programming Made Simple
One Luxury
1.A pack of playing cards

Rich: I would take to my desert island:
Three Audio Records or CDs:
1. Jurassic Park OST
2. Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring OST
3. Sleepy Hollow OST
Three Books (magical/mentalism related)
1. Abracadabra (Nathaniel Schiffman)
2. The Boy's Book of Conjuring
3. Hank Lee's Magic Factory Catalogue (it's not strictly a magic book but it's huge)
Three Books (nothing to do with magic)
1. LOTR Trilogy
2. Jurassic Park
3. Blackadder - The Whole Damn Dynasty
One Luxury
1. My multiplying balls

Mister Toad: Could you please explain the route by which you first became involved with Magic Bunny. How did you get HERE?

Nigel: Early January/February 2002 I wanted to build a magic site for a group of magician friends and one of these, Daniel Price, came to my aid and found up a free site that also offered free discussion boards as a package. This first site was named Magic City and grew so rapidly within the first month that it was clear that a registered site would be needed soon. The site was financed by one single advertisement that appeared on the screen each time a new page was displayed and it was no great hardship to minimize this advertisement away into one corner of the screen and then use the boards as required. These initial boards grew at an astounding rate, within a few weeks it would gather some 20 or 30 posts a day. Unfortunately, the providers of this free service increased the number of advertisements and it became rather irritating to have to remove three or four of these each time the boards were accessed. This period was also spent preparing for the 50th Blackpool convention and so I decided to purchase a site and start afresh after this date has passed. I spoke with several Internet users to find a suitable server and found that David Smyth of www.themagicianslivingroom.co.uk was a great source of Internet advice. It was he who pointed me to the direction of my current servers and showed me the strengths of the php board software. I was immediately converted. The week after the Blackpool weekend I purchased this domain and settled for the name of Magic Bunny as MagicCity had already been taken. It was not a first choice and, I must confess, I never did like the name. It hardly conjurers up a professional or mature image. Even still, it was short and easy to remember and it had not yet been registered. At the same time as this my original partner, Daniel Price, at the old forums had computer problems and was offline for several weeks. I bought www.magicbunny.co.uk but found that my lack of software knowledge prevented me from doing anything at all. I had purchased a site but was unable to even upload the most basic of pages. I tried in vain to search up David Smyth over the course of a day or two to no avail and approached Jon Snoops for advice as to how I could get hold of this computer whiz kid. Rather than pass me onto David, Jon Snoops offered to take on the task of seeing to the software issues that had perplexed me and within two days had constructed the framework for the forums that you see today. That weekend we spent two days transferring every thread to the new boards and Magic Bunny was born. The earliest forums are very similar to those that were first worked out together, with just a few minor additions. By the end of the week the boards were launched and the site had been born. I hope that may show you how I got into Magic Bunny and give you a little background to the growth of this site too.

Rich: I was formerly a member of www.magictricks.co.uk, and for complicated reasons I received an invite to join a new board, and it was called Magic City. Then Magic Bunny was formed and the original members including me joined and were offered the chance to moderate. And that's my story up to now.

Huw: Hmmmm..... probably by searching on Google? I first started looking at Magic discussions online about a year or so ago (say around Christmas 2001). I started with the usenet magic groups and quickly realized that most people there, most of the time, just shout at one another - so that really wasn't for me. Then I found a few moderated boards such as MagicTricks, KJMagic, The Magic Cafe and Magic Bunny. I posted a bit on the Cafe and also on Bunny. I ended up finding Bunny a much friendlier place (maybe because, while the Cafe is quite civilized, it is also absolutely vast). I also like the fact that Magic Bunny tolerates all shades of opinion. After a while I was asked (much to my surprise) if I'd like to be a moderator. I decided to give it a go and they haven't found a way to get rid of me ever since...

Laura: I was looking around on MagicWeek.co.uk one day. I found a link to here, and, big mistake... joined up and started posting! They haven't been able to get rid of me since, and decided that if I was going to be here, they may as well have a girl on the moderating team, so they invited me, and I jumped at the chance to put something back into a place where I had got so much out of! So, here I am, not a day goes by that I am not on Bunny, and apart from the occasional problem, I love it here. Oh, and by the way, I am glad that the name Magic City was already taken. I love magic bunny as a name, it seems much more approachable!

Andy D.: I became interested in Magic about two years ago, and found the MT site. Unfortunately, MT started to go 'down hill', and the quality of posts deteriorated rapidly as the 'Mods' there struggled to keep control. Then I heard about 'Bunny', and the reasons it had been started. I continued to post on both sites, but now, even though I still visit MT on occasions, I very rarely post there anymore. Eventually, the moderators saw my potential to be the very best. And of course, I am now looked upon as being the 'Ultimate' moderator (JOKE!!) ..................Seriously though, I was honoured to be offered the role, and have tried my best to do a fair job. It is not always easy mind you, as there are always people out there, jealous of MB's success, who want to drag it down to the level of some of the other beleaguered sites.

Sean: Quoting Huw “I decided to give it a go and they haven't found a way to get rid of me ever since…”  We're still looking into that Huw.  I, like Rich, was also a member of Magictricks. I had been talking with Admin on MSN for a few months and when he set it up, he invited me to come join on MSN. I did so straight away and then was asked to be a moderator. I remember the days of the old weekly moderator meetings on MSN messenger, and if enough people came on, then we had to set up a room in MSN chat. Now THAT was chaos!

Wallace: OK, yet another confession!! :( I was a member of the Visions 'Meeting of Magical Minds' Forum which was a superb discussion group which, sadly, closed down owing to the growth of constant 'bickering'!! :roll: I was invited to join the Magic Cafe by a former MoMM member and in browsing found the Magic Tricks forum which, again sadly, started to degenerate. I saw the URL for Magic Bunny and assumed that it was a 'kiddie' site, full of Blaine wannabes. I visited and realized that even then, some 4 or 5 months after the launch, MB was attracting some very 'serious' people of ALL ages with a great deal to offer. I joined and, I must again 'confess', I have been here virtually every day and have thoroughly enjoyed this experience, thanks to the dedication and genuine friendship which even I, as a very OAP, have encountered!!

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