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"I'm always the doubter at the magic table, looking for hidden panels or trick mirrors, but a one-on-one meeting with [Keith] Barry a few weeks ago left me convinced he's the real thing," writes the Star's theatre critic. Yeah, buddy, you've got some awe-inspiring powers of skepticism there. Incidentally, do you find yourself giving people two dimes for a nickel very often?
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Comments (4)
OK, so he doesn't come off as a skeptic. But after that display of precognition, who could maintain a skeptic's perch?
No really. How do you explain that feat?
K
Posted by Ken | June 19, 2008 6:54 PM
Posted on June 19, 2008 18:54
If you insist on thinking of him as a "mentalist" you'll never figure it out. If you insist on thinking of him as a good magician who is perfectly capable of preparing a just-inaccurate-enough Post-It Note that morning, putting it into an envelope, and substituting that envelope for the original at the table before the mark opens it, there's nothing very special about it. Unless an old-fashioned pickpocket or a typical amateur card magician is special.
Wouldn't a real "skeptic" just have opened the damn package at home? You didn't see anything weird about that whole "I'll send it to you and then you can bring it back to me" part of the procedure?
Posted by Colby Cosh | June 19, 2008 7:01 PM
Posted on June 19, 2008 19:01
Hey, if I could predict -say- IBM's stock price three or four days hence, you can be damn sure I would prefer to make my living as a magician and mentalist. There's a reason these guys have interviews with the likes of Ouzounian, and not James Randi.
Posted by DCardno | June 20, 2008 9:13 AM
Posted on June 20, 2008 09:13
That's a very old trick, and you don't have to be much of a magician in order to pull it off. You can learn most of the techniques for free at a decent-sized public library.
Posted by nitus | June 20, 2008 5:25 PM
Posted on June 20, 2008 17:25