Still in the cold.

I raised the blind a couple of inches and looked out onto the gray street. The Berlin twilight was as gray as the road. The only splash of color was some hastily sprayed graffiti on the opposite wall. I took a deep breath and walked out of the bar towards the checkpoint.

The wall was behind me and to the left. Three miles back was Space Beach where the disco lights were beginning to sparkle and the sound of Bob Marley was beginning to start the evening’s movement. I didn’t look back though.

Out of well-trained habit I observed what was happening around me without appearing to move my head in any direction. No one was following me. The only person walking towards me was a Slavic looking tourist who was examining the new Checkpoint Charlie stamp in his passport. It had cost him five Euros.

I kept walking at a steady pace across the crossroad and towards the taxi rank on the corner of the street opposite me. It was maybe a hundred yards away. The light from the small café shone into the solitary taxicab. Sitting inside the cab was a large man reading a newspaper. I was now fifteen feet from the passenger door.

I arrived at the taxi, opened the door, got inside and used my mangled German to request the driver take me to the Zoo railway station. As we drove away I looked around to see if we were being followed. We weren’t. As the cab pulled away I breathed a sigh of relief in three hours I would be back in Warnemunde onboard the ship.

When I arrived back on the ship I had one more question; how long before I could come in from the cold.

The Three Forces

People often ask what a magician does. These are the people who have realized that the answer must be more than; “He fools people.” Magicians have been around for a long time and their standing was a lot better than it is now. During the last century the average magician has been a cross between a game show host and used car salesman. It wasn’t always this way. When people ask me that question, and I think they want a serious reply, I always say the same thing; a magician’s job is to wake up people who don’t know they are asleep. If that answer makes them want to ask more questions then the real conversation can begin.

Aleister Crowley the notorious British magician had another answer; a magician causes change according to will. Crowley (Which rhymes with holy) was the self-proclaimed wickedest man in the world. In the ‘60’s his lifestyle would have made him a prototype hippy. However, not many hippies had his strength of mind or body, he was a one of a kind which is probably just as well! He was also one of the three great magicians of his era. The other two were Rasputin known as the mad monk (His name which means the dissolute one, a more accurate description) and the other is Mr. G.I. Gurdjieff. About Grigory Rasputin I have very little to say except that he was a very tough man to kill! However, modern magick reached the crossing in the road with the works of Crowley and Gurdjieff. Most followers of Mr. Gurdjieff’s ideas would be reluctant to believe that magick has much to do with his teachings. Most followers of Crowleyanity wouldn’t be prepared to acknowledge that much else was worth exploring. Since both men were brilliant, misunderstood and ahead of their time a comparison of their ideas can be a very illuminating experience.

Among the conclusions that a careful study would reveal is that both men were expert and adept at controlling forces that very few people realize exist, let alone understand.
Without adding much detail at this point let me define these three forces in Gurdjieffian terms.
Force One: Holy Affirming.
Force Two: Holy Denying.
Force Three: Holy Reconciling.
These forces have been given many different names and feature in every major spiritual practice.
In his final writings Mr. Gurdjieff turned them into a very practical code for living.
I Am
I Can
I Wish
In this form they become the key to All and Everything.
Later on I will explore these ideas in more detail but for now just let the words run loose in your mind. Rearrange the order.
Before you realize them as a key you need to see the door they will open.

The Case

Someone first noticed the case at 8:35 am. It was a compact black leather piece of hand baggage of the design known as a ‘sample case.’ It was a Delta counter assistant at gate 43 who saw it sitting next to an empty seat on the end of a row slightly to her left. It was no big thing when she saw it but she made a mental note of it because that was part of her job. She assumed that the owner was just getting a coffee from the Starbucks opposite gate 30.

Ten minutes later the gate assistant noticed that the case was still there and still unattached to anybody. She did what she was supposed to do and called airport security. She explained the situation and location: the security officer replied that someone would come along and check it out.

Four minutes later an airport security guard arrived at gate 43 and walked up to the case. He asked several of the people in the area if they knew whom the case belonged to. Nobody could give him any details other than one youth in a Led Zeppelin tee shirt who said he thought it had been placed there by a tall middle-aged man.
“But he wasn’t wearing a turban or anything.” He joked.

The Security officer fixed him with a stern look and said: “We don’t appreciate remarks like that sir; please keep them too yourself.” The fact that it was exactly the kind of remark that the security branch and TSA employees exchanged all the time remained his little secret. The young man looked somewhat abashed and replaced the earbuds from his ipod into his ears.

Next the security officer removed his walkie-talkie set and reported to his senior in the small office space that was shared by their department in the center of the airport. Having done his job he stepped back and kept his eye on the case. This kind of thing happened at least four or five times a day. There was never much to get worried about.

Five minutes later a uniformed officer with a small work case arrived in the company of another uniformed man who had a lively looking dog on the end of a short leash. The dog approached the case and sniffed around it for a moment or two before returning to the side of his trainer. The trainer gave him a dog treat from his pocket and the dog ate it happily. He liked to sniff things and he loved the Pupperoni he was given as a treat for doing so. Life was good.

The second officer approached the suspicious piece of luggage with a small instrument he had removed from his work case. There was a brief whirling sound and the small LCD screen on the instrument registered a series of different shapes and colors. The officer looked at it carefully and said to his colleague: “There is a lot of stuff in there, quite a bit of electronics. We had better play it safe.”

The security guard who had been on the scene first picked up the case carefully and flanked by the other two officers walked the case carefully away from its resting place. They made there way to the concrete bunker that was housed in the bowels of the airport. Everybody involved had done his or her job in a timely and correct manner.

