I just want to tell you about the first time that I saw Tim. I should mention that I am not a full time professional magician. During the day I work for the Australian Defence Department in Melbourne, Australia. Back in 1987 the Defence Department posted me to the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. for 15 months. The first thing that I did was to get in touch with the local magic clubs and meet up with the local magicians. One day one of them told me about a magician, Tim Conover, who was working a trade show near the lab. He said that Tim was really good and that I should go and watch him work. So I decided to “sneak out” one day. I left the lab at 9 am and figured that I could be back by 10 am and nobody would notice that I had gone. Well, you can guess what happened. After watching Tim do his first set I just stood there all day watching him work. I never did go back to the lab. He was BRILLIANT, just SO good. The BEST magician I had ever seen. I love close-up magic and Tim’s set contained all the close-up classics, but each had been reworked by Tim until each routine was far superior to any other versions that I had ever seen. Or have seen since, for that matter. That day took place 24 years ago, but it stands out vividly in my memory. It is one of the highlights of my life. I’ll never forget it. Tim was a HUGE inspiration.
Unfortunately I never really had the chance to get to know Tim. He was very busy working trade shows all the time, and soon I had to return to Australia. I hoped that I would catch up with him at a magic convention somewhere but it never happened. He went to very few, and then he turned to mentalism and became famous all over again in another area of magic. I never had the chance to see him perform his mentalism live, but I have seen video clips of his performances and again, his brilliance shone through. I was talking with a good friend in Sydney just a few days ago. He also switched from magic to mentalism some years ago and he told me that seeing Tim perform was one of his main inspirations for getting into the field.
I just wanted you to know that there are many magicians around the world, far more than you are aware of, who held Tim in the highest esteem, and who are deeply saddened by his passing. You have every right to be extremely proud of your brother; he was abundantly talented, one of the very best magicians in the world, and a huge inspiration to many. He will be sadly missed and remembered forever.
David Jones
Melbourne, Australia