Dan and Dave, Coming home.

Where local magicians eat, meet, and greet.
Kent Gunn
Posts: 753
Joined: May 15th, 2008, 2:05 pm
Location: Florida
Contact:

Dan and Dave, Coming home.

Postby Kent Gunn » January 13th, 2011, 12:04 pm

One of my local magic club's claims to fame is:

They were the Ring for Dan and Dave Buck as kids. The Buck family lived three hours away. Their folks would drive them on Wednesdays, once a month all the way to San Jose. They'd sleep on the way home, since they had school on the following mornings.

The local IBM ring in San Jose California had two young men show up to a meeting about 16 years ago. There they ran into the evil, yet extremely talented Ricky Smith. And that has made all the difference.

Ricky was a real inspiration to the twins. He's an inspiration to many magicians. Dan and Dave actually did something with that inspiration. They've literally become the biggest thing in close-up magic. Between their wildly successful DVDs and website, marketing their own playing cards and running the second best convention in California, they truly have no peers. (you can see the ads for the convention . . . Look up!)

Financially successful, self-effacing and talented, they are pretty well-behaved too.

Last night they came home and lectured to their old ring.

I had to go. I had the pleasure of meeting them and even hanging with them a bit at the Golden Gate Gathering. They lectured for us our first year. But this isn't about that.

Dan and Dave are really good lecturers. They can both do all the stuff they demonstrate so you sometimes get them both showing hand positions to different sides of the room. Their ability to effectively describe hand positions and walk even tyros through difficult stuff is wonderful.

They dealt more than amiably with questions from a relative beginner at card magic and a nine-year-old. There was no sense of superiority or dismissal from our lecturers. They just described the moves with more detail and what seemed to be infinite patience.

They will the audience to participate. They taught some quickly mastered flourishes in the first half of the lecture. Cards were gleefully flying all over the room as we worked on a great little launch of a single card. I can now cause a deck to spin 360 degrees in the palm of my hand. Sometimes the cards even stay in my hand!

In the second half they walked us through a seldom seen Charlie Miller control and a trick using Marlo's Snap Change. These two "moves" are considered by many to be very, very difficult. Dan and Dave simply know anything is achievable with maximum sustained effort. Most in the audience didn't realize they were working on the stuff of miracles. It was a grand moment for me. I really enjoyed the material and the high-end coolness of the moment.

After the lecture we went out for bad food and long talks. I was lucky enough to sit with Dave and one of my old pals, John Bodine. Sure I'm name dropping, for me, it was a great night though. Just hanging out . . . doin' card tricks and telling lies. (Dave did the card tricks . . .)

I found this post at my least favorite blog.

http://17minutes2magic.blogspot.com/

KG

John Bodine
Posts: 123
Joined: July 23rd, 2008, 3:50 pm

Re: Dan and Dave, Coming home.

Postby John Bodine » January 14th, 2011, 5:19 pm

Kent is dead on here. Dan and Dave put together a fantastic lecture and show patience beyond their years. While the broadest appeal of their material is to the younger card-star set, there was something for everyone, even the 60+ year-olds who fell asleep during parts of the lecture. Clearly it was too late on a school night for them.

Highly recommend their lecture and of course their convention is tops, second only to GGG.

johnbodine

Doomo
Posts: 361
Joined: March 13th, 2008, 3:23 pm
Contact:

Re: Dan and Dave, Coming home.

Postby Doomo » January 15th, 2011, 10:39 am

Plus they REALLY know how to toast fellow performers AND the proper wine to use while doing it. And I have heard that they are surprisingly popular with coin workers!
RFA Productions yeah... It is cool stuff.

www.rfaproductions.com

Kent Gunn
Posts: 753
Joined: May 15th, 2008, 2:05 pm
Location: Florida
Contact:

Re: Dan and Dave, Coming home.

Postby Kent Gunn » January 15th, 2011, 10:43 am

Hey, Tony,

What happens at GGG stays at GGG.

Speaking of which, are you two crazy kids a go for this year? Can't do a precursor suite without you. Plus I'm out of pickles.

KG

Doomo
Posts: 361
Joined: March 13th, 2008, 3:23 pm
Contact:

Re: Dan and Dave, Coming home.

