Dai Vernon in Atlas Obscura

From the June 25th article "An Insider’s Tour of New York’s Disappearing Magic History," by Sarah Laskow in Atlas Obscura:

With his sharp mustache and debonair smile, Dai Vernon always looked like he knew more than he was revealing, and as his stature in the magic community grew, his life became legend. When he came to New York from Ottawa, Canada, in 1915, the vaudeville circuit was still feeding magicians steady income and fame, though Pastor’s heyday was long over. A kid obsessed with magic and card tricks, Vernon gravitated to the city’s magic shops. Martinka’s had already become legendary, though from the outside, one reporter wrote in 1916, it looked like “a little dingy shop … with one window full of dusty paraphernalia,” in the shadow of Sixth Avenue’s elevated train. Whatever wonders the shop had to offer were in the back room, off-limits to newcomers like Vernon.


Read more.

Who are the top 10 Canadian magicians of all time?

Updated April 3rd at 6pm to add the following nominations:

• Celeste Evans and Reveen The Impossiblist (Reveen Sr.)

Updated March 31st at 9pm to add the following nominations:

• Greg Frewin and Mahdi Gilbert

Updated March 29 at 7am to add the following nominations:

• Billy Kidd, Carisa Hendrix, Joan Caesar, and Julie Eng

Updated March 24 at 10am to add the following nominations:

• Alain Choquette, David Drake, Mickey Hades, and Shin Lim

Updated March 23 at 9am add the following nominations:

• Bob Farmer, Carl Coultier, Francis Martineau, Gary Ouelette, Howard P. Lions, Mel Stover, Romaine, Roy Cotte, Tom Ransom, Tony Eng, Willis Kinney

Updated March 23 at 7am add the following overnight nominations:

• Additional submissions:  Bedros "Spidey" Akkelian, Bill Abbott, Bobby Motta, Dale Harney, Eric Leclerc, Johnny  Giordmaine, Juliana Chen, Leon Mandrake, Sid Lorraine, Stewart James, Ron Leonard, and Vincent C

Updated at 12:15pm to add:

• Additional submissions: Darcy Oake, Luc Langevin, Murray Hatfield, Ross Bertram, Tom Auburn

Updated at 10:15am to add:

• The following names have been submitted for consideration:  Chris Ramsay, Dai Vernon, David Acer, David Ben, Doug Henning, Gary Kurtz, James Randi, Jay Sankey, Martin Nash, Richard Sanders, Shawn Farquhar

Complete list of nominations received (alphabetical by first name):

1. Alain Choquette
2. Bedros "Spidey" Akkelian
3. Bill Abbott
4. Billy Kidd
5. Bob Farmer
6. Bobby Motta
7. Carisa Hendrix
8. Carl Coultier
9. Celeste Evans
10. Chris Ramsay
11. Dai Vernon
12. Dale Harney
    
13. Darcy Oake
14. David Acer 
15. David Ben
16. David Drake
17. Doug Henning
18. Francis Martineau
19. Eric Leclerc
    
20. Gary Kurtz
21. Gary Ouelette
22. Greg Frewin
23. Howard P. Lions
24. James Randi
25. Jay Sankey
26. Joan Caesar
27. Joel Machtinger
28. Johnny Giordmaine
29. Juliana Chen
30. Julie Eng
31. Leon Mandrake
    
32. Luc Langevin
33. Mahdi Gilbert
34. Martin Nash
35. Mel Stover
36. Mickey Hades
37. Murray Hatfield
38. Reveen The Impossiblist (Reveen Sr.)
39. Richard Sanders
40. Romaine
41. Ron Leonard
    
42. Ross Bertram
43. Roy Cotte
44. Shawn Farquhar 
45. Shin Lim
46. Sid Lorraine
47. Stewart James
48. Tom Auburn
49. Tom Ransom
50. Tony Eng
51. Vincent C
52. Willis Kinney

Devon Murphy recently posted the article, "Top Canadian Magicians and the Tricks That Made Them Famous," at the CBC website.  Devon lists seven outstanding magicians (Julie Eng, Dai Vernon,  Doug Henning, Billy Kidd, Mahdi Gilbert, Greg Frewin, and David Ben).  (Of note, two of the seven on that list are recipients of the "Editor's Choice Award" in the Canada's Magic "Readers' Choice Award" festivities.)

