"
A wonderful brain interprets something differently from what it actually is, but it doesn't mean it's made a mistake. It took the information it had and did it's best job." Those are but two tricks from
Jerry Andrus (1918-2007), self-taught magician and illusionist, and
one of great renown amongst
other magicians. But he was more than a slight-of-hand man: he was also
a poet, philosopher, inventor, humanist, agnostic, and skeptic. There are an impressive number of videos of him online, these are but a few to get you started down the rabbit hole:
Jerry Andrus is visual poetry (Google video /
YT, 28 minutes) ::
Jerry Andrus at the Magic Castle (G.vid, 49 min),
Jerry Andrus at 83 his Optical Illusions (G.vid, 41 min) ::
Jerry Andrus and Ray Hyman on Uri Geller (YT, 26 min) ::
James Randi on Jerry Andrus (YT, 5 min) ::
James Randi - who was Jerry Andrus? ::
James Randi describes Jerry Andrus. The last two clips are from
Rex Young, a young illusionist who has recreated many of Andrus' illusions on his
YouTube channel, and
made some of his own.
posted by filthy light thief
on Sep 12, 2011 -
25 comments
The Berglas Effect aka The Holy Grail of Card Magic or Any Card at Any Number (ACAAN) and named after its inventor David Berglas is a very simple magic card trick that Berglas claims only two people know.
[more inside]
posted by Mitheral
on Aug 20, 2011 -
107 comments
Flottille by Etienne Cliquet. Exquisite moving origami powered by the capillary action of the paper.
posted by Plutor
on May 16, 2011 -
17 comments
This is a pretty amazing video of a Chinese magician doing
magic tricks with goldfish on the BBC spanish website. Extended video and discussion (along with possible spoilers) can be found on
youtube. It's been picked up by some English-language sites (
here and
here). Real controversy, or just hype to drum up publicity? Either way, the magician is refusing to divulge his secrets (but insists that no fish were harmed in the trick).
posted by math
on Feb 18, 2011 -
59 comments
Fossil Angels - written by Alan Moore in December 2002 to appear in KAOS #15, which never appeared. Published here for the first time.
posted by MetaMonkey
on Oct 24, 2010 -
22 comments
Ricky Jay had a TV special in 1989 -
Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women - based on the
book of the same name, which featured magic, juggling, amazing feats, stunts, and performances, including a musical performance on wine glasses, a human calculator who could determine cube-routes of numbers in her head, and an antique acrobatic clockwork doll. (
Part 1,
Part 2,
Part 3).
(Previously and previously and previouslier)
posted by twoleftfeet
on Jul 29, 2010 -
18 comments
Old School Color Cycling with HTML5 This was a technology often used in 8-bit video games of the era, to achieve interesting visual effects by cycling (shifting) the color palette. Back then video cards could only render 256 colors at a time, so a palette of selected colors was used. But the programmer could change this palette at will, and all the onscreen colors would instantly change to match. It was fast, and took virtually no memory. [more inside]
posted by crunchland
on Jul 26, 2010 -
40 comments
He invented or popularized a startling array of the fundamental elements of film: the dissolve, the fade-in and fade-out, slow motion, fast motion, stop motion, double exposures and multiple exposures, miniatures, the in-camera matte, time-lapse photography, color film (albeit hand-painted), artificial film lighting, production sketches and storyboards, and the whole idea of narrative film.
By 1897, in a studio of his own design and construction – the first complete movie studio – his hand forged virtually everything on his screen. Norman McLaren writes, "He was not only his own producer, ideas man, script writer, but he was his own set-builder, scene painter, choreographer, deviser of mechanical contrivances, special effects man, costume designer, model maker, actor, multiple actor, editor and distributor." Also, his own cinematographer, and the inventor of cameras to suit his special conceptions. Not even auteur directors such as Charles Chaplin, Orson Welles, John Cassavetes, and Stanley Kubrick would personally author so many aspects of their films."
Inside: 57 films by Georges Méliès, the
Grandfather of Visual Effects.
[more inside]
posted by Paragon
on Feb 3, 2010 -
31 comments
“We got a bit excited because we realized that people have
collected lots of
dybbuk stories, but
our fragment describes a real event, where you see how they come together and pray in order to exorcise the ghost from a widow,”
[more inside]
posted by ServSci
on Dec 21, 2009 -
11 comments
In 1992, CBS released a Christmas special directed by
Bill Meléndez and produced by
Lorne Michaels (a more current
link), the cast included
John Goodman in the title role,
Jonathan Winters,
Jan Hooks,
Andrea Martin,
Brian Doyle-Murray, and a young
Elisabeth Moss as Holly. Music by
Mark Mothersbaugh. How could this go wrong?
Frosty Returns, in an abbreviated version, but really more than you need to see.
[more inside]
posted by Toekneesan
on Dec 19, 2009 -
39 comments
