Read the Instructions, Buy the Books, And Study the Videos.Inside MagicMagic News Updated Daily for the Professional Magician

Back in the early 1970’s Kreskin had a National TV Show and many of the Magician’s I knew followed it faithfully, although they had a tendency to put him down for not admitting he was a magician, they had to admit that he was a talented enough showman to have a national TV audience.

On one show, Kreskin did an effect where after having two cards selected and thoroughly shuffling the deck, and showing the cards well mixed, he squared the deck and divided the deck into two equal piles of cards. After asking for the names of the selected cards, he then proceeded to first turn one card in each pile face up.

One card was black and the other was red, and neither was the selected card. Kreskin explained this was the first part of the miracle as he ribbon spread each pile to reveal one pile was all black and the other all red, except for one card in each pile that was of opposite color.

The kicker came when the red card that was selected, was in the pile amongst all black cards, and the other card selected, a black one, was amongst the ribbon spread red cards. “That’s amazing”!

The next morning I had no sooner opened the Magic Fun Wagon when a half dozen IBM Ring 117 members were at the counter. You have to realize here, that they were all retired, had been doing magic for years, and therefore did not have to be at work like me, so they could be at the Magic Shop early in the morning, no matter what day it was.

After a few minutes of nervous banter, it was obvious that they had all been in contact with each other the evening before, trying to puzzle out the effect Kreskin had done, but they were not successful in doing so. Therefore, they decided to jointly come to see me and pick my brain, or “torture” the secret out of me. I was secretly chuckling to myself and planning to teach them all a lesson.

One of them finally got up the courage…

One of them finally got up the courage to mention Kreskin’s show the night before and casually asked me if I knew how he had done the effect that had evidently kept them awake all night.

When I nonchalantly replied “yes, I knew what he did”, 12 ears rose to sharp points, along with 12 eyebrows.

I teased them for a few minutes, until they began to salivate, and informed them that they could learn the secret for a mere $1.50 each, plus tax. You could almost smell burning leather as they each rapidly pulled their wallets out of their leisure suit pants, and plunked down $1.58, tax included on the counter.

I then nonchalantly handed them all a brand new Enardoe Stripper Deck. Naturally they all began to protest that they had “dozens” of stripper decks at home, in there closets, magic cases and chest of drawers.

I then informed them all “to read the instructions”! The trick was one of 12 that was included inside the wrapper!

They were all happy to learn the secret, but not so happy that they had been fooled by Kreskin, and by me, with a stripper deck. Funny, at the next IBM Ring 117 auction, later in the year, there were a number of Stripper Decks on the block.

The moral of the story is “READ THE INSTRUCTIONS”, “BUY THE BOOKS” and now days, “STUDY THE VIDEOS”.

Another moral here to be learned, is don’t expect the local Magic dealer to give you free secrets either. Support him with the cash.

Barry M. Gibbs