Search found 71 matches
- February 23rd, 2012, 10:34 am
- Forum: Buzz
- Topic: Martin Breese has Passed
- Replies: 23
- Views: 8875
Re: Martin Breese has Passed
Martin Breese was one of most enthusiastic magicians you could ever hope to meet. I worked with him when he had his magic business in London. First a basement studio under a grocers shop in Shepherds Bush and later the top floor of a fine house that once belonged to Biba fashion founder Barbara Hula...
- November 11th, 2010, 8:14 pm
- Forum: Buzz
- Topic: www.CheatingAtTexasHoldem.com
- Replies: 126
- Views: 36237
Re: www.CheatingAtTexasHoldem.com
Checked out the website and was surprised to see videos of Steve Forte from Hidden Secrets of Magic and also Paul and Alex in a sequence from the BBC's The Real Hustle being embedded in the site and used to promote it. To me it seems misleading to use other people's videos in this way. I don't know ...
- November 8th, 2010, 8:30 pm
- Forum: Other Magic Publications
- Topic: Amazing Geometric Vanish - MAGIC magazine
- Replies: 22
- Views: 44833
Re: Amazing Geometric Vanish - MAGIC magazine
Terri Rogers showed me a very similar trick in the 1980s. It too was based around the Bermuda Triangle mystery but, more logically I think, used the Paul Curry triangle from Gardner's Mathematics Magic & Mystery book. The triangle had drawings of ships on it. Simple bird's eye views of the hull ...
- May 25th, 2010, 4:58 pm
- Forum: Buzz
- Topic: Real Magic
- Replies: 3
- Views: 1340
Re: Real Magic
The use of animated projections on buildings has been used in the UK quite a lot, most recently by SKY TV during the election debates. There are some amazing examples on the web. And there was the projected '3D' Loch Ness monster in Japan used to publicise a movie: 3D Japanese Monster Marco Tempest ...
- February 1st, 2010, 6:05 am
- Forum: Buzz
- Topic: Ebooks - the pros & cons...
- Replies: 171
- Views: 27807
Re: Ebooks - the pros & cons...
I'm not sure it is easy to compare the small magic market with the wider public market for books and dvds. However, thriller author Joe Konrath has a remarkably candid blog in which he reveals the part that piracy, digital sales and other marketing factors impact on his work and income. He even incl...
- January 2nd, 2010, 10:45 am
- Forum: Close-Up Magic
- Topic: Dai Vernon in Expert card Technique
- Replies: 63
- Views: 13639
Re: Dai Vernon in Expert Card Technique
Hi Leonard The description of Vernon achieving the trick 'by gaze' sounds like the one in Hofzinser. It is possible that Hugard included the trick in Expert Card Technique because he had previously added it to the revised edition of Encyclopedia of Card Tricks. There it is called The Psychological S...
- December 28th, 2009, 3:47 pm
- Forum: Close-Up Magic
- Topic: Dai Vernon in Expert card Technique
- Replies: 63
- Views: 13639
Re: Dai Vernon in Expert card Technique
Re the psychological force used in The Psychic Stop, there is a version of this in Hofzinser's Card Conjuring. It is in the very first trick, The Sympathetic Numbers. It described as a forcing procedure but is used to force the number of cards dealt as opposed to revealing a card at that specific nu...
- August 11th, 2009, 6:29 am
- Forum: General
- Topic: A New Mathematical Principle - George Blake
- Replies: 13
- Views: 3295
Re: A New Mathematical Principle - George Blake
Hi Michael
Yes, it's the prediction that one of the hands will contain a singleton. But you don't know which one.
Yes, it's the prediction that one of the hands will contain a singleton. But you don't know which one.
- August 10th, 2009, 8:40 pm
- Forum: General
- Topic: A New Mathematical Principle - George Blake
- Replies: 13
- Views: 3295
Re: A New Mathematical Principle - George Blake
Hi Joe I wrote about George Blake's Mysterious Mis-Deal in an article for Stan Allen's Magic Magazine called Tricks of Faith. It was about tricks that don't really work. Although the idea was in the April 1954 issue of Max Andrews' Magic Magazine I think he believed it worked. Though Peter McDonald,...
- August 7th, 2009, 8:33 pm
- Forum: General
- Topic: George Blake - 'Impromptu Out Of This World'?
- Replies: 7
- Views: 2592
Re: George Blake - 'Impromptu Out Of This World'?
Hi Joe I don't know if it is the version you mean but George Blake published his handling in Max Andrews' Magic Magazine. Now published on CD Rom by Martin Breese and available for download from Lybrary.com. It's in the January 1954 issue. I think there were some corrections in a later issue too. It...
