How Dai Vernon Fooled Houdini

Honestly i think its complete crap that Vernon was the only magician to fool Houdini. No doubt he fooled him badly, but i think its ridiculous to think no one else could do it. Even once? Absurd. No one starts out an expert.

I use this as my patter for my ACR.

DIMA how can you say houdini was a layman lol ... but come its vernon!! everyone is layman infront of vernon :P

Of course Vernon would fool Houdini with an ACR, nearly every magician can fool a layman with an ACR. The classic of magic.

bet vernon couldn't J5 though, yeh............... he had some pretty nice nuggets....

this will make as great patter for an ACR

dave 2421.....I never DID magic but I KNOW alot of magic. I know dan fleshman personally....he lived right up the road from me for a few years. Also one of my best friends was a magician for 10 years and performed live. He actually intro'd me to dan. I was actually in a magic club for training magicians on how to handle cards. Just because I don't like to do magic doesn't mean I don't know how to do it. Once you learn some magic....it's all the same. A trick....you just have to figure out how it's done. The reason I know its a double backer and "tilt" move is because he repeats the SAME move over and over again and it looks clean EVERYTIME. You can see it's not a pass or a second deal, or blah blah blah. Houdini would have figured it out if it were a more open sleight. but vernon tricked him by being subtle with the tilt.

Yupp such history is quite interesting. But who is this old man in the video ?

they guy in the video is bruce cervon one of the prof's closest friends and students, if any body knows its this guy......how can you even doubt that this is a true story?.....

they guy speaking in the video is Bruce Cervon, he was one of dai vernons closest friends and students, he spent many years with the prof at the magic castle,and is an incredible slight of hand artist...i have heard him talk about vernon alot in videos , if any body knos what happenend its this guy...besides it is a very famous story in the magic community, how can anybody even say they dont think it is a true story.....i think that magical history is important..its our roots , and an important tool in learning what magic is all about.... peace!

The reason that Houdini was fooled is that there wasn't much work on the double lift or the double backer. These were fairly new methods, so yeah, we would also have been fooled. I also heard that some people say that it was the trick that fooled Thurston. I am not making this up by the way. Elliot

LOL, I love the people who think they've figured out what happened, especially the guy who says "I don't even do magic and I can figure it out".... LOL, you guys are great, thanks for the laughs I guess it feeds your ego to think that you are on the same level as Dai Vernon, and Eddie, I agree with you 100%

There you guys go again... trying to figure everything out. Just enjoy the video for once. Jeez.

I would love to see more videos like this, I'm getting tired of watching TiVo 2.. 5/5

It is how Vernon did it.....

First off, NO, that is not the way he does it but why should reveal anything here ? And second, you cannot say "Vernon used and did blablabla", because there is no video of him performing for Houdini.

the double backed card was not a big method used back then, it was probably fairly new, and thats one reason Houdini couldnt figure this out.

Vernon used a double back card, placed houdini's card right below it (pretending to put it back in the deck with the "tilt" move) and performs a double lift to show houdini's card. (The double backer leaves the lift clean after turnover.) I don't do magic, but I can figure it out. =)

It was more than just a few double lifts. Believe me, if you saw what Vernon did, it would have fooled you as well. And by "more than just a few double lifts" I don't just mean it was a hell of an ambitious card routine. It actually wasn't really even a routine even. It was just one effect that Houdini kept having him repeat. And the idea of it actually plays off of the idea of a double lift and uses that knowledge against you.

thats kinda weird that houdini was fooled by what i think is the most simple trick in the acr but the guy did have a point that houdini was a escape artist and didnt do much magic