Del Ray's Baffling Dice

[Magic Newswire]

As I mentioned previously, several fans of the Magic Newswire podcast have been kind enough to send me some fantastic video following the interview that I did with Dick Cavett. Here's a gem featuring the amazing Del Ray! Enjoy!

http://bit.ly/DelRayDice

[Magic Newswire]

Great to hear! What did you think of that clip Gary?

[jgottlob]

When Del Ray was developing his routine for the die ladder he stopped in a restaurant where several of us were having a late bite. He sat with us and demonstrated the routine, and completely blew everyone away.
According to Jim Swoger, he had different craftsmen build the various parts of the ladder, (as he supposedly did with all of his props), so they could not be duplicated.

[Brad Henderson]

Del built most of the stuff himself. A lot of people credit lots of other people with building for Del, but he had a full machine shop in his house.

[Doc Dixon]

That was a beautiful clip. He was the best.

[Kenardo]

If my memory serves me well, this performance took place at a Tannen's Jubillee. I believe this was one of two performances that afternoon. As I recall, during the night before, Del was rumored to have had a slight heart attack while performing his stage act (he was not able to finish it). Everybody was really surprised that he was able to perform the next day - and that he did so fantastically. He was unbelievable!

[Magic Newswire]

You are correct Kenardo. This was indeed from Tannen's.

[Gregory Edmonds]

Del Ray was truly an amazing guy.

I went to Wilmington, North Carolina, to set up the local media promotion campaign (with Marie Blood and Lyle Brite - Lyle performed an unexpectedly dramatic strait jacket escape there, over the Cape Fear river - more on that in a moment), at a Magic By The Sea convention a little over 17 years ago.

After Del Ray's performance, when the audience left, he and I sat together for an hour or so and chatted. When I left the room, I walked away with a couple of really excellent (and common-sense) promotional ideas I hadn't commonly-sensed, before. This, thanks to Del's wonderful willingness to share his successful promotion methods with a stranger.

While Del's stage routine was great fun to watch, the intimacy and spontaneous humor of his entirely unique close-up show was what I recall as the most unforgettable part of his demonstrations. He really was one of the genuine greats in magic history.

----------------------------

As to Lyle, we arranged for a local NBC affiliate to air the jacket escape LIVE at the end of their opening evening news segment. Lyle was suspended from the crane, about 70 feet above the water, and waiting for his cue to begin.

I'll break here to interject the fact that Lyle was, to my knowledge (and this includes Houdini), the ONLY person ever to regularly escape from a llegitimately applied strait jacket. When an individual is placed in the jacket "for real," the arms are interlaced, not just placed one atop the other, in the Barbara Eden "I Dream of Jeannie" fashion. It is MUCH more difficult to escape the jacket's bonds in this fashion, as ones interlaced arms are literally tied in a knot, with the extending straps.

And now, back to our story ...

So, Lyle is in the air, hanging upside down, awaiting the cue. Said cue was a song, to be played loudly over a PA system provided by a local radio station (WAVE, if memory serves -- we did some on air magic the day before, and the DJ interviewed my dear friend and client Marie, live). Suddenly, a song loudly breaks out, and Lyle gets to work. The crowd begins to cheer, and in about 45 quick but exhausting seconds, the deed is done. Lyle rights himself in his suspension rig, and waves triumphantly to the crowd (whom I'd estimate to have been comprised of over 300 people), as he's being lowered.

His feet hit the ground, local folks run up and start shaking his hand. The local TV reporter runs over to me and starts yelling "We have to do it over, we have to do it over!"

"WHAT?" She tells me "We weren't ready!" It turns out, the very loud music didn't come from the radio station. The hotel hosting the event had an outdoor bar/cabana set-up, and it was they who set off the misfired cue. In the air, Lyle couldn't tell the music wasn't our cue tune, he just heard music, and started to wriggle free of the (regulation, incidentally) strait jacket.

The air in the Southeastern United States in August (when all this happened) is, as one visiting band member described, a bit like "warm jello." The heat is soaring, and the humidity makes it hard to breath, and not break out in flop-sweats, when you're just standing still. Having just undertaken his performance from the already hot strait jacket, Lyle was drenched in perspiration. I'll never forget the expression on his face when we asked if he could, in fact, "do it again." The old theatre trouper he is, Lyle quickly agreed.

