That looks fantastic, I will track it down. The experience sitting with closeup magicians like Doug and Ricky sounds like a peak experience. That is the magic that amazes. I finished this book recently and it talks about the genius of Dai Vernon and gives and insider's look at the magic scene.
Fooling Houdini: Magicians, Mentalists, Math Geeks, and the Hidden Powers of the Mind As you said there are magicians for the public whose attention can be predicted because they are naive to the techniques of magic, and then magician's magicians who follow how magicians think and fool them. There is also a specialty of kid's magic which is surprisingly difficult because their attention jumps around unpredictably. Many skilled magicians bomb in front of kids because they don't remember that you put something in your hand so it should be amazing when it is not there. You have to flow with their attention differently to fool them and have them experience wonder. Thanks for the heads up, Ricky Jay is great. Great actor too, like in House of Games, one of my favorite movies. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb <no_reply@...> wrote: > > ...posted here because I think Curtis will like it, and > because (for me, at least), there is a bit of a TM connection. > > http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/deceptive-practice-the-mysteries-and-mentors-of-ricky-jay-2013 > > I was introduced once to Ricky Jay at the Magic Castle in L.A. > by Doug Henning. My roommate at the time designed costumes > and sets for Doug, so he often came over to the house and > invited us out to the Magic Castle (at the time, a private > club for performing magicians, not open to the public...you > had to be invited by a member to go there). > > Anyway, Ricky was sitting at the bar, entertaining fellow > magicians with some of his amazing card tricks. Doug intro- > duced us, and I just sat back to watch a master at work. Just > as with Doug, the real magic was in their close-up work, not > the flashy stuff they did on stage to impress the rubes. Both > were true masters of close-up magic. > > I'm going to try to track down this movie, because I suspect > it'll talk about Dai Vernon, Doug's mentor and probably one > of Ricky's. Dai was so good that at one point he stopped per- > forming for the public because there was no challenge in it. > He only performed for other magicians, and *they* couldn't > figure out how he did what he did. > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dai_Vernon >