In just a little over 20 minutes the case had been spotted, reported, investigated and removed. In another few minutes it would be covered in thick white foam and destroyed by a highly controlled explosion by the head of the mechanical team. The explosion would be watched and videotaped by him as it took place behind the 24-inch concrete wall in front of his computer stand.

It was at about this time that the tall blonde haired man arrived at gate 43 with a cardboard Starbucks in his hand. He had a smile on his face as he had been enjoying drinking his latte in the company of a fellow magician he had met inside the coffee emporium. The smile left his face when he realized his case full of magic props was no longer where he had left it.

He approached the person sitting closest to where the bag had been and asked him if he had seen where his case was. He didn’t hear it but almost exactly as he spoke there was a muffled bang from a concrete room in a distant part of the airport. Life is hell during wartime.

Visualization. See it for yourself.

You don’t go far into any self-improvement study without bumping into the topic of visualization; and it’s kid brother affirmations. Strictly speaking the Fourth Way doesn’t emphasis the art of visualization particularly. It is more involved with self-study and the recognition of what already is and which of your three brains is functioning at any given moment.

The general literature of metaphysics and in particular the ‘New Age’ is littered with references to visualization. I use the word littered advisably because most of it is garbage. The biggest mistake that beginners often make is confusing visualization and affirmation with repetition. Like most things in life it is better to do something once and do it right than to keep on doing it wrong.

The true nature of visualization is to create/visualize something clearly the way you want it to be and then leave it embedded in your subconscious mind. Once you can ‘see’ it clearly then leave it well
and truly alone. For God’s sake let go of it with your conscious mind
or the mental brain will never stop messing with it and changing the image and checking up on the progress. Nothing will slow down progress faster than a non-stop progress report.

The reason for eliminating words in the first place and using visual imagery is because this is the language of the emotional brain. The difference in power between the emotional and mental brain is fairly profound when it comes to changing any future situation. Check out the difference between something you think and something you emotionally feel and you will see what I am getting at.

The toughest part of this process is that your third brain (or the instinctive/moving brain) will be very anxious to do what it usually does and back up your intellectual center/brain in spite of the fact it usually doesn’t work. Visualize the outcome you want and then spend a few moments in your inner world basking in the glorious feeling of it having happened. Then you can let your emotional center/brain get on doing what it does best.

The man with magic markers

If you have ever visited the Magic Castle in Hollywood you have admired this man’s work even if you can’t quite place the name. In fact I am fairly willing to bet that 95% of the visitors the Castle receives have never heard of Ted.

I hope I captured your interest with my snappy opening paragraph because there isn’t a lot that is flashy in my memories of Ted Salter. However in his quiet and unassuming manner Ted has left an indelible mark on the Castle with his wonderful portraits of magicians that grace the walls of our clubhouse.

In fact quiet and unassuming isn’t a bad way to begin describing Ted; then you could add kindly, gifted and multitalented. Ted was a successful freelance graphic artist who transplanted himself from England into a small friendly office on Highland Avenue in Hollywood.

A lover of all things theatrical, Ted was as pleased as punch to contribute his talent to the Magic Castle. Every now and then an 8X10 was sent to his office and a short while later he delivered one of his drawings to the upstairs office at the Castle to be added to the impressive collection that he had previously donated.



Ted was an artist in a wide variety of fields. His wife Eileen had accompanied Ted in many of his theatrical endeavors. They were the kind of couple who could not only create and write a musical production but they could build the scenery and perform it too.

My favorite ‘Salter Production’ was their annual New Years Eve Party. I write that title in capitals advisedly as this was no small event. I suspect they began work on it by February or March at the latest each year. It consisted of games, entertainment and enough excitement to fill half a dozen regular parties.

When you had the opportunity to visit the Salter's home on a less busy evening it would often end with Ted removing a picture (painted by him of course) from the wall and revealing a movie projector that lined up with the only blank wall in their home. You could then settle back and enjoy one of his collection of classic British and Hollywood movies. Ah, the joys of film in a pre-video era!

After the birth of my second daughter Ted asked me to drop around to his house. To my amazement he had built an incredible miniature theater for them. It was a prototype and he was donating the full design and blueprints to the ‘Mirth Maker’ magazine but he wanted to make sure it really worked!

Eventually Ted retired and they moved from Hollywood. Finally his original artwork ceased to arrive in the Castle office and one more special touch was missing from our unique clubhouse. Before he left Los Angeles though he had one more surprise for me. He built an amazingly intricate and beautiful dolls house for my daughters. It is still in our garage and every time I see it I remember with real affection Ted Salter. He was another of the unsung heroes that contributed to making the Magic Castle in its heyday such a special place.

Changing places with Mr. Fellows

Back in the very early days of the comedy club circuit I met Bob Fellows.
I was performing at the Laugh Stop in Newport Beach for a special magic night. As was usually the case in these clubs there was a tiny, primitive stage with neither wings or curtains. In fact there wasn’t even a backstage area. Much to my amazement when I arrived at the club I discovered someone setting up illusions onstage. Illusions in a comedy club!

I introduced myself to the performer and met Fellows for the first time.
I was very dubious about how any performer could perform illusions and a levitation on this stage, there just wasn’t enough room and the sight lines were impossible. I needn’t have worried the show went perfectly.

After the show I chatted with Bob and told him how impressed I was at the way he incorporated the illusions into the show. We joked with each other about our shows with me stating I would never, ever want to travel a big show. Bob looked at my tiny working case and said that he could never work with so few props. How wrong we both were!

