Getting the act together

I finally found/developed a card trick that will work as an opener. It's my version of Sam the Bellhop.

Growing up in San Francisco

For the stray non-magician that runs across this, "Sam the Bellhop" is the most popular story told as one pages through a deck. A great magician named; Bill Malone does a bang-up job of this trick.

With this long-winded effect, running at just over 5 minutes leaves me 12 minutes to fill up. I will close with the effect I call Pawnbrokers Syndrome that is just a precursor to the Cups and Balls. That gives me an opening and a strong closer. The three effects listed last for an aggregate eleven minutes. I've no idea what to put in between them.

For today I'm just happy to have half an act.

I spoke to Howard Hamburg who is a long-time denizen of the Magic Castle, via the phone. He gave me some great ideas on wrapping the show up in a theme. This weekend, (just before Valentine's day 2011), I've got another magic pal who's coming down to confer on all things magical.

You two who actually read this thing; go practice.

KG

Dan and Dave

One of my local magic club's claims to fame is.

They were the Ring for Dan and Dave Buck as kids.

The local IBM ring in San Jose California had two young men show up to a meeting about 16 years ago. There they ran into the evil, yet extremely talented Ricky Smith. And that has made all the difference.

Ricky was a real inspiration to the twins. He's an inspiration to many magicians. Dan and Dave actually did something with that inspiration. They've literally become the biggest thing in close-up magic.

Financially successful, self-effacing and talented, they are pretty well-behaved too.

Last night they came home and lectured to their old ring.

I had to go. I had the pleasure of meeting them and even hanging with them a bit at the Golden Gate Gathering. They lectured for us our first year. But this isn't about that.

Dan and Dave are really good lecturers. They can both do all the stuff they demonstrate so you sometimes get them both showing hand positions to different sides of the room. Their ability to effectively describe hand positions and walk even tyros through difficult stuff is wonderful.

They dealt more than amiably with questions from a relative tyro and a nine-year-old. There was no sense of superiority or dismissal from our lecturers. They just described the moves with more detail and what seemed to be infinite patience.

They will the audience to participate. They taught some quickly mastered flourishes in the first half of the lecture. Cards were gleefully flying all over the room as we worked on a great little launch of a single card. I can now cause a deck to spin 360 degrees in the palm of my hand. Sometimes the cards even stay in my hand!

After the lecture we went out for bad food and long talks. I was lucky enough to sit with Dave and one of my old pals, John Bodine. Sure I'm name dropping, for me, it was a great night though. Just hanging out . . . doin' card tricks and telling lies. (Dave did the card tricks . . .)

KG

Pawnbrokers' Syndrome

I've been working on this trick for a very, very long time. I like to think it's a real fooler. Most magicians I've shown it to give me pretty positive feedback.

Pawnbrokers' Syndrome

I think it will frame the Cups and Balls routine I do as it's intro.

I've been to the dreaded Magic-Con convention recently. I got to see Juan Tamariz perform, live. It was a little overwhelming. He is . . .

Magic Incarnate.

All is well. Much to do in my non-magic life. Miles to go before I sleep and promises to keep.

KG

Two things

Darn it,

I've been playing with Glenn Bishop again. I went over the top and was chastised by the denizens of the Genii forum. I liked one post. It's out of context, but . . .

Goatage,

You did a nice job with the blog. That was thoughtful and kind.

But, putting that much stupid in a single, place, unbounded by reason and bereft of the balancing voice of reality could well corrupt the magic universe as we know it. I fear you may have actually created a Pandora's box of self-serving, mawkish tripe. Concentrated stupid is one of the most dangerous elements in the universe. I've had to run down Glenn's published documents and perform ritual purging ceremonies to keep the balance of good and evil in the universe.

I like your reckless sense of abandon though. Luckily Glenn doesn't even recognize the power of his own evil genius. This makes his abilities all the more dangerous though. Luckily, members of the STETIG* committee are ever vigilant, ever watchful.

We have T-shirts made up, I'll gladly send you one.

KG - Or as I'm know at STETIG meetings . . .

SUPER TROLL!

*Supress The Evil That is Glenn

I didn't think I'd been that mean. If you'd waded through the pages of banal tripe uncle Glenn had spewed, you'd have written something even meaner.

The entire line 'o' drivel is here:

http://www.geniimagazine.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/186012#Post186012

DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME. DON'T FOLLOW THAT LINK!

Whew, with that out of the way. I've been whining about not having enough material. Some damn kid, via the internet added up the times on my youtube page and wrote:

"Mr. Gunn, I count way more than seventeen minutes of tricks on your YouTube site. Couldn't you do some card tricks from there and finish with the cups? "

Am I a moron, or what. How freakin' hard was that to figure out?

KG

Bunnies

This occurred over thirty years ago. Just trying to keep all things on a timeline these days and not try to confuse anyone more than necessary.

I spent most of my adult life in the navy, serving on submarines. When I entered the service I was already heavily into close-up magic. I carried six silver dollars and a deck of cards everywhere I went, from Australia to the North Pole. The audience at the North Pole was cold, cold.

Before my pals and I were to leave on a deployment to the Mediterranean one of my pals, a Torpedoman by trade had adopted a rabbit. He was single and had no one to take it or look after it. As we discussed fluffy’s impending fate someone said, “Hey Kent oughta pull Fluffy out of the COs hat on half-way night.”

