Saturday, September 27, 2008

Hollywood Shuffle

I don't like to simply pick up items that I've found on other blogs and reuse them here; I feel like you, the OPC reader, deserve fresh material. (I guarantee you no one else has that Conrad Veidt/Peter Lorre/Ping Pong item.) But I felt compelled to present this little piece of video that I found on Mark Evanier's invaluable blog News From Me, just because there's no way that Ricky Jay could actually be doing this:

4 comments:

Marshall said...

You're right. That is simply not possible. (Ricky Jay is SO not invited to my weekly poker game now.)

I feel like making a drunken-sounding "Linneman" joke in honor of Paul Newman, but can't think of one.

Tom Nawrocki said...

I wonder... Do you think at some point, after he flushes (get it?) the spades out of the deck, he simply introduces a new pack with the other three suits? That would seem impossible, but no more impossible than bringing the entire deck back to order after all that.

Marshall said...

I think people at his level have such a good feel of where the cards are that they can simply manipulate the spacing. I'm pretty sure he can insert or remove a card, for example, at any point in a deck he chooses. He's just that good.

Gavin said...

I saw him live a few months ago. He didn't do this particular trick, but he did many that were as impressive. I think what you're seeing is an unparalleled ability for card control: yes, he's actually doing it and he's just that good.