The next time I ran into Bob was when Dick Foster was mounting his first production of “Spellbound” at Harrah’s in Lake Tahoe. The show was just about ready except for the addition of a mind reader. Dick had looked at every mind reader in the business and didn’t think any of them were suitable. When he heard about the gap in the line up, Bob literally put together a mind reading show overnight that Foster thought was perfect. No wonder it was perfect for the show it had been designed for it! The mind reading was a huge success and opened a new chapter in Bob’s career.

I had graduated meanwhile to producing and performing magical extravaganzas for the corporate market. I acted as MC and then added an illusionist and a manipulative act to complete the bill. Before to long I was thinking about adding an illusion or two to my repertoire. One day, out of the blue, the phone rang and on the other end of the line was Bob Fellows who asked me if I wanted to buy his illusion show. He was now performing his mind reading show as the heart of a highly successful corporate seminar. The idea behind the seminar was to expose cults and the way they were constructed. In order to demonstrate how this was done Bob created a cult from the audience using his psychic powers.

I thought about the offer for a second or two and said yes. Two days later I was the owner of a full illusion show. The props were delivered to my garage and the deal was done except for one thing, I had no way to transport them. Two days later Bob phoned up saying he didn’t need his van anymore would I like to buy it? You bet I would! In a flash the transposition was complete and I had a van full of props and Bob was traveling with a wireless microphone and a tiny working case!

Bruce Cervon: The King of Cool

When I first met Bruce Cervon, in the 70’s I found him just a little intimidating. For a start there was his act; which was about as perfect as any close-up I had ever seen. Then there was the classic Cervon cool. He pretty much made Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry look like an awkward high school kid. I was however pleased when I was booked to perform with him at a promotional event in a Los Angeles saving and loan bank.

Much to my surprise Bruce was not performing close up magic but was hosting and performing in the stage show. The opening of the show featured two dancing assistants who flourished silks that turned into canes as they shouted, “Here’s Bruce Cervon!” Much to my surprise Bruce was a superb stand up performer. Not only did he perform a couple of illusions including a tip-over trunk, but he also floored me with one of the most commercial comedic stand up routines I had ever seen. The effect he performed was a slick blend of the 6 Card Repeat/Cards to Pocket. His performance also featured a variation on the Kapps notes that seemed totally impossible to me: and I had learned the trick from Fred Kapps himself!

During the course of the afternoon Bruce and I began to chat and we discovered we had a mutual interest in music and our rather extensive record collections. Bruce suggested I drop by one afternoon to explore the gems in his collection. I happily agreed.

I ended up spending quite a few afternoons at Bruce’s home and enjoyed listening to his erudite and entertaining run down of American popular music. One thing the two of us never did was talk about magic. I guess many people lucky enough to spend time with Bruce would dream of coming away with a new double lift. I was overjoyed to leave his home having discovered Mose Allison. The album of Mose that Bruce gave me is still in my collection along with many others I have acquired over the years!

A few months later I was booked on another ‘Savings & Loan’ show with Bruce but this time we were joined on the engagement by Scottish master magician Ron Wilson. I told Ron about the mysterious manner in which Bruce could perform the Blank Paper to Dollar Bills without any of the usual folding or covering of the paper. I was hoping to find out how it was accomplished this time.
When Bruce performed the trick we were both watching intently. He fooled us both completely. There were six more shows and Ron and I managed to watch the trick six more times from six different angles and positions. We went up to the second floor of the bank building and watched, we stayed backstage and watched and by the end of the engagement we were no wiser to Bruce’s methods.

To be honest I still have no idea how he does that trick but that’s Bruce Cervon for you, as close to perfection as any magician ever need to be.

Fogel Dodges the Bullet.

I think that the greatest showman that I have witnessed performing magic was Maurice Fogel. Maurice or to give him his correct name ‘The Amazing Fogel’ was a giant in the world of mentalism and magic. Maybe not in stature, but definitely as a performer, Fogel towered above all but a handful of magicians.

I first saw Maurice perform in England at the Conway Hall. Later on I got to meet him, work with him and enjoy his lively company as a houseguest. One day I suddenly realized we had become friends and I felt very proud. He taught me a great deal.

If I had to pick the one piece of magic that Maurice performed that displayed his formidable powers as a showman it would be his bullet catch routine. He turned it into an exercise in showmanship.

In typical Fogel style, Maurice didn’t perform the bullet catch like any other performer. To begin with he didn’t actually catch the bullet between his teeth or in a plate. He very astutely came up with a plan to take a dramatic effect and make it even more theatrical.

Fogel realized that the key to the trick was the danger involved in watching a performer risk his life by having a gun aimed at him and then fired. Maurice upped the odds by using six rifles in his routine. Five rifles contained genuine bullets and one had no bullet in it.

The rifles were mixed up and one of them was chosen at random (Yeah, in a magic act!) and this rifle was to be fired directly at Fogel’s heart. The remaining rifles were aimed at plates on a rack behind Maurice. Catch the subtlety there because the finale (Or should I say Prestige--lol) of the effect consisted of an earsplitting volley of rifle fire and the destruction of 5 plates clattering onto the stage.

Best of all was the way Maurice sold the trick to his audience. Once the effect was set up and the audience was ready to see whether he would survive the ordeal was when the genius of Fogel the showman took over.

Just as the rifles were aimed at Fogel and the tension was mounting to a high pitch, he would abruptly stop the action and step forward to address the audience. “Ladies and gentlemen” he would say, “It occurs to me that in a few moments I may be lying dead or dying on the floor, unable to hear your reaction. Would it be presumptuous of me to ask to hear your applause now?”

Needless to say the audience responded with a wild round of applause. “Thank You” said Fogel, “Then if that was your applause for a brave and gallant looser, may I assume that if I should succeed then the applause would be twice as loud!”

