The Genii Forum

Jonathan Townsend

Paco, would you elaborate about spectators of amateurs? I don't understand how a spectator would know if the performer is a professional or an amateur.

Jonathan Townsend

*there's also a distinction when looking for props and material to at the magic shop - amateurs ask for the latest novelty while professionals ask what's proven practical.

Jonathan Townsend

Number 1 in that list soft-peddles the need to pay the mortgage (or rent) taking priority over replacing a working mechanical item with a sleight for bragging rights. Number 2 in that list looks like a lifestyle choice. There's a joke about actors spending most of their day waiting tables. A working...

Jonathan Townsend

Looking at the matter as potential history rather than lore - When was the first published report? Are there diary entries of that time by those present? The Sphinx May 1930 "I shall never forget, for some time at least, the time Roterberg fooled Houdini with the pencil and loop trick in the c...

Jonathan Townsend

Leonard Hevia wrote: There's a photo of that evening of Houdini, Bess, ...

The June 2006 issue of Genii Magazine has an article featuring photos from that event courtesy of David Ben and his book.

Jonathan Townsend

https://www.wopc.co.uk/uk/index2 https://www.wopc.co.uk/woodblock/replica Sample cards from England appear blank backed at that time. https://www.historicgames.com/gifs/RPcards.html If our scholars have found packs with a back design from that era, all the better. Perhaps something like the Tarot de...

Jonathan Townsend

Printing your own version of V with altered text and artwork would be project. Altering the text to accommodate some magic tricks would be wonderful. If you're going to play with the pages - please also make a coloring book gaff (blow book) of the thing.

Jonathan Townsend

Looking in Greater Magic (apropos as our host is working on that book again); There's an ambitious card credited to Vernon, Finley and Horowitz. It would be nice to get some more background about what each of them were exploring. That item (second in the section) has several phases including the car...

Jonathan Townsend

While you're looking in the Conjuring Arts materials - when was the first time Houdini mentioned the card trick? Or someone other than Vernon?

Jonathan Townsend

A NYC artist, Adam Rubin, has transparent on one side business cards. Wonderful!
https://www.instagram.com/p/42AciyqNUh/

Jonathan Townsend

How're folks doing with this item? Bought a Blackout coin from Platt to have a safer gaff and magnetic option? It's useful. Recalling Ramsay's bit of feinting a backpalm vanish. Remember JWGrip? :D Just a small adjustment to your hand position when you turn your hand palm toward the audience the fir...

Jonathan Townsend

I'm afraid you've lost me, Jonathan [snip] Maybe it would help to get Mahdi back on board here to continue the discussion. Agreed with getting more input from Mahdi. I get the feeling folks are arguing the needs of the market, the art, and scholarship should coincide. The needs of commerce (exclusi...

Jonathan Townsend

The claim that Vernon had access to double backed* cards appears sensible. Okay back to history of the Vernon fools Houdini story and corroborating evidence of that time . *Notes for the distracted: The item in The Fischer/Sharpe book, Domination of Thought Second Method is not a transposition or am...

Jonathan Townsend

How is this one different from others involving views through a frame?

Jonathan Townsend

I read that Houdini used a double-back card and a double turnover to accomplish the feat. There are several descriptions in print with much overlap around the use of a gaff and the card being placed second from the top. Looking at the matter as potential history rather than lore - When was the firs...

Jonathan Townsend

Um... that you're looking at the wrong safe to start? We've had exponential growth of digital information presence in our culture. We carry more data in our phones than folks used to have in their libraries. The magic shop is a business. As is the publishing industry. Our market where the product is...

Jonathan Townsend

Zig Zagger wrote:...
So?

Jim Steinmeyer once wrote the great line, "Magicians are guarding an empty safe." ...

You were saying...?

Jonathan Townsend

Hi Folks, In the last few weeks I've read a few versions of this story. Most recently something in a book about con games. Here's the version on magipedia: Vernon then showed Houdini a trick, where he removed the top card of the deck and placed it in the middle, and then turned over the top card to ...

