First trick I saw that fried me...

Discuss your favorite close-up tricks and methods.
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Pete Biro
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First trick I saw that fried me...

Postby Pete Biro » December 22nd, 2002, 6:18 pm

I had been out of magic for some time and when back in I ran into Ray Boston.

Ray was doing some card stuff and I edged in to watch closer.

He did Twisting the Aces. (I had no idea what an Elmsley Count was at the time)

I had no clue. It stuck in my mind and I can still remember being NAILED.

Then I saw Slydini (forget it... no explanations).

On stage, Blackstone Sr. doing "Lady without a middle" and later Harbin (himself) doing Zig Zag.

Both fried me.

And... I can still remember being baffled when Phoa Yan Tiong did his cut/restored handkerchief.

I was in N.Y. and saw him to it on TV. I immediately called everybody in California and told them to watch the show. :cool:
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Dave Egleston
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Re: First trick I saw that fried me...

Postby Dave Egleston » December 22nd, 2002, 8:36 pm

The first year I started studying magic - I went to Gary Beutler's house for a seminar with J.C.Wagner - That was making my head spin - But during "intermission", a local magician named James George (ITR inventor) did his PK Ring and Pencil ------NO WAY!!!!

It's still a beautiful effect - and one of the few stage tricks I perform

Dave

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Re: First trick I saw that fried me...

Postby Guest » December 23rd, 2002, 4:04 am

One of the first days prior to taking up magic, my buddy performed Card Warp and Out of This World. I was hooked and I still use these effects although I perform them differently than when he first showed me.

Guest

Re: First trick I saw that fried me...

Postby Guest » December 23rd, 2002, 4:16 am

ya know I haven't ever seen any tricks that really fried me since I took up magic... I really wanna get out and see some really good magicians... other than what I seen on T.V. But I guess the first thing that got me into magic was when I was about 10 years old I was at a toast masters party at my grandmothers house when one of the guys preformed a sponge ball routine for me... I was utterly amazed and was hooked from then on.

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Re: First trick I saw that fried me...

Postby Guest » December 23rd, 2002, 4:58 am

I had been out of magic for about fifteen years when I received an invitation to attend a SAM picnic in Topeka Kansas in 1989. While there I meet Jim Klayer. Jim had showed me Jennings "Invisible Palm Aces", and "Ambidextrous Travellers", then and there I decided this is the way. Ever since I have been hooked on card magic. Jim totally blew me away and set a standard for my own magic. A wonderful experience.

Jeff Eline
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Re: First trick I saw that fried me...

Postby Jeff Eline » December 23rd, 2002, 7:01 am

I was FRIED by a local bar magician named Jimmy Smith, an underground legend in Baltimore. I was just beginning to learn card magic when someone suggested I go see him.

He did Out of This World and my mind was blown. I'm dealing the cards onto piles and he's fixing drinks at the other end of the bar. He stops, comes all the way over to me, says "No, wrong pile", and turns a card and places it on the right pile.

I actually got in my car, rounded up a bunch of friends and brought them back to the bar to have them see this trick. Amazing!

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Re: First trick I saw that fried me...

Postby Randy DiMarco » December 23rd, 2002, 8:12 am

The worst I was ever fried was when I saw Brother John Hamman do Final Aces. I had absolutely no idea how it was done. I am thankful that I got to see this effect done in person by Brother John himself. I will never forget the feeling of being so completely fooled.

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Pete Biro
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Re: First trick I saw that fried me...

Postby Pete Biro » December 23rd, 2002, 9:16 am

Hamman's Final Aces... yes, a miracle. I thought I knew a lot, had been doing MacDonald's Aces and Eric Brad (Club 53 in N. Calif.), at a club meeting did Final Aces and I was clue less... fried, nailed, you name it.

And the other day, Bruce Cervon beat me badly, I mean badly, with the Himber Ring routine he has developed. :cool:
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Pete McCabe
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Re: First trick I saw that fried me...

Postby Pete McCabe » December 23rd, 2002, 11:53 am

I was wandering around Tannens sometime in the late 70s, when I saw a guy doing a trick for a few people. I joined the spectators.

He took the aces and shuffled them into the deck, then began shuffling cards face up and face down.

Then he rolled the pack across the close-up mat, and left behind four small packets of cards. At the face of each packet was one of the aces! I was amazed.

Then he spread each packet to reveal a royal flush I was completely destroyed.

I later came to realize that the man was none other than Derek Dingle. So I don't feel so bad that as a complete beginner I got fried by Dingle himself.

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Pete Biro
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Re: First trick I saw that fried me...