No sooner had the applause and laughter died down before Fogel returned to the original drama and the firearms were re-aimed at him.
After a short countdown the rifles roared into life, plates crashed to the ground and Fogel staggered! He just staggered just long enough to cause the more sensitive spectators to gasp before Maurice recovered and took his applause.

Needless to say when the audience realized that Fogel was unharmed their applause raised the roof. That was the kind of brilliant showmanship that put Maurice in a league of his own. No wonder he was known as the Amazing Fogel!

Venice is a great place to hide out.

When I left Copenhagen I was transported to Venice where I hung loose for a while and worked on the translation of the recent notes.
I also created the magic reports that were transmitted. Some of the stories were actually events that happened to Nick Cosmos at the Magic Castle in the 70s.

Nick was a very good sport and even gave me some clips of his punk magic show to put onto Youtube. Many people still remember Cosmos and Costello from that era. If you never saw Cosmos perform his punk chicken hypnosis it is worth checking out. I stole it from him and used it in my act for several years.

I am going to file my next postings with particular reference to those Castle years in the 70s, when I have done that I will return to the G. material and what has been revealed now that the code has been broken. We will ‘unbury the dog’ together and I will tell you the full story about how it was the dog at Christiania that helped defuse the ‘surprise’ that the IA had to clear up.

I am now heading to Greece to see if the fires there are part of the
Scheme or just a flook.

Kung Fooled.

So, here I am at 1:30am sitting in the bar at the Intercontinental Hotel in Toronto. In one hand I am holding a deck of cards while my right hand is stretched out perpendicular to my body. My right index finger is inside the mouth of a grizzled, gray-haired man. Every time I try to remove, it I feel two rows of very sharp teeth bite into the flesh at the base of my finger. I have been stranded in this position for nearly thirty minutes. Maybe I had better start this story at the beginning!

Over the years I have been hired as a magical advisor on dozens of projects. I was the man who turned Kenny Rogers into “The Gambler” for his TV movie. In three weeks I made Sid Caesar look like he had been performing magic for a lifetime! I got a call from my friend Michael Sloan who said that he wanted me to work with him on an episode of “Kung Fu: The Legend Continues.” Michael was the executive producer/writer of the series and one of the few stand-up people I have met in the television industry. We had worked on projects before and I was delighted to get the call. A month later I flew from Los Angeles to Toronto and the madness began.

One of the regulars on the show was Robert Lansing who, aside from being a great actor, was a regular at the Magic Castle in its early days and a particular friend of Dai Vernon. Lansing had cancer and knowing his time was limited Michael had written a special episode that would allow Robert to fulfill a lifelong dream. Bob wanted to perform Vernon’s “Twisting The Aces” routine on camera. One of my jobs was to work with him and build up his confidence a little. I did this in my usual manner; which was to be half magician and half psychologist. Bob actually did the trick perfectly but felt very uneasy, as his hands seemed too dry for his comfort. I eventually had a plan to ease this problem; I had a small jar of Burt’s Bees Honey Lip Balm in my case and I gave it to Bob and with a total lack of honesty informed him that it was the very same preparation that Vernon used on his hands before working with playing cards. Lansing was very impressed and immediately rubbed a small amount onto his hands.
Moments later he performed a perfect version of “Twisting” and there was no more talk of his hands being dry!

Working with Bob Lansing was a delight and a privilege; however there was a trial by fire waiting for me that I will never forget if I live to be normal. This was getting to work with the wonderfully eccentric David Carradine. This brings me back to my strange position at the bar in the Hotel Intercontinental. The early part of the evening had consisted of a leisurely dinner with Lansing and Sloan listening to Bob relate stories about his friend and magical mentor Dai Vernon.
We arrived back at the hotel and decided to have one last glass of chardonnay at the bar. That was when Carradine arrived! He joined us at our booth and said, “Who is this?” while staring at me with a fairly active dislike. Sloan introduced me and explained that I was to be a guest star in the episode and also magical advisor. Carradine’s eyes had never left my face but his look of active dislike turned into something even stronger. I never saw a look like that again until his movie “Kill Bill” was released years later. Unknown to me, one of Carradine’s best friends was Patrick Culliton the magician/actor and Houdini expert.

David then explained that if there was going to be a magical advisor on the show it was going to be his friend Pat and not Sloan’s friend Nick. There followed a brief but intense discussion between the two men about the respective merits of Culliton and myself. Since the episode began filming the next morning the outcome was never in doubt but it was certainly a little unnerving as far as I was concerned.
During a brief lull in the debate I took the opportunity to smile at Carradine and say, “I’m really looking forward to working with you, Mr. Carradine.” David looked at me without a hint of a smile and said, “We’ll see about that!” It wasn’t a great start, all things considered, but it got worse. Michael Sloan then said, “Nick, do a card trick for David, show him your chops.” Now I have one card trick that I always perform when I need to impress people. During this trick the cards do everything but walk up and down the table whistling the “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” I did my trick and then casually left the cards on the table. Carradine grabbed the cards and growled, “That’s a trick deck!”
He searched through the cards and discovered to his surprise that it was indeed a regular deck of cards. I looked him in the eyes and said, “The cards are the real thing and so am I. That’s why I’m here, I’m the best.” I had already decided that the only way to deal with Carradine was to meet him toe to toe without ever backing up.

