The Genii Forum

performer

I gave Richard my article some time ago. I am getting a psychic vibe you will never see it and my genius will have to go unrecognised. With regard to this matter I have had a request from a well known figure in magic for a similar article on the svengali deck. I have informed him that Richard has f...

performer

I have a wonderful solution if you don't like the review. Don't read it. I figured that out all by myself.

performer

A good magician gets two kinds of applause. The applause at the actual performance whether that applause is measured by laughs, gasps or indeed applause. However, the second type of applause is just as important and in fact can be more important in the long run. That is the after-the-show talk which...

performer

I do find that laymen remember specific tricks that I do, even years afterwards. And yes, contrary to what Richard says the sponge balls is among them. I often get people coming back to me saying, "Do that trick with the balls". Out of This World is very memorable to them as well as three ...

performer

I should send him my most worthy memoirs, "the Lives of a Showman" for review. His review would be nearly as long as the book!

performer

It cannot possibly be an incorrect answer since I am never wrong. Besides I said it only showed up again much later in the twentieth century so that it was new again when Stanley Collins started complaining about it. As for Hofzinser I have examined his jibber jabber in the past. I am quite surprise...

performer

I just read the palm change. It isn't actually a double lift as it is not used in they way a double lift is commonly used. So it still wouldn't have been recognised as such in the early days of the twentieth century.

See? I have an answer for everything......................

performer

My edition of Erdnase only goes up to page 130! Somebody must have done a double lift with some of the pages!

performer

The bottom palm described by Paul Le Paul is described as an "Improved Erdnase Bottom Palm" although I am not sure what the improvement is. However, before I learned it I invented my own bottom palm which is the easiest of them all. Mind you, it is also the most unnatural of them all but t...

performer

I just checked. I seem to be doing the ERDNASE bottom palm. I might have known that Erdnase would show up somehow. I got it from the Paul Le Paul book rather than the Cy Endfield book although Endfied has a method in there. He at least says he is using the Hofzinser palm. I far prefer the Paul Le Pa...

performer

I do this move all the time but not the Christian version. I think I got it from the Cy Endfield book written by Ganson. My right little finger contacts the right hand upper corner of the card or cards to be palmed and I simply move the deck back towards myself and the card pivots. The left inner co...

performer

1716. Look here: http://www.conjuringcredits.com/doku.php?id=cards:double_lift That link confirms what I said when I stated that the sleight was hardly mentioned until the early twentieth century. After all I know everything and am never wrong. Not that it matters anyway. I don't bloody care when i...

performer

The Burnaby Kid wrote:
performer wrote:[The double lift] wasn't mentioned in Erdnase or any of the standard books of the day.

It's in Erdnase. It's not mentioned by name but the technique is used.

What page number?

performer

I always assumed it was Alberti that invented it in the mid nineteenth century but it was hardly mentioned in the early part of the twentieth century. However, on researching the matter it seems that Ponsin mentioned it even earlier. Hardly hundreds of years ago though. And some guy in 1776 also sai...

performer

Where?

performer

With regard to Alfred's point about the double lift in the Royal Road this is what I wrote about it in the annotations: There is a disease common among magicians known as “double lift indigestion”. In other words you can have too much of a good thing! I first came across the term in Lewis Ganson’s e...

performer

I think the double lift in the Royal Road is awful and I said so in the annotations! As for the patter in Design for Laughter I used something based on the Royal Road patter for years and it worked very well but for some reason which I cannot remember I completely changed it to what I say now and it...

performer

Well, I hope I can add value but I am a trifle intimidated by the attempt as I often think the book doesn't need much help from me. I do think it is the book itself rather than my additions that is the important thing. My uncharacteristic modesty has been triggered by the power, structure and most i...

performer

The annotations to the Royal Road to Card Magic are nearly done. Or at least the writing is. I am on the last chapter now. Of course the writing is only the start. There is the editing and the illustrations to be done. But at least you know that we are well on the way.

performer

They won't like it Jason. And that is BEFORE they view it! They are biased against you and I would love to know why. I don't think it is anything to do with the tricks either. It can't be anything you said because you don't say much. Are you promoting yourself too much for their tastes? That is all ...

