My Conversation with Dai Vernon: Part 1

Some people don’t like it when I deign to question the wisdom of our magical elders. So let me start this post by saying that is not what I’m doing here. In fact, this is a message that came directly from Dai Vernon himself. I bought a Ouija board and had a conversation with him and I’ve transcribed it below. So take your, “How dare you question the great Dai Vernon” emails and shove them up your asshole. I’m not questioning him at all. I”m doing him a favor. The spirit of Dai Vernon has specifically asked me to update you on a change in his thinking. If you disagree with anything here, take it up with the ghost of Vernon.

Below is our discussion:

Me: Oh, great Ouija board. Bring forth a spirit for me to communicate with. I pray to thee, lord of the Ouija.

Ouija; H-E-L-L-O

Me: Oh shit. Who dis?

Ouija: D-A-I-V-E-R-N-O-N

Me: Da’ Iver Non? Damn, you sound hot, baby. What are you wearing?

Ouija: D-A-I……V-E-R-N-O-N. T-H-E-M-A-G-I-C-I-A-N.

Me: Oh, rats. Okay. Well, still… what are you wearing?

[Some unimportant back and forth.]

Me: By the way, this is a coincidence. I run a magic blog. Is there anything you’d like to get out to the magic community?

Dai: No shit? Yeah, actually there’s something I’m famous for saying that is no longer accurate.

Me: What is it… “A large action covers a small action?” Is it the opposite? Does a small action cover a large action now? I knew it! Ok, I’ll spread the word.

Dai: What? No, you fucking idiot. How would that work?

Me: Oh. I don’t know. Just like… maybe… like, to cover a pass you should wiggle your pinky toe? Actually, you’re right. That doesn’t seem like it would work. Never mind. So what was it you wanted to say?

Dai: Remember how I said, “A good magic effect should easily be described in one sentence.”

Me: Sure.

Dai: Not anymore.

Me. Explain, Dai. Actually, before you do…Is your name pronounced DAY or DIE? I’ve heard both.

Dai: It’s actually, Duh.

[Then he Ouiji’d me this gif]

Duh went on to explain what he meant. In this day and age, an effect that can be “easily described in one sentence” is synonymous with a “an effect that is easily google-able.”

“It’s not that I was wrong then,” Dai said, letter-by-letter. “It’s just that now that isn’t good advice anymore. When secrets were very hard to come by, then it made sense to focus on the simplicity of the effect. But that’s no longer the case, so magic needs to change.

“Think of the version of Ring-flite that Ellusionist just released. Now, back in my day, when I made someone’s ring appear on my keychain, there was no way for them to figure out how that was done without burning a ton of time and calories. The secret was nowhere to be found in your home or even at the library. You would have to make inroads in the world of magic just to even know where to look for such a secret. It was a glorious time.

“These days, it’s a different world. Ring-flite may still get a great reaction in a demo video, but what do you think happened two seconds after the camera turned off. I’ll tell you what happened.

“This is what happens.”

Me: Oh wow, I didn’t know you could hyperlink in a Ouija message.

Dai: Oh gee. You didn’t know? You? Oh wow, the room is spinning. YOU were unaware of something? What a shocker.

Me: I just meant-

Dai: Zip it, bitch.

Dai continued on, “A ring vanishes and appears on a keychain. That’s a one sentence description of an effect. And while that would be good if you were following my advice back in the day, if you follow that same advice now, that means you just got fucked by the ghost of Dai Vernon. The moment you leave the room, anyone who was truly fooled will be on their phone looking for an answer, and will have enough to satisfy them in a matter of moments. If they don’t look it up, that’s even worse. They probably weren’t even fooled or didn’t care about what you did at all.

“Magicians like to imagine there is a huge contingent of people who would be super fooled by a trick AND then would just choose to live with that deep, abiding mystery without doing LITERALLY 10 seconds of research. Those people don’t exist. Or, at the very least, they’re rare enough that we shouldn’t consider them when deciding how to approach our magic.”

Me: What about the magicians who say that if a spectator googles your trick after you show it to them, it means you’re a bad magician?

Dai: Those people are fucking morons who got into magic because they’re socially awkward and they still have no clue how a normal human thinks or reacts to things. People google tricks because that’s the natural step people take these days when trying to figure something out.

Me: Okay… well… then what’s the point? I mean, why am I bothering showing magic to people if their natural reaction is to take steps to figure it out? Why try to fool them if they don’t want to be fooled?

It was at this point that Dai told me something that was a complete paradigm shift for me and the reason behind why someone might decide to search out an explanation for a trick.

Tomorrow I’ll tell you exactly what his response to my question was.