My interactions with Tim were not particularly unique, because he was very generous with his time. But it was a big deal to me. When I was 17 (I’m 25 now) I sent him a brief email asking if he could share some of his thoughts about magic, and he responded with pages of great ideas. After that I would often ask him about more specific things I was working on. What always struck me was the consistent tone of his advice: idealistic but also practical, dogmatic but joyful.
At that time I was a little bit preoccupied with performing magic for magicians. This often meant doing card tricks that wouldn’t seem terribly special or new to anyone except for magicians. Tim really pushed me not to worry about newness for it’s own sake. His only concern was giving people the experience of magic. I think there are a lot of people who say to “dream big” or “follow your dreams.” But Tim really showed me the how to make that happen. And he showed me how to see a project through to completion.I only met him ONCE, in 2004. I was nervous, in part because I was afraid of disappointment. He had even warned me not to raise my expectations too high. Of course everything he did looked like real magic. Even when he was explaining how something worked! And it goes without saying that he was humble and generous with his time. He was off the charts good.
Noah Levine
Brooklyn, New York