Great Old Footage of Dai Vernon on YouTube

Discuss your favorite close-up tricks and methods.
User avatar
Richard Kaufman
Posts: 27054
Joined: July 18th, 2001, 12:00 pm
Favorite Magician: Theodore DeLand
Location: Washington DC
Contact:

Great Old Footage of Dai Vernon on YouTube

Postby Richard Kaufman » April 6th, 2011, 2:30 pm

This is great:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9WgWN5g ... re=related
Make sure you watch all the way to the end until Vernon does the Wand Spin with a huge ball!
Subscribe today to Genii Magazine

El Mystico
Posts: 1087
Joined: January 17th, 2008, 12:00 pm
Location: Leamington Spa
Contact:

Re: Great Old Footage of Dai Vernon on YouTube

Postby El Mystico » April 6th, 2011, 3:44 pm

it is great - but i think it is David Ben's.

User avatar
AMCabral
Posts: 169
Joined: March 13th, 2008, 8:59 am

Re: Great Old Footage of Dai Vernon on YouTube

Postby AMCabral » April 6th, 2011, 3:45 pm

Shame the card tricks are all John Scarne.

-T

User avatar
Richard Kaufman
Posts: 27054
Joined: July 18th, 2001, 12:00 pm
Favorite Magician: Theodore DeLand
Location: Washington DC
Contact:

Re: Great Old Footage of Dai Vernon on YouTube

Postby Richard Kaufman » April 6th, 2011, 6:06 pm

I'm not talking about the footage where you can only see the hands (and most of that isn't Scarne, either).
Subscribe today to Genii Magazine

incompletefaro
Posts: 8
Joined: February 4th, 2011, 10:54 pm
Location: Bangalore, India
Contact:

Re: Great Old Footage of Dai Vernon on YouTube

Postby incompletefaro » April 6th, 2011, 7:55 pm

Good one. Thanks!
Sanjay Subramanyam

User avatar
AMCabral
Posts: 169
Joined: March 13th, 2008, 8:59 am

Re: Great Old Footage of Dai Vernon on YouTube

Postby AMCabral » April 7th, 2011, 12:12 am

Richard Kaufman wrote:I'm not talking about the footage where you can only see the hands (and most of that isn't Scarne, either).


Well, if it ain't Vernon, it doesn't belong in that montage, period. The other stuff is beautiful, agreed.

Meanwhile, between the bottom dealing and the two card transpo, which "most of" those isn't Scarne? I'm genuinely curious.

-T

User avatar
AMCabral
Posts: 169
Joined: March 13th, 2008, 8:59 am

Re: Great Old Footage of Dai Vernon on YouTube

Postby AMCabral » April 7th, 2011, 12:18 am

The clip got referenced a few months ago in this thread, by the way.

-T

User avatar
Richard Kaufman
Posts: 27054
Joined: July 18th, 2001, 12:00 pm
Favorite Magician: Theodore DeLand
Location: Washington DC
Contact:

Re: Great Old Footage of Dai Vernon on YouTube

Postby Richard Kaufman » April 7th, 2011, 12:32 am

Then I guess it's just a good second nudge. :)
Subscribe today to Genii Magazine

Chris Aguilar
Posts: 2012
Joined: January 17th, 2008, 12:00 pm
Location: Sacramento
Contact:

Re: Great Old Footage of Dai Vernon on YouTube

Postby Chris Aguilar » April 7th, 2011, 11:50 am

Richard Kaufman wrote:I'm not talking about the footage where you can only see the hands (and most of that isn't Scarne, either).

If not Scarne, then who is in those clips (the hands only views)?

David Ben
Posts: 275
Joined: January 17th, 2008, 12:00 pm
Location: Toronto
Contact:

Re: Great Old Footage of Dai Vernon on YouTube

Postby David Ben » April 7th, 2011, 2:23 pm

As I mentioned in a previous thread, the footage in this unauthorized "homage" was culled from the film "Dai Vernon: The Spirit of Magic", of which I was the Associate Producer and Magic Consultant. The hand footage used was primarily John Scarne, and we slowed down the performance in order to give it a more smooth, and natural handling. The original handling was much more frantic. We also used some footage of Fred Kaps handling a few things. I cannot recall at present whether any of the Kaps footage made it into the "homage" as the film was done some 12 years ago. The deal work, however, is all Scarne. I believe the two-card transposition is also his, as it was a feature of his repertoire. I have a faint recollection that the LePaul-style spread pass used in the original film was performed by Fred Kaps.

User avatar
AMCabral
Posts: 169
Joined: March 13th, 2008, 8:59 am

Re: Great Old Footage of Dai Vernon on YouTube

Postby AMCabral » April 7th, 2011, 3:24 pm

The reason I asked initially is that I recognize those two hand clips from a short film Scarne made way back when (with HILARIOUS narration). I thought Richard was implying that Scarne had someone ghosting for him in the original film. If he was referring to the fact that you also used clips of Fred Kaps in the Vernon documentary, well, that's different.

-T

Bill Mullins
Posts: 5913
Joined: January 17th, 2008, 12:00 pm
Location: Huntsville, AL
Contact:

Re: Great Old Footage of Dai Vernon on YouTube

Postby Bill Mullins » April 8th, 2011, 1:03 am

AMCabral wrote:The reason I asked initially is that I recognize those two hand clips from a short film Scarne made way back when (with HILARIOUS narration).


The Scarne short was a two-reeler, "Cheating in Gambling", copyrighted in 1949. It shows up regularly in newspaper ads from early 1949 to early 1952.

It is commonly known that Scarne did the hand work in "The Sting". I also ran across this from a 1936 newspaper article:


New York, NY -- "IT'S TRUE that John Scarne, who numbers President Roosevelt, J. P. Morgan and Police Commissioner Valentine of New York among the eminent gentlemen he has baffled with his sleight-of-hand, was pressed into service as the shell game sharper in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer comedy, 'All American Chump'," says Wiley Padan. "Scarne's deft fingers substituted for Edmund Gwenn's in scenes which called for Gwenn to swindle his victims by the old game of now-you-see-it-now-you-don't as practiced with three walnut shells and a pea."


Return to “Close-Up Magic”