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Matt Graves Special user Huntsville, Alabama (USA) 504 Posts |
Howdy. I got the awesome chance to see you lecture in Huntsville, Alabama last year. Even better, since it was my first visit to that magic club (or any magic club for that matter), the guys who were running it invited me to lunch . . . and lo and behold, you were at lunch with them. I was thrilled out of my mind, and I was also very nervous as I sat right beside you in the booth. In fact, I was so nervous that I could barely talk and had much less of an appetite than usual. You were the first big-name magician I'd ever met.
Anyway, your lecture was awesome. It was the first magic lecture I'd ever seen. I've only seen one other now - Joshua Jay. That trick with the Xeroxed deck was incredible. I never thought you could wow a room full of magicians with the old cross-cut force. Your Cups and Balls was even more amazing than when I saw it on TV. When you were talking early on in the lecture, you told us about a cute little phrase you used as a joke if you really messed something up. "It is sometimes helpful to create the illusion of clumsiness, so nobody suspects any sleight of hand." And then during the Cups and Balls, you dropped one of the balls, and it rolled against the wall. There was stone silence, and then you said, "It is something helpful to create the illusion of clumsiness . . . " And the whole room just roared with laughter. That was a great moment. Great recovery. That is certainly one of the best cup-and-ball routines I've ever seen, though. As you mentioned in the lecture, it kind of combines everything from various other routines. It was a once-in-a-lifetime thrill to see it done up close and in person. The trick that really stuck with me, though, was one where you tore up a dollar bill and made it reappear restored inside a peanut. You passed your bag of prepared peanuts around the crowd but asked for the peanuts back afterward. Somehow you missed me, and I was sitting there furtively clutching my peanut during the rest of the lecture, afraid that at any moment you would call me out of the crowd, "Heyyyyy . . . are you trying to steal one of my peanuts, little buddy?" But it never happened. And at the end of the lecture, I kind of felt bad, so I sneaked up to the podium and just put the peanut there. I mean, I wasn't going to steal even a peanut from one of magic's living legends. And then, it was kind of funny, when you went back to get your things, you said, "A peanut!? Well, looks like we've got an honest man here." And I don't think anyone knew it was me, but I was very embarrassed. That's hilarious, thinking back on it, though. I've only added a lot of details about the lecture in the vain hope you might remember our meeting. I was so starstruck at the time that I couldn't talk to you the way I always imagined I would if I met you. I did muster the nerve to ask you to demonstrate the "Incredible Coins Across" that you bamboozled David Copperfield with. (That was an awesome moment as well!) But I was really wanting to ask you about the time you spent with Dai Vernon. Even now I find it hard to come up with a specific question, but just in general, what was it like to spend so much time with him? What kind of a performer was he? I bought his set of Revelations tapes (which I didn't know at the time had you in them too), but he says many times in those tapes that he's too old and doesn't perform anymore. He was still awesome (he fooled the crap out of me when he vanished the three balls from the Balls in the Net - so effortless!), but I often wonder what he was like back in his heyday. Anyway, it was awesome meeting you and good to see you on the Café' as well. |
Michael Ammar Creative Spotlight Guest 83 Posts |
Hi there,
What a wonderful message -- thank you so much for sharing that with me! That's funny about the peanut! Regarding the Professor -- he realized how incredible the expectations were for him, and so he typically would simply tell people that he didn't perform any more. Once he became comfortable with you, he actually liked to handle things, walk through a few performances, and talk about magic. But so many people came up to him saying things like, "Ohmygod,ohmygod, you are the greatest magician in the world. Please, just blow me away with something... an invisible pass, a perfect center deal, anything..." These expectations would intimidate anyone! |
The Magic Cafe Forum Index » » The April 2006 entrée: Michael Ammar » » A Peanut/Dai Vernon » » TOPIC IS LOCKED (0 Likes) |
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