The Genii Forum

Joe Mckay

Don't look at me. I know no more than anyone else!

Joe Mckay

This dealer specialises in magic magazines. He has been very helpful to me in the past.

http://www.mhmagicmagazines.com/

Joe Mckay

Andy's blog is five years old today. And he has marked that moment by finally stepping out of the shadows to reveal his real identity.

http://www.thejerx.com/blog/2020/5/23/the-jerx-revealed

Joe Mckay

Here is an interview with Jim Steinmeyer (from 2002) talking about the magic of Orson Welles, and his friendship with him. https://web.archive.org/web/20040205144946/http://thefilmjournal.com/issue6/steinmeyer.html The original link no longer works - so I have used the Internet Archive Wayback Machi...

Joe Mckay

Pinkerton's Surprise from the Issue 4 (NOV/DEC 2002) of Penumbra magazine is a great trick that makes use of this sneaky move. It is by Bill Goodwin, Shannon Clark & Roy Walton. Not sure if this is one of your references? I just wanted to mention it since it is not a traditional Cutting The Aces...

Joe Mckay

Jamy was an incredible writer for GENII.

Joe Mckay

If you are a Roy Walton fan - you may be interested in the recent Roy Walton memorial issue that Jerry Sadowitz has released.

https://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/vie ... &forum=110

Joe Mckay

I am trying to track down a David Regal card trick. I read about it somewhere but haven't come across it in his books yet. The trick ends with about 100 audience members all waving the selected card at the spectator who chose that card. So it is one of those card tricks that ends with an unexpected ...

Joe Mckay

A friend got in touch with me and told me I was being unfair to Peter Samelson & his Invasion of the Body Snatchers wild card effect. He said you cannot judge a trick whose premise is so tied into the persona of the magician performing it. Since the only context by which you can judge the trick ...

Joe Mckay

Often it is people from outside of magic who do a better job than magicians at creating magical effects. Take Stanley Kubrick. No magician has ever done a better job of creating the illusion of a floating pen. And he did it using practical special effects. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPE7ZM4Iu8I...

Joe Mckay

Thanks for that!

I found the video I was looking for here:

https://vimeo.com/67900728

Joe Mckay

I was watching an interview with a magician recently. I forget who but I think it will come back to me later on in this thread. Anyway - he mentioned Yann Frisch (whose work I was already aware of) and the fact that he was part of a new school of magic in France of which he happened to be the most f...

Joe Mckay

I appreciate all the feedback. I am an idiot. If I think too much about something I end up saying something very smart or very dumb. The problem is I am never sure which it is. Here is an idea I had for Bank Night. I was going to use Hiro Sakai's brilliant method that he printed in GENII magazine a ...

Joe Mckay

For most of human history women were seen as the property of men. They were owned by their father. Who then chose who they married. And then they were passed on to be owned by the husband. I suppose this would have been a worldview that still resonated a hundred years ago? So the rise of women getti...

Joe Mckay

You make a good point about the historical context surrounding The Miser's Dream. Thanks for that. Inflation has a habit of catching people out when they think about the past. I never bought into the Jim Steinmeyer theory that magicians torturing women was a reaction against women wanting the vote. ...

Joe Mckay

I think somebody like Mike Tyson is a fascinating person. I also think you can teach a layperson how to perform strong magic in about a week (think about tricks like The Invisible Deck & Coin In Bottle). As such - I bet I could turn Mike Tyson into a more powerful performer than most of the magi...

Joe Mckay

I am getting attakced for my views. Which is fine. But here is the thing. Magic is broken. Magic doesn't work. Magic has no artistic respect across the world. It is the only "artform" that literally had to lobby Congress to get a law passed recognising it is an art. That suggests that ther...

Joe Mckay

Bruce Cervon made a similar point about Dai Vernon on the DVD 'Hit The Road' that Lee Asher and R. Paul Wilson produced. You can see the clip where he discusses the importance of charisma at the 24 mins 48 secs mark in the link below: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6ohai5 When you look at the su...

Joe Mckay

It is false dichotomy when people say the trick has to hav emeaning otherwise you are simply a guy on stage presenting a puzzle. And nobody likes to be made a fool of. That only applies if the trick you are performing is more interesting than you. Then - yes - that is annoying. Nobody like the guy w...

Joe Mckay

I have been reading a lot of magc theory books lately. I am putting together a stand-up magic act. I think my rant was sparked by reading about The Miser's Dream, and how the trick works because the deep symbolism of the trick speaks to man's deisre to be able to produce free money from the air. Doe...

