It's been a long time

One of the hobbies that I've picked up recently is card magic. I got the magic "bug" around late August and I have been obsessing over it like crazy. I'm very much attracted to card sleights. When I was starting to really get into magic, I picked up a couple of books from the library. One of them is called "The Magician and the Cardsharp." It's about two individuals obsessed with perfecting their sleights. One of them was the great Dai Vernon. He was the magician. He was born in late 1800's and died in 1997. Imagine that. He actually outlived so much of his contemporaries like Chung Ling Soo, Thurston, Kellar, Hermann, Houdini, etc... Growing up, he tried to meet as much magicians as he could with hopes of learning their secret moves. He also learned magic from a book called "Expert At The Card Table" by S.W. Erdnase. The book is pretty much a study of cardsharps (card cheaters on gambling tables). Throughout his travels, he stumbled upon a jailed Mexican gambler who told him of a man who could deal from the center of the deck. Not second deal and not bottom deal. CENTER DEAL. It was thought to be just a myth. Some people claimed that they know how to execute such a deal but no one had proof to back it up. This is where our second character comes in. His name was William "Bill" Kennedy. Bill grew up in a town where one of the biggest source of income was gambling. Gambling as a cheat that is. He was working for a man named Midnight Underwood when he perfected his center deal. The whole book pretty much talked about each characters lives and how they end up meeting each other.

"The Magician and the Cardsharp" is a really good book. Very romantic depiction of the pursuit of the muse which, in this case, is magic.

After a month and a half of intense practicing, I sometimes imagine myself doing these big stage magic shows. Cut a woman in half. Put her back together. Levitate her. Teleport myself to the audience. Stuff like that. I'll have my girlfriend as my assistant. That'll be fun.