Postby Pete Biro » December 23rd, 2002, 3:53 pm

That Rings a Bell! :D
Stay tooned.

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Re: First trick I saw that fried me...

Postby Guest » December 23rd, 2002, 5:42 pm

1970...At Louis Tannens. Al Faria demonstrated the Whirlaway Card (a spinoff of the Hummer Card )

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Re: First trick I saw that fried me...

Postby Guest » December 23rd, 2002, 7:37 pm

My good fortune to have seen it demod rather than try to figure out the effect from the beautiful photos of Stars of Magic; Lou Tannen did Vernon's,One Hand Cutting the Aces. It had a story,flash, even the setting up using the double undercut was something I had never seen before; faces changed continually befoe one's very eyes. Just the setting up itself was TRULY magical (a lot now dispense with it and 'get to the chase', a mistake I beieve). I was a 13 yr old amateur,did a few things (Vernon liked(?) my pass) but said to self, "if I can ever learn that particular card trick I wll never want to, nor need to, learn another card trick." I think it has hampered my learning of new card tricks ever since. But, what a gem; the introduction by Cardini was so apt. I am SO glad I saw the effect before learning the mechanics.
Martin J (Kaplan)

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Re: First trick I saw that fried me...

Postby Jeremy Greystoke » December 25th, 2002, 6:35 pm

When I was starting out in magic years ago, there were a number of things that absolutely nailed me. One was a performance by Roy Johnson of the Nemo Jumbo Rising Cards. Another was at a banquet of the old Yogi Magic Club in Baltimore (late 60's - early 70's). A performer did Brother John Hamman's Face-Up Face-Down Surprise. I was stunned. Nailed. Fried. Any word you'd like. Happily, the performer mentioned in passing to someone else that it was a Hamman effect. The next time I was at Phil Thomas's Yogi Magic Mart, I became the proud possessor of the little booklet by LePaul that explained a number of Brother John's diabolical creations. And Face-Up Face-Down Surprise was a revelation....how thouroughly you could misdirect and mislead an audience with a bit of sleight-of-hand and some large dollops of devious psychology.

Oh, and David Roth's Tuning Fork....absolutely no clue until I read the Roth book. It honestly looked like real magic...I would have cheerfully accepted "deal with the devil" as the explanantion. :)

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Re: First trick I saw that fried me...

Postby CardFan » December 25th, 2002, 8:56 pm

Like PB, Twisting the Aces really fried me. I saw it on TV in the early 70's as a teenager. (It was probably Mark Wilson on his Allakazam show. In the Philippines shows from the U.S. were rebroadcast years later.) I was just starting out in magic and the trick haunted me for a long time. It wasn't until I moved to the US in the early 80's that I learned it from a semi-pro magician in Philly named Joe Fisher.

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Brad Jeffers
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Re: First trick I saw that fried me...

Postby Brad Jeffers » December 26th, 2002, 4:39 pm

It's funny, but four of the effects listed so far in this thread, were also mentioned in the "trick I hate the most thread"! Go figure. ;)

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Re: First trick I saw that fried me...

Postby Pepka » December 27th, 2002, 5:40 am

I'm trying to think of the FIRST thing that really fried me. I can't. I do know it wasn't sponge balls, never found them magical, never will.
My first lecture was some guy I'd never heard of, Tom Mullica. Of course it was fabulous. Where the @#%$ did those cigarettes go?!?! Even now, after I've been given the "explanation" i don't believe it. Deal with the devil here.
The other thing that really fried me was Carl Cloutier's FISM act. So incredible, I saw him on TV of course, then live after I'd read the routine. And still.....blew me away.

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Re: First trick I saw that fried me...

Postby Guest » January 7th, 2003, 4:03 pm

I can remember back in the late 70's (back when I was working behind the counter at Joe Steven's shop), and Joe invited me to one of his bashes (he was having them in Wichita at the time...prior to the Vegas things). Slydini was there, and I was the volunteer at the table when he did the torn and restored cigarette. Now, that is the definition of being fried.

Guest

Re: First trick I saw that fried me...

Postby Guest » January 7th, 2003, 4:59 pm

The first magic convention I ever attended was an Abbott's Get Together. The first event was a close up show and the first magician to work was Don Alan. He produced the Lump of Coal under the fez. I couldn't believe it. I had seen little magic performed live at that point, and this just blew me away.
A day or two later I got to see Neil Foster work. He closed with Zombie and at that time I had no idea what the gimmick was... what can I say... Fried Again.
Other strong memories: seeing Girl Without a Middle in a Side Show at the Michigan State fair. I was seven or eight feet from the illusion... it just couldn't be!!! seeing Percy Abbott do Squash over the counter... how can you manipulate a glass of liquid? seeing Moretti do the cardboard sword box at It's Magic one year. I went back to see another performance to see if I could figure it out.
Dennis Loomis
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Re: First trick I saw that fried me...