David looked at me and said that I seemed to know my stuff and that maybe he would even let me do a couple of hand shots for him. He removed a large jade ring from his finger and said he wanted to see if it fitted. It did fit, however it was rather too snug and I had trouble removing it from my finger. “I’ll do it.” Said Carradine raising my hand to his face and then my finger disappeared into his mouth. I don’t know if you have ever sat in a hotel bar with your finger stuck in a celebrity’s mouth but it is rather strange to say the least. Every time I started to remove my finger his teeth clamped back into it. At this point I was wishing to God that it were Pat Culliton sitting there instead of me. Finally he released my finger and said, “I don’t know who you are, but I will. I am going to run a make on you and find out every last thing there is to know about you.” I stared back into his eyes and said, “Start with my dad, he was in the navy.” We then all went our separate ways and I returned to my suite and fell asleep. I was woken from my sleep at 4:00am by the ringing of the bedside phone. I answered it and heard a gruff voice on the other end say, “OK son of a navy man, I will find out everything!” then the phone went dead.

The shooting went surprisingly smoothly and in spite of his many eccentricities I realized that Carradine was the ultimate professional. When David was on the set he liked to make it appear that he was unprepared and unsure of what was happening next. This was far from the case and in fact not only did Carradine know his own lines but everyone else’s lines as well. One of David’s favorite things to do on set was to secretly touch off flash paper with one of his ever-present oval cigarettes. He seemed to really enjoy the resulting explosion. I use the word explosion advisedly, as David liked to fire up huge wads of flash paper that often resulted in the smell of burning flesh permeating the air. I hatched a plan and took off for the magic store where I purchased enough flash paper, flash cotton and flash string to arm a third world nation. The next day I greeted Carradine on the set with a cheery, “I have some extra flash paper. I thought you might have a use for it.” Carradine’s eyes lit up like a child at Christmas or, more to the point, like a pyromaniac at a house warming party! The next day I introduced David to flash cotton and it was a huge success. The next day I trotted out the flash string and explained to him that if you had a wad of flash cotton concealed in your hand with a length of the cotton hanging down it would act like a fuse. David’s eyes sparkled intensely and he quickly corrected me, “No, it IS a fuse!” From that moment on we became the best of friends.

I can honestly say that David Carradine is one of the most unique and extraordinary men I have ever worked with and he still had a surprise in store for me. On the final day of shooting in the middle of a scene David jumped up onto the stage set and addressed the audience of extra’s crowded on the set. In a dramatic manner that made Max Maven seem understated, David gave an impromptu mind reading performance for the entire audience and showered them with juicy details about me. Really inside material that I was shocked he knew!
With a flourish David concluded his performance by asking a spectator to reach into his jacket pocket and inside was a piece of paper with my mothers maiden name written on it. Game, set and match to Carradine as I was left speechless. I puzzled about how he discovered all this information but Carradine just smiled his Kwai Chang Caine smile and refused to tell me. He had really surprised me and fooled me and wasn’t ready to give away his methods!

Postscript.
About fifteen years after the events described I was attending a ceremony dedicated to my very dear friend Billy McComb. After the Ash ceremony took place all those present adjourned to a local pub for bangers and mash and English beer. As we were eating our food and trading stories about our favorite Irishman I noticed an intense looking gentleman sitting on his own at the side of the room. Since he was one of the few people in the room that I didn’t recognize I went over and introduced myself. To my delight it was Patrick Culliton and the two of us found a quiet corner and drank a couple of pints of beer together. Needless to say the conversation focused on our mutual relationship with David Carradine. Suddenly Patrick became very animated and remembered back to an early morning call from Carradine who asked him to run a ‘make’ on me for his mind reading stunt. “How did you know all that really personal information about me?” Then the final piece of the puzzle fell into place. “Oh, that was easy.” Said Pat “All I did was phone McComb!” We smiled and toasted Billy with our beers. As always, without even being there McComb had the final word in clearing up a puzzle.

Back in Circulation.

For those of you who have noticed my absence in the last twelve months I can only say one thing. Things change. The Isle de Edona became something of a hot spot for reasons that will become obvious if you follow the world news and read between the lines. I was moved back to Europe after a rather breathless exchange in the center of Copenhagen.


I am now traveling between Europe and the Asian countries but reporting back to a new HQ in Las Vegas. I will try and give you more information about the matter in future reports.

I want to share a few of the articles that I wrote during this time and were posted on the web. There is a secondary layer of information within these pieces that may be apparent to you if you have studied ‘All & Everything.”

Stay tuned and check out the changes I have made to the website NickLewin.com as it does contain a key or two.
Ciao for Now.

Back to The Island

I just returned from Europe undercover. Since my last blog entry I have been involved in research. I have been posting my electronic blogs on magicnewzealand. It is a very cool ezine. To read 52 more entries in my Meetings With Remarkable Magicians series you can check out the back issues of magicnewzealand.

I have just returned to the Prieure and will continue telling you what is happening here. In fact I have been putting so much information together that the blog is going to be back in my schedule. As long as they don't pick up the entry level energy fluctuation in the quantum wave of etherokrill. Or to put it another way until they can discover where the signal is coming from.

Eureka----back to the Island.

The Final Flicker.

The stretch of Road from the Kodak Theatre to Studio City is where the war emerged between celluloid imagery and digital pixels. The war is a very real representation of an allegorical battle. The Kodak Theatre in Hollywood is the centre of this Alien invasion fed through the public consumption of a celluloid.
like substance that resembles chewing gum is the first element to become visible to the public, this “gum” first manifests as a long continuing stretch of “plastic string” that spontaneously intertwines, winds around and wraps itself around peoples teeth. Those affected are inconvenienced but not alarmed and pull the substance from their mouths in huge and ever increasing quantities. If they fail to remove the “gum” their speech is gradually muffled and eventually becomes impossible. The “gum” is followed by specks of a pernicious white “foam” that begins appearing on peoples clothing in small but quickly escalating amounts. People try to eliminate the foam at first just by removing it but this just seems to make the situation worse. Eventually they begin to discard the affected clothing but this doesn’t work either. At first the only way to get rid of the foam is to pass it on, spreading it onto someone else. Eventually this does not work. The foam begins to thicken and solidify and people become encased in transparent strips of a cellophane like substance. This outer layer hardens and forms a cocoon around them from which new persons emerge and the fight is won or lost.
The scene of the final confrontation is a cinema on Ventura Boulevard, where a last handful of survivors gather. Huddled together in the dark, this numb audience sits silently watching as the battle changes location and moves on to the screen, where the fight is won or lost.
Outside of Los Angeles people sit in their living rooms, working on their computers and watching their televisions. They are unaffected by the war in their midst or the fact that the fight is lost.

