On 2008-05-10 12:31, Harry Lorayne wrote:
I'm against exposure, of course. But some of that can be used to make us better. I'll talk about that later. Here are three stories, which I've written about before so it may be a bit redundant to some. Anyhway, they seem to fit in this thread, so for what they're worth...

1. I was doing an impromptu (I do no other kind) ace assembly. I saw a woman in front get a gleam in her eye as she stared at the leader-ace packet. She had, obviously, some knowledge of the gaffs used in MacDonald's Aces. She whispered to her partner every once in a while, eyes still on that packet. I purposely ended the effect by turning over the 4-ace packet as you would when doing MacDonald's Aces. She, as expected, grabbed the aces as the eye-gleam got brighter. She was going to show the group how smart/knowledgeable she was. She started to exclaim as she spread the aces - "See, there's a differe..." Stop, mouth agape, she was looking at regular cards. Her embarrassment - as I stared at her expectantly - was very obvious. "But, but..." She didn't know what to say, so she shut up. But she looked at me with an awed expression on her face. I came across much stronger than ordinarily. No big thing - just wanted to mention it.

2. I was mc'ing a show at The Players (Club) in NYC. I introduced everyone in the audience to the acts they were about to see - by calling off everyone's name, and I did other memory pieces between the acts. Anyway, Penn & Teller were on the show. During one routine, Penn exposed a number of card things - a force, a break, and more. Part of my "deal" was to do some card stuff at the bar downstairs after the formal show. Everyone, including Penn & Teller came down to watch. I used every one of the things Penn had exposed. For example, I had a break over a selected card (and I "do" large breaks) and I pointed it out, as I said, "Now, Penn told you about magicians doing this - so I can't and I won't; I'll really shuffle the cards." Which, so far as they were concerned, I did. I was, obviously, "using" the break. Also, I said, "Penn told you about being able to force you to take a particular card - don't let me do that." And I forced the card!

I fooled everyone in that large, enthusiastic, crowd, including Penn & Teller! Alfred Drake (actor/singer of Broadway fame) was president of the club at the time. He sat right in front as I worked. I have a letter from him saying, "You were incredible. I'm still gasping for breath." The point? Obvious. I did/used everything Penn had exposed (including a palm)and fooled all.

3. Dr. Stanley Jaks was a good friend. Aside from his close-up work, he was a quite busy platform/stage performer. He did mentalism and about 85% (if not more) of his work was based around the nail ******. This is many years ago. There was a large exposure of the nail ****** in one of the current (at the time) popular magazines - about three or four pages of exposure, pictures, etc.
Stanley called me - in tears. He said that he was going to kill himself! I'm not making this up, nor am I exaggerating - he was, literally, crying and talking of suicide. He felt that his life was over - how could he possibly do his act now that everyone knew about the nail ******? I said, "Stanley, I understand. But do me a favor. Before you kill yourself, do your act at least one more time. Okay?
what have you got to lose? You're going to kill yourself anyway." I made him promise. He had a scheduled appearance the following week. He did it. He called me the next day, happy as a lark. He said, "Harry, I got a standing ovation; nobody said anything about the nail ******." He decided that he wouldn't kill himself! He continued to do the same act.

As I said, for what they're worth. And, it was because so many people knew about the setup for Out Of This World (way back all those years ago) that I devised Out Of This Universe, just to fool those "in the know."

Many knew about double lifts. So, if you check out REPUTATION-MAKERS, you'll see that I felt it necessary to devise a few ways of starting a double lift or double turnover with a SINGLE CARD. (Double-Lift Breakthrough and Evolution of a Sleight.) And, that also led to the my Ultra Move, which I gave away years later in AFTERTHOUGHTS. The original basic thought behind it and the others being that you could let the spectator handle the SINGLE CARD before it changed. Of course, I devised many more sophisticated effects utilizing it, but that was the basic reason for its evolution - fooling those who "thought they knew," who had been "exposed" to the concepts.

So, I'm against it of course, but any exposure can perhaps force you to think of ways of getting around that exposure. To repeat - for what it's worth. HARRY LORAYNE.

On 2008-05-10 18:25, spatlind wrote:
Cheers Harry. I can't imagine I'd have been best pleased myself! I think Rick said there was another magician working down the hall who got called out on something that had been exposed a few minutes earlier.
Scott

...I purposely ended the effect by turning over the 4-ace packet as you would when doing MacDonald's Aces. She, as expected, grabbed the aces as the eye-gleam got brighter. She was going to show the group how smart/knowledgeable she was. She started to exclaim as she spread the aces - "See, there's a differe..." Stop, mouth agape, she was looking at regular cards. Her embarrassment - as I stared at her expectantly - was very obvious.