Richard Turner

Over the past 2 weeks, in the midst of working furiously on the 10 assignments due in 2 weeks for school, i've had the chance to see 2 gentlemen whose card handling skills & magic i greatly admire.

I got to see Ricky Jay perform his live show a week ago. It was fantastic. Not as much magic as in his other shows, but who cares - we got to listen to him tell the craziest stories, and it was completely engrossing.

Last night, I got to see Richard Turner. Ricky Jay you might know. Richard Turner, not as likely. He has been doing his "the Cheat" act for decades. Imagine this. He hands you a pack of cards. You shuffle it to your heart's content. He asks you to name a game - could be any variation of poker, blackjack, gin rummy, whatever. He asks you to name the number of players. He then asks you to specify which player will receive the winning hand. You finish shuffling, and he deals them out just as you have told him. The hand you pick turns up a winner. Every time. Stop and think about how impossible what I wrote just is.

Much of his act is variations on this theme - gambling styled magic done in the character of a card cheat. He told us that his act is based on the old James Garner show "Maverick" - which was a favourite around our house growing up too. He repeatedly allowed his spectators to make choices that clearly imposed more and more stringent conditions upon him, and consistently came out winning.

Partway through the show, he relayed to us that he had recently had fairly major surgery on his right hand, and showed us the scars. Mr Turner mentioned that he felt he wasn't up to full speed, but none of us could tell! What he does with cards is pretty fantastic. He's also blind. He cannot, for example, tell whether the cards are face up or face down. He relies on his volunteers to help him out should anything go sailing off the table or end up reversed in the pack.

We were allowed to ask him questions at any point in the lecture. One thing I wish that I'd asked was this: how did he learn everything without the benefit of being able to read books or see people perform? How does he know, for example, that a particular thing is deceptive to the eye? He clearly knows somehow, perhaps via feedback from others. At any rate, it's pretty crazy.

Very fun night.