Posts by Richard

I need a coat and tie and I have only a few hours to acquire the strangling Sunday dress so, I think with a shooting dose of trepidation, “How am I going to get a suit?”  I cajole a friend of Bobby’s to drive me to a men’s clothing store at the Northridge Mall, where…

The inner circle of magic experts – and particularly playing card specialists – is truly a meritocracy. To gain entry, you must be an established expert or at least demonstrate that you have the “right stuff” to become one. The next hurdle (which is much harder) is getting an invitation to be assessed and accepted…

David Frederick Winfield Verner was born in Ottawa, Canada in June 1894 (exactly sixty years before my birth in June 1954).  Vernon moved to New York City at the start of World War I, where he changed his given name to Dai and billed himself as Dai Vernon – The King of Cards.  Vernon has…

It’s the Fourth of July, and I’m helping Yerkes set up a full blown circus show with a closing fireworks exhibition at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.  One of the elephants leaves a very large pile of “road apples” on the ground, a pile five times the size of my horse’s poop. And, of course,…

For my room, board, and compensation, Bobby insists that I learn to swing on the trapeze, walk a tight rope, and take 40-foot high falls into an air-bag.  Along with working the rigging, setting up, taking down, and acting as the over-all gofer, I set up gear and help Bobby train stunt-doubles for film, as…

Breaking into the magic meritocracy starts when Lamb’s Player’s director Steve Terrell sends me to Hollywood to train with stunt-man, Bobby Yerkes. (Yerkes’ career is impressive. In 1947 he appeared with Elizabeth Taylor in his first film, Julia Misbehaves. Everything afterwards was a non-stop, rough-and-tumble adventure. Yerkes served as a stunt double for many of…

“Sitting together at an upper-class night club is playboy Jim Flect, and Dr. Richard Drake. I hear you both have adventures of a different sort. If you would, please share them.” “Yeah” Jon,” Fleck says, “Rick and I went for a walk on a hiking trail and we came across a rattlesnake. Rick wasn’t going…

Mime-Magician, Armando Lucero has joined the Lamb’s Players troupe. As we first meet, our interaction is initially tentative and non-committal. This is pretty much par for the course for me, since I try to keep a low profile because most of what I do is geared more for the card table than entertainment. But he…

I expand my mind-control experiments by creating diverse exercises to force my brain to separate the movement of one hand from the other, so they can work independently of each other.  For example, I would draw an imaginary four pointed square in the air with my left index finger while simultaneously drawing an Isosceles triangle…

I am hanging out with bartender Ed Houlihan, who says with an undertone of slyness, “I knew a Chicago magician who could roll two coins in opposite directions across the fingers of one hand.” I ask excitedly, “Wow that sounds great! How’d he do it?” Eddie says in an artful manner, “I don’t remember; figure…

First, I pick up a coin and determine which hand feels more comfortable doing the roll, and it is my right hand. But, because I want to do it with both hands, I place the half-dollar in the opposite left hand and begin the maneuver from there.  Mary and I have to go run some…

I like to hang out at a club in my home town, El Cajon, where Eddie Houlihan is the bartender and performs close up magic nightly. (Eddie has even performed at the world famous Hollywood Magic Castle.)  I sit at his bar with a free glass of water with deck in hand. Eddie says with…