The Genii Forum

I get that part, Geoff, but wasn't Paul Harris trying to determine how a spectator had tabled the deck? As we all know only too well by now, it wouldn't matter which end of the ace Mr. Harris turned over, but wouldn't it matter in which direction the spectator tabled the face-down deck? Why would th...

After looking at the original thread, I see the question I asked has already been raised. Sorry for bringing it up again. (I still don't get it, though -- not the later explanation about how the perceived anomaly works but the description of how Paul Harris discovered this alleged phenomenon when us...

Sorry, Richard, I don't understand why using blank cards with stuff written on them makes it any more of an anomaly. But I guess that approach might make it easier to lead the spectator into thinking that there IS an anomaly involved, which is the point, of course -- as Joe Pecore points out. Maybe ...

OK, I read this over about a zillion times, but I'm obviously missing something. Whenever you turn the ace over end for end, the pointer is always facing toward you, regardless of which end you grab to turn it over. Of course. Why is that an anomaly? Well, I suppose that is a facetious question. I g...

I know that Richard has closed the Chelman debate, but I just encountered the series of comments today and I'd like to mention a related issue. Maybe it'll be useful to you if you regularly send out publicity. I worked for a long time as an editor in various feature sections of the St. Louis Post-Di...

There must be about a million easier (and just as effective) ways to reveal a chosen Tarot card, but the Tarot effect accompanying the Maven article was a pure joy. I was reminded of the occasionally quoted comments by Max about the magic of Stewart James -- something to the effect that the delights...

Once again, congratulations on a great issue and a fascinating interview. How I would love to have seen Berglas perform! However, I don't see how any unbiased reader could help but feel that the interview made Berglas seem just a bit self-serving. I suppose that someone as accomplished as he is can ...

Craig: Yep, it was the late '40s. If Bluey-Bluey died in 1939, he wasn't the magician I saw, since I was only four years old then. Perhaps it was someone from the same carnival carrying on with his act. If so, he copied it pretty exactly, down to performing in the paddock-like enclosure in the middl...

Cameron: Thanks for the information on Bluey-Bluey. Wonder if he was the magician I saw in the sideshow? There couldn't be too many dwarf magicians who used a blowtorch in the bill trick. One thing I didn't mention earlier was that although the sideshow tent had a platform (where the sword box was d...

I was recently asked to write a few notes on magicians I saw when I was a kid, back in the Dark Ages. There are a couple of points that I could use some help with, as follows: In the late 1940s, when I was 11 or 12, I went into a sideshow on the midway at the Missouri State Fair and saw a dwarf magi...

Martii: After I posted the message above, I realized that I had neglected to mention an obvious source. I'm sure De Yip Loo must have known Julius Sundman. The MAGIC article indicated that De Yip Loo's health is now much improved, so he might be amenable to providing you with some anecdotes. No doub...

Martii: If you can locate Bill Kinzler (a.k.a. Mr. Ace Willie) of Racine, Wisc., he may be able to give you some information from a Julius Sundman publicity flyer from the '70s. Several months ago, I sold the flyer to him along with a lot of other magic publicity items from that era. Unfortunately, ...

That was an impressive tribute to Derek Dingle in the May issue. I first saw him perform at a legendary Midwest Magic Jubilee in Kansas City. The exact year escapes me, but it must have been sometime in the '70s. The Jubilee alternated between St. Louis and Kansas City in those days, and Jay Vincent...