Postby Guest » January 7th, 2003, 7:29 pm

I was fried at the same time able to convince myself of my own stupidity (not an easy task, believe me.)
My brother and I were sitting at a table in the Verseille in New York with Dr Jax who was doing close-up magic for such of the patrons as requested him. He and my brother were well acquainted so he proceeded to work everything in that marvelous close up case he carried.
After he had worked his way through that he allowed as it was a slow evening and there had been no call for his services so we all decided to go elsewhere for the rest of the evening. We went over to another club and caught Charlies Cares from France. Then we went to breakfast after which we split up. My brother asked me which of Dr Jax effects I liked best. I described the one that most baffled and entertained me.
My brother said, "What do you have in your left hip pocket?"
I had the Brainwave deck. Dr Jax had completely astounded me with a variation on that.

tonga

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Re: First trick I saw that fried me...

Postby flynn » April 20th, 2008, 11:26 pm

I was inspired to start practicing magic by watching David Blaine doing his specials. The trick that fried me and my brother was Blaine doing his handling of "think of a card". It fried us so bad that we thought that we both thought of different cards and he somehow got both our cards. Thats how blown away we were. And like one of the previous posters said after taking up magic I rarely get fried with tricks anymore. All though Cyril's got some pretty cool effects that are cool to watch. Also to me I never found OOTW mindblowing. Not sure why that is.

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Re: First trick I saw that fried me...

Postby mrgoat » April 21st, 2008, 5:24 am

The three things that stand out for me were all shown to me by my Uncle at various stages of my interest in magic.

a) Floating bill
b) Hanging coins
c) Slydini one coin routine

All made me feel like a child again. I had NO CLUE how these things were working. I gasped. It was wonderful.

Chris Bailey
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Re: First trick I saw that fried me...

Postby Chris Bailey » April 21st, 2008, 11:12 am

I saw the Hot Rod at eh magic shop in Disneyland many years ago. It fried me pretty bad since I was unaware of the paddle move.

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Re: First trick I saw that fried me...

Postby DomC » April 21st, 2008, 11:46 am

In 1970 while attending the Art Institute of Ft. Lauderdale, I was in Paul Diamond's Magic Shop on N. Federal Hwy. He pulled out some coins and did a routine which he called "Scotch And Soda". When the copper coin changed into a quarter in my hand, I totally freaked...I still have the original set that I bought that day (1964 Kennedy).
Dom.
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Re: First trick I saw that fried me...

Postby Brandon Hall » April 21st, 2008, 4:22 pm

November 1969, sitting on a couch in Torrance, CA, my great uncle pulled a quarter out of my ear...RIGHT OUT OF MY EAR!
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Glenn Godsey
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Re: First trick I saw that fried me...

Postby Glenn Godsey » April 21st, 2008, 8:42 pm

I had seen Blackstone Senior, Bill Neff, and a few others in the 40's, but the first to really fry me was J.B. Bobo, in the early 50's doing a little red silk and TT. I was totally fooled and had no clue how it could have been done even though I had owned a metal TT since I was 9 years old.

I still think that, properly done, it is the greatest trick ever. No one should be allowed to perform it unless they are are good enough with the handling to fool those who know about the TT.

The next one who fried me was Don Alan producing a 25 lb. nut from under a hat. The next was Al Goshman and his salt shakers in his prime around 1965. There have been few since then.

Alan Ackerman fooled me when I sat next to him at a table that included Vernon, Jennings, Paul Harris, Mike Skinner, Klaus, etc.
Alan had me riffle shuffle the deck, then showed me that it was divided into red and black after my shuffle. I was fried.

Glenn Godsey

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Re: First trick I saw that fried me...

Postby Bob Farmer » April 22nd, 2008, 7:39 am

After getting back into magic in the early 70s, I moved to London, England, and went to Davenport's magic shop. I saw two things there that were utterly unfathomable to me at the time. Pat Page showed me (and sold me) Roy Walton's "Cascade." I knew nothing about the Elmsley Count befoe that.

Bobby Bernard showed me Himber's coin vanish. It appears as if a coin tumbles from hand to the other and vanishes. It was (and is) the best retention of vision vanish I know. He was kind enough to show me how to do it and I practiced for quite awhile before getting it down.

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Re: First trick I saw that fried me...

