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So, you want
to learn the impossible...
We are
all
experts on being fooled!
In this section I will be discussing a little bit of this, and a
little bit of that. You might possibly learn a little history, or read quotes from famous magicians. You could learn more
about what is real, and what is fake. You could also very well
have that line blurred more than it already is. You might find a
new and exciting way to swindle your buddy in a bar bet. Or you
might just figure out ways to keep yourself from getting taken on the
streets.
Lessons in History...
In 1890 an accomplished engineer of 32 years old named George Washington
Gale Ferris
having designed and built several bridges for the Louisville Bridge co.
had much larger thoughts in the works. The man with "wheels in his head"
approached the management of the Chicago fair with the "crazy idea" of
building an amusement wheel over two hundred feet high. Management was
already trying to raise funds for a five hundred sixty foot high tower
and restaurant for the fair grounds, not some "fool ride" that would
most likely kill a lot of people. After they failed to raise enough
money for the tower, Ferris was called in and contracts were signed for
his wheel at the fair.
The two million six hundred pounds of finished steel were ready
to construct this mammoth ride, but not before five, thirty car trains
hauled the material after it was created by Detroit Bridge & Iron works on
December 29, 1892.
The
thirty-six cars on the wheel ride each were as large as a streetcar.
The cars were twenty-six feet long with chair seats inside for thirty-eight
passengers. The wheel was capable of seating thirteen hundred
sixty-eight passengers.
On June
11, 1893 the wheel was ready for the maiden voyage. Mrs. Ferris was to
ride the
first car around the wheel two hundred sixty-four feet in the air. She
handed her husband a gold whistle and said "God bless you, my dear." He
blew the signal to start and the Iowa state band played "America."
The two separate one thousand horsepower steam engines huffed away, their
flywheels turning, and the giant wheel began to turn. Taking twenty
minutes to complete a full rotation, the great wheel was to begin it's endless
cycles for the thrill seeking fair-goers. The wheel ran until October
without interruption or injury to a single passenger. Seven hundred and
fifty thousand people were thrilled and amazed as they enjoyed their journeys
around the wheel.
The
wheel grossed $726,805.50 paying for itself, and returning a nice sum of
$78,294.40 in cash as per contract to it's creator Mr. Ferris. There was no doubt that
the wheel's debut was the turning point for the fair during the
depression.
Ferris
lost all interest in it after the fair, and died of tuberculosis at age
thirty-seven in 1896.
In 1894 the wheel was moved to north Clark street
Chicago, Il. In 1896 the company bankrupt. The wheel was moved to St.
Louis in 1903 for the World's Fair. The wheel lost money during the 1904
run of the fair. There was no money available to dismantle the wheel so
it was destroyed for scrap after thirteen years of "ups and downs."
Part of
Ferris' wheel can now be seen spanning across the Kankakee
River in Indiana Known as Dunn's Bridge.
Facts
Courtesy of "A pictoral History of the AMERICAN CARNIVAL" by
Joe McKennon
The AmeriCON
way...
Be honest...I mean, well, not so
honest...you know what I'm talkin' about. We all want "Somethin'
for nuthin'!" We all feel great when we get free crap, or swindle
our buddies to get a laugh. It's the American way!
Here is a short story from a
favorite book of mine called "The Modern Con Man" written by Todd Robbin's.
True story.
Three older con artists were on a train to Chicago, looking to make some
easy money before continuing to Los Angeles. They took a seat
across from three young guys who were talking a bit too loudly about
some scams they had just pulled in St. Louis. The three young
grifters laughed to themselves as they pulled their three tickets out,
ready to be collected. This just made the old men snicker, since
they only pulled out a single ticket for the three of them. That
got the young 'Turks' attention. "How's that work?" they wondered.
"Watch and learn," the
old grifters told them. When they saw the conductor one car away,
the three men piled into the restroom and closed the door. The
conductor appeared and, seeing that someone was in the bathroom, knocked
on the door. "Ticket please." The door opened a crack, and
one hand poked out to hand the conductor the single ticket. The
conductor punched it and continued on. Soon enough the men emerged
and shared a laugh with the boys, who admitted, "For a bunch of old
geezers, that was pretty good."
A few days later, waiting
for the train to L.A., the three old con men bumped into the youngsters
on the train platform. The boys nudged the men and held up a
single ticket: "It's our turn this time." The men wished them luck
and said they didn't even have one ticket. (Chicago was a bust and
they were heading out broke.) The boys expressed some unconvincing
concern, but the older guys just shrugged. "Don't worry, we'll
figure something out."
As the train departed,
the young scamsters used the same method they learned on the way up.
With the conductor one car away, the three piled into the restroom.
Soon after they closed the door behind them, one of the old men quickly
walked over, knocked on the door, and said in a deep voice, "Ticket
please..."
*Anytime starts a tale with "True story," it's
either a complete lie or a boring anecdote embellished for entertainment
purposes. -- T.Robbins
Magic Corner... Watch Close!
This might be the
easiest card trick in the book. The funny thing is that this might
fool a magician if properly executed by a lay person.
The effect:
Have a spectator pick a card from the deck. The spectator puts the card
back in the deck, squaring the deck on the table. The spectator also
cuts and shuffles the deck losing their card in the thoroughly
mixed deck. The card worker (you) picks the deck up and secretly
reveals the name of the selected card.
*This effect requires a bit of timing and no sleight of
hand at all.
The work:
Table a deck of cards (meaning put a deck onto the table in front of the
spectator). Shuffle the deck, and cut the cards. Then pick up the deck
as you do a swift pointing gesture to the spectator with the deck in
your hands. During this gesture you glimpse the bottom card in the deck
without the spectator seeing you do this. Simultaneously telling
them that you'd like them to select a card from the deck.
Spread the cards face down for the spectator to reach in and pick a card
from the spread. Once they choose their card, ask them to remember it and
put it back on the top of the deck. You now table the deck and cut the
cards once leaving your previously glimpsed card on top of theirs. You
could end it here by scanning through the deck and finding the card that
is next to your indicator card. However, an often overlooked
subtlety is the fact that you can take a gamble on this instead
by having the spectator cut and shuffle the deck once more like you did
in the beginning. There is a very slim chance that the spectator
will shuffle the deck good enough in a single shuffle that it will
separate your indicator card from their card. Once shuffled, you can
now spread through the cards face up towards you and magically think of
their card. Easy does it...a good magician would not just shout
out the card. They might use a process of elimination to build the
effect a bit. For instance if their card was the 10 of D you would say
that "I am not sure, but I do not feel that your card is a black card".
"I also see a large number". Etc...etc...etc......
I'm sure you see
where you might be able to go with this.
Or maybe you could
run with this like I did, and have a million decks of cards around your
house, and a bookshelf full of magic goodies...
Good luck!
QUOTES...
"You can go a long way with a smile.
You can go a lot farther with a smile and a gun."
Al Capone
(1899 - 1947)
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