Sal Piacente Lecture

Sep 1, 2007
3,786
15
I just got back from a 2-hour lecture from the hitman of magic, Sal Piacente. For those who haven't heard of Sal, he a world-renowned expert in gambling cheats and has consulted security teams in the top Vegas casinos as well as the FBI.

Sal gave numerous demonstrations of card cheats for poker and blackjack, as well as his handlings of numerous Ed Marlo routines. He went into the psychology of the gambling cheat and got into numerous techniques such as stacking the deck on the fly with just a few shuffles and peeks.

Most fascinating were his displays of memorization. Within about 6 seconds, he had memorized an entire deck. He demonstrated the ability to memorize 25 randomly named objects on a list with no visual clues or cheats. He revealed his systems for binary code memorization and the phonetic alphabet mnemonic.

I purchased his Memory on the Fly lecture notes and can't wait to use this in my shows.

It was one of the most enlightening events I've ever attended and recommend Sal's material and lectures to anyone interested in gambling cheats or zero-prop mentalism using pure memory.
 
D

Deleted member 2755

Guest
That's awesome. Glad you had a fun time. :)

-Doug
 
Nov 23, 2007
607
1
51
NC
That sounds like it was a really fun night. Does Sal happen to have a website where you can purchase his material?

All the best,
TDA

Try www.salthehitman.com The memory on the Fly notes that Steerpike is talking about arent on there but check around. I think MJM carries some of his stuff.

If your really interested he is in Harrisburg, PA tonight and you could contact Keith Hanshaw at Hershey Magic (www.hersheymagic.com) and he may be able to help you obtain the lecture notes.

Sounds like it was very interesting Steer.
 
Sep 1, 2007
3,786
15
Sounds like it was very interesting Steer.

It really was. I'm not interested in doing gambling demonstrations, and I mainly went because I love watching the creative process in others. However, I walked away with a new appreciation for memory-based mentalism.

I overheard Sal talking with Rick Maue and Rick mentioned that Harry Lorayne actually had a show closer where he would have everyone in the audience say their first name out loud one at a time. Harry would then ask everyone to stand when he called out their name.

Harry named everyone in the auditorium and in doing so had subtly persuaded the whole audience into a standing ovation.

Pure... genius.
 
Yeah he's really awesome I had the luxury of seeing some of his earlier stuff. I sat down with Charles Gauci once and he taught me his pnemonic memorized deck which allows a deck to be completley memorized in less then 6 seconds if interested PM me I'll see what I can do for you. Congrats his stuff is amazing.

Shane
 
May 13, 2008
543
1
St Albans, UK
Yeah he's really awesome I had the luxury of seeing some of his earlier stuff. I sat down with Charles Gauci once and he taught me his pnemonic memorized deck which allows a deck to be completley memorized in less then 6 seconds if interested PM me I'll see what I can do for you. Congrats his stuff is amazing.

Shane

Sounds awesome, any sources?
 
Nov 23, 2007
607
1
51
NC
I overheard Sal talking with Rick Maue and Rick mentioned that Harry Lorayne actually had a show closer where he would have everyone in the audience say their first name out loud one at a time. Harry would then ask everyone to stand when he called out their name.

Harry named everyone in the auditorium and in doing so had subtly persuaded the whole audience into a standing ovation.

Pure... genius.

Wow. I was planning on mentioning a very similar story in this thread but have been running short on time.

I'll keep it very short. It’s a lot like yours.

We had a company meeting in a conference center with about 200 managers in attendance.
On the way in the door the Vice President of the company (who was giving a motivational lecture on leadership) was introducing himself to everyone entering the room. As the VP he hardly knew any medium level managers personally. He would simply say "Hi I'm Dave, what’s your name? OH, Nice to meet you." Then proceeded to the next individual.

After the lecture to demonstrate how important each individual was to the company he said "When you came in today and I introduced myself to you I was indeed remembering all your names.”

The disbelief in his crowd was apparent by the zero reaction. He said "ok when I call your name please stand up." He started on the right side of the room and went all the way to the left. When he was done everyone was standing there stunned looking at each other.
He went on briefly to speak about how important it was to know everyone underneath you and take care of them.

He said "Thank you all for coming" and started to walk off. The audience erupted in yelling and applause.

I'll never forget the impact it had on me and my peers.
He later went on to be the CEO of USAirways.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Searching...
0 Results