The Genii Forum

So Timothy, are you saying the show is probably good and all the bad reviews are because of the reviewers and not the show? Seems unfair to be sniping at reviewers that have seen the show when you haven't, but I guess that says alot about you and not them. Ross Skiffington to replace Criss Angel, th...

Keeping with the motif of earlier posts, here is a find-it question that (I believe) provides some insight into the management of many sleights. Erdnase repeatedly uses the phrase "quick as a flash" when describing certain actions. I count six occurrences of this. A seventh occurrence only...

I sense that I didn't get my point across clearly. I did NOT mean that magicians might be able to use fMRI as a method for a mind reading trick. What I meant was that magicians might use the fMRI technology in a lie detection system on themselves. It would be possible to quantitatively identify mome...

I've been reading through the new Card College. I haven't finished yet, but already I found some fantastic stuff. One effect which slightly confuses me is "Stop!" There is a moment in the effect where you have to shake the spectator's hand. However, as far as I can tell, if you follow the ...

The September 2003 issue of Scientific American has several interesting articles about the brain. One of these articles discusses the possibility of actually reading a person's thoughts using either fMRI or EEG. I'm quite sure that mentalists are in no danger of being superceded by technology. Howev...

Even if you never use a pass to actually control a card (preferably a group of cards) during a performance, careful study of the pass greatly improves general card handling skill. It requires a soft elegant touch to perform a deceptive pass. Certainly this elegance rubs off onto other less demanding...

Hey thanks for posting all these great effects! One thought on Gaffus Maximus: I'm a little uncomfortable with the idea of demonstrating mind-control yet having to ask the spectator to tell you their card after you just controlled their mind to think of the one you wanted them to. I guess one soluti...

I've seen Cardshark go in the range of $60-$70 several times on ebay recently, so this is probably a fair ebay price for the book. Of course we are dealing with the statistics of small numbers here in magic books so you can't just go by what's on ebay. However check out this thread <!-- m --><a clas...

I've been trying to work in this new effect for the past 5 months or so. First some background. Without boring you with all the gory details I'll say this: If you had to classify it you might say it's a sucker effect, sort of. The presentation is that I claim I will find a card in a seemingly ridicu...

The June 2003 issue of The Linking Ring contains a clever cell phone to impossible location effect.

The illusion of impossibility: I want to spark some discussion about this concept, which is discussed on page 23-24 of Strong Magic. As a hobbyist I find myself being very careful not to squash the "illusion of impossiblility" for laypeople that was created by OTHER magicians. In my experi...

I'm doing well. Great to hear from you Noah! I'm not too concerned that someone who is destined to be one of magic's next great artists will be held back by any short-sightedness on the part of Strong Magic. If anything I think it would allow such a person to develop more quickly than they otherwise...

Some of the specific criticisms that Mr. Swiss raises about the book don't seem completely fair to me. In my opinion, Strong Magic is directed at the average magician who wants to develop his/her presentation skills. Citing examples of magic's top performers which contradict the advice in the book i...

At the risk of polluting this thread with another "crazy theory", I want to suggest the following research tactic that to my knowledge has not yet been attempted. Regardless of how insane you think my idea is, the saving grace is the fact that it is completely testable by someone who has a...

Could someone please point me towards a book containing the Larry Jennings effect "Transmutation"?

Thanks in advance.

Richard, To answer your question, the Harper's Weekly that I looked at was an enormous poster size. It is being stored in the library's special collections so I had to have a librarian go back and pull it up for me. She was quite out breath when she lugged the bound 1909 volume back with her! I felt...

Since I have access to a University library, I couldn't resist the temptation to look up the article by James Andrews in Harper's Weekly. There are some interesting circumstantial similarities between Erdnase and James Andrews. They both seem to be interested in making money and they both have littl...

Since the discussion has somewhat turned to the writing style in the book, here are some comments I have. Has anyone else considering these before? The only blatant grammatically incorrect sentence I've found is in the Cull Shuffling section: "Lightning don't strike in the same place often...&q...

Thanks to all you experts for some very interesting Erdnase discussion. I've become increasingly obsessed with this book over the past year. I have two comments that I hope you'll find intriguing. First of all, here is some evidence that I've never seen mentioned before that the number of illustrati...

This may be a bit pedantic, but it is strange to me that Erdnase recommends a difference in finger placement between the top and bottom blind riffle shuffle considering Erdnase's emphasis on uniformity of action. To me, the context of the explantion indicates that Erdnase felt that a difference in f...

From reading old discussion about this book and also talking to quite a few magicians about it, I have already gathered that many people give it only a mediocre review. That is why I was surprised to see it go for so much on eBay. I've had the good fortune to borrow this book from a friend for a sho...

Does anyone have a copy of Vernon's Revelations (the annotations to Erdnase) that they want to sell? I've been trying to locate the book for a while but all the copies I've found are ridiculously priced because they are signed by the Professor himself. Last week an unsigned copy of this book went on...

No one who pre-ordered the book from Darwin has posted that they've received their copy. I just got mine today so I guess I'm the first?

The book looks great so far - but I've only read the intro and the first two tricks and the essay in the back.

I've become increasingly interested in historical aspects of Erdnase. I have two questions. 1. Figure 101 clearly shows Erdnase using Bee cards. Did Erdnase actually use Bee cards or did M.D. Smith just grab a deck out of his junk drawer to use as a model when he was filling in the sketches at home?...

Father Cyprian published a move which I think may be similar to the one you described. It's sort of a bluff tilt and you do insert the card in the front. It's called Untilt and it was published in August 1985 of Apocalypse - page 1100 of the second book the collected volumes.

I mostly do card magic but I'm trying to get more educated about coin magic so please forgive me if this question is somewhat elementary. I'm working on Standing Three Eagles from The Classic Magic of Larry Jennings. (for those who don't know, this is an in the hands 3 coins across routine) I'm conc...

I think Card College is a fantastic series for someone who is serious about a firm foundation with card sleight of hand. Since you asked, I think there are two moves missing. First of all I think the explanation of a pressure fan belongs in one of the flourish sections. Second I think a discussion o...

Steven,

There is a group with some great card guys in Santa Barbara which is about a half hour to 45 minutes north of Ventura. Our next official meeting is May 7.

Let me know if you want more details.

Nathan