The Genii Forum

Jack Shalom

Very enjoyable, Bob! One slight suggestion that some may prefer: when it comes to the showdown, rather than the spec showing his cards all at once, followed by performer doing the same, it may increase the suspense (and fun) a little if the spec does their first three cards and then the performer do...

Jack Shalom

A definite David Hoy vibe from him.

Jack Shalom

Good show, Scott!

Jack Shalom

I thought Erik Tait did a great job. Complete takedown of Hassini in a polite but devastating interview. There's a real art to unmasking an invited guest without having the guest walk out or hang up. Erik was perfect, in my opinion.

Jack Shalom

"Unless something drastic happens, Derren will sadly have damaged his brand with this experiment"

On the contrary--it gives him a boost. "See, it's not the same without Derren!"

Elvis impersonator vs. Elvis.

Jack Shalom

Here's more info including his tragic death:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Spicer

Jack Shalom

Anyway here is the historical bit. You see a lot of ventriloquists nowadays doing the stunt where they make human beings into the vent dummies. I still remember two ventriloquists arguing at a convention accusing each other of stealing the idea. I remember smirking because I knew perfectly well tha...

Jack Shalom

Count me as one more who is bewildered by the egg bag's popularity. It just doesn't feel like magic to me. A bag's too big, an egg's too small.

Jack Shalom

From Wikipedia: "Bradbury attributed his lifelong habit of writing every day to two incidents. The first, when he was three years old, was his mother's taking him to see Lon Chaney in the 1923 silent film The Hunchback of Notre Dame.[30] The second occurred in 1932, when a carnival entertainer,...

Jack Shalom

Brad Henderson wrote:But the spoons indeed were bent!!!!

Isn’t that the lesson? If we want to achieve something, if we apply our mental capacities, we can achieve it!!!!

I would think the lesson taught was actually "Fake it 'til you make it."

Jack Shalom

Bob, I was wondering in your researching this book, if you ran across any mathematical proof of the basic matrix force, say for even a small 4x4 square. It's kind of eluding me.

Jack Shalom

Did anyone ever buy L&L's digital rights?

Jack Shalom

Very nice, Neil!

Jack Shalom

Ricky kept his secrets really close to his vest...

Jack Shalom

"The most recent issue was March 3023"

Steve--it only seems that way...
Have a great vacation!

Jack Shalom

Did Miracle Factory ever actually come out with their Erdnase book?

Jack Shalom

That is a very nice routine. If you don't mind a comment from someone who isn't a coin person, but is looking at this like a layperson, at times, the "dirty" hand looks very tense, and so makes me suspicious. I think a more relaxed, somewhat open hand would take this to another level. Also...

Jack Shalom

New York Times obit:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/07/arts ... -dead.html

Jack Shalom

The good thing is, he won't need to take any gaffs with him, just an unopened pack of cards from the local store.

RIP, Harry Lorayne.

Jack Shalom

I think it's probably better used on magicians, rather than others. Worth trying I guess.

Jack Shalom

Hmm...right hand moving forward seems suspicious to me. In stripping out five cards, wouldn't the hands move in opposite directions with the right hand moving back, left moving forward? Maybe the right hand approaches the deck with the outjogged cards, thumb in back and four fingers on front edge of...

Jack Shalom

From the ever-informative NY Post newspaper:

https://nypost.com/2023/03/12/australia ... bean-show/

Jack Shalom

I especially like the sharpie cap flotation part.

Jack Shalom

Wait...don't most of my playing cards smell this way already?

Jack Shalom

Those two camps may be some of the viewpoints in the Weber/Petty dispute, but I think it's more fundamental than that. I think it's a semantic problem as well. I'll further insist that "credit" is different from "who owns the rights to make money from this thing?" The Weber/Petty...

Jack Shalom

Magic Cafe, Latest and Greatest...

Jack Shalom

Oh, I see. This is the Weber/Petty thing. Well the one good thing to come out of 32 pages of mudslinging is that the age cards with receipts seems to go back further than both of them...to at least Scott Dressberg (maybe a reference to Scott Grossberg?) in the 90s. One more bread crumb.

Jack Shalom

I've looked it up but would appreciate a link to the The Conjuring Arts Research Library which shows costs and what is available to research. This makes it sound like membership is highly exclusive and restricted: https://conjuringarts.org/library/research-appointments/ Thanks. Start here: https://...

Jack Shalom

If I'm reading this article correctly, then I couldn't disagree more with this. Crediting has nothing to do with who shared an idea with the public. It has to do with being able to trace the pedigree of an idea. It has to do with the historical record; it's a bread crumb for further research. With r...

Jack Shalom

Simon Aronson had some work on this too, where he put the move directions on individual file cards. I'm blanking on the name of it, I think it was in Simply Simon.

Jack Shalom

Al Stanger (no "r"). He used to go by the name of Stan Alger on the Cafe--an anagram. It's worth looking up his posts. Years ago he was very kind to share materials with me on Day and Date algorithms with presentations which were incredibly clever (and complex), but I have not heard from h...

Jack Shalom

May be old hat to some here, but I was glad to run across this.

Library of congress magic posters:
[url]
https://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?q= ... rid&co=var[/url]

Jack Shalom

For Peter Brook, the audience is specifically left with an image, not a feeling: "When a performance is over, what remains? Fun can be forgotten, but powerful emotion also disappears and good arguments lose their thread. When emotion and argument are harnessed to a wish from the audience to se...

Jack Shalom

I'm not sure that from the audience point of view, everything needs to be remembered as a full sentence description of what happened. The great theater director Peter Brook talked about what is left with the audience when a performance is over. If I recall correctly, Derren Brown used that quote as ...

Jack Shalom

Perfectly stated, Brad.

Jack Shalom

It's amazing how that move is so easily busted on repeat video viewing, but is perfect in person or even *once* on video.

Jack Shalom

I would just do it once at the beginning, as a throwaway aside, and just move right on to the next phase.

Jack Shalom

I think it would be better if when saying "it would have been a different outcome completely," you actually "prove" it. Similar to the Marlo ace cutting routine where you show that if it had been cut one card shallower, or one card deeper, you wouldn't have cut to the ace. I thi...

Jack Shalom

That's easy for you to say...

Jack Shalom

Note to the above--USPCC Bicycle cards are almost in staystack order from the factory. Just swap the bottom spades with the diamonds above them and you'll have perfect color and value mates. So open a new deck, switch the spades and diamonds, faro a few times, split the deck in half, throw out 25 co...

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