Devon's list got me wondering.

Who do you, dear readers, consider to be the top 10 Canadian magicians of all time?

For those of you who don't like to be influenced by the decisions of others, we're going to start with a clean slate and let you choose all ten!

Submit your nominations in the comment form below,* by 11:59PM EDT on Friday April 6th.  You may nominate as many Canadian magicians as you like.  (Number of nominations don't influence the vote.  If you see your choice(s) listed, please refrain from submitting duplicates.)  Voting will open shortly thereafter.  

What say you?  Who are your top (living or dead) Canadian magicians of all time?


--
* or email me.  I'll send a confirmation back to let you know I received your email.

Dai Vernon: The Spirit of Magic

From Magicana:

While the film was very well received, it was only available briefly for purchase as a VHS cassette, which was subsequently pirated. The film pops up regularly online, always low-quality copies of copies shared without any credit to those who made the project possible.

Now is our chance to fix that. We have provided Historica Canada with a clean copy, transferred from the broadcast master. It is now available to view on-line for free as part of their Canadian Biography series. A copy can also be viewed through the Screening Room.

Read more.

From Magicana's Facebook post:

Mystery School Monday: Dai Vernon his life and magic

Earlier this week Jeff McBride dedicated Mystery School Monday to Dai Vernon his life and magic.

Go on over to Magical Wisdom and watch MSM-294 "Dai Vernon" with Jeff McBride Feb 6 2017.

Canadians on the list of "Top Ten Magicians of the 20th Century"

Have a look over at The Top Tens and see how Doug Henning, Dai Vernon, Shawn Farquhar, and Shin Lim are ranking in their list of "Top Ten Magicians of the 20th Century."

While you're there, add your vote!

Shane Cobalt at Belfast MagiCon 2016

Shane Cobalt will be performing at Belfast MagiCon 2016.

From Belfast MagiCon 2016:

Belfast MagiCon 2016 is being held in the Ramada Encore Hotel, Belfast. The dates for the convention are Friday 29th April, Saturday 30th April and Sunday 1st May 2016.

 An extra special event, Roberto Giobbi's Dai Vernon seminar will be taking place on bank holiday Monday 2nd May 2016. For anybody wishing to attend this event please get in touch asap to secure your space. Details can be found on our headliner page.

Read more and register.

Perfect Magic on Magicians and Politicians

From Perfect Magic's blog:

For a brief moment I had a flashback to a Magic Convention.  Dai Vernon, the 80 plus year old legend, with a lot of knowledge and experience. He was a living legend and everyone was trying to get to him, but he wasn’t interested in them. He was only interested in Phil, yes, Phil Matlin, because they were both honky tonk and ragtime piano players and Dai loved that music. even more than magic.

Women were not prominent on the magic scene back then. That’s changing too.

Read more.

Ricky Jay on Dai Vernon

From iTricks:

PBS is stepping up the promotion of their airing of Ricky Jay: Deceptive Practice as a part of American Masters next week with a few new clips. In addition to one of Jay on Charlie Millers, they put out this video featuring memories of the incomparable Dai Vernon. Deceptive Practice will air on most PBS station next Friday, January 23; it is the first time a magician has been featured in the American Masters series.

Watch on YouTube:

 

Dodd Vickers and David Roth talk Dai Vernon

From Dodd Vickers Twitter feed:

Dai Vernon's Circumcision/Conversion - One of many fun topics discussed in our chat with @conjuringarts David Roth http://t.co/MMDv8aaGdB
— Dodd Vickers (@thewizard) January 13, 2014

Storytime with The Professor

From John Cox at Wild About Houdini:

The October 2013 Magic Castle Newsletter has launched a new column, "Storytime with The Professor", featuring memorable tales told by the late Dai Vernon. The inaugural story is about, what else, Houdini, and in it Vernon recounts how S.A.M. members once "tricked" Houdini into going into a closest at the New York Hippodrome and locked him inside. "We pulled this trick on him because he was such a terrible egotist," said the man who's own ego was pretty well developed.

Read more.