Jonathan Townsend

Okay back on topic - auti/aspi/ASD ... thinking: Does a diagnosis and billing code validate one's inner experience? I sure hope not. But it may be a start to better discussion (okay and magic trick use) of dealing with people. David Brin's book Existence has characters that simply think and express ...

Jonathan Townsend

Many who self-identify on social media using the #ActuallyAutistic hashtag insist that autistic people must be at the forefront of all autism discourse and that only autistic people themselves can be considered to be true experts in the condition. It would be easier if those with particular talents...

Jonathan Townsend

Those who wish to explore his books *Magic of the Hands will find some history.
Anyone doing E-Y-E or his card control as written?

Jonathan Townsend

Self stimulation aside;
Is it vanity which sees other as wrong?

Jonathan Townsend

If you can bring an audience to tears with that trick - good for you. Not sure you want to go for other more primal reactions in most venues.

Jonathan Townsend

an article?

Please?

Jonathan Townsend

https://hackaday.com/2019/02/18/wifi-hi ... usb-cable/
Could be used to reveal a selected card on a photo - or put other photos in place for other purposes.

60Minutes tonight has the software developers of "pegasus" - enjoy

Jonathan Townsend

Cognitive and perceptive hacking is used in magic. Just not usually at that level of technology. Infecting someone else's phone or PC could have unintended consequences.

Stick to yanny/ laurel or brainstorm/green needle

Jonathan Townsend

You might like this book: http://www.davidbrin.com/existence.html One of the characters is not neurotypical. Here's a snipit of how the 'auti' character ponders: nervous normalpeople +/- building careers +/- building houses – civilizations – families … linear thinkers obsessed with time. reason-not-...

Jonathan Townsend

This book is also fun: Codex Seraphinianus
https://www.amazon.com/Codex-Seraphinia ... 0847842134

It's not ancient/mythical and the artist is around if you'd like to say 'thanks'.

Jonathan Townsend

No problems with exposure videos on Amazon.com? Maybe it's the full moon.

Jonathan Townsend

Amazing or Amazon.com?
https://www.amazon.com/vdp/218d6f85e532 ... byBjVSD5Oo
Huh?

Jonathan Townsend

Finally watched the item open-eyed. What a sensible tribute to Houdini and one of his escapes. Wonderful

Bravo!

*spoiler alert*
Got milk?
* end spoiler *

Jonathan Townsend

This guy? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Ovette

Jonathan Townsend

Servais leRoy, Aglaia, Euphrosyne, and Thalia might be wondering if it's okay to do the routine their way.

Respecting cultures is a good idea in general. One guy recently dropped the "Nantucket sleighride" line from his song after finding out some about that term.

Jonathan Townsend

I turned my head away from the TV screen, back to PC screen, so yes

Jonathan Townsend

Did he mention salt?

Jonathan Townsend

... http://www.educateautism.com/infographics/sally-anne-test.html I don't think that that test necessarily tests for what the experimenters think it does. Notice the eye-tracking paragraph on the wiki page citing https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/oct/06/apes-can-guess-what-others-are-thinki...

Jonathan Townsend

Michael Close wrote:Question: How many magicians does it take not to get a joke.

Answer: Apparently, all of them.

So Prospero, you've abjured?

Jonathan Townsend

ASD in Magic as compared to other groups? I'm not sure someone else would be happier to get a suggestion to seek a diagnosis unless they express an interest first. That line about "a little learning is a dangerous thing" applies here. Question: How many Aspies does it take to change a lig...

Jonathan Townsend

Richard Hatch wrote:... I'm watching with interest and thought others might like to follow as well.

Thanks, let's see what October brings.

Jonathan Townsend

As of Berne it was agreed that artworks are not to be copied without appropriate permissions. One could read the text in bold below as direction against teaching other people's tricks. The minimum standards of protection relate to the works and rights to be protected As to works, protection must inc...

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