Search Results for: "richard turner"

The next few of these video embeds will feature a few of the amazing people I've met in my life. This one is an hour and 23 minutes of my buddy Richard Turner, one of the greatest handlers of playing cards in the world. He would be worthy of the word "amazing" even if he could see but he can't…

Here's my pal Richard Turner demonstrating his card skills for reality star Johnny Bananas. This is not a sham. Richard really does this…

One of the best close-up magicians alive is no longer alive. Brian Gillis passed away yesterday, a few days after suffering a massive heart attack. I have no idea how old he was but he did magic for an awfully long time.

Brian was a casual friend. I'd see him at the Castle and we'd talk about magic…and he knew more about it than just about anybody I've ever known. He made some memorable appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and it was obvious that Carson — a former magician, as you probably know — was in awe of Brian's skills.

A few months ago, I took some friends to the Castle promising them three of the best close-up guys around. Two of them were Richard Turner and Paul Gertner, both of whom "won" on Penn & Teller Fool Us. In fact, Paul won twice and the second time was on the episode that aired last night. Brian was there that night but not on the performance schedule and as a favor to me, he arranged a special show — essentially the act I've embedded below — for me and my friends, plus some Castlegoers who were invited in so we had a substantial audience. If you think the act looks good on video, you should have seen it live. I'm sorry you'll never get the chance.

Here's 22 minutes of Brian in the Close-Up Gallery in the Magic Castle a few years ago. See if you can catch when Brian steals a guy's watch without the guy knowing it…

Here's something that my pal Richard Turner can do with a deck of cards…

I just browsed some political debate sites and I'm starting to not understand what the word "elite" means anymore. Clearly, a lot of folks using it are employing different definitions. To some, it seems to mean "anyone who isn't me." To others, the working interpretation is — and read this carefully — "anyone who I think thinks they're better than I am."

The Merriam-Webster people say it means "individuals carefully selected as being the best of a class," which of course is a very high compliment. You would think then that to be called an "elitist" might also be a compliment but no. The folks at Merriam-Webster say an elitist is not a noun but rather an adjective meaning "being or characteristic of a person who has an offensive air of superiority and tends to ignore or disdain anyone regarded as inferior." The way they phrase that makes me think they're elitists.

Dictionary.com meanwhile does recognize "elitist" as a noun and says it's "a person having, thought to have, or professing superior intellect or talent, power, wealth, or membership in the upper echelons of society." That doesn't sound so bad. I'd rather like to be a person who has — or is thought to have — superior intellect or talent or power or wealth, etc. But maybe not if I'm also being perceived as having an offensive air of superiority.

Question: By that definition, is it possible to be superior at something and not have an offensive air? Last night, I was at the Magic Castle and I spent a little time with my friend Richard Turner, who a lot of magicians would tell you is the best handler and manipulator of playing cards in the world. He's certainly way superior at that than I am by a factor of a zillion or so. I sensed nothing offensive in the atmosphere.

In fact, I think people really like superiority and seek it out. The entire premise of sports is that some human beings are better than others at some things: This guy runs faster, that lady can jump higher, etc.

Browsing the 'net, I see a lot of people condemning the "Hollywood Elite" or "The East Coast Elite" or "The New York Elite." They don't seem to like anyone in those vague categories they decry but they're wild about a president who can't seem to string two tweets together without bragging about his superior intellect, talent, power, wealth, etc. They even like that he has an offensive air of superiority and don't think that he means superior to them, which of course he does.

So I'm completely lost on what it means these days to be a part of some "elite" and I also don't know if I want to be, nor do I know if I want to be ruled by elites. I'd sure like the Secretary of Defense to know more about war and how to avoid it than I do and the folks who manage the economy to be vastly superior to me in math and understanding business and commerce and such. I could live without any offensive air of superiority but, hey, I entrust my life to doctors who I hope will know absolutely everything about what they do. The more superior they are, the more I like it and I'll settle for some whiffs of offensive air.

My buddy Richard Turner shows you why you can't win at Three Card Monte — not even if you're playing against a blind guy…

I will be a guest at the Baltimore Comic Convention, which happens September 22-24 at the Baltimore Convention Center in, of all places, Baltimore. This will be the first time I've been to a convention on the east coast since 2008. I'm not sure what I'm doing there yet but a panel or two about Jack Kirby seems likely.

There was no Trump Dump today and I'm going to see if I can hold off all weekend. I find myself trapped between my duty as a citizen to remain informed and my increasing desire, every time I read what that administration is doing, to block all internet sites except mine and the ones that just display baby panda videos.

Wasn't Richard Turner great on Penn & Teller: Fool Us last night? It reruns many times this week so try and catch it if you haven't yet. He was the first act.

