It was July 1984. I was walking around the dealer room at the IBM convention in Norfolk, Virginia. I made a few laps around the booths, and I noticed a guy constantly staring at videos playing in a booth. It was Tim Conover. I introduced myself, and we had a great conversation. My first impression was this was the most focused magician I’d ever met. Two weeks later, we scheduled a session. Tim told me to bring not only my current magic but also a list of each trick I could perform and the effects I wanted to learn.
When we got together, the first thing Tim did was compare our lists. We were both very surprised that the routines we had learned and coveted were almost exactly the same.
We both loved coin magic. Tim was already a master at performing John Ramsay’s Cylinder and Coins. I was consumed with learning the routine. As it turned out, I had been working on a unique routine that Albert Goshman had performed on TV. It was a “coins only” version of his Salt and Pepper Shakers. This was the No. 1 routine on Tim’s list of routines to learn. I hadn’t mastered it yet, but I could do it. Tim offered to teach me the Cylinder and Coins if I shared the video with him and taught him what I knew. I immediately agreed. Our journey had begun.