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I think any attempt to answer this question would just be speculation, but we can look at potential reasons why someone, in general, may wish to use a nom de plume, and then see how they fit what we know of Erdnase. To my mind, it seems possible that the author (who according to Marshall D...

The "best" effects are ones which fit your performance persona, and get across the message that you wish to convey. If you want to be a clone of someone else, then definitely the best effects are all the ones that they do, performed in exactly the same way, while wearing exactly the same...

It's dealt with briefly in the Genii thread I linked to earlier. The consensus seems to be that L'Homme Masque probably isn't Erdnase, given that he isn't known to have entered the US, and, the clincher for me, didn't fit Marshall D Smith's description. Plus, for me, I think it's fairly clear...

Yeah, definitely. I just wanted to add that as a bit of extra info. Personally, I don't buy the whole two author thing for a variety of reasons, but it's possible Erdnase had advice and some contributions from a second person.

The "we" thing was a pretty common stylistic trait at the time. Even people as late as Marlo use "we" instead of "I".

I think there are only two moves in Erdnase that could be used as multiple shifts. The Diagonal Palm Shift can be used to control cards from multiple positions to the bottom or, if you want more of a challenge, to the top. Also, in the section "Ordinary Methods of Stocking, Locating and...

Yes, I have read that, but the best resources on the Erdnase identity issue are Richard Hatch's contributions to Allan Ackerman's DVD set, the Jeff Busby and Bart Whaley book The Man Who Knows Erdnase, and the massive Erdnase thread on the Genii forum here.

Deal! I think this is something that will always be debated amongst students of Erdnase. Until we find out who he was once and for all that is!

OK. You seem to have misread what I said. You defend yourself against an accusation of speculation. That was what you addressed to me, I said you based your argument on faulty premises. I didn't say that you need to study the psychology of cheats. I began a sentence with, "In regard to the...

Erm, I don't want to be overly confrontational, but nothing that I said was speculation. I presented an argument, backed up with facts and evidence, and ending with a question. Unfortunately, the argument you present is based on faulty premises. First off, there aren't "a few effects of magic...

So, this statistically demonstrates that you're most likely to be someone's favourite magician if your first intial is D and/or your last intitial is B. Most popular first name is David, and most popular surname is Brown, so somewhere out there is the ultimate magician David Brown.

I would dispute that, and argue that the book was written to advance the art. I know Erdnase said his motivation for the book was that "he needs the money", but I would say that's just a joke, a way of setting his work apart from the "whining, mealymouthed pretensions of piety" present in other...

You know Dan and Dave are technically two magicians, right? They might be twins, but not of the conjoined variety. I only really replied to this thread to say that, but as I'm here, in no particular order: 1. Lennart Green 2. Juan Tamariz 3. Derren Brown 4. Jeff McBride 5. Ian Rowland All of...

That's only if you believe Milton Franklin Andrews was Erdnase. A lot of people, including me, don't think he was. The only person we know met Erdnase was Marshall D Smith, the illustrator of the book. He remembers Erdnase being about five foot six inches. Andrews was six foot one inches. Also...

Definitely.

Whether it's a true difference is a debatable point, but Erdnase says that the shift "may be made with the hands stationary" and Chris Kenner, along with most other people who demonstrate or teach the move, uses a covering up-and-down movement of the hands.

While I'm firmly on the side of those who prize table work in general, and Erdnase in particular, above pretty much any sleight-of-hand achievement, I think there is a point to be made in favour of flashy, visual magic, even if it's impractical or inefficient in performance. What we do in magic...

If you have a deck where the jokers are identical, you can use them as impromptu duplicates by forcing one of them. I think this has to be handled carefully, though, as most laypeople know that there are two jokers in a deck, so the trick has to be constructed in such a way that duplicates...

I think he probably did cull the nines legitimately, but I'm fairly sure there's an edit right before he says "Let's see if we can find some nines for you", so we're not actually seeing the full culling sequence. Presumably the producers needed to cut it down and, as he was ostensibly just doing...

When I'm sitting at my desk it's normally various forms of bottom deal. If there's no table, then it's the ten shifts from Erdnase (OK, just for clarification, maybe there aren't really ten completely different shifts in Erdnase, but including the suggested variations, there are.)