Moderator: As a performer, mentor, and writer-on-tour, Vernon was approached by scores of magicians. But on one occasion, he solidified his reputation as a Master of Deception when in 1919 he was challenged by the legendary Harry Houdini and became the only magician to ever fool Houdini.
Male1: Houdini did not do any magic. He did not do, he did escapes.
Moderator: Houdini also challenged magicians to fool him. Only one succeeded Dai Vernon in 1919.
Male2: Well Harry was a kind of a guy who did not want to be fooled by these tricks at all. What he wanted to do was to see them maybe, but he did not want to show that he was fooled. What happened with this Vernon trick, Vernon said, alright now you should take the cards of Houdini, take them and you shuffled them up and mixed them around and Vernon says, alright fine. He said I am going to take that card and I am going to take that card like this. He said I am going to take that card and I am going to put that card right down here in the middle of the deck like that.
He said “Alright, now watch this.” He said, “Look did you see any movement at all?” The guy said, “No, I did not see anything.” He said, “Look; see now the card came back to the top again.” He said “I will show you again, look I will show you again.”
So he put the card down in there like this and he puts down in there, he squares them up nice and neat and he said, “Look, see? Look, the card came back on top.” He got Harry’s name on it. So, he knows that there can not be two cards there. So, he says “Let me see that card,” so he looks at the card and he sees that the card is just a single card. So then Vernon repeats the trick.
He does it again, and he said “Well then, do it again” and he does it again and he does it again, and he does it again and Harry can not figure out how the trick works.
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