Great Masters of Magic

Richard Cardini was born as Richard Valentine Pitchford, in November 24, 1895. He was probably the greatest magic manipulator who ever lived.

He is certainly the one who has inspired more magicians to learn card-manipulation than anyone else. He was from Wales, (I'm from normal parents, myself) and was famous for being able to do with gloves what nobody else could even do with bare hands.

One thing that made him great was that he developed and actual character (a tipsy gentleman) who did the magic.

I had the amazingly good luck to actually meet Cardini in 1973 at the Society of American Magician's meeting in NYC. I was about 17 years old. A couple of my high-school magician friends, and a substitute teacher from my high-school (Gene Nebel) who was a very good amateur magician went went with me to the meeting.

Actually, it was more than a meeting, it was sort of a convention. I remember that they were honoring Amadeo Vacca (another Gentleman of Magic).

Anyway, in our youthful exuberance, my school friends and I managed to get front row seats. From the stage, they mentioned that Cardini was in the audience, and asked him to stand and take a bow. Imagine my delight when the elderly gentleman seated to my right slowly stood up and accepted the cheers and applause of the audience of magicians!

Immediately, several magicians started shoving programs, books and scraps of paper at him for his autograph. He was obviously bothered by this. He was pretty frail at that time, and it really annoyed me that those vultures had descended upon him.

By the end of the convention, I think I was one of the only people there who didn't get an autograph. But Cardini did smile at me before he left his seat after the show. You can't pay for that.

Cardini died November 13, 1973.

This man is a living legend. His name is Rene Lavand, and he is from Argentina. He speaks no english, has only one hand, and does "Lentidititacion" (slow-motion magic). He never rushes. Every hand movement and word is practiced.

There are fancier videos of him on the web, but I think this one shows him best.

I've seen him at a few magic lectures, and he was phenomenal. I remember that he walked into the room and slowly tied his ribbon tie (like a bow tie) with one hand. Just that act gave him immediate "cred" before he even started his performance. What an artiste!

In 1991 I saw him perform at a lecture at a magic convention (FISM) in Switzerland. He was so good, he made me cry. After his lecture, the 700 magicians in the audience shuffled out of the room. I thought I was alone. I couldn't move. I just sat there sobbing. When I finally turned around, I saw that there were actually four of us left. Two of them were famous magicians, and another was a gentleman from Japan who's name I cannot recall. We all had tears in our eyes. When we noticed each other, we all nodded to each other. That was one of the most magical moments in my life of magic.

Unfortunately, he was before our time (1873 - 1939). There are no videos of him on YouTube or Google. I don't know if there is any film footage of him at all.

There is plenty written about him, not least of which is in "Dai Vernon's Tribute to Nate Leipzig." Those two masters were friends, and Dai wrote a lot about Nate.

I once read a story about Leipzig. In "The Amateur Magician's Handbook," Henry Hay talked about a time Dai and Nate were at a show, where the performer had stolen Nate's material. Dai said, "Nate, he'd doing your act!"

Leipzig, rather than disparage another magician, replied, "Yes, but he's doing it so well!"

What a guy.

You can read The Autobiography of Nate Leipzig here.

Jerry was beyond eclectic. He was a master at so many things. There's no way I could do him anything like justice here.

Check out a short but good bio of him at Skeptical Media.

Jerry recently passed away, on Sept. 16, 2007. He was in his late 80's.

I couldn't find a good YouTube video this performance by Mr. Andrus, so here's a link to a google vid:

Jerry Andrus at the Magic Castle.

It doesn't take fame. There are lots of famous magicians who weren't exactly gentlemen (at least not to a great extent). I love Houdini, he was my inspiration, and still is, and he was a GREAT magician/escape artist/entertainer, but he was too self-involved to be a gentleman, most of the time. Doesn't mean I love the guy any less, though. He had his gentlemanly moments, like when anonymously financed the upkeep on the graves of some forgotten but great magicians of the past. His screed on Robert-Houdin sort of put a crimp in any claim he would have had on "gentleman," though.

One of the things that precludes most magicians from being gentlemen, to my mind, is rabid self-promotion. I hate to read how many awards so-and-so won. Awards mean NOTHING. They are basically the industry propping up the industry. Websites full of "The Great Tremblefingers has thrilled audiences blah, blah, blah..." sort of give me the willies.

Magicians with 'tudes (David Bland, "Brain-Disorder", et. al.) sort of preclude themselves from the "Gentleman" genre by definition.

I never met Jerry Andrus, but I have heard anecdote after anecdote about him from people who knew him, and they have all mentioned his generosity and his humility. Great qualities of a gentleman.

Jerry has often said, "I can fool you because you're a human," said Andrus. "You have a wonderful human mind that works no different from my human mind. Usually when we're fooled, the mind hasn't made a mistake. It's come to the wrong conclusion for the right reason."

I love that. It's not about, "Look how cool I am because I can fool you!" That would be the sign of the typical tyro so-called "Street-Magician." No, it's about how much you matter. It's about how much your brain matters. When a magician (or any other human, for that matter, begins to see this, he is on the way to becoming a "Gentleman."

I spoke to Rene Lavand after seeing him lecture on a ship cruising the Main River in Germany, when I told him (through a translator) that he'd, "...changed my entire outook on magic, and it's artistry. Changed my life...," he gave me such a humble look, and said, "No, not I, it is the Magic." No wonder they call him El Maestro.

Once, at FISM, in Lausanne, I had the good fortune to spend about two hours with Arturo De Ascanio, again, with a good friend, Dave Maldonado ("Senor Maldo") translating. So many times, when I expressed, "Wow, I wish I could have developed my skills any where near where they need to be to even appreciate your skills properly," he just laughed it off and said, "No, no. You need to have a life, too."

It's not just about how great these guys are to them. It's about Life, it's about Magic, it's about You.

Dai Vernon (1894-1992) Watch a video of him here .
Arturo De Ascanio
Juan Tamariz

I'd like to mention, that as much as I'd like to be one, I'm not a magic historian. I would certainly welcome any input from bona fide magic historians concerning candidates (the "why" as well as the "who") for this site.

Thanks for your input!