Clarke Crandall was a genius, especially a verbal genius. You are correct that he had a warm heart under his crusty act.

At a small convention sometime in the 1960's or 70's, my girlfriend and I were sitting at a table between activities when Crandall walked up and joined us. He talked and entertained us for two hours, teaching me dice stacking and keeping us in stitches with an avalanche of witty talk. He also talked about his personal problems and aspirations as if we were his closest friends.

It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and I'll never forget him.

Best regards,
Glenn Godsey

Great story and I don't think you are alone in fond memories of Clarke Crandall, the people at Abbotts thought so much of him that their Comedy Award to this day is called the "Senator Crandall Award For Comedy". The last 3 winners at the annual Get Together were (if I remember right) Oscar Munoz, Tom Burgoon, and Stephen Bargatze so the Senator is still in good company.

Valentines Day, 2010, the place to be will be http://topsmag.com as "The Senator" returns to Tops Magazine for the first time in about 35 years.

Apologies in advance to Hubert and anyone else this article offends.

Actually, there are a couple of tricks explained in that book. The real work on the Hummer Whirlaway card is in there. Not all of it, but the crucial part that made it work for Bob Hummer.

It's difficult to get younger magicians to read anything! If it isn't on DVD, they're not interested! - Very sad.

On topic, I used to buy New Tops only for the Crandall and George Johnstone columns. Eric 'Nitwit' Williams used to write funny but insightful material in Abracadabra.
Unfortunately no one seems to write like that any more.

Leslie

Leslie

When I first started receiving New Tops the Senator had already passed away.

I remember my New Tops reading routine well, always going to Sid Lorraines's article first because he did reviews of things I could afford, then David Seebach's article because he talked about things I could not afford.

As said earlier, I only remembered the Senators book because of the blurred cover on a youtube blurb we did promoting his book a while back.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLWy-bWyl58

Heres a very funny Crandall story also on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mf_de-8_ClQ

Sen. Crandall is also on the Mystic Craig dvd set.

Crandall also dispensed a series of salty one-liners in the 70's Talisman newsletter.

Wasn't there a series of little pink(?) booklets by Crandall, too?

Julie

Crandall came to a New Orleans IBM-SAM convention in the early sixties with his version of Gwendolyn. His presentation was a riot. I recently came across the duck trick in a 1950s Kanter catalog. Did not realize it was that old.

Late response, yes I ran across my set of them recently. I also ran across a set of the "Comments" booklets he published after he was banned from the NEW TOPS.

Gil Scot

O.k., we are waiting. Why was he banned from the NEW TOPS?

According to Greg Bordner from Abbotts he was not banned from the New Tops but censored.

We just uploaded "The Best of Senator Crandall" as a $4 download. In the introduction by the Senator he compliments Neil Foster on his wisdom in editing his column.

http://abbottmagic.com/Instant-Download-......alll.htm

Greg may be right about Crandall being censored not banned but the upshot was he no longer wrote for New Tops.

Gil Scott

Clark also invented and sold his version of the Brainwave Deck. I bought one from him and loved it, but I lost it in a move from CA to TX. Anybody have one they want to get rid of ?

Senator Crandall's one-hand version of six-card repeat as published in Tarbell 6 is phenomenal, and is clearly a seminal piece of work revered and used as a "starter set" in much of the thinking behind other great magicians' versions of this great classic trick.

I may be wrong, but it looks to me like Pop Haydn has incorporated much of Crandall's one-handed six-card repeat "bits" in his most recent version of this trick.

I highly reccomend looking this up in Tarbell 6!

For anyone interested there is a complete re-working of the Crandall One-handed Six Card Repeat in 'Magictales Two'; It concludes with a strong finish (for the lack of which the original has often been criticized).

Leslie.

Bill Tadlock, my mentor when I was fourteen, was a friend of Crandall's and Monk Watson's, and he played an audio tape for me that Crandall had made teaching how to play the banjo--"You have to tune this string until just before it breaks..." I met Crandall a little after that at Abbott's Magic Convention. He was quite a character, and a big influence on me. My Six Card Trick is based on a combination of Crandall's and Roy Benson's. I think that much of Crandall's routine came from Benson, but the comedy was his own.

Pop:

I bought your six card repeat DVD just to learn your routine. Thank you for putting your versions of classic magic on video. Your version of the Six Card Trick is terriffic.