I'm Carroll Baker, a comedy magician and mentalist from Columbus, Ohio.

I started magic at six, when I won a contest and the prize was lunch with Harry Blackstone Jr. I asked him how to learn magic, and he told me to go to the library. I did, and magic has been my full-time job since 1991.

That's more than 10,000 shows, including 31 years working restaurant tables, 15 years on cruise ships, and two six day runs in the Close Up Gallery at the Magic Castle in Hollywood. At the Castle I also did a private show for Criminal Minds actor Matthew Gray Gubler and his friends. In his words: "A modern day Merlin, only better, because there is no chance of getting eaten by a dragon."

I've been featured on CBS, NBC, Fox and ABC television. I've received the Society of American Magicians' Houdini-Thurston Award and Magician of the Year title, and I'm a seven-time International Brotherhood of Magicians Close-Up Magician of the Year.

I teach magic classes and camps for kids, and I wrote Leftovers, a practical guide to restaurant magic, along with a guide to running magic camps and after school programs.

The videos and books here come from doing this for a living. They're made for performers who want material that works in front of a real audience.