Postby Darryl Harris » April 22nd, 2008, 11:54 am

The very first trick I saw was in the old Mecca Magic shop in East Orange, NJ. The owner, Ted Collins, did Copper/Silver, and my chin hurt for three days after hitting the counter.
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Re: First trick I saw that fried me...

Postby DrDanny » April 23rd, 2008, 10:47 am

I get the order mixed up, but way back in the about 50 years ago my father took me to Gene Devoe's shop in St. Louis. He fried me with a hotrod/paddle move trick, color-changing knives, and nickels-to-dimes thing. But just as thrilling as the tricks was the place: there was a guillotine(!!) hanging from the ceiling for chrissake! Shiny stuff, bright colors everywhere I looked!
I was hooked like a starving catfish on stinkbait.

flynn
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Re: First trick I saw that fried me...

Postby flynn » April 23rd, 2008, 8:33 pm

Quadra flex mismade bill floored me too. Beacaue I had never seen a mismade bill before and the shop owner was demeonsrating the trick. It just goes to show that you need to build up a rep before doing something that would other wise be obvious to someone.

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Re: First trick I saw that fried me...

Postby Jeff Haas » April 24th, 2008, 1:24 am

Damien...you have an uncle who can do Hanging Coins? Pretty cool.

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mrgoat
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Re: First trick I saw that fried me...

Postby mrgoat » April 24th, 2008, 5:02 am

Jeff Haas wrote:Damien...you have an uncle who can do Hanging Coins? Pretty cool.


Yes, I vividly remember him showing me three coins in his hand, taking one, holding it up and just making it vanish. I had no clue at all. It just vanished.

It was wonderful :)

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Tom Frame
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Re: First trick I saw that fried me...

Postby Tom Frame » April 24th, 2008, 12:46 pm

It was back in 1973. I was 13 years old. In drooling, trembling awe, I watched a TV commercial of Marshall Brodein demonstrating TV Magic Cards. After relentlessly pleading with my mom for several days, she caved in and bought me the TV Magic Cards and the TV Magic set. That single event profoundly changed my life, and sent me on my magical journey.

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Re: First trick I saw that fried me...

Postby El Mystico » April 24th, 2008, 12:49 pm

It was Fred Robinson in the Marlborough Arms, standing at the bar doing a series of colour changes. I had the Royal Road, so I thought I knew what was possible - and what he was doing was not possible.

Also - seeing Michael Vincent, when he first entered the Magic Circle Close Up competition. It was the first time i'd seen him work, and I remember thinking - watching real magic would not be better than this.

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Re: First trick I saw that fried me...

Postby Lemniscate » April 24th, 2008, 4:54 pm

High school algebra class.

I shuffled the deck, my friend took it and pulled out two predictions while I made sure he didn't change the order of the cards.

I cut the deck and my friend fairly marked it by turning one half 90 degrees and placing it on top (whoosh <--- the sound of everybody moving onto the next post).

He showed his prediction cards and the cards I cut to, they were mates (black 7s and red 4's I think).

I still do this trick to this day and it still gets monster responses. I have, obviously, learned some fine subtleties but it serves to remind me that the simplest methods can result in the strongest reactions. It is a great trick and a great lesson that I always keep in mind.

Oh, I had to pay my friend to teach the trick to me, so an early introduction to buying magic for me and an early introduction to business for him, both things we are still involved in to this day.

Lem

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Joe M. Turner
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Re: First trick I saw that fried me...

Postby Joe M. Turner » April 24th, 2008, 6:21 pm

I had some magic kits and so forth as a child, but when I was around 11 years old, I was introduced to sleight-of-hand by a man at my church. Fred White was the husband of my 6th grade English teacher, Beverly White, and a man that I knew pretty well at church.

One day Mr. White showed me a nickel, rubbed it into his elbow, and it was GONE. I mean, it was gone -- not in either hand, not up his sleeve, nothing. I was stunned. Where the heck did it go? He turned his head and as God is my witness, it was IN HIS EAR. His EAR! How on earth...?

That rocked my world!

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Re: First trick I saw that fried me...

Postby John Carey » April 27th, 2008, 4:15 pm

Francis Carlysle Homing card from the stars of magic.
I can still feel that moment of sheer wonder when the man who performed it for me did the repeat flight of the card.

Kin fantastic

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Re: First trick I saw that fried me...

Postby Tom Gilbert » April 27th, 2008, 7:37 pm

Two early on fried me, Hank Lee demo'd Color Monte, then not long after that at Steve Dacri's shop he showed me Stop from
Loryane's CUCM. I almost fell over.


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