The same two beefy guys who (very tightly) applied the jacket the first time, came forward and did so again. Naturally, though now in a tremendous hurry, both Lyle and the jacket were drenched from the previous escape, so just getting the jacket on was an ordeal. The determined fellows did it, though, and Lyle was quickly hoisted back into the air.

If you'll permit another aside, by the way, for the benefit of those who might attempt the same in future, we were able to get the crane company to provide the equipment and operator free of charge, in exchange for having a nice sign made up for the event location (the radio station, by the way, took care of the signing - Lyle and I scouted the location and established these essential logistical issues by visiting the city over a month in advance). The crane company also received several "plugs" of their services before, and during the live radio coverage.

[color:#3333FF]I insured the company's presence was mentioned on the live TV feed, and in local print before and after the performance as well. This sort of bartering is still possible, and is the best way (I think) to secure the assistance of local businesses, if required. Equally important was the fact that we drew up a release form, signed by both Lyle and I, freeing the crane company and operator from any potential liability. I'm not a lawyer (though I did once play one on TV), but after years of writing performance contracts, I became pretty familiar with applicable "legalese." When creating a release of this kind, always have a professional attorney (in the jurisdiction where the event is to occur, if possible) look over the document to insure all is correct[/color].

Now in the air again, the TV lady, on the line with her station, gives me a nod, I yell through a quickly located bull horn (this time) for Lyle to begin. Off he goes - and it's obvious, this time) - the escape is taking a very real effort. Escape he does, however, if not in record time, and the audience, once again, showed its appreciation (I hope pardon the my own escaping from past and present tenses herein, but doing so makes the story more dramatic). :)

Lyle's labor was rewarded by sharing the front page of Wilmington's local "paper of record," the following morning, with just one other major story. That story concerned a hurricane thought to be heading toward the community.

Garnering a front page story and large photo of the event was a coup of sorts, taking into account the fact that the other folks on the bill at the convention included Del Ray; our then new buddy, Michael Finney (who was performing in what was possibly his first appearance as a magic convention headliner - as we've become accustomed to hearing today, of course, he "killed"); Norm Nielsen, and an array of other magic luminaries. These other fellows, of naturally, were prominently mentioned in the pre-event publicity, but only Lyle's name appeared in the next day's news accounts.

I hope I've not offended by borrowing Del Ray's thunder for a moment, but I don't think we did his memory any harm. I originally hoped to run the story of Lyle's adventure in The Linking Ring Magazine's "It Really Happened" column, but the column was discontinued when the new editorial team took over, and I procrastinated beyond any excusable limit. The column change, of course, was the prerogative of the new LR staff (who've done a terrific job, in my estimation). Lyle Brite, however, though retired as a performer of escapes -- many of them genuinely dangerous, in true Houdini fashion -- carries on in performing magic on occasion and is now a professional locksmith.

If you've stayed with me this far, thanks for your time.

Greg Edmonds
www.ArsPraestigium.com
www.MagicYardSale.com (under construction)
www.DisneyMagicWeb.com (also under construction)
Greg

ArsPraestigium.com - Purveyors of the ART of Magic

[Gregory Edmonds]

Perhaps I should look at the calendar more often. It appears the event was precisely 18 years ago. Coincidence? Yes, probably.

Oh, and in the estimation of some, 18 is indeed "a little more than 17." I should get out more.

[Richard Kaufman]

I was at Del Ray's performances at the Tannen Jubilee. Watching him nearly drop dead on stage the night before was horrifying. Watching him do close-up the next day was problematic because it was the first time I'd seen him since his heart troubles started. He was a shadow of the performer I'd seen a few years earlier at the Mid-West Magic Jubilee in St. Louis.

[Tom Frame]

Thanks for the terrific clip Dodd! I actually dropped those dice down that ladder when I sat tableside and watched him perform what I believe was his entire close-up repertoire. It was at the Columbus Magi-Fest back in the mid to late 70's.

That was the greatest performance I've ever seen and he is my favorite magician. I can't wait to get my hands on the book and DVD!

[Magic Newswire]

My pleasure Tom... and everyone else!

Thanks again to Michael Grandinetti and Joe Hanosek for helping me collect this material!