When I was a kid my Uncle Willie was always showing me these little tricks of his. He’d rub a quarter on his elbow and it would disappear. He’d pull a piece of thread from his shirt and the thread would keep coming, yards of it. My father would take me into little novelty shops they used to have in Times Square in the ‘50’s and buy me a trick once in a while; Cups and Balls, the Dime and Penny, things like that. My mother watched me do the same tricks over and over again for years.
Years later, after a hitch in the service, I went to college and started tending bar at night. I did magic tricks to entertain the customers. It was classic Bar Magic. After Junior College I decide to go out west and I enrolled at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas. I ended up selling magic tricks at a small shop ‘The Magic Mansion’ in Circus Circus Casino.
One day an older gentlemen walked in and asked me about a book: Slydini Encores. I took it out of the case and handed it to him. At that point I had no idea of who Slydini was. I asked the man about him. “Oh … he’s a pistol!” Those were his exact words. He didn’t buy the book and I really didn’t look at it either.
I decided to go back to New York. One day I was in Tannen’s, when it was still on Broadway. A man, standing behind the counter on the right as you walked in, asked me if I’d like to see a trick. He show me a very nice version of Slydini’s Coin’s through the Table although I did not know that at the time. When I asked him about it, he told me it was created by Slydini. That was the second time I’d heard the name. I bought the book
The Magic of Slydini by Ganson and started studying. I focused on the coins, the Paper Balls in the Box, and the Newspaper Tear.
At that time Bill Bixby was having a great success with his television show The Magician. Slydini appeared on television special hosted by Mr. Bixby. This was the first time I’d ever seen Slydini perform. He did the Paper Balls in the Box and the Production Silks. I was amazed. His magic was so different from anything I ever seen. He was graceful, elegant, calm, precise.
I practiced his magic ,on my own for one year. (I was working in midtown Manhattan at time and as it happened my office on 44th and 6th was not too far from his studio on 341 West 45th.) I called Directory Assistance and asked for his phone number. The only name I knew to ask for was ‘Slydini’. I was really surprised when the operator gave it to me. I called him, told him a little bit about myself and asked if was taking any new students. He invited me over the following week for my first lesson.
He lived in a studio apartment on the west side of Manhattan. You would sit at his close up table, directly across from him. The wall behind him was covered with plaques and pictures of famous magicians. He asked me to do a trick for him so I showed him his ,One Coin Routine’ as best I could. Little did I know this routine embodied the way he did Close Up Magic. He let me go on for a while and then he told me to stop. “OK, lets begin.” That’s exactly what he said to me.
At first I paid for lessons but after a few years he stopped charging me. I am also Italian. We had many things in common. It was like having a Magic Grandfather. I cleaned his studio, painted it, took him on trips out of town. He cooked, told me stories about his life and we studied together for years. I learned all of his major Close Up and his Stage Act. About ten years ago I started to write my own books on Slydini’s Magic, the books that are available here. Currently I am in the process of translating those books in Italian.
I also write short stores about an Italian American Detective, Dominic Di Carini, living in 1930’s San Francisco. Please see: www.dicarini.com .
In a few years I plan to retire to Italy. Slydini was very kind and generous to me, as he was to many Magicians. This site is the best way I can think of to do my part to see that he is remembered and more importantly discovered by those Magicians who have never had the privilege of seeing him perform.
Here is what he would tell me, in every lesson. “You must believe in what you are doing. If you believe it, they will believe it.
Buona Fortuna!
D
No comments:
Post a Comment