Joe Mckay

Add David Blaine to my list.

And Justin Willman.

Joe Mckay

I think magicians with a theater background are harming magic with their ill-thought-out theories. The majority of advice I see given to magicians over the past two decades has stressed that magic is a branch of theater. It is not. There is only one plot in magic. A guy (or gal!) doing tricks. That ...

Joe Mckay

Alexander - any updates on your upcoming book?

Cheers!

Joe Mckay

It was called Thinking of You. It is the third book that he has released. I think of it as his fourth book since one year he had a monthly magazine called JAMM for 12 months. And when you printed and bound all the issues that added up to a books worth of great material as well. He has another book o...

Joe Mckay

I linked to the part in the conversation where Derren discusses why he no longer performs tricks for friends in social situations. That leads into a conversation about Andy Nyman that ends with Derren giving a shout-out to Andy (from The Jerx). Andy (from The Jerx) & Andy Nyman are two different...

Joe Mckay

The other card performer who really impressed me when I first became interested in card magic was Harry Lorayne. I saw him do WHAT A M-E-S! (a lengthy dealing trick) on an old Pat Page Trick-A-Tape syle video magazine. It was incredible. He really knows how to sell a card trick to laypeople. He is r...

Joe Mckay

Derren Brown gives Andy a shout-out here.

http://discourseinmagic.com/be-human-with-derren-brown/

Go to the 55 mins 50 secs mark. It comes about a minute after that. I just wanted to link to that part so you can hear the wider context to the point that Derren was making.

Joe Mckay

I just saw Helge Thun do the "Ace of Spades as a Sorceror's Apprentice" on a Topas DVD. This is the same trick that Ricky Jay does as The Laughing Card Trick. I am not sure if Ricky Jay got better at doing this trick later in life but Helge Thun does it much better... I am only mentioning ...

Joe Mckay

Yes - that must be it. Thanks so much! I would never have worked out this forgotten reference.

Thanks again!

Joe Mckay

Is it possible that this was an idea that Michael Close included as part of his (ungaffed) Invisible Deck routine using a memorized deck in the Workers books? I don't have those books with me at the moment so I cannot check.

Joe Mckay

I saw that the other day. It is wonderful. The best trick I have seen on that show. And he wasn't even taking part in the contest!

Joe Mckay

Does anyone remember where this was published? You have a spectator name any card they want. You reach into a big case - fumble around for a couple of seconds - and produce a deck of cards. In that deck of cards - you show their named card has a different coloured back. You have this big case on sta...

Joe Mckay

I had only been studying magic for about a month or two when I first saw Sadowitz perform on TV. So I was pretty much a layperson. The way the cards keep shuttling to the face felt magical. Clearly it was the work of skill - so wasn't magic in the true sense of the word. But I often wonder if card m...

Joe Mckay

Arnaud has posted up some great videos. There are some great clips of Jerry Sadowitz performing card magic as well. I think he is the best performer of card magic in the world. He is a brilliant creator as well. You can see the clips here: https://youtu.be/fFvXdStzR5E?t=158 https://youtu.be/fFvXdStz...

Joe Mckay

[Sorry for digging up an old thread] ------------------------ I read this book again over the past couple of days. It is the best book of magic theory I have read and one of the important books in all of magic. I feel the core message of the book can be summed up in five words. "Don't be cheesy...

Joe Mckay

The method behind her Appearing Dictionary is genius. It is a clever gag as well.

It reminds me of the sort of thing Gaetan Bloom or Lubor Fiedler would invent.

Joe Mckay

I can't believe Andy was involved in the production of this.

I used to be a big fan of his...

http://www.thejerx.com/blog/2020/4/23/i-feel-like-a-proud-papa

Joe Mckay

There is something like this in the book Reinventing The Real by Tyler Wilson.

Joe Mckay

William Poundstone wrote a great book addressing the philosophical issues raised by the Game of Life: https://www.amazon.com/Recursive-Universe-Complexity-Scientific-Knowledge-dp-048649098X/dp/048649098X/ref=mt_paperback?_encoding=UTF8&me=&qid= Daniel Dennett felt it should be mandatory for ...

Joe Mckay

I picked up Present Company. It is a great trick and a lovely mix of methods.

Tom? Do you have a new book coming out soon? I heard you were working on another book from Hermetic Press?

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