Celebrities moonlighting as magicians

[Ben Long]

Johnny Depp apparently dabbles, Winston Churchill was a keen magic enthusiast, and anyone else I knew of has been mentioned.

FYI, Piven didn't execute those cuts and flourishes... He had a stand-in (I believe one of the Bucks stood in, though that may have been hear-say).
Anyone that saw the footage of him doing a card catch effect for the host and guests of a TV chat show in the US would attest to his lack of ability with SoH. Bloody good actor though.

CL

You are quite right--indeed the one of the Buck twins did stand in for Piven. I believe it was Dan. Unless it was Dave. I know it was one of those two...

 

[ZeroPhun31]

stuart townsend from the movies Queen of the Damned and Shade knows a thing or two. in the Shade movie he plays a grifter called Vernon and is a card mechanic. all the tricks and sleights he does are really done by him(no stand ins or camera tricks). he had a few months of serious training with a couple of pros and it really shows cause he performed some seriously hard sleights and routines in most of the scenes he was in. they've even had stallone mucking a few cards too.

Yeah, I watched Shade many times, good movie, bets parts are where hte guys that taught him were doing the actual techniques on a glass table. That was nuts.

 

[ZeroPhun31]

Okay...we need a video of Bush doing magic. Haha.

I heard he once tried to make a pretzel disappear, but almost died in the process. And it's rumor that David Blaine won't even attempt that stunt.

 

[praetoritevong]

Zero - reminds me of Gregory Wilson's "Clinton Shuffle" on his DVD Card Stunts... (A riffle shuffle where the sides don't meet or weave but are simply replaced as they were again)

 

[Chr!s]

Yeah, I watched Shade many times, good movie, bets parts are where hte guys that taught him were doing the actual techniques on a glass table. That was nuts.

The technician performing the gambling sleights on the glass table was none other than TV's own R.Paul Wilson, star of the Real Hustle!

He also has a bit part in the actual fiolm, playing a gambler.

CL