Tossing the lady on Berwick Street

Soho is a lively, seedy, fascinating little urban island in the center of London. Every street is awash in restaurants, pubs, clubs, coffee houses and striptease joints; on top of upturned orange crates undesirable looking characters ‘tossed the lady’. Tossing the lady is one of the many names for, the looser can’t win, street gamble officially known as the three-card trick. Whatever the name the game is the same and the result is the same, using just three cards a fool and his money are parted when the gambler realizes he is not quite as smart as he thinks! This particular street hustle was probably first played about a day after the first cards were invented. Another variation of this con is played with three walnut shells and a small pea. Last year on the streets of Stockholm I watched the exact same scenario played out with three matchboxes and the results were the same no money passed into the hands of the passer bye, and stayed there.
It always plays out the same way the sucker, punter, mark ormug watches as fellow spectators win handfuls of cash from the beady-eyed philanthropist tossing the three cards. Usually the card you have to keep track of is a queen and the two decoys are spot cards, this is why the game is often known as tossing the lady. Everyone seems to be winning so the mug
gives it a try, usually after noticing that the ‘lucky lady’ has got a giveaway distinguishing ‘crimp’ or mark to turn the gamble into an easy win. Yeh, right! The entire process is fast and furious and ends either when the police arrive on the scene or when the ‘grifter’ decides to pretend they are. It looks casual, fair, fun and easy while managing to be none of these things. It also looks as though you are gambling one on one with the card tosser, which is usually eight to ten people short of the truth. There is a fluid group of people all working together to help separate you from your cash.
When I used to take the fifteen-minute walk from Piccadilly Circus to ‘Ken Brooke’s Magic Place’ at 145, Wardour for my next magic lesson I enjoyed all the intoxicating sights, smells and sounds of the street. As I cut through the Berwick Street market, I would often stop to buy a soda and watch the three card tricksters ply their trade, I was never tempted to gamble because any money I did have was very definitely earmarked for some magic prop that would throw my act into overdrive. Fourty years later I am still looking for that prop! One day Ken had to go to the market to buy three lemons and three lemons to find their way under the cups in the ‘cups and balls’ routine he was teaching me. Seeing my fascination with the three card outfit, Ken took the time to really teach me the 'in’s and out’s' of the hustle. He bought us two cardboard cups of tea and said; “The first way to know what’s going on is not to be so close to it you can’t see anything.”
We walked to the back of the crowd and he pointed out the four men who were acting as lookouts for unwelcome additions to the scene. Then he introduced me to the rest of the ‘crew’, the phony punters who were winning at the game, the friendly passer bye who was ‘kind’ enough to point out the way to win,
the blockers and the rest of the team each awaiting their moment. I was shocked when I realized that all these people were setting their sights on one ‘gambler’ at a time. We stayed there quite a while and watched the Swiss watch precision of the set-up, you wouldn’t think it would work but it did, time after time. Ah, never underestimate greed and peoples high opinion of their abilities to beat the odds. As we walked back to Ken’s magic studio I asked him what magic I was going to learn that day. “I think you already learned it.” Said Ken. “The reason those chaps make money and most magicians don’t is because unlike most magicians those blokes are rehearsed, dedicated and no exactly what they need to do and say to get the job done.” I pretended to understand but didn’t until a little while later. Just before I started to; “Make a little brass” as Ken would have said.

One more gig.

It was early in the morning as I battled my way to my seat in the 7.20am flight from Las Vegas to Miami. In the front of the plane was David Brenner who's long term one-man show had closed the night before. He looked tired,happy and unhappy all at the same time. I had a long running one-man show in Vegas as well and knew just how he felt. Sliding into the first class cabin just before the door was closed was comedy actor Tom Poston most famous for his roles in Bob Newhart's television shows. He looked like he had lost one last blast of his money airport gambling. I reached my seat just in time to have someone drop items from hand baggage from the overhead bin. Doing a double take, I realized that the guy doing the dropping was Kelly McDonald. Kelly is an old comedy friend and fellow alumni from The L.A. Cabaret. Four comics on one flight is unusual even by Vegas standards. Rather like a full house and even fuller than I thought. Kelly and I had been introduced by the Dean of comedy, Big Daddy himself, Jeff Wayne. “Hey, Kelly” I said ignoring the shower of cd's on my head. “Heading for a ship?”
I remembered that Kelly had been looking out for an old mutual comedy aquaintance named Joey Villa. Joey had recently been very sick and the last time I had seen Kelly he had been treating him with a kindness and consideration that unusual in this business. Both of us had known Joey Villa for over twenty years while working for Royal Caribbean Cruise Line as entertainers. Now, if you never knew Joey then there isn’t much I can tell you about him in a few paragraphs that can even give a hint of what a piece of work was. He was a one of a kind. When comics get together they will trade Joey Villa stories for hours on end. One thing that I did know was that Joey had been nice to me when he didn't have to be, and obviously to Kelly as well.
“How is Joey doing?” I asked Kelly. “Is he still with us?”
“Oh, he’s with us,” said Kelly and he pointed at a blue bag in the overhead bin. “I am taking his ashes to scatter into the Sea.”
I paused a little and thought about it a while. For decades Joey had opened his show singing ‘I’m going to live till I die’ before keeling over and falling flat on the stage. Now he had lived and died and was waiting in the overhead compartment for his bows. “You’re a really good guy Kelly” I said and meant it. I was very pleased to be there on Joey’s last gig.
RIP funny man.

