Hello from the UK!

[The London magician]

  hi guys.

I live in Great Britain but my family is Brazilian. I live in London and currently do magic as a hobby. I have aspirations to perform for money but right now I'm just super interested in magic and cardistry. I have quite a small collection of playing cards (at the moment!) and I don't really know how I started: it just sort of... happened. I want to design my own pack of cards so I joined this forum (I found it just by looking online) to learn the ins and outs of playing card design. Maybe one day my dreams will come true.

Until then,

Alex

[Don Boyer]

Welcome aboard, Alex,

As I'm sure you know by now, there's a lot to read here on all the subjects you're interested in.

In regards to performing for money - try performing for free, first!  I volunteer at a hospital here in New York once a month (I used to go once a week, but it was too much time spent traveling as the hospital is several miles away) and it has given me a LOT of practice performing for audiences over the years.  But even before you do that, remember - practice.  Never perform a trick for someone until you can perform it yourself in practice and get the entire thing right, consistently.