Magic and the Mind

I’m not a performing magician. I do demo certain tricks in the shop that I really like. The new ones coming out are way over my head, but there are some oldies and goodies. At my age you get a certain respect for the oldies.

One of my favorites is Cardtoon. http://bit.ly/2KsWXxD. I used to demo it all the time and every demo was a sale.  It has such appeal. It’s irresistible.

As most of you know, I was treated for cancer, and had Chemo and a robotic operation and now I’m back and so far so good. I was anxious to get back to the shop. A new customer came in and I picked up Cardtoon to demo it and I had no idea how it worked. I asked Phil. He said, “I never did it. You always demo it.”  I put it aside.

When he left I sat down with the deck and for the life of me, I could not remember how to do it. I opened a new pack to read the instructions and it was so complicated I couldn’t understand it. Then I remembered that whoever bought it, I showed them how it worked because the instructions were so complicated I felt they would take it home and never use it. It’s such a simple trick so I took a few minutes and showed them the secret so they would never have to look at the instructions. Still I couldn’t remember it or follow the instructions.

When the next person came in I asked if they had Cardtoon. They said yes. I was so relieved. “Can you show me how to do it?” I asked. “Sorry, I forget how it works.” was the reply.

Finally someone came in who had it, and knew how it worked, showed me the simple move and it all came back to me.

I’m afraid to pick up a Svengali for fear I won’t remember that either! Believe it or not, I just went to get a Svengali and I remembered it. Whew!