It’s one o’clock and the Dr. is in.

It was about eleven pm and Susan and I were about to go to sleep. We had watched Carson do his monologue and weren’t very interested in his guests. I did a fast run through the remote just to see if there was anything worth staying awake for and caught a promo for ‘At one with Keith Berwick’. Berwick was the host of an eclectic late night show that I had seen on a few occasions. That night his guest was Dr. Timothy Leary, a name and face I vaguely recognized but couldn’t quite place."He’s a mad professor/crazy scientist kind of guy, just your cup of tea,” said Susan.
How right she was. Within ten minutes I realized that I was hearing things I had never heard before. I was amazed, delighted and fascinated in equal parts. Having just arrived from England I really didn’t know who, what or why this man was and had no previous baggage to attach to Dr T or what he was saying. Half way through the interview Susan woke up from her deep sleep sat bolt upright and said; “You’d better listen he’s talking to you.” Then went back to sleep.
Towards the end of the program Dr Leary looked straight into the camera and said; “If what I am saying is of interest to you then you had better check it out, either I am totally crazy or almost everything you have been told is untrue.”
Well, since he looked like one of the most radiantly sane and intelligent men I had ever listened to, I did just that. 28 years later having studied his work I am still 100% convinced that this was one of the most brilliant men to walk this planet. If you have never studied his ideas on evolution then I sincerely recommend you do the same. Don’t settle for my opinion though (or anyone else) and don’t think you know what he was all about based on a rough idea of what he said/stood for. Check it out for yourself.

Remarkable Magicians #3. Dai Vernon.

There are many magicians but very few masters in magic. Dai Vernon was above all a master. The professor, as he was known around the World was the man who changed the face of modern magic and reinvented close up magic.I first met Dai when I joined the Magic Castle in Hollywood. He was every inch the master when you saw him holding court in a corner of the Castle with a brandy in a snifter, a cigarette in the ashtray and a deck of cards in his hand. Magicians would discretely shadow him for hours just to add a little touch or move from his endless store of wisdom. Dai was very subtle, nothing he did was flashy or “show-offy”, it was just right. For any situation that might present itself during a card trick the professor had at least half a dozen ways to get where he wanted to go. Some of the greatest books of sleight of hand routines can be traced directly to his fertile mind. He was also generous and a true gentleman.
In spite of the fact that I have always made my living performing comedy magic I have a guilty secret, I am also a first rate sleight of hand magician, shh, don’t tell anyone! However to me the mark of a true magician is to appear not to be doing anything other than watching the magic happen. My greatest joy is to find a move that works perfectly and then find a way to make it look like it isn’t happening. Dai was a fan of my magic but deeply suspicious of the laughs my show created in audiences, to him anything that wasn’t magic was unnecessary and indeed a detraction from a magic show. Dai kept asking me why did I feel the need to make people laugh and in honesty it was a good question. Over the years I learned a great deal from the ‘spirit’ of Dai, he was unique and
truly a living legend in a World where everyone thought they were legends. Sometimes late at night when the Castle closed I would take Dai for a late night supermarket run to the all night Hughes market in Hollywood, I would push the cart and he would throw some groceries into it, then I would drive him home and carry the grocery bags to his door. I always enjoyed these late night runs, it was fun to spend time alone with the great man and watch him choose between brands of dishwashing liquids. It made someone who was a legend into a real life person.
Well, I never did give up the comedy in my act and I still haven’t quite worked out why I need to get those laughs. However, after seeing one of my shows in the ‘Parlor of Prestidigitation’ Dai said something that I will never forget.
He looked me in the eye and said that his greatest joy was that he had never needed to perform magic for a living. He then added that if he had to actually earn his living doing magic then he would come to me and buy my linking finger ring routine. He loved the strength of the magic and thought the comedy was perfect for the routine. Then he gave me a big wink and said; “But I wouldn’t ever want to perform magic for a living, it’s more fun perfecting it.”
Here’s to the great perfector, if there is a heaven, I know Dai will be in a corner of it with a brandy in a snifter, a cigarette in an ashtray and a deck of cards in his hand.

The Three Forces

People often ask what a magician does. These are the people who have realized that the answer must be more than; “He fools people.” Magicians have been around for a long time and their standing was a lot better than it is now. During the last century the average magician has been a cross between a game show host and used car salesman. It wasn’t always this way. When people ask me that question, and I think they want a serious reply, I always say the same thing; a magician’s job is to wake up people who don’t know they are asleep. If that answer makes them want to ask more questions then the real conversation can begin.
Aleister Crowley the notorious British magician had another answer; a magician causes change according to will. Crowley
(Which rhymes with holy) was the self-proclaimed wickedest man in the world. In the ‘60’s his lifestyle would have made him a prototype hippy. However, not many hippies had his strength of mind or body, he was a one of a kind which is probably just as well! He was also one of the three great magicians of his era. The other two were Rasputin known as the mad monk (His name which means the dissolute one, a more accurate description) and the other is Mr. G.I. Gurdjieff. About Grigory Rasputin I have very little to say except that he was a very tough man to kill! However, modern magick reached the crossing in the road with the works of Crowley and Gurdjieff. Most followers of Mr. Gurdjieff’s ideas would be reluctant to believe that magick has much to do with his teachings. Most followers of Crowleyanity wouldn’t be prepared to acknowledge that much else was worth exploring. Since both men were brilliant, misunderstood and ahead of their time a comparison of their ideas can be a very illuminating experience.
Among the conclusions that a careful study would reveal is that both men were expert and adept at controlling forces that very few people realize exist, let alone understand.
Without adding much detail at this point let me define these three forces in Gurjieffian terms.
Force One: Holy Affirming.
Force Two: Holy Denying.
Force Three: Holy Reconciling.
These forces have been given many different names and feature in most spiritual practice. These three forces may be considered active, passive and neutralizing in their nature and are related to the three astrological modes (Cardinal, fixed and mutable) and they function in much the same way. In his final writings Mr. Gurdjieff turned them into a very practical code for living.
I Am
I Can
I Wish
In this form they become the key to All and Everything.
Later on I will explore these ideas in more detail but for now just let the words run loose in your mind. Rearrange the order.
Before you realize them as a key you need to see the door they will open.

