He Who Is Without Sin, Deal the First Center CardInside MagicMagic News Updated Daily for the Professional Magician

Wynona Rider

We take exception to Tony Giorgio’s column in Genii this month.

Not because it isn’t true ? we’re sure it is ? but because it is unnecessarily hurtful and self-aggrandizing.

We
don’t think we’ll be more popular for writing these things but we felt
it had to be written or we wouldn’t have written it ? we think that
makes sense.

So what’s the connection between Mr. Giorgio, Dai Vernon, Wynona Rider and Inside Magic?

Okay, let’s begin with the disclaimers:

1) We’ve never met Mr. Giorgio ? not even once;

2) We enjoy his acting but have never seen him perform magic;

3) We do not doubt if we did see him perform card magic, he would be very impressive. We conceded he has skills;

4) We did meet Dai Vernon, did see him perform card magic, and did hang out with him during a convention in 1974;

and, 5) We have never cheated at cards in a real game, never met the author of Expert at the Card Table,
and have no idea why Wynona Rider, with all her money, would
shoplift. We do believe she is a beautiful and talented actress,
however. So she is like Mr. Giorgio but we’re not saying we think he’s
“beautiful” or “an actress.”

The central theme of Mr. Giorgio’s latest columns has been:

1) I know more than you do;

2) I know more than Dai Vernon did;

3)
I know more than all “card magicians” (put in quotes for no apparent
reason because magicians who perform card magic are fairly called card
magicians); and,

4) Only a person who would cheat at cards is
qualified to speak about the validity of card-cheaters’ methods as
applied to magic.

We may be a little harsh on the
last point. After all he gave credit to Charlie Miller for having some
sense. He praises Mr. Miller’s knowledge of a “real card game for
real money” and the difficulties to cheat when being “burned.”

The subject of this month’s attack on magicians living and dead is the famous story of Dai Vernon’s search for the center deal.

Mr. Giorgio’s point?

So, are we saying Dai Vernon was a liar or a dope?

The
Professor claimed to have spent time and money to find a person who
could actually perform a center deal. Even if that was true, Mr.
Giorgio posits, it was on a foolish quest.

The quest was foolish because, in Mr. Giorgio’s humble opinion, the move would never be used by a card mechanic in a card game.

He
points out that Dai Vernon never claimed he saw the move used in an
actual card game. He also points out that Charlie Miller, when asked by
Mr. Giorgio if he could perform a center deal, responded with the
authority of the Oracle at Delphi: “Why bother?”

Let’s assume Mr. Giorgio is right.

Assume, arguendo, The Professor wasted his time and money attempting to find the mythical center deal.

It
follows Mr. Vernon also wasted his time learning and working on the
move because there was no need for it. At best, points out Mr. Giorgio,
the center deal only defeats the cut of the deck. So a stack of cards
at the top or bottom of the deck will now be in the center after…

Wynona Rider

We take exception to Tony Giorgio’s column in Genii this month.

Not because it isn’t true ? we’re sure it is ? but because it is unnecessarily hurtful and self-aggrandizing.

We
don’t think we’ll be more popular for writing these things but we felt
it had to be written or we wouldn’t have written it ? we think that
makes sense.

So what’s the connection between Mr. Giorgio, Dai Vernon, Wynona Rider and Inside Magic?

Okay, let’s begin with the disclaimers:

1) We’ve never met Mr. Giorgio ? not even once;

2) We enjoy his acting but have never seen him perform magic;

3) We do not doubt if we did see him perform card magic, he would be very impressive. We conceded he has skills;

4) We did meet Dai Vernon, did see him perform card magic, and did hang out with him during a convention in 1974;

and, 5) We have never cheated at cards in a real game, never met the author of Expert at the Card Table,
and have no idea why Wynona Rider, with all her money, would
shoplift. We do believe she is a beautiful and talented actress,
however. So she is like Mr. Giorgio but we’re not saying we think he’s
“beautiful” or “an actress.”

The central theme of Mr. Giorgio’s latest columns has been:

1) I know more than you do;

2) I know more than Dai Vernon did;

3)
I know more than all “card magicians” (put in quotes for no apparent
reason because magicians who perform card magic are fairly called card
magicians); and,

4) Only a person who would cheat at cards is
qualified to speak about the validity of card-cheaters’ methods as
applied to magic.

The subject of this month’s attack on magicians living and dead is the famous story of Dai Vernon’s search for the center deal.

Mr. Giorgio’s point?

So, are we saying Dai Vernon was a liar or a dope?

The
Professor claimed to have spent time and money to find a person who
could actually perform a center deal. Even if that was true, Mr.
Giorgio posits, it was on a foolish quest.

The quest was foolish because, in Mr. Giorgio’s humble opinion, the move would never be used by a card mechanic in a card game.

Let’s assume Mr. Giorgio is right.

Assume, arguendo, The Professor wasted his time and money attempting to find the mythical center deal.

Assuming the above is true ? and it’s not ? our question for Mr. Giorgio is much like Charlie Miller’s “Why bother?”

Why write this screed?

Sure, Mr. Vernon is dead and not likely hurt by the attacks. He can’t defend his pursuit of an irrelevant move.

Does Mr. Giorgio want to demonstrate that he has either knowledge or skills greater than Dai Vernon?

Why does he launch the attack? Who knows?

Why does it bug us so much? No clue.

But these questions fit neatly with the premise for this entire article: why would Wynona Rider steal dresses?

Few
of us lack flaws or foibles (whatever those are). We all enjoy a
good old-fashioned toppling of the beloved and respected.

Can’t
we all just get a long? Can’t we say that it sure was neat that Dai
Vernon traveled to the heartland of America to find someone who could
do a true center deal?

Isn’t that a good story?

Isn’t it
a positive that Mr. Vernon tried to first verify the sleight existed
and then tried to memorialize how it was performed?

Isn’t it a bad thing to take money from people by cheating at cards?

Dai Vernon

True,
Mr. Vernon did not claim ? and according to Mr. Giorgio, could not
claim ? he ever worked as a mechanic in a card game or cheated “some
mark” while “he was being burned.”

But that’s okay.

We’re not really upset that he never committed a crime.

We
are excited to know he loved magic as much as we do. He loved it
so much; he’d spend time and money to memorialize a great chapter in
the history of sleight-of-hand.

We never met Wynona Rider but think she’s a very good actress. We thought her work in Little Women and Dracula was incredible.

Heck, as we said, we don’t know why she shoplifted. We do know she wasn’t the first or the last to commit the crime.

Her failure was brought into our homes thanks to a media built on our lust for bad news about people.