Sometimes they have someone off stage looking at the video of the person signing an item & then they duplicate it themselves & give the card to the magician, like maybe when they would give him the scissors.
I also love this phrase. It reminds me of the time I walked into a magic shop at the Mall of America. I ask the magician/salesman to demonstrate a trick I see on the wall: “Floating Dollar Bill”. He folds up a dollar bill (mine), takes his hands away (he can even put his arms behind his back), and the bill stays where it is! I look and look and look and can’t figure it out. I HAVE to know how it’s done. The trick costs $17. You would not believe the far-out theories I dreamed up to try and explain how it worked. I open the package and find…thread. $17 for thread. A special kind of thread that magicians use that is incredibly thin and virtually undetectable. I returned to the store to complain. The salesman said, “You didn’t pay for the thread. You paid for the secret.” I walked out without any further complaints.
If you’re interested, here’s the great NYC store for magic tricks. When I was a kid we would go here and browse the display cases. http://www.tannenmagic.com/
My guess is that the card was never in the jacket. It just “appeared” to be in the jacket. That’s where the sleight of hand comes in.
Come on. Do you think a magician is going to cut up one of Conan’s $1000 suits. Same goes for the guy’s wallet. He made it look like he pulled it out of the wallet.
Here’s one for ya: I was in Mr. C’s, a magic bar in Berwyn, Illinois (an Amazing place! Is it still there?).
A magician came over and did a “pick the card” trick with an imaginary deck! No cards at all. Just imaginary. Fake shuffle the imaginary deck. Fake spread the imaginary deck out. Fake pick a card. Concentrate on your fake card. Then he told me what the card was and it was the card I was thinking of. Some kind of spooky mind control there! :eek:
When I see magic, I just let myself believe it’s magic, like a little kid. It’s more fun that way.
/minor hijack/
An excellent first novel - “Carter Beats The Devil” by David Gold - outstanding reading and the subject Carter is a professional magician.
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