The Genii Forum

I just had the opportunity to watch Leap of Faith (1992), possibly for the first time since its release in 1992. In this marvelous film, Steve Martin plays a tent show preacher, using all kinds of tricks to fleece the faithful. The film showcases lots of techniques of interest to magicians and mentalists, including pre-show work, cold reading, use of stooges and second sight, some of which date back to the days of medicine shows. Even watching the crew erect the show tent is a thing of beauty.
Perusing the credits, I spotted something that explained the film's nuanced depiction of deception: Ricky Jay served as "Con and Fraud Consultant" to the production.

For those interested in Ricky's work, we've devoted two pages at Propelled Pasteboards, the throwing card blog, to some of his card-throwing ephemera, which you can see at the following links:

http://throwingcards.blogspot.com/2017/03/tricky-ricky-jay.html

http://throwingcards.blogspot.com/2017/01/on-ricky-jay-matthew-buchinger-and-apha.html

I have seen this movie in the company of a young lady, (or at least she was young at the time) who dragged me along to it insisting that the preacher reminded her of me. Naturally I was quite offended at this disgraceful assertion. It reminded me of a similar incident where a friend of mine, informed me that he had also seen a movie which reminded him of me. It was called "Harry, In Your Pocket" and was a tale of a bunch of travelling pickpockets. Since I have no expertise in picking pockets I couldn't quite see the connection. And then there was a THIRD movie (The Flim Flam Man) where another friend, later to become a member of the Iron Maiden band, informed me that the main man in the film reminded him of me.

I have no idea why I remind people of travelling scoundrels but here is the Flim Flam one anyway all in its You Tube glory:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOpprrAbVcw

Just to fill out the magical connections . . .
Tony Giorgio consulted for and appeared in "Harry in Your Pocket".
Jay Ose consulted for and appeared in "The Flim Flam Man".

(And Michael Sarrazin appeared in both of them.)

I was the "Erdnase Grip" in the Shade credits.

Jason

Jason England wrote:I was the "Erdnase Grip" in the Shade credits.

You also did a mighty fine 21 card trick, if I remember correctly!

Jay Ose was given credit for "The Flim Flam Man" (starring George C. Scott), however in both this film and "Big Hand for a Little Lady" the behind the scenes advising was actually done by Tony Giorgio since Ose was not knowledgeable in these areas.

Leap of Faith will be on Starz comedy this coming Saturday night, 4/22.

I once played lead electric triangle for Toad the Wet Sprocket.

Apparently, my earlier post about Leap of Faith being on Starz on Saturday was incorrect. According to my Dish guide, it will be on Starz on Thursday's, the 27th.