Dai Vernon interview

From Richard Hatch's Twitter feed:

Late Vernon interview (1987) includes a couple of good anecdotes: youtube.com/watch?v=KLy2H2…... fb.me/19zapnoxx
— Richard Hatch (@RichardHatch) February 25, 2013

Video of 1987 Dai Vernon roast

From The Magic Newswire:

Thanks to Michael Ammar for sharing this video from the 1987 roast of Dai Vernon at the New York Magic Symposium.. According to Michael :

If you are a magician or if you love magic this is a real treat.  This is the only known footage from the roast of Dai Vernon, the Professor, in 1987 at the New York Magic Symposium.  Tom Mullica is the MC and everyone who speaks is renowned in the world of magic. 

Read more.

Watch the video on YouTube:

Vernon and Henning at the Magic Castle

Watch 1972 CBC footage of Dai Vernon coaching Doug Henning at the Magic Castle:



[h/t: The Magic Newswire]

Dai Vernon mentioned in Magic Castle article

From the LA Weekly article "Magic Castle Battles Back From a Halloween Fire. Was it a Message From Houdini?":

The late Dai Vernon, sleight-of-hand master, who once performed a card trick so confounding even Houdini couldn't figure it out, spent the last 28 years of his life holding court at the Castle. Upon his death in 1992, his ashes were interred in a small wooden box, high up on a ledge outside the Parlor of Prestidigitation.

Read more.

Dai Vernon's son recovering from house fire injuries

From iTricks:

79-year-old David Verner, son to legendary magician Dai Vernon, was very badly burned by an electrical fire at his New York State home.
 
Read more.

Canada's Magic joins iTricks in wishing Verner a speedy recovery.

Dai Vernon via The Double Deal

Tip of the hat to The Double Deal for posting these Dai Vernon videos:

Cards Up the Sleeve - 1974:




Slow Motion Card Vanish:

Dai Vernon at the Magic Castle?

Watch the Magic Castle videos from LAGhostPatrol over at the The Magic Newswire:

Dai Vernon's quest for the "center deal"

From the Magic News Wire:

Dai Vernon, considered among the most influential magicians of the 20th century, could do just about any trick that called for sleight of hand. He was obsessed with learning the secrets of crooked card dealers. But there was one move he couldn't master.

Read more.

Vernon was on the cover of Genii in May 1989.

Links for 14-May-2011

• From the Browser's Den:
  - Chris Mayhew, one of the artists at Theory 11, special guest at June 11 club meeting
    
• From Perfect Magic:
  - Magicians Peforming For Magicians: memories from “A Little Nite Magic," the Sheraton Centre and a great quote by Frank Garcia
  - Things that go wrong in the night!:  memories of Phil Matlin and Romaine
   
• From Andrew Musgrave at Ye Olde Magick Blogge:
  - Andrew's focus for May is "specific magicians who’ve inspired me" and has already included entries on Dai Vernon and Jay Sankey.  Keep up the great work on your Project 365 Andrew!
    
• Lecleric Show episodes on YouTube (I haven't been able to keep up with viewing, but here are links to the last two week's videos):
  121. Static Rising Card Trick - DAY 121 of 365
  122. Levitating Voodoo Doll - DAY 122 of 365
  123. Mystery Box - DAY 123 of 365
  124. Illusion de la Spirale Hallucinante - Jour 124 de 365
  125. Balloon Playing - Day 125 of 365
  126. CD Manipulation - Day 126 of 365
  127. World's Most Popular Magic Trick - Day 127
  128. The Teleporting Ring Live! - Day 128 of 365
  129. Wicked Thunderbird Card Trick! - Day 129
  130. Changing Card Trick @ De La Salle - DAY 130 of 365
  131. Retro Eric Leclerc - Day 131 of 365
  132. Magician Penetrates Playboy Bunny...With His Mind. Day 132 of 365
  133. Cigarette Through Card Trick - Day 133

Review: The Shadow Cutter

From the Ottawa Citizen:

We see Vernon hungering to learn an elusive sleight of hand known as the centre deal. And we watch as, uninterested in earning money by performing his tricks publicly, he pieces together a living as a shadow cutter, someone paid to cut silhouettes of people from black paper, once a popular art form.

Vernon's life, in other words, was consumed by a deck of cards, something so small you can put it in your pocket but with a reach so vast it can devour those who fall in love with it.

Read more...

Visit Ottawa's Great Canadian Theatre Company website to purchase tickets or for more information.