talkmagic.co.uk

TonyB wrote:Muhammed Ali was well known as a magician. He did tricks at press conferences, he was doing the Balducci levitation years before Blaine. He even performed magic on one Parkinson appearance. He still does a limited amount of tricks.

He loved performing for kids who hung around his training camps. I believe that he was a member of the Society of American Magicians. I have seen some great pics of him in his performing cloak.

As a side note his great grandfather was an Ennis man (my home town) and we had him over last year to give him the freedom of the town. A great day.

Decades ago, when I was working behind the counter at Mecca Magic in Bloomfield, New Jersey, Ali and his retinue stopped by for a visit.

The odd thing about his magic, though, was that his Muslim faith taught him it wasn't right to deceive people. So, more often than not he would perform a trick (he loved the TT silk vanish) and then proceed to explain how it was done! Fortunately he was no longer exposing when he did some magic on the American news program "60 Minutes" many years later.

I don't think there was anything at all strange about him enjoying magic. He, after all, had the fastest hands of any heavyweight who ever lived. (Watch the excellent documentary "When We Were Kings" to hear his wonderful explanation of the "phantom punch" he delivered to knock out Sonny Liston in their second match.)

The man is truly "The Greatest" in more ways than one.


Good thoughts,

Bob

Bob, what a privilege to have met the man. I only saw him from a distance and it made my month. I think it was the exposure thing that led him to have to leave SAM at one point.

sleightlycrazy wrote:OJ Simpson... He makes candles and evidence disappear...

Didn't he also attempt the head-chop illusion?

I read all the posts holding my breath hoping no-one beat me to it. Actually I had two, Jason Alexander (Seinfeld's George) is into mentalism and looks just like Marc Salem - but I was beaten to it. My other amateur magician is Charles Dickens.

He performed when magicians were called jugglers and he had an Indian Juggler routine in which he pretended to be an Indian mystic who could perform magic.

Dynamo

Jenni's answer made me think of another author - Lewis Carroll, who was also an amateur magician.

Dickens and Carroll, two of my favorite writers!

Good thoughts,

Bob

I'm sure Cary Grant was something to do with the formation of the Magic Castle and Adrien Brody used to do magic shows as a kid.

According to Wikki:

Paul Curry (1917 - 1986) was the vice-president of the Blue Cross Insurance Company of New York, and a famous amateur magician who became well-known in the magic community for inventing highly-original card magic.

Charles Darwin is an interesting one, I like that.
Where did you hear or read about this Jenni?

I watched a documentary where John Fischer suggested that Lewis Caroll,
as an amateur magician, was influenced by Peppers ghost when he wrote about the Cheshire Cat.

jim ferguson wrote:Christopher Biggins
Jeremy Beadle
Guy Hillingworth
Richard Wiseman

Jeremy Beadle... Sleight of hand?