- June 27th, 2009, 9:24 pm
- Forum: Mentalism & Mental Magic
- Topic: David Berglas' Matchmaker effect
- Replies: 31
- Views: 7441
Re: David Berglas' Matchmaker effect
Anyone else will find the two paragraphs describing this stunt on page 1101 of The Phoenix.
Thanks to searchable pdfs at Ask Alexander no researchers were tortured in order to bring you this information!
Thanks to searchable pdfs at Ask Alexander no researchers were tortured in order to bring you this information!
- June 27th, 2009, 1:33 pm
- Forum: Mentalism & Mental Magic
- Topic: David Berglas' Matchmaker effect
- Replies: 31
- Views: 7441
Re: David Berglas' Matchmaker effect
Hi Psychic Lawrence You can get the entire run of Phoenix on CD rom for less than $25 at a magic dealer. A google search will turn up a bargain. If we had to put everything David Berglas did in the book, we'd still be writing it! I'm glad we managed to write up as much as we did. After two and a hal...
- June 27th, 2009, 8:47 am
- Forum: Mentalism & Mental Magic
- Topic: David Berglas' Matchmaker effect
- Replies: 31
- Views: 7441
Re: David Berglas' Matchmaker effect
Hi Psychic Lawrence. I saw David do the light trick. It's great gag and he plays it brilliantly. It's described in The Back Room column of issue 275 of The Phoenix magazine (1953) where it's attributed to Tommy Vanderschmidt although it's not clear whether Vanderschmidt created it. Well worth lookin...
- April 14th, 2009, 7:17 am
- Forum: Feature Articles
- Topic: Uri
- Replies: 139
- Views: 50590
Re: Uri
Or maybe we'll see a credit line in a magic book that says, 'This is based on an unpublished routine of Uri Geller' Re the key bending effect you mentioned earlier, this also appears to be originated by Uri Geller. He performed it in the UK in 1973. Magicians devised key bending devices and the slot...
- April 13th, 2009, 9:49 pm
- Forum: Feature Articles
- Topic: Uri
- Replies: 139
- Views: 50590
Re: Uri
I think it's fair to credit Uri Geller with the effect of metal bending as we now know it. I've never found anything comparable to spoon bending before Uri came along. And I've really searched! The nearest thing I've found is the bending of cutlery as it flew through the air during so called polterg...
- March 1st, 2009, 9:11 am
- Forum: Light from the Lamp ONLINE.
- Topic: Anyone Get their Set of True Astonishments Yet?
- Replies: 44
- Views: 14896
Re: Anyone Get their Set of True Astonishments Yet?
Hi Beyond Control I haven't seen Ripped and Fryed yet but I presume from the adverts that although it uses the sawing a lady in half presentation I used in Tearing a Lady in Two the method is completely different. Incidentally, Stephen Tucker (who suggested the effect in the first place) described a...
- February 25th, 2009, 9:10 pm
- Forum: Light from the Lamp ONLINE.
- Topic: Anyone Get their Set of True Astonishments Yet?
- Replies: 44
- Views: 14896
Re: Anyone Get their Set of True Astonishments Yet?
Hi Dustin Roswell was 1947 and the years that followed saw lots of newspaper reports about flying saucers. In fact the summer of 1952, which seems to be around the time of the release of George Pierce's The Flying Saucers manuscript, saw some spectacular saucer sightings in Washington and, apparentl...
- February 25th, 2009, 2:41 pm
- Forum: Light from the Lamp ONLINE.
- Topic: Anyone Get their Set of True Astonishments Yet?
- Replies: 44
- Views: 14896
Re: Anyone Get their Set of True Astonishments Yet?
Hi Ethan/Dustin The same riffle shuffle stack idea was used by George Pierce in his marketed effect, Flying Saucers. Here too the spectator riffles shuffles packets together which are stacked to produce a red/black separation at the finale. Here is a description of the effect as given in the instruc...
- September 15th, 2008, 9:20 pm
- Forum: Mentalism & Mental Magic
- Topic: Table Lifters
- Replies: 25
- Views: 15135
Re: Table Lifters
Dr Q's Gyrating Tables routine was reprinted in Vol 5 of Ormond McGill's Psychic Magic series. It was published by Abbott's in the US and Supreme in the UK so there are probably plenty of copies around. I wonder if this was the inspiration for Kreskin's presentation of table tipping. David Berglas d...