Postby Doomo » January 15th, 2011, 10:47 am

Just say when... In fact just give us a call...
RFA Productions yeah... It is cool stuff.



www.rfaproductions.com

Edward
Posts: 162
Joined: March 13th, 2008, 9:06 pm
Location: California

Re: Dan and Dave, Coming home.

Postby Edward » January 15th, 2011, 8:09 pm

Hey Kent, I was reading a couple of entries on you blog.

Did you guys really eat the rabbit. :(

Kent Gunn
Posts: 753
Joined: May 15th, 2008, 2:05 pm
Location: Florida
Contact:

Re: Dan and Dave, Coming home.

Postby Kent Gunn » January 15th, 2011, 8:22 pm

Tasted like chicken, as I recall.

Edward
Posts: 162
Joined: March 13th, 2008, 9:06 pm
Location: California

Re: Dan and Dave, Coming home.

Postby Edward » January 16th, 2011, 8:28 pm

:D

User avatar
Richard Kaufman
Posts: 27056
Joined: July 18th, 2001, 12:00 pm
Favorite Magician: Theodore DeLand
Location: Washington DC
Contact:

Re: Dan and Dave, Coming home.

Postby Richard Kaufman » January 16th, 2011, 8:39 pm

I was served rabbit at somebody's home in Paris for dinner. Wasnt told in advance what it was, and it tasted sort of like chicken ... but I knew it wasn't.

I can't enjoy rabbit--to me there's not much different between eating a rabbit or eating my cat.
Subscribe today to Genii Magazine

Kent Gunn
Posts: 753
Joined: May 15th, 2008, 2:05 pm
Location: Florida
Contact:

Re: Dan and Dave, Coming home.

Postby Kent Gunn » January 17th, 2011, 12:52 pm

In case anyone cares, here's the blog entry Edward was referring to:

Bunnies

This occurred over thirty years ago. Just trying to keep all things on a timeline these days and not try to confuse anyone more than necessary.

I spent most of my adult life in the navy, serving on submarines. When I entered the service I was already heavily into close-up magic. I carried six silver dollars and a deck of cards everywhere I went, from Australia to the North Pole. The audience at the North Pole was cold, cold.

Before my pals and I were to leave on a deployment to the Mediterranean one of my pals, a Torpedoman by trade, had adopted a rabbit. The Torpedoman was single and had no one to take it or look after it. As we discussed Fluffys impending fate someone said, Hey Kent oughta pull Fluffy out of the CO's hat on half-way night.

You can see where this is going. Fluffy spent two-and-a-half months, in her cage in the torpedo room bilge. Bags of rabbit food were carefully hidden from the Chiefs eagle eyes. Her wastes were carefully collected and passed off as common waste and taken to the TDU room. (Trash Disposal Unit . . . 700 pound air and a ram . . . nevermind)

Half-way night on long deployments is always celebrated. If you have any talent or think you do, youre in the half-way night show. Ala Tarbell, Fluffy was in a bunny-sack behind a chair. After producing a silk fountain I got her into the pile of silks and produced her pretty damned cleanly, if I do say so myself.

The trick got a good reaction, solid applause. Then it dawned on the audience that we hadnt seen land for thirty-seven days and there was a goddamn live bunny-rabbit on the ship. The crew went wild.

It was worth going that extra mile. Fluffy, by the way was in violation of several navy regulations. In a macabre series of events she ended up on the menu a couple of days later.

Submariners have no sense of justice.

User avatar
John M. Dale
Posts: 299
Joined: January 18th, 2008, 12:00 pm
Location: Vancouver, WA

Re: Dan and Dave, Coming home.

Postby John M. Dale » January 17th, 2011, 2:04 pm

Richard Kaufman wrote:I was served rabbit at somebody's home in Paris for dinner. Wasnt told in advance what it was, and it tasted sort of like chicken ... but I knew it wasn't.

I can't enjoy rabbit--to me there's not much different between eating a rabbit or eating my cat.


From what I understand, while there is a certain similarity in the chicken-like taste, there's quite a bit more white meat on a cat, though not nearly as much as on a chicken. Bon Appetit!

JMD
(Hat tip to the Bobcat - with a bit of paraphrasing)


Return to “Magician's Local Hangouts”