Magic Advent Calendar – DECEMBER 18

Hello everyone!

Welcome to the 18th offering on the Magic Advent Calendar, which is “broadcasted” 🙂 from my studio, at the table where all my books since 1996 have been written. You’ll have to forgive the not-so-perfect recording, but I did this on purpose, of course, because I believe that perfection only pertains to God…(OK, I stole that line from the ancient Persian carpet makers, who made the most beautiful carpets, but always made a little mistake at the end, well, because…see above). And Goethe should have said, “Good is better than perfect”, but he didn’t. Anyway, why argue about form – let’s move on to the content:

This is my yet unpublished presentation and handling of Dai Vernon’s “Ectoplasmic Aces”. The original idea can be found as a rather cryptic note in Frank Csuri’s Jacob Daley’s Notebooks (The Gutenberg Press, USA 1974). If you’re curious, here is the original note from the Daley Notebooks:

I should mention that at The Session (January 2020), Vanishing Inc’s yearly convention in London, Dominic Twose gave a short lecture on precisely this note of Daley’s, in which he spoke about his interpretation of the trick. This stirred up my curiosity, and having studied Vernon and his work for decades, I tried to figure out how Vernon might have really done it, considering his constant search for perfection and artistic criteria. So, what you have here, is the result of my efforts. This is still a work in progress, but you’ll see me do a short performance, followed by a discussion of some points of interest. I thought it’s good enough to be offered here, and I hope it finds your favor.

To watch my interpretation of “Vernon’s Ectoplasmic Aces” CLICK HERE.

Enjoy!