- September 3rd, 2008, 1:54 pm
- Forum: Magic History and Anecdotes
- Topic: BRITS AT WAR AND MASKELYNE
- Replies: 16
- Views: 4663
Re: BRITS AT WAR AND MASKELYNE
The Maskelyne story is best told on Richard Stokes excellent website:
http://www.maskelynemagic.com/
Well worth a read and a much truer picture of what happened than is commonly told.
http://www.maskelynemagic.com/
Well worth a read and a much truer picture of what happened than is commonly told.
Re: ERDNASE
The title page of Erdnase says the illustrations were 'drawn from life.' And Smith didn't mention seeing any photographs. If Erdnase made photographs he would have taken them to the meeting with Smith otherwise they wouldn't have served any purpose either as reminders to Erdnase about what the drawi...
Re: ERDNASE
Hi Jason If Smith's account is accurate then he made detailed sketches of all the positions from life during a single meeting with Erdnase. I've found that the most time consuming aspect of illustrating magic books is getting the preliminary sketch right. Taking a good photo can also be time consumi...
- May 22nd, 2008, 11:02 am
- Forum: Close-Up Magic
- Topic: Elmsley count with mechanics grip
- Replies: 64
- Views: 14590
Re: Elmsley count with mechanics grip
Hi Mitch Peter Kane used to say that the Elmsley Count should be heard as well as seen. If you want the spectators to note that you have four cards, then snapping them during the count is one way of underlining that idea. Oddly, one of the problems that comes up when first learning the original Four...
- March 30th, 2008, 6:06 pm
- Forum: Buzz
- Topic: David Britland
- Replies: 3
- Views: 1388
Re: David Britland
Hi Don Yes, have been very busy recently finishing a number of projects. Unfortunately the blog isn't noted for the frequency of its posts. But I post when I can. But have just put an update on it so that people know it's stll live. With any luck I'll have time to post some more pieces in April. David
- March 15th, 2008, 12:24 pm
- Forum: General
- Topic: Pure Magic
- Replies: 40
- Views: 15816
Re: Pure Magic
Terri Rogers worked out Star Gate having seen Bob Neale's Trapdoor Card. Here's the timeline as I recall it. Karl Fulves (a pioneer when it came to publishing topological card tricks) marketed Bob Neale's Trapdoor Card in 1983. I'd seen Michael Weber perform the Streamlined Trapdoor from the manuscr...
- March 5th, 2008, 8:33 am
- Forum: Close-Up Magic
- Topic: Swindle Cut Aces
- Replies: 72
- Views: 15514
Re: Swindle Cut Aces
Sorry to contradict Harry but his Spread Control goes even further back than 1962.
He'd published it in Hugard's Magic Monthly, ten years earlier, in 1952!
Amazing.
He'd published it in Hugard's Magic Monthly, ten years earlier, in 1952!
Amazing.
- February 13th, 2008, 6:39 pm
- Forum: Children's Entertainment
- Topic: Haunted Hank
- Replies: 32
- Views: 39105
Re: Haunted Hank
The original Solid Ghost, created by Dik Van Brummer as performed by Sam Hughes, was published in the Gen in 1958 and was practically impromptu given that the preparation took only a moment. If you were careful you didn't even need to fix the gimmick to the handkerchief. Indeed you could smuggle pra...
- February 1st, 2008, 8:56 am
- Forum: Magic History and Anecdotes
- Topic: Vernon's "Mental Control"
- Replies: 8
- Views: 2965
Re: Vernon's "Mental Control"
As I was searching Ask Alexander for Vernon's Mental Control effect I found another Vernon and Horowitz marketed item that is new to me. It was called Think. Here's a description of the effect from a 1941 Sphinx: 'Think, by Dai Vernon and Sam Horowitz, this is a method allowing the performer to answ...
- January 31st, 2008, 2:12 pm
- Forum: Magic History and Anecdotes
- Topic: Vernon's "Mental Control"
- Replies: 8
- Views: 2965
Re: Vernon's "Mental Control"
'Magnetic Mental Control' was Ralph Hull's trick and was published in Gravatt's The Second Encuclopedia of Card Tricks in 1936. That's two years after Hull advertised the trick. But the Vernon Horowitz version of Mental Control doesn't appear until 1941 so it looks like it's probably a different ver...
- January 30th, 2008, 1:52 pm
- Forum: Close-Up Magic
- Topic: Looking for a GOOD ACAAN
- Replies: 24
- Views: 15388
Re: Looking for a GOOD ACAAN
I've published some more material regarding ACAAN on my blog.
Don't expect miracles. But some of you might find it interesting.
Cardopolis Blog
Don't expect miracles. But some of you might find it interesting.
