Martin Grams has made an incredibly generous offer to
magicians wanting to help the Red Cross. We are so proud to be in the
same profession as Mr. Grams and will take him up on his offer.
Check out Martini’s Magic’s
web site.
You’ll find one-of-a-kind magic and, of course, his specialty for over
25-years, hand-made split and gimmicked cards. There are few who have
mastered this art and to learn from one of the legends while helping
your brothers and sisters is too good to
pass-up.
Remember, you do not have to limit your
donation to $30.00. That is only the minimum donation to receive the
gift.
My wife and I along with our children
sent off a check to the Red Cross to help with the victims in
the south, and while sitting and watching the devastation, I thought of
an idea to get some of you guys to pitch in as
well.
If you’ll send me a check for $30 made payable
to the Red Cross, and
I will send you one of my DVD’s The Art of Card Splitting free and
postpaid. We will then take all the checks received
and send them together to the Red Cross at one time showing support
from Magicians.
Let’s pick a date say September 15th
as the cut off for this.
You get to make a donation
to a very worthwhile cause, and you will receive a free DVD as
well.
Send your checks
to:
Martini’s
Magic
P.O. Box
189
Delta, PA.
17314
Please indicate
on the envelope: ATTN
RCD (stands for “Red Cross
Donation”)
Be sure to make the checks out to the Red
Cross, not me.
We take exception to Tony Giorgio’s column in Genii this month.
Not because it isn’t true ? we’re sure it is ? but because it is unnecessarily hurtful and self-aggrandizing.
We
don’t think we’ll be more popular for writing these things but we felt
it had to be written or we wouldn’t have written it ? we think that
makes sense.
So what’s the connection between Mr. Giorgio, Dai Vernon, Wynona Rider and Inside Magic?
Okay, let’s begin with the disclaimers:
1) We’ve never met Mr. Giorgio ? not even once;
2) We enjoy his acting but have never seen him perform magic;
3) We do not doubt if we did see him perform card magic, he would be very impressive. We conceded he has skills;
4) We did meet Dai Vernon, did see him perform card magic, and did hang out with him during a convention in 1974;
and, 5) We have never cheated at cards in a real game, never met the author of Expert at the Card Table,
and have no idea why Wynona Rider, with all her money, would
shoplift. We do believe she is a beautiful and talented actress,
however. So she is like Mr. Giorgio but we’re not saying we think he’s
“beautiful” or “an actress.”
The central theme of Mr. Giorgio’s latest columns has been:
1) I know more than you do;
2) I know more than Dai Vernon did;
3)
I know more than all “card magicians” (put in quotes for no apparent
reason because magicians who perform card magic are fairly called card
magicians); and,
4) Only a person who would cheat at cards is
qualified to speak about the validity of card-cheaters’ methods as
applied to magic.
We may be a little harsh on the
last point. After all he gave credit to Charlie Miller for having some
sense. He praises Mr. Miller’s knowledge of a “real card game for
real money” and the difficulties to cheat when being “burned.”
The subject of this month’s attack on magicians living and dead is the famous story of Dai Vernon’s search for the center deal.
Mr. Giorgio’s point?
So, are we saying Dai Vernon was a liar or a dope?
The
Professor claimed to have spent time and money to find a person who
could actually perform a center deal. Even if that was true, Mr.
Giorgio posits, it was on a foolish quest.
The quest was foolish because, in Mr. Giorgio’s humble opinion, the move would never be used by a card mechanic in a card game.
He
points out that Dai Vernon never claimed he saw the move used in an
actual card game. He also points out that Charlie Miller, when asked by
Mr. Giorgio if he could perform a center deal, responded with the
authority of the Oracle at Delphi: “Why bother?”
Let’s assume Mr. Giorgio is right.
Assume, arguendo, The Professor wasted his time and money attempting to find the mythical center deal.
It
follows Mr. Vernon also wasted his time learning and working on the
move because there was no need for it. At best, points out Mr. Giorgio,
the center deal only defeats the cut of the deck. So a stack of cards
at the top or bottom of the deck will now be in the center after… Continue reading He Who Is Without Sin, Deal the First Center Card
We take exception to Tony Giorgio’s column in Genii this month.
Not because it isn’t true ? we’re sure it is ? but because it is unnecessarily hurtful and self-aggrandizing.
We
don’t think we’ll be more popular for writing these things but we felt
it had to be written or we wouldn’t have written it ? we think that
makes sense.
So what’s the connection between Mr. Giorgio, Dai Vernon, Wynona Rider and Inside Magic?
Okay, let’s begin with the disclaimers:
1) We’ve never met Mr. Giorgio ? not even once;
2) We enjoy his acting but have never seen him perform magic;
3) We do not doubt if we did see him perform card magic, he would be very impressive. We conceded he has skills;
4) We did meet Dai Vernon, did see him perform card magic, and did hang out with him during a convention in 1974;
and, 5) We have never cheated at cards in a real game, never met the author of Expert at the Card Table,
and have no idea why Wynona Rider, with all her money, would
shoplift. We do believe she is a beautiful and talented actress,
however. So she is like Mr. Giorgio but we’re not saying we think he’s
“beautiful” or “an actress.”
The central theme of Mr. Giorgio’s latest columns has been:
1) I know more than you do;
2) I know more than Dai Vernon did;
3)
I know more than all “card magicians” (put in quotes for no apparent
reason because magicians who perform card magic are fairly called card
magicians); and,
4) Only a person who would cheat at cards is
qualified to speak about the validity of card-cheaters’ methods as
applied to magic.