You can see where this is going. Fluffy spent two-and-a-half months, in her cage in the torpedo room bilge. Bags of rabbit food were carefully hidden from the Chief’s inspection eyes. Her wastes were carefully collected and passed off as common waste and taken to the TDU room. (Trash Disposal Unit . . . 700 pound air and a ram . . . nevermind)

Half-way night on long deployments is always celebrated. If you have any talent or think you do, you’re in the half-way night show. Ala Tarbell Fluffy was in a bunny-sack behind a chair. After producing a silk fountain I got her into the pile of silks and produced her pretty damned cleanly, if I do say so myself.

The trick got a good reaction, solid applause. Then it dawned on them that we hadn’t seen land for thirty-seven days and there was a goddamn live bunny-rabbit on the ship. The crew went wild.

It was worth going that extra mile. Fluffy, by the way was in violation of several navy regulations. In a macabre series of events she ended up on the menu a couple of days later. Submariners have no sense of justice.

Magic in Albuquerque

Wow, nice town!

There is a great magic shop in Albuquerque. The proprietors are a very nice married couple. They've let me hang out in their shop entirely too much. The regular assortment of young pierced magicians wander through. I get to hang out and talk card tricks with a small but widening circle.

Magic is a great hobby and social outlet. It's held me in some pretty wacky and entertaining company over the years. When you're on your next business trip you could do far worse than checking out the local magic scene. I even happened to be in town for the local IBM meeting. I saw some magic and got to learn all about magnets! Okay the magnet lecture didn't help me much but the guy was passionate about magnets.

The fine folks at The Magic and Juggling Shop will probably have to endure me, again, today. They probably don't hate me. I've bought a lot of cards in there already.

KG

History and props to some great magicians

I have recently been wasting my time interacting with the Magic Cafe. This on-line denizen of card magicians and pedophiles has some interesting characters on it. It's run by my pal Steve Brooks. Steve has been a huge supporter of the Golden Gate Gathering.

In one of my interactions concerning magic and teachers I typed up this vignette. I think it belongs here.

My first teacher was Marvin Lovestedt. Yeah, you've never heard of him. In Ogden Utah, circa 1970, he was the best magician in town. He ran the Fun Shop at Washington and 25th streets. It was your classic, costume/adult gag/magic shop. The very first time I walked in there we bonded like oxygen and hydrogen. He loaned me his copy of [i]Stars of Magic[/i]. He had performed Cutting the Aces and I shit myself blind.

Marvin, truth be told, was and is not a high-level technician. He was a theater major and performed when he did tricks. He turned me on to the real work of the era. There were no great magic books at the Fun Shop, but Marvin turned me on to Loftus Magic and Novelty in Salt Lake. The guy behind the counter there was Earl Nelson. Earl treated me like crap. He, of course, was the best card man to ever escape from the Beehive State. Earl also fleshed out my collection of magic books. He sold me the Vernon card books (Ultimate, Inner, Further etc.), Close-up Card Magic and Garcia's Super Subtle/Million Dollar books.

My mentors were the guys who wrote those books. After Earl skipped town, (I think he was just ahead of the pogroms of '74), it was Marvin and I, holding down the card-guy fort. I did get to work the counter of the Fun Shop. Marvin allowed me to do one non-sales card trick a month for folks who walked in. Between The Fun Shop and MagicWorld in Denver I got to be a half-assed magician.

After some run-ins with the DEA and knocking up a girlfriend, Uncle Sam came a knockin'. The Navy allowed me to escape Utah. They did make me take the knocked-up girl with me though. Wife Uno, is a damned fine card magician btw. She does half a dozen card tricks pretty well!

Magic clubs across the country comprised most of our social life. Luckily I spent eight years in Orlando Florida where I ran into three magicians who did magic for a living. (Jon Armstrong was among the crew. He was the cute tow-headed kid though!) Hank Miller, James Sherrill and Terry Ward worked the local theme parks.

(Joe Conrad has some tribute footage of James on yt)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UUxcDgRgR4&NR=1

When I saw these guys do tricks at the local magic club, it was like an entirely different kind of magic. These were professional entertainers and I was shamed and dismayed at my own complete lack of ability. I had done Cutting the Aces since the day Marvin loaned me the book. I saw Terry Ward do that exact, same card trick for the magic club. I still can't find those socks.

Sherrill became a great pal. I met him my first day in Orlando. Paramount Magic was walking distance from the base. (This is 1979 btw. James hadn't gotten his Seaworld gig yet) There was a huge black man behind the counter. We swapped lies and card tricks. He offered to drive to the magic meeting that night. (Man I miss that big black son-of-a-bitch)

Hank Miller who worked King Henry's Feast helped me more than anyone. He has an unyielding and uncompromising approach to magic. He's better than you at card magic. He doesn't come across as arrogant or self-involved. He is better than you at magic though. Eight years of two or three shows a night, seven days a week made him better than you or I will ever be.

He would not allow me to do stuff that sucked. He was abusive and relentless. To this day he will not put up with bad magic. I did my cups and balls for him at the last GGG. He told me where I flashed and noted two awkward tells. He told me frankly, he was disappointed. Hank rocks!

This entry started out on Conjure Nation. It has been mightily edited to get to the PG point. In person I tend to be profane.

KG