George Blake - 'Impromptu Out Of This World'?

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Joe Mckay
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George Blake - 'Impromptu Out Of This World'?

Postby Joe Mckay » August 7th, 2009, 4:09 pm

Hey everyone,

I have recently become interested in the work of George Blake. I have seen a number of clever things from him in some of the old magic magazines and have tracked down alot of his books (which I am going to study this weekend). Anyway - I have a question for those who know his work better than I currently do. I recently came across a post on The Magic Cafe (by a guy called 'wisdom' who I gather from other posts is from Glasgow. His other psots suggest he pitches Svengali decks for a living - Could it be Mark Lewis? Anyway, the post is from 2004 - and I have being unable to contact the poster). In it the poster mentions that George Blake had an excellent and impromptu way for setting up the stack to get into 'Out Of This World'. He said it was different to the version by U.F. Grant and was also unpublished. I was wondering if anybody has heard of this idea by George Blake or perhaps if it has in fact being published? I am very curious since I am a recent convert to Blake's ideas and would love to track down this intriguing addition to his output. Any help would be much appreciated...

All the best,

Joe

David Britland
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Re: George Blake - 'Impromptu Out Of This World'?

Postby David Britland » August 7th, 2009, 8:33 pm

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's worth getting the whole set, especially because George Blake had a regular column. It's a real shame there is no big book of Blake's effects. He had some wonderful ideas.

geo
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Re: George Blake - 'Impromptu Out Of This World'?

Postby geo » August 8th, 2009, 3:19 am

hi,
not sure if this would help but harry lorayne has an super practical version of an impromptu otw in his early book 'close up card magic'. it kills.
=]

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Bob Cunningham
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Re: George Blake - 'Impromptu Out Of This World'?

Postby Bob Cunningham » August 8th, 2009, 8:47 am

Based on David's recommendation I purchased "Max Andrews' Magic Magazine" last night.

The entire 5 years of the magazine is a single PDF. If you will search "Out of This World" You will find both George Blake's handling of Out of This World, including the impromptu color separation, and another impromptu color separation technique by DAVORKE.

I find that the time to separate the entire deck, and for the spectator to deal the entire deck, is too long for my performances. Blake's concept could be combined with U.F. Grant's nu way Out of This World to greatly shorten this powerful routine.

Also, Blake includes a nice subtlety to show that the deck is randomly distributed after you have separated the colors which I will be including in my future presentations.

The cost is $26 and it was worth the investment for me for just the ideas on Out of This World - I excitedly anticipate that there will be many more gems from this collection.

Joe Mckay
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Favorite Magician: Lubor Fiedler
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Re: George Blake - 'Impromptu Out Of This World'?

Postby Joe Mckay » August 8th, 2009, 10:47 am

Thanks for your help everybody. I will download Max Andrews' MAGIC MAGAZINE - and I am delighted to hear that George Blake had a column (I note also that Eddie Joseph had a column as well - excellent!)...

All the best,

Joe

James Munton
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Re: George Blake - 'Impromptu Out Of This World'?

Postby James Munton » August 12th, 2009, 11:26 pm

Mark Lewis paid me an undisclosed sum to pass on the following message from his mountain cave in Chitral, Pakistan:

"Mark Lewis" wrote:I have seen this thread and must inform the multitude that I am indeed the person on the magic cafe who knows all about the George Blake method. It has nothing whatever to do with the Harry Lorayne thing which is actually the U.F. Grant method. It is an excellent version but it is NOT the George Blake thing.

I see that David Britland is chattering about Martin Breese publishing the method. David seems to have missed the fact that Martin has also published an explanation of it in three lines in the rather awful Al Koran book that he put out some years ago.

I remember selling Joe McKay a svengali deck when he was six years old at the Metro Centre in Gateshead. A most impertinent child as I recall. He wouldn't be chattering about George Blake in the first place if it weren't for me since I am quite sure that I started him on magic. Of course he wouldn't remember me selling him a deck but I am of a superior intelligence and know these things.

As for the George Blake method I have been doing it for around 45 years or so. I am the only one to my knowledge that has ever used it. And probably the only one who even knows what it is. I have absolutely no idea why Joe McKay is even asking anybody on the Genii Forum since nobody on there actually knows the first thing about magic anyway.

I will simply say that is by far the best method in existence of setting up the deck for the Paul Curry trick and I have always basked in smug satisfaction that I am the only one who does it.

I would be happy to reveal the method on this forum but since I appear to be banned I am not able to tell you after all.

So there.

Na na na nanana............................
--
James Munton
www.jamesmunton.com

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Pete Biro
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Re: George Blake - 'Impromptu Out Of This World'?

Postby Pete Biro » August 20th, 2009, 7:16 pm

I love George Blake's material.
Stay tooned.

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Pete Biro
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Re: George Blake - 'Impromptu Out Of This World'?

Postby Pete Biro » August 20th, 2009, 7:16 pm

Does anyone own the rights to his little books or are they public domain?
Stay tooned.


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