performer

If, as you say, you don't have the best pass in the world you MUST shuffle the cards afterwards. God help you if you don't. If it was good enough for the magicians in Professor Hoffman's days it should be good enough for you. If it is good enough for the Royal Road to Card Magic it should also be go...

performer

I personally don't agree to shuffle after a pass. My reasoning is that if i was to shuffle after a pass then why don't i just shuffle and control the chosen card to the top or bottom without doing a pass first. Doing a pass and a shuffle to me seems like more work than is needed. The whole idea of ...

performer

Ali wasn't working in the late 1940s! Zaharee was advertising effects from Ali Bongo in the Aug 1947 issue of "The Wizard". I am well aware of that. I actually read them myself ironically in Hamleys where there were loads of old magazines hanging about. The effects he advertised had nothi...

performer

Ali was born in 1929 Medway magic society was founded shortly after WW2 By the early 1960’s Ali is appearing on tv & newsreels with his very developed and well known act by an established performer; not as a newcomer trying out something new. So absolutely nothing you’ve claimed is correct mark...

performer

I saw the book for the first time today. Fabulous colour photographs and very well produced quality looking book. I have no idea about the contents but the book looks very attractive at first sight.

performer

Here is the origin of the Pongolian character. Part of an obituary in the Daily Telegraph: "He became a founding member of the Medway Magical Society and joined a youth club where he took part in a pantomime that saw the creation of "Ali Bongo". The character, a ship's cook, wore a co...

performer

Only if amongst everything else he invented there was a time machine. The ali bongo character was established and working in the late 1940’s, milo and roger don’t start their career until the late 50’s. since they were all of a similar age it’s much more likely they all took similar experiences and...

performer

Most links above are dead. Try: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4J5a4rrm28 Shades of Ali Bongo. A sort of slow version anyway. Having now seen this I have a suspicion that this may well be where Ali got his inspiration from. I bet there is a fifty/fifty chance anyway. Some of the music is the same...

performer

What a great choice for book of the month! This is one of the most interesting biographies I have ever read in any field. The only other magic biography that can match it is Eddie Field's A Life Among Secrets . Naturally I do not agree with that statement for rather obvious reasons. Still, I am ren...

performer

Quite frankly I am not a fan of learning from video. There are a lot of disadvantages in doing so the main one for me is that it is so bloody inconvenient. Books are where the real knowledge lies. I taught myself purely from books and I never met a single magician for the first two years of my studi...

performer

I bet it isn't his last book! However, he might have a bit of trouble figuring out the title for the next one! Perhaps "Second Final"?

performer

I like writing certain things. The difference is that when writing a book you have to wait for months, sometimes years before you get the audience reaction whereas on a forum you get it straight away. The other problem is that writing technical details of which finger goes bloody where on which corn...

performer

If you are doing a pass when the spectators are looking at the deck, or without any form of misdirection, then you have more important issues to look at before you work on the pass... An invisible pass is one that the spectators do not see; if that happens when they are looking elsewhere, then you'...

performer

I said it first you know!

performer

I can't do a flawless pass to save my life, but I can write, and I'll second Richard's comment about burrowing into a project and then working in a frenzy until it's done. I spent something like five years fiddling around with my first novel back in the early 80's. I'd work on it for an hour a day ...

performer

I have completely lost interest in the pass now that Chet has supplied splendid misdirection for me by writing about writing. I haven't read it yet but I am going to thoroughly. I learned the Pass years ago. I now require assistance not so much in writing but trying to find the best way to overcome ...

performer

Yes, but the ones who do it well still may give it away for other reasons. Body language, demeanour, overly suspicious spectators, exposure on the internet etc; etc; Sometimes although you can't see a thing but the guy is holding the cards in an unnatural manner or he looks just plain shifty. Or the...

performer

I disagree with the first Ian Kendall quote and agree with the second one. I think in many, many cases the punter thinks something has happened when the pass is executed. And even if they don't it doesn't do any harm whatsoever to shuffle the deck and really convince them the card is lost. In fact I...

performer

What is virtual magic? Is it something to do with quantum physics?

performer

the pass is the perfect move for those times when it is critical for the audience to know that the order of the cards has NOT been manipulated. Providing the execution of it plus the body language plus the demeanor of the performer does not give away that the cards HAVE been manipulated! And I beli...

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