For almost 55 years, off and on, I've been involved in one form of magic or another as Dave Dowds, I never felt the need for an alias as I could always sneak out of town under cover of darkness.

In the mid fifties I was fortunate to become a close friend of R.A. (Bob) Nelson and became interested in mentalism and "spook" magic.  Bob was a great teacher and believer in strong magic and audience control.  I learned much from working with him and we developed several effects together and I contributed items to four of his books.  I treasure the opportunity to know and learn from him.  During this period I did lots of midnight spook shows at theatres in the central Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Indiana area and just before being inducted in to the Army performed the headline prediction for the 1957 IBM convention in Houston Texas.  During this performance I introduced a concept of verbal predictions that Nelson and I had worked up which preceded Dave Hoy's "Hurling the Headlines" by at least five years.

After competing my military obligation and graduate school I found little time for public performance but still kept up my reading and enjoyment of the craft.  In the late 60's I found the early bizarre books of Tony Shiels and Charles Cameron.  The beast was awakened and my love of spook shows and the weird was rekindled.  I did close up and small venue shows for friends, and anyone who would sit still for it, combining bizarre and mentalism.  A full time job and owning a business precluded the time necessary for strong public presentation but I never lost the desire.

Now that I have retired I find time to travel and work on a believable performance persona, that of a traveler and collector of esoteric items with strange and fascinating histories..."Here, let me show you an item or two!"  What better way to intrigue than with a strong story and a curious item?