Who's on first?

My very first club date in America was at the Elks club in Long Beach, California. A stroke of good luck that was going to add a whole eighty bucks to my worldly wealth. I was very excited and ready to take the ‘Elks’ by storm. After a one-hour drive to
Long Beach I made myself known at the club and was directed backstage to meet up with the other acts. Now it is amazing how often the entertainment bookers of these kinds of organization make truly rational decisions but this one was a doozy! The committee had determined that four acts would be appropriate for the occasion and the booker had decided that the perfect choice would be two magic acts and two jugglers. He furthermore decided that the ideal running order would be to have the two magic acts in the first half of the show and after a brief break to continue with the two jugglers.
Of course, there is no payment for the job of booking entertainment at a service club and maybe it is bookings like this that are the reason.
Upon arriving in the dressing room I discovered that the other magician on the bill was Mr. Electric and Carol, a very serious
name in magic. I was very impressed. I was also somewhat astounded when Marvyn (for that is indeed Mr. Electrics first name) suggested that he opened the bill and leave me to close the first half. I thought my stock in the magic world must be on the rise. This was the evening that I learned the age old secret of variety acts; always go on first or as close to the beginning as you can.
To cut a painful story short Marvyn and Carol opened the show with a dynamic set that featured customized versions of every trick I did, all carefully adapted to the theme of their show. I followed and proved that lightning seldom strikes twice on one night. I didn’t die on stage, but I was quite sick!
After the show I chatted with Marvyn who was very kind and quite complementary about my show. Especially my version of the classic Chineese linking rings, maybe this was because it was the only trick I hadn’t duplicated. In fact, in what I later discovered was pure Marvyn at his best he planned an entire act for me based on linking things together.
As I remember I was to change my name to Link Lewin. Marvyn was the King of themed magic. What I should do, said Marvyn, was buy the Himber Ring Trick, which would allow me to link rings borrowed from the fingers of audience members. It sounded like a great idea and the next day I drove into Hollywood and paid fifty dollars to Joe Berg as a down payment on this very trick. It was the best investment I was ever to make in magic. Every magician needs one special trick to make his own and thanks to Mr. Electric I had found mine. I never did change my first name to Link, but due to this encounter with the gracious and friendly master magician.
I had taken a huge step forward in my career as a magician.
Oh, and I never again felt flattered at being asked to close a variety bill, like a true pro, I merely say; “You know, It might be better for the show if I open.”

Billy McComb at the Conway Hall

There is a very special hall in London that changed a lot of things for me it is called the Conway Hall. When I first started to watch magic shows this was a very important spot because
once a month there was a magic show there that featured the best performers in London. Actually some might not have been that good but at age eleven it never occurred to me at the time. There was a small musical combo that accompanied the acts. If I close my eyes I can still conjure up the vision of the drummer who’s name was Alfred. He looked like a merchant banker perched behind his drum kit, in fact he probably was a banker but not on the first Monday of every month. During the show he could have been one of the ‘Sultans of Swing’ as he rapped out drum rolls, riffs and rimshots to punctuating the onstage antics. I saw many fine magicians perform on that stage John Wade, Ali Bongo, Alan Shaxon, George Kovari and many others.
The night that I remember the best at the Conway Hall was the night I first saw Billy McComb. Billy was a legend in magic
and a full time magician who didn’t have to worry about a real job to distract him from the world of magic. Billy had an easygoing Irish charm that won over an audience by the time he had finished walking out onstage. To this eleven year old he was nothing less than dazzling.
The first time I sat in the dark theatre and watched Billy perform I realized that what he did is what I wanted to do. In many ways I have never changed my mind and that most of my life has been devoted to trying to be like him.
What took my breath away when Billy performed was the way he blended non-stop comedy and amazing magic.
other comedy magician fell far short of the mark when you compared them to Billy. Most intriguingly he performed small tricks that seemed to make the biggest impact I had ever seen on an audience. He turned blank pieces of paper into five-pound notes. He put a half crown inside a tiny Schweppes bottle. Best of all, he took a tiny piece of white thread and after breaking it into small pieces he elegantly restored it all the while causing huge waves of laughter with a steady stream of one liner jokes. I remember watching him standing in the spotlight in his sharp mohair suit, gazing intently at the piece of thread as the entire audience burst into wild applause. The fact that he later produced a live hen from nowhere was amazing but not the same class of thrill for me. No I had it straight in my mind I wanted to be Billy McComb. If I could be half as charming, half as witty and able to transfix an entire theatre with a piece of thread, well that would be just fine for me. I didn’t get to meet Billy that night but I soon did and that is a whole other story. Move over Houdini the young magician has a new hero.