IN THE MANY WRITINGSof Jack Avis, Alex Elmsley, Roy Walton and myself, magicians have seen the name Hugh Scott mentioned.Many have asked who was Hugh Scott.
He was one of the ghosts of magic, very much in the background, rarely seen at magic functions but an outstanding card worker. The reason for his shadowy presence in [...]
Posted on April 28th, 2008 by John
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ONE OF THE DELIGHTS of my sunrise magic years happened every Saturday morning in London. Six sorcerers, some apprentices, some established, used to meet in Davenports magic shop in Holborn where we would talk magic, gaze in awe at the many name professionals who called in (Orson Welles, Dante, Edward Victor, Jasper Maskylene, Robert Harbin and [...]
Posted on April 14th, 2008 by John
Filed under: Magic Biographies, Magic Miscellanea | 1 Comment »
FOLLOWING MANY REQUESTS and enquiries that came after I announced that I hold a considerable number of the private notebooks of the late Jack Avis, one of the great card and close-up workers, it has been suggested that I release some of the better material to the magic world.
All his life he made detailed notes [...]
Posted on April 13th, 2008 by John
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SOME WHILE AGO I PUBLISHED in this blog an idea of Jack Avis whereby a stranger card with a large indice but matching back was introduced into a normal deck. The matching normal card was forced and shuffled back in the pack, the cards were fanned and shown to a second spectator with the request “Please [...]
Posted on April 2nd, 2008 by John
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I THINK IT IMPORTANTthat the performances of some of our greatest magicians are preserved on film or tape for future generations, to be aware of what made them the best. Nowadays with camcorders and widespread visual technology this is happening but it would have been wonderful had such facility been available years ago.
It would have [...]
Posted on April 2nd, 2008 by John
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FOLLOWING YESTERDAY’S PUZZLE found in a Jack Avis notebook – which did the guy light first, cigar, gas stove, burner or bonfire?
He lit the single match in the matchbox first!
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Posted on March 20th, 2008 by John
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JACK AVIS WAS AN AVID NOTE TAKER and as mentioned earlier he left masses of notebooks filled with his magic thinkings, ideas both original and observed also noted odd sayings, puzzles and literary ephemera both in and out of magic.
He is one item I found recently.
A man looked into his match box and found just one match [...]
Posted on March 19th, 2008 by John
Filed under: Magic Miscellanea, Magic Thoughts | 2 Comments »
I KNEW JACK AVIS FOR OVER FIFTY YEARS. Ten years after I first met him I married his sister and whilst we didn’t discuss much magic whilst I was in business, for the first ten years of my retirement and my return to magic we met every week, sometimes more, had holidays together and talked much [...]
Posted on March 16th, 2008 by John
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BOBBY BERNARD AND I have been friends for over sixty years. As teenagers we were in concert party together – he did vent dressed as a schoolmaster with a naughty boy pupil and I did magic. I remember it well.
“What’s your name?”
“Isaiah sir”
“Why do they call you Isaiah?”
“Cos one eyes ‘igher than the other!”
Later we were both members [...]
Posted on March 14th, 2008 by John
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No, this is not a cookery recipe for a new style Cornish Pasty but a brilliant idea from my late, good friend Jack Avis which can transform an Okito Box routine into a smooth presentation.
Any Okito or Boston Box routine requires the magician to replace the lid and at the same time secretly turn the box over. [...]
Posted on March 3rd, 2008 by John
Filed under: Magic Ideas, Magic Thoughts | 3 Comments »
