Watching Dai Vernon on some of the old Revelations tapes the other day. Michael Ammar is doing the Spellbound move for him and his thumb is sticking up in kind of a weird way. Ammar explains he came up with a variation on the move and demonstrates it for Vernon.  To which Vernon simply says, “I’d never do it that way.” He was referring to the move with the thumb sticking way out. It’s just not natural, Vernon goes on to explain. After all, Dai Vernon is the king of the naturals.

Which got me thinking. Often I spend a lot of time worrying about is something looks natural or if the move I’m doing is contrived looking. The Professor never worried about that. Being natural was where he was coming from all the time. It was his way of being. He never had to ask himself if what he was doing was natural because he was the source of the action. And he was always being natural.

Even though Vernon is really old and unable to perform some of the moves in the DVDs, they’re still worth looking at to hear his thoughts on magic and to get some history from someone who was actually right there experiencing the Golden Age of close up magic. I find many of his conversations to be absolutely fascinating. There aren’t too many people out there who love magic as much as he did, with every fiber of his being.

Just some thoughts…