The Genii Forum

Thanks for the great article on Dr. Hooker...it was quite interesting as well as very thorough. I wish that with such a high interest concerning his Rising Cards routine that Jim would somehow offer a DVD of the performance, shot just like someone at the performance would see. Maybe the proceeds from the sales of the DVD could go to a magic related charity...after all the hype I would pay top dollar to see the routine. I will most likely never get to see it in person!

I agree. It would be amzing to see the Hooker Rising Cards on a DVD. I for one would buy one and that goes for any presentations by John and Jim

I'd buy anything

It's that exclusivity that will help build the legend

Yes I know about myths and legends...just wishing out loud that somehow the majority of us who haven't seen it could. I imagine it's not easy to take on the road and set up.

It wasn't designed to travel, but to be built in one place and stay there.

Guess I'll have to move to the left coast and wait...

Your wait will be decades long, at the very least. At the moment there are no plans to perform it again ... ever.

Dream sqausher

You have to be practical about it: Given John Gaughan's age, it is highly unlikely that he'll be the owner or performer in 20 years. If it's ever performed again, it will have to pass to someone new. And it's impossible to say how it would then be rebuilt.

I know...just kidding...what a shame that such a wonderful act will only bed seen by the very few.

I understand, but you should also try to understand Dr. Hooker's original intent. He designed it to be seen by very few. He wanted to create an enduring and unexplainable mystery and he succeeded!

Good point. Thanks again for a great article!

RICHARD! I can't believe you coded the secret to Hooker's rising cards into the article!!!

Talk about a cool Easter Egg......THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ssshhhh! Don't tell anyone, please.

No, no. You can count on my discretion. But to think....well....YOU know! Wow!

You guys are killing me...now I have to go back and tear the article apart to find the hidden treasure...if there really is one.

I don't have the issue in front of me, but the key to the subsitution code is in the sentence that refers to there being nothing in Hooker's rising cards that prevented it from being built 100 years before.

(I hope I'm not giving too much away, Richard. If I am, feel free to delete this post.)

Folks, this guy is pulling your leg (seriously).

No...I too found the hidden codec...it is brilliant on your part Richard and now that I have the knowledge I can rest in peace!

Dang, Richard! OK, tell me...how many emails?

Do you mean to say that after all the money we subscribers paid to get the hidden camera DVD, the secret is being revealed in Genii for free? I feel a little cheated, even though the candid comments caught during the rehearsals were worth the price of the DVD.

Wishful thinking.

Yes, that's what it is. Please erase my post from this thread as I'm beginning to get ominous threats from other subscribers to the Secret Hooker DVD. It seems we weren't supposed to discuss it publicly, although my understanding was that we just weren't allowed to copy it or put it on Youtube, which I am sure none of us would even think of doing. I'll continue to discuss it at my own risk on my own private Forum.

This is becoming a very strange thread...

... the Genii Forum can be a very strange place.

And that's why I like the Genii forum.

Mee tooo

The Twilight Zone theme.

This is it huh...is this how this thread is going to develop? What a shame...If I were Jim Steinmeyer I would be rather disappointed...

Carlo

I think a lot of energy on this subject has already been expended on the earlier threads. Steinmeyer's article is very wiley--it tells you no secrets, but tells you a lot more than you knew before.

Very interesting article, very well written and informative! And I don't care about the secret.!

Richard Kaufman wrote:I think a lot of energy on this subject has already been expended on the earlier threads. Steinmeyer's article is very wiley--it tells you no secrets, but tells you a lot more than you knew before.

That is exactly my point.

So much more information, so much more food for thought, whether it be details on the performance or on Hooker's life. It seems to me that Steinmeyer put a lot of work in writing something that is consistent and at the same time not revealing anything, with the thought that some day the methods (plural) will be disclosed, perhaps tomorrow perhaps 200 years from now.
This is what I read into the article, and this what motivated my comment, that this thread (or the other one) is not really
at the right level.

But perhaps I am being naive. Magicians really may have many things to say, but they don't, and for pretty obvious reasons, NOT including the one that ain't got a clue.

Carlo

Mystique is such a hard thing to come by.

How many real miracles are there left to us in magic?
Very few.

Everyone wants to know, but do you REALLY want to know? After you know, then all that's left is mechanics, not mystery. Mystery is so much more fun.

Frankly, I don't know exactly how Hooker works, and I don't want to know. If Steinmeyer and Gaughan were to explain how it works, then it's just another routine and people will try to build it and botch it.

I would rather see every bit of it destroyed than ever see it explained.

Let me tell you a little story. One summer in the early 70's, perhaps 1971 (I was 10), I was on vacation in a little beach resort in Italy, and I was thrilled to hear that Silvan was going to perform in one of the local clubs, in the afternoon. He was my idol, and he was a rising celebrity in Italy. My family and I were sitting to the left side of the stage, and during his multiplying billiard balls routine - one of my favorites - I just had to get up and place myself in the center, standing in the back. My mother kept signaling me that if I came back to my seat I would see how it was done. But I wanted to watch it the way it was supposed to be watched (I did not know exactly how it worked back then). My parents just did not get it.
The performance was outdoor with a relatively small seating area, and we were sitting pretty close to the stage. Most likely, Silvan did not notice that scene, but to this day I secretely hope he did.

I have not changed much since then (as far as appreciation of magic), but Hooker is a little different from the average effect...It is basically sold as the effect that baffled the most famous magicians, or everyone else who watched it, for that matter. This is what sparked my curiosity, purely in terms of solving a puzzle that is apparently unsolvable.

I don't agree that the "awe" will go away upon knowing the methods. Whatever they are they are surely clever enough to continue to fool enough people; if you thought about it long enough, all you can do (or should do) is to be in even more awe, that a man was able to conceive such a diabolical scheme.

Carlo

I invite you to list effects that continue to intrigue and fascinate the average magician after the methods became widely known.

I am a bit surprised about this comment, coming from a magician.
The true magician should be fascinated by his own art at a level much higher than knowing or not a secret, in my opinion.
A magician and true lover of the art of magic should be ALWAYS fascinated (by things that are worth it of course).
Clearly, after knowing a secret the awe and the enchantment will be of a different type, (the "intrigue" part being gone)
but if the effect is remarkable they would (and should) probably be even stronger.
But please, don't tell me that the Hooker Card Rise is the only thing that makes a magician's life worth living.

Richard, I'd say the bullet catch. Especially P&T's. Even after I broke my own artistic heart by figuring P&T's out...accidentally...I still LOVE to see them perform it.

Matrix... Ambitious card... Zombie... Three :eek: fly...

Richard Kaufman wrote:I invite you to list effects that continue to intrigue and fascinate the average magician after the methods became widely known.

I'm intrigued and fascinated by the performance of strong magic regardless of whether or not I'm familiar with the methodology.