We may be a little harsh on the
last point. After all he gave credit to Charlie Miller for having some
sense. He praises Mr. Miller’s knowledge of a “real card game for
real money” and the difficulties to cheat when being “burned.”
The subject of this month’s attack on magicians living and dead is the famous story of Dai Vernon’s search for the center deal.
Mr. Giorgio’s point?
So, are we saying Dai Vernon was a liar or a dope?
The
Professor claimed to have spent time and money to find a person who
could actually perform a center deal. Even if that was true, Mr.
Giorgio posits, it was on a foolish quest.
The quest was foolish because, in Mr. Giorgio’s humble opinion, the move would never be used by a card mechanic in a card game.
He
points out that Dai Vernon never claimed he saw the move used in an
actual card game. He also points out that Charlie Miller, when asked by
Mr. Giorgio if he could perform a center deal, responded with the
authority of the Oracle at Delphi: “Why bother?”
Let’s assume Mr. Giorgio is right.
Assume, arguendo, The Professor wasted his time and money attempting to find the mythical center deal.
It
follows Mr. Vernon also wasted his time learning and working on the
move because there was no need for it. At best, points out Mr. Giorgio,
the center deal only defeats the cut of the deck. So a stack of cards
at the top or bottom of the deck will now be in the center after… Continue reading He Who Is Without Sin, Deal the First Center Card
The Brandon Sun (Canada) profiles 15-year-old Scott Mills from Wawota, Saskatoon.
The article begins with a truism, especially in these days of political correctness and safe child-handling skills:
Most parents would discourage their son from putting his
younger brother in a box and shoving swords through it ? but not Scott
Mills? mom and dad.
The reporter notes his father assisted in the building of the
illusion (we hope it’s an illusion — the article didn’t say. If it is
not an illusion but in fact a horrible torture device used to injure or
intimidate Mr. Mills’ younger brother, please disregard our witty
intro).
Oh, wait, the next sentence says the box is an illusion built for Mr. Mills’ finale. Phewf!
We don’t know the Mills’ family and we’re not saying they would
develop a torture device with their elder son to use on his little
brother — we just didn’t know. We read an article on the web at badfamilyfun.com
about a Canadian family who made bad devices with their kids. True,
those devices were used to torture animals and insects but it is tough
to know when one’s witty injection will lead to a further devolution of
society by apparently condoning evil doings.
Our court-appointed counselor suggested we stop writing down
everything we think as we review the stories for the Inside Magic Daily
News. But the voice that sounds like that talking/singing candle in the
road-show version of Beauty and the Beast, keeps telling us to write it
down. The voice said, “Mon ami, why would you listen to a court-appointed counselor? Sacre bleu!
If she was any good, she would have her own practice and not work for a
mere pittance to prove someone is competent to stand trial. Ignore her, Mon fr?re.”
Back to the story. Yes.
Mr. Mills has been studying magic for over two years. He considers
himself a semi-professional magician.
The article traces his growth from attending his first live magic show
to building his own illusions. He elected to learn from the internet.
(See, Mr. Dooley was right about the use of the internet to attract
kids into magic).
“Off the Internet I learned a lot,” Mr. Mills said. “Like, a lot of
little tricks that everybody can learn. So eventually I started showing
my parents and my family and they thought I was pretty good at it so
they allowed me to buy bigger tricks.”
So where does a young man from Saskatoon buy magic? The internet as
well. His mother is pleased he is working to pay for the props he
purchases from online auction sites.
Then, another truism from mom: “I think it?s a good thing to waste your money on instead of booze and drugs.”
Mr. Mills next show will be at the personal care home in Reston. He
travels between eastern Saskatchewan and western Manitoba to perform in
dinner theaters, town halls, and virtually any venue. The young man
charges between $20.00 and $100.00 CDN per show but his mom claims it
is his love to be on stage that motivates… Continue reading Scott Mills: Going Big Time from Small Town
We begin with our correction and apologies. We received a considerate and well-intentioned correction this morning for two articles written about 18 months ago. The internet is a powerful method of sharing current information but it is also a de facto repository of all our writings.
We wrote an article disparaging Bizarre Magic either intentionally or unintentionally suggesting to the lay public its power came from Satan or from "dark forces." What About Dark or Bizarre Magic: Is it Okay?
We originally published the piece in August 2003 but re-published without any substantial modification in March of 2005. We ended it with the following:
I am weak.
I don’t want to be weak. I want to challenge those that would tell our youth that it is okay to worship or use Satan and his "spirits." I want to be strong enough to tell people that certain people should be identified as Bizarre Magicians and audience members should be wary.
That’s where I am. Where are you?
The criticism we received was right on the button. We did compare bizarre magic with Satanism and we did quote Rick Maue out of context in the piece. The fact that we did not attribute the quote to Mr. Maue does not lessen our error.
So, we apologized to our critic, and we apologize to those who have read the article (in whatever iteration). We'll leave it up for two days so you can see our offense for yourself. After two days, we'll remove it permanently from the site.
We are very sorry for any harm we may have caused Mr. Maue. Clearly his quotes were so well-known that even without attribution, readers could identify him as the source. We enjoy Mr. Maue's work, we have his manuscripts, we've written high praise for his lectures; but none of that changes the fact that we used his statements within the text of a story equating bizarre practitioners with Satan.
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