I have been facinated with cards since I was a kid. As long as I can remember, my parents would always play penny-ante poker with friends and family around the holidays and on vacations. I was able to play various games of cards when I was quite young. I remember my dad telling me how he taught me to count using a deck of cards.

Although I have always enjoyed magic, my real interest with cards has always been in the gambling area. This interest was given a boost when I was about ten or eleven years old. I saw John Scarne making an appearance on the Tonight Show with Jack Paar. Scarne made several appearances on this show over the course of a few years. Scarne performed some card effects but his demonstrations of cheating and overhand stacking is what caught my attention.

The next decade or so was spent practicing and collecting books on cards. After all this practicing and book learning, it was time to move on to the real world. My family, high school buddies, and comrades in the service had seen enough of Jim Molinari. In 1975, I stepped into a magic bar called Mr. C's Magic Lounge located in Berwyn, Illinois. I showed the owner a few things and was hired to perform four nights a week. Jim Molinari had become "Jimmy Cards". I stayed at the lounge until its closing in 1980. I formed a friendship with the owner, Hugh Cosgrove, that would last until his passing in 1997.

Shortly after starting at the lounge, another co-worker, Randy Wakeman, asked me, "with your fascination with card work, why haven't you met Ed Marlo?" We made a trip to the restaurant where the Chicago Round Table met. I introduced myself to Ed that Saturday afternoon and saw him almost every Saturday for the next five years.

The lounge was a great experience, but when it closed in 1980, my interest in magic faded. In 1992, I moved to Reston, Virginia. While in Virginia, I met another close-up magician by the name of Bud Smith. He invited me to a meeting of S.A.M. Ring 23 in Washington D.C. This ring catered to close-up magic. I started attending monthly meetings for about a year. Bud managed to re-kindle my interest and get me back into magic. For that, I will always be grateful. We still get to see each other at various conventions. Bud has become a great friend despite the fact that he believes in the delusion that coins are better than cards.