The Genii Forum

Vernon was incredibly adept. Having him critique your magic was not unlike having Stella Adler critique your acting--laser sharp and spot on. They both immediately and clearly saw your faults and how they could be corrected.

I never got to meet the man but I got my first paying job as a magician from learning the "Symphony of the rings" back in the 70s. For that alone I thank him. Never made a living doing magic but still love it.

Here's a nice video of Vernon demonstrating what I think is the hardest move in card magic. It's a small example of what Richard was saying about the Professor.
Please to enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=yo ... pp=desktop

Dustin, thanks for posting that link.

Notice that Vernon demonstrates The Diagonal Palm Shift repeatedly, and slowly, and tells Tams what he's doing wrong, but doesn't tell him WHAT to do.

It looks very simple, but is in fact quite a complicated sleight. I described the entire thing in detail in the last Vernon issue of Genii we did--the only accurate description of Vernon's method in print.

Damn! Those were some......Uhm... VERY short shorts... Right up in the professors grill...

I spent a lot of time with Vernon, but with the DPS and the Bottom Palm in particular, he would never tell me the "secret," that little illusive something that made it look better in his hands. He would send me back to Erdnase to re-read and experiment. In this way he was teaching me how to fish….. he wanted me to analyze it and discover it for myself, so I could do this with other things I would work on.

It was the same process he used when he worked on things – his own little critic in the back of his head…. often when he critiqued others, this was the voice you heard.

Now I have my own critic in the back of my head when I am trying to refine things. I am most grateful that he didn't hand everything to me on a silver platter.

He taught me more than imitation … rather, a whole process, and set of criteria to apply to everything. To be objective and resourceful….. and to set a higher ideal than "good enough"

Oh! Thank you so much for posting that!
It's funny; it's a bit like Malini talking about "It's the eye"; when you are a beginner it is meaningless; but after many hours of thinking and practise, it starts to makes sense! (And in this case, the Genii column helps!)

This video was a blessing in surprise to me rather recently. I have told the story for years about the 1 time I met Dai Vernon and how I got my ass kicked by him. I was very, very new to magic. I was attending the Midwest Magic Jubilee in St. Louis and there was a lecture that I wanted to sit on the front row. I simply sat down and was messing with my deck of cards having begun reading Erdnase. Little did I know that The Professor had sat down next to me. Well, the video tells the rest of the story and it's rather easy to see that I had no chops on DPS at the time. Although I was extremely embarrassed at the time, it has become a very endearing moment for me in my magic life.

Gary Plants recently made this known to me telling me he thought he had run across a video of me in it with The Professor. All of these years later (we think this was '85), I had NO idea that little moment had been video taped. Now having an archive of this moment has become a wonderful piece of my magical career . . . even though I sucked at the DPS.

Loved the clip. What year was that Jubilee? I enjoyed seeing a very young Danny Fleshman standing against the wall. Brings back good memories of growing up in St. louis with him, Chris Kenner and others.

Mark, everyone sucks at the Diagonal Palm Shift compared to Vernon.

Mark Tams wrote:This video was a blessing in surprise to me rather recently. I have told the story for years about the 1 time I met Dai Vernon and how I got my ass kicked by him. I was very, very new to magic. I was attending the Midwest Magic Jubilee in St. Louis and there was a lecture that I wanted to sit on the front row. I simply sat down and was messing with my deck of cards having begun reading Erdnase. Little did I know that The Professor had sat down next to me. Well, the video tells the rest of the story and it's rather easy to see that I had no chops on DPS at the time. Although I was extremely embarrassed at the time, it has become a very endearing moment for me in my magic life.

Gary Plants recently made this known to me telling me he thought he had run across a video of me in it with The Professor. All of these years later (we think this was '85), I had NO idea that little moment had been video taped. Now having an archive of this moment has become a wonderful piece of my magical career . . . even though I sucked at the DPS.

Mark:

I thought you handled yourself really well despite your extreme embarrassment--you didn't cry or throw a fit, unlike some of today's youngin's who often get apoplectic at the very hint of constructive criticism.

Question: did Vernon just offer up the advice to you, or did you ask him for tips? Also, who is the dude in the shorts who did the move well?

Mark,
Perhaps one day I will show you my DPS.
It can be seen from every angle.

Hey Dustin, I want to see that.
Jennings did the Diagonal Palm Steal very well, and was pretty angle proof.

My DPS has so many leaks that if it was a boat it would sink like a brick.

And Jennings had THE biggest mitts I've ever seen.

I'm no expert on the sleight. Watched some peers working on it and wondered:
Can you let them take the deck?

Absolutely. In fact, that's one of the motivations for the move; either handing out the deck for shuffling or just tabling it. Just putting it back into dealing position is suspicious.

Great set of posts. I read most of them to just check out the conversation. I've watched this man teach---that is truly magical. He teaches how to learn--someone called it "fishing." Yeah. Consider myself lucky to have seen this level. A real power house. Obsessive, yes; compulsive, yes; hard to deal/live with, sure. But like Einstein was obsessive, compulsive and difficult. This magician/teacher but the finesse in finesse.