Hey, does anyone in or around the Los Angeles area want a few crates of old Penthouse magazines? They sent me the thing to me for free for like a decade and a half and I need to clear them out of my storage space.

Lastly for now: I continue to get ready for Comic-Con in the hope that Comic-Con is getting ready for me. I urge you if you are attending to take the time to visit the convention website and do a little prep work. Jot down the program items you want to see. Figure out where you're going to eat and where, apart from the main hall, you're going to wander. Make note of the booth numbers of exhibitors you want to visit and get a sense of which portions of the hall are mostly likely to have the exhibitors who interest you. If you care mainly about old comics, you shouldn't be wandering around amidst the videogame companies looking for antique funnybooks. A lot of the complaints I hear about Comic-Con flow, it seems to me, by not knowing where to find what you want. You should especially download the Quick Guide. The convention you want to attend is probably in that building someplace. You just have to do a little planning to find it.

I have this friend named Richard Turner who is one of the greatest handlers of playing cards in history. He bills himself as a "Card Mechanic" or sometimes as "The Cheat." Put simply, if he deals cards to you, you will get what he wants you to get and everyone else in the game will get the cards he wants them to get and there's no f'ing way you'll ever catch him controlling the deal. It's an amazing, seemingly-impossible skill and it would be impressive even if he could see what he's doing.

Oh, I guess I forget to mention: My friend Richard is blind.

He wasn't when I met him around 1981. He could see a little, though less with each passing year. Losing his vision completely has only caused one little snag in his act. Every now and then, he has to ask spectators to tell him if the cards are all facing the same way. You can check out Richard's skills in some of the videos I've embedded in this site. Or you can see him next Thursday evening on the Season 4 opener of Penn and Teller: Fool Us.

If you've never seen that show, it's on the CW Network. Each episode, several magicians perform feats and they win a prize of sorts if Penn & Teller are unable to figure out how they did what they did. This mostly means if Teller is unable to figure out how they did what they did.

Penn & Teller: Fool Us was originally a short-lived series produced in Great Britain. I played a part in the decision by the CW to acquire and revive it for American television and right at the start, I told them to get Richard Turner on it. Earlier this year, the folks at CW called and told me it was finally happening and they offered to fly me to Vegas for the "taping" — we still call them that though no tape is involved — which was in early April. Unfortunately, I was then dealing with Carolyn's situation and so I had to pass. You can see what happened when the show is broadcast this Thursday and in umpteen retransmissions after that.

Last Friday, I went to lunch at the Magic Castle in Hollywood with my friend Bob Elisberg, whose blog you should be visiting…but only after you read mine ten times a day. One of my favorite magicians, Richard Turner, was performing.

Richard isn't exactly a magician. He describes himself sometimes as a Card Mechanic — a guy who can fix a card game. He is the best "card cheat" I've ever seen and it's stunning to see in person. You watch him. You study him. You never take your eyes off his hands or the cards. But you can't catch him dealing off the bottom of the deck or out of the middle or whatever he does so you wind up with a pair of threes and he has a surplus of aces. Really amazing.

And, oh yeah: He's blind. What he does would be astounding even if he could see but he can't so…

This video is from (I'm guessing) 15-20 years ago when his vision was a tiny bit better than it is now and he sometimes didn't tell audiences he couldn't always make out the cards. Today, he has to ask his "volunteers" for help making sure that the ones he gathers up after a feat are all face-down. But he can still do everything he did in this performance and then some…

In the past here, I've embedded videos about an amazing man I know named Richard Turner and I've told you about him. Here's a video that CBS ran on him this morning. You'll see why he's so amazing…

A few years ago when I was doing the dialogue on The Spirit for DC Comics, we did an issue that involved magicians. As a 3+ decade member of the Magic Castle, I know most of 'em and I dropped the names of several into the issue, including identifying my three current faves as The Spirit's magic teachers. Recently, that trio — all masters of close-up magic — got together to take note of that special distinction.

If you are ever anywhere where you can see performances by Whit "Pop" Haydn, Richard Turner or Johnny Ace Palmer, fight your way to a seat in the front row. No one better.

Also in that issue — appearing as a character, in fact — was the extraordinary Misty Lee, spouse of one of my closest friends, writer Paul Dini. Misty is not only a magician but a talented voice actress, currently heard in many commercials and cartoon shows including (in the latter category), The Garfield Show.

Misty recently got a great honor via sad circumstances. Recently as I posted here, we lost a good friend to all of us and to the Castle when Mark Nelson passed away unexpectedly. For years, Mark had been The Voice of the Magic Castle — the person you heard on its intricate voicemail system and in promotional materials. He inherited the position from the late Harry Blackstone Jr and would be happy to know that the exalted post has passed on to his friend Misty.