Note from Martin:

Ray Grismer came to London in 2005 to present his lecture at the MacMillan Magic Convention that year. However, on the day of the lecture, Ray was feeling unwell and the lecture could not go ahead as planned. Instead, a few days later, Ray recorded the lecture privately, with Gordon Bruce and Marco Volino as his assistants. The lecture, in full, is captured on this DVD.

An opportunity to see, listed to, and learn from an old school magician like Ray Grismer is a rarity these days, this DVD gives such an opportunity.

 

The magic effects are strong, they're original and they're varied! There's routines with cards, with finger rings, impromptu magic, coin tricks, mentalism, all performed and fully explained with a gentle charm that'll have you watching again and again. All this along with anecdotes and tips. After all, Ray was a pupil of Dai Vernon's for 30 years, the anecdotes and stories are intriguing and delightful, and in those years of performing among the greats of magic, Ray picked up many tips, practical things how to combat dry hands or how to display a chosen card, he happily passes on to us here.

 

Contents include:

 

Fall:- A coin wrapped inside a banknote, penetrates through the note and a handkerchief to fall into a glass

 

Loopy:- Using only a simple Finger Ring and length of Cord. The Ring is caused to Jump from one Loop in the cord to another.

 

The Grismer Pinch:- Used by so many magicians nowadays, Ray came up with this ultra clean method to enable a Ring to penetrate a Cord. Here you learn it from its creator, plus he shows a variety of Ring off Cord routines, all impromptu and very effective.

 

Static Card Suspension: ;A super simple idea for impromptu magic. Cards are placed in a star formation on the table, the entire star is then suspended from the underside of the performer's hand, simple to do anytime and anywhere. The cards can be borrowed, all is left for thorough examination, and it's done with a simple gimmick that you've likely got at home (Ray repeats the effect doing a similar routine using a borrowed Drinks Can).

 

Sober Shuffle:- A simple to do Triumph routine.

 

Stop Trick:- ;A freely selected Card is found in the position spectator randomly stops at.

 

The Three Choices:- Ray's simple method for naming three randomly selected cards.

 

Spelling Trick:- A freely selected card is spelled to and found to be face up in the position of the final letter.

 

Hip E.S.P:- It looks like and incredible memory stunt, the magician names the order of colours from the centre of a shuffled deck.

 

Psychic Game:- A super simple gambling routine, in which cards from a dealt hand are randomly switched with spectators, yet the magician lands the 4 Aces.

 

World's Fastest Ace Trick:- It's deliberately started slowly, but the Aces assemble in an instant at the finish.

 

Styro Coins (Leon Leon's Coins Across):- A coins across routine, that's as clean as you can get. Coins are dropped into polystyrene cups, yet they transfer across without the magician even touching them.

 

Along the way, Ray has anecdotes of his times with Vernon. How he met him, persuading Vernon to teach him, people they met during the early days of 'The Magic Castle'. Stories involving the likes of Charlie Miller, John Scarne, Larry Jennings and many other Magic Greats. For this alone it's pleasure to watch, add that to the creative magic that Ray introduces us to, and you have a DVD worth its value and much, much more.