Cardopolis Blog
- January 12th, 2008, 11:12 am
- Forum: Reference Room
- Topic: reference needed
- Replies: 12
- Views: 3865
Re: reference needed
Hi Philippe
Are both those tricks credited to Jay Dee?
In the Pentagram the trick that is credited to Jay Dee appears to be the one involving a packet of cards.
Are both those tricks credited to Jay Dee?
In the Pentagram the trick that is credited to Jay Dee appears to be the one involving a packet of cards.
- January 12th, 2008, 9:03 am
- Forum: Reference Room
- Topic: reference needed
- Replies: 12
- Views: 3865
Re: reference needed
I think there might be some confusion here. Just checked Ask Alexander and found the following information. When Jack Potter writes about Jay Dee's version of 'Do As I Do' in The Pentagram, it's in the context of a trick in which the spectator and magician are handling packets, not decks, of cards. ...
- January 12th, 2008, 8:11 am
- Forum: Close-Up Magic
- Topic: Looking for a GOOD ACAAN
- Replies: 24
- Views: 15388
Re: Looking for a GOOD ACAAN
You could check out the one on my blog: Not The Berglas Effect.
Cardopolis Blog
I'll also be distributing a mss on this type of effect. It's free. See blog for details.
Cardopolis Blog
I'll also be distributing a mss on this type of effect. It's free. See blog for details.
- December 29th, 2007, 8:39 am
- Forum: Close-Up Magic
- Topic: Coming soon! New ACAAN - Order of the Holy Grail
- Replies: 23
- Views: 6397
Re: Coming soon! New ACAAN - Order of the Holy Grail
I'm currently posting some thoughts on The Berglas Effect (ACAAN) on my blog. First article is already there with more to come shortly. Cardopolis First trick is called The Bogus Effect. A one deck method that lives up to all the usual advertising hype while being just as disappointing as the latest...
- November 20th, 2007, 1:46 am
- Forum: Alternative Media
- Topic: Amazon's Kindle--Cool New eBook Reader
- Replies: 14
- Views: 4090
Re: Amazon's Kindle--Cool New eBook Reader
The big disadvantage of the Kindle seems to be that it will not read pdf files.
Unfortunately that's the format that most magic publications are in, including the Ask Alexander database.
Another Review
I guess they want to sell us their books, rather than read the books we already have!
Unfortunately that's the format that most magic publications are in, including the Ask Alexander database.
Another Review
I guess they want to sell us their books, rather than read the books we already have!
- July 21st, 2007, 1:31 pm
- Forum: General
- Topic: Criss Angel
- Replies: 150
- Views: 34804
Re: Criss Angel
Another way of comparing fame on the internet is to use Google Trends. This measures the number of searches made for key words. It enables you, for instance, to compare the number of searches made for 'David Blaine' with those for 'Criss Angel.' It even produces a graph showing the highs and lows ov...
- May 20th, 2007, 2:47 pm
- Forum: Close-Up Magic
- Topic: Poosh, The Four-Dimensional Pencil
- Replies: 5
- Views: 1464
Re: Poosh, The Four-Dimensional Pencil
A search via the all knowing Ask Alexander at the Conjuring Arts Library turned up a set of instructions complete with illustrations. I remember that Bill Thompson of the UK had devised a very similar trick (though much later) in which a pencil pushed through one side of a cube came out at 90 degree...
- May 6th, 2007, 4:41 pm
- Forum: Alternative Media
- Topic: Mind Power
- Replies: 3
- Views: 881
Re: Mind Power
Hi Bob I agree that there a better ways to design the interface. My original dream was to have the software in a PDA or other device that could secretly be consulted by the performer. Jim's present online version proves that the basic idea works and anyone with any programming talents - not me - can...
- May 6th, 2007, 2:50 pm
- Forum: Alternative Media
- Topic: Mind Power
- Replies: 3
- Views: 881
Mind Power
Years ago I wondered if there was a way of using an electronic dictionary to update the working of Bob Hummer's Think-A-Word trick. This is a trick in which the spectator thinks of a playing card and a word and the performer divines both. Then in 2004 I saw Jim Baumgardner's excellent programming wo...
- April 29th, 2007, 10:19 am
- Forum: Alternative Media
- Topic: Richard Wiseman's Colour Changing Card Trick
- Replies: 7
- Views: 1612
Richard Wiseman's Colour Changing Card Trick
I think I can safely say that this is the most unusual colour changing card trick ever :)
Colour Changing Card Trick
Sleight free too!
Colour Changing Card Trick
Sleight free too!