Finding Sociability in the Cards

He’s a businessman, but David J. Esser is the first to admit he never really grew up. And that may be what children like about him.

Esser, 52, operates Gym for the Mind, a combination store and game room where kids play everything from traditional games such as chess to the various incarnations of Pokemon, the popular Japanese import in which heroes defend the Earth against fantastic attackers.

Tucked between two clothing stores, Gym for the Mind is in a rustic location on Topanga Canyon Boulevard. On weekends, the place is swamped--remarkable for a game store that offers no computer games.

“I don’t like games that seem to be antisocial,” Esser said. “I’d have no financial problems if I had computer games, but I wouldn’t have the Gym for the Mind anymore.”

Kids apparently like the concept, given that more than 100 gather for weekend card tournaments, Esser said. Plenty of adults have an affection for the place too. About 200 people show up each week, ranging in age from 6 to 75, he said.

“Without this place, you wouldn’t know there is a neighborhood,” Esser said. “I never knew there was such a thing until I opened this place. Now there’s a real-life community here. It was a great thing to discover.”

Nick Icsakis, 9, said he came to buy a deck of Pokemon cards.

“I wanted to get a good deck and Dave has tournaments,” Nick said. “Also I get to make new friends.”

Keeping things on a level of interest to children is Esser’s mission, he said.

“We have 5- and 6-year-olds. We can’t teach them philosophy, psychology and politics. We can teach [the older kids] to teach children how to play other games,” Esser said. “Nothing teaches communication better than sitting across the table and looking in your opponent’s eyes for two hours and having a nice conversation.”

The store has been there since 1990, though it has gone through some changes. At first, Esser tried offering a combination of games and exercise equipment, hoping to emulate the ancient Greek ideal of exercising mind and muscle. His slogan was “dumbbells for the weakling, and books for the dumbbell.”

But that idea never took off. People showed up to pump iron, but few played chess or cared to read the philosophy and literature books on the shelves.

“He takes all these risks, and he gets lucky a lot,” said Mark Andrews, a longtime friend and former business partner. “He almost lost that place a lot of times, but he always seems to pull it together, sometimes miraculously.”

Esser said loans from friends have often kept the business afloat. He said he affords his lease by renting out a bedroom and selling trading cards, such as those for the Pokemon game.

It’s usually a break-even proposition, but Esser said he has made a profit so far this year. And he is even opening another store in West Los Angeles today.

Nick’s mother, Liz Icsakis, has noticed Esser’s easy way with kids.

“He’s genuinely into the games he has in the store,” said Icsakis, 37, who owns a clothing store next door. “He’s a bit eccentric. He’s a big kid [in] the way he relates to kids. He enjoys it on their level.”

“That’s why the kids like him, because he has all that excitement and all that energy,” added Andrews, 39, of North Hollywood. “It gives them a kind of hope, that there can be something exciting, that not everything is going to be boring when they grow up.”

Like his business ventures, Esser has gone through several incarnations.

He said that at 12, he wanted to become a priest, and at 18 a philosopher. He was married once, but he said that didn’t work out because he was a musician living on the road at the time.

For many years Esser was obsessed with chess, becoming an expert. Then he started playing and teaching other games.

“I would’ve gone higher, but I lost my obsession. It amazes me people can go through life playing one game,” he said. “If you play just one game, that’s unchildlike.”

On a recent afternoon, 5-year-old A.J. was in the middle of a serious Pokemon trade with another boy while A.J.’s father, Andy Howard, observed.

“I’m just fascinated watching their trade,” said Howard, 43, of Calabasas. “They’re preparing their business skills too.”

The 10-year-old wanted $2 for his card, but A.J. had only $1 to spend.

“Can you make this, like, cheaper?” A.J. asked.

Howard advised his son, “Go ask Dave if that’s a good trade.”