Amac's Find The Lady

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Brad Henderson
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Re: Amac's Find The Lady

Postby Brad Henderson » May 4th, 2012, 10:03 pm

Absolutely. It was great in his hands. And played very well at the Castle during "Magic History Week."

Now, didn't Granville claim that Steinmeyer had it all wrong at one point? (Though I can't imagine a better method than the one Jim shared at the conference.)

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Richard Kaufman
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Re: Amac's Find The Lady

Postby Richard Kaufman » May 4th, 2012, 10:41 pm

It doesn't matter what Faust claims regarding Steinmeyer's method. Jim developed his own method, so if it works, it can't be "wrong."
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Jim Riser
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Re: Amac's Find The Lady

Postby Jim Riser » May 4th, 2012, 11:13 pm

If it mystifies and entertains, it is good enough for me. The exact method matters not.
Jim

Brad Henderson
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Re: Amac's Find The Lady

Postby Brad Henderson » May 4th, 2012, 11:22 pm

I meant it was inaccurate as an historical recreation of the original amac illusion. In which case, it very much can be wrong. It can also be better. But as we are talking about a specific piece, and the secret thereof, is there not value in Identifying accuracy? Having said that, I was unsure my memory of the allegation was correct. Was it?

Richard Hatch
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Re: Amac's Find The Lady

Postby Richard Hatch » May 5th, 2012, 1:29 am

Brad, I heard the same allegations (that the Steinmeyer version was not the same as the Amac version) and that this was being claimed by Taylor, though I wonder how Taylor gained his knowledge of Jim's method, since he was not at the performances (presumably someone in attendance informed him of the details)? My recollection is that Jim had "reverse engineered" the method from his usual meticulous research and, in particular, an examination of performance photos.

Allen Tipton
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Re: Amac's Find The Lady

Postby Allen Tipton » May 7th, 2012, 6:30 am

I had also forgotten that the incredible Jim Steinmeye had written one page on FTL- in his edited version of The Jarrett book. This followed a short paragraph,by Jarrett, praising the illusion.
And one correction to my earlier post, as I do not seem to be able to edit it.
I first met Amac at IBM British Ring, Harrogate, Yorkshire, UK in 1950--THAT was when I was 17. he gave me (still have it) his autograph
Then when I was 21 --I met him again at a magic weekend in Birmingham, UK. And he gave me a set of cards he was selling called The Third Man Walks Out. This consisted of 4 cards, printed in black & white. One of which was a black shadow of the Third Man. He disappeared.
The cards were printed in black & white and had blue backs with the name Amac printed ion them a couple of times. They are in pristine condition and were sent to my son in Portugal, for safe keeping, last year.
Allen Tipton
UK

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Q. Kumber
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Re: Amac's Find The Lady

Postby Q. Kumber » March 11th, 2023, 6:20 am

I only met Granville Taylor (Faust) once. I'd been reading about him and his Far East tours regularly in Abracadabra. Fred Van Buren had been touring Ireland with Fossett's circus and recommended Faust for a subsequent tour. Having been to some UK conventions and having seen a number of illusionists and magicians who hadn't lived up to their perceived reputations, I wasn't expecting a lot when I went to see Faust headline with Fossett's. I was very pleasantly surprised. After the show, I knocked on his caravan door and we had a brief and pleasant conversation.

A few years ago, in conversation with Fred, he told me that while Faust went well, he wasn't popular with the circus folk as he kept himself to himself and wouldn't join in when needed, as seems to be the norm with circuses.

Here's a videoclip of Faust in much later years, while he doesn't perform Find the Lady, you do see it being set up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEo-sf1D6tE

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Richard Kaufman
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Re: Amac's Find The Lady

Postby Richard Kaufman » March 11th, 2023, 10:23 am

"Find the Lady" will be explained properly in the new edition of Greater Magic.
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kkelly
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Re: Amac's Find The Lady

Postby kkelly » March 12th, 2023, 9:48 am


Tom Moore
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Re: Amac's Find The Lady

Postby Tom Moore » March 12th, 2023, 2:25 pm

Richard Hatch wrote:Brad, I heard the same allegations (that the Steinmeyer version was not the same as the Amac version) and that this was being claimed by Taylor, though I wonder how Taylor gained his knowledge of Jim's method, since he was not at the performances (presumably someone in attendance informed him of the details)? My recollection is that Jim had "reverse engineered" the method from his usual meticulous research and, in particular, an examination of performance photos.


Many years back I had a conversation with him and touched on this briefly. From my memory essentially the backdrop for the Amac version is a key part of the method and so the very fact that Jim’s version doesn’t have a backdrop means that he isn’t using quite the same method. It struck me at the time he was splitting hairs tho…
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Richard Kaufman
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Re: Amac's Find The Lady

Postby Richard Kaufman » March 12th, 2023, 4:17 pm

Jim has since learned the actual method AMAC used, which was somewhat different than he thought initially.
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Jonathan Townsend
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Re: Amac's Find The Lady

Postby Jonathan Townsend » March 12th, 2023, 11:05 pm

@Richard, that's great news. Congrats!

? Was Allen Tipton's information (he sent diagrams etc back in 2006) correct?
his email was: allen@tipton.ec*
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Andy Galloway
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Re: Amac's Find The Lady

Postby Andy Galloway » March 15th, 2023, 6:46 pm

I met Amac at the 1960 Blackpool Convention by John Ramsay who knew him since the 1920s. He had a table in the dealer`s hall and remember buying his version of the Three Card Trick based on the film The Third Man and still have it. Like Allen I found him to have a quiet personality and believe his name was Robert William McFarlane.

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Richard Kaufman
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Re: Amac's Find The Lady

Postby Richard Kaufman » March 15th, 2023, 8:27 pm

Andy, what is his version of The Three Card Trick like? A Monte?
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Larry Horowitz
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Re: Amac's Find The Lady

Postby Larry Horowitz » March 19th, 2023, 11:07 pm

Recently discovered photo of Amac heading home after a show.
Image

mehtas
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Re: Amac's Find The Lady

Postby mehtas » March 7th, 2024, 1:12 pm

Just bumping the thread up.

I understand the illusion was bought by someone in US.

Hopefully the illusion with AMAC's method used will see the light of the day, ALTHOUGH I doubt is as the setting takes a whole day.

Granville did put out DVD where he is performing the illusion himself.

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Marco Pusterla
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Re: Amac's Find The Lady

Postby Marco Pusterla » March 8th, 2024, 2:59 am

The illlusion, performed by Granville Taylor, was shown last year at The Magic Circle History Day, in a lecture by Noel Britten. Granville had the performance recorded mostly for his own records and for a later cancelled project: there is no official DVD for it. The illusion requires a younger, more dynamic performer than Granville at the time of the recording, and an assistant who has practicised it carefully and at length. It is not an illusion suitable for television: it's only magical when seen live in a theatre, where you have the three-dimensionality of the space, and you can follow the misdirection and the feints. It is an unusual illusion and it has a clever routine. However, Jim Steinmeyer's method for it allows for more variety than Amac's original, IMHO.
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