|
|
Go to page 1~2 [Next] | ||||||||||
Anatole Inner circle 1912 Posts |
In the "Magicians of Old" section of the Café I talked about Vernon's Farewell Lecture Tour in Norfolk, Virginia. Vernon was travelling with the legendary master of card fanning, Joe Cossari. One of the attendees took photos of the lecture, with one particularly nice shot of Joe doing his card fanning routine, which I have scanned and attached to this post.
The cards Joe is using seem to be the Indian (read: native American) back design that was popular among card manipulators I think around the 1940's or 1950's. The method he used seems to be similar to the double fan routine called "Fan Finale" from Ganson's _Routined Manipulations, Volume I pages 41-49. Can anyone tell me the make and back design of the cards Joe is using? As I said, I've seen these cards used by other magicians in the 50's and 60's and I think they may have appeared in photos in other books on card fanning and manipulation. Joe got a standing ovation when he performed his routine after the midpoint break in Vernon's lecture. As he took his bow, he said to the Professor, "See?! I told you they'd love it!" And we did! Joe sold lecture notes of his card fanning act, and I think when he retired it, he offered it up for sale in a GENII advertisement. Does anyone know if anyone actually acquired the rights to the act. Joe also did a fanning routine with fluorescent cards under blacklight. I never saw it, but I've heard from those who did see it that it was pretty spectacular. I think the blacklight sequence was included in the sale of the act. ----- Amado "Sonny" Narvaez
----- Sonny Narvaez
|
|||||||||
Levent Special user USA 801 Posts |
Hi Sonny:
Take a look at my fanning deck collection here: http://web.mac.com/leventmagic/LeventMag......ion.html And let me know if you see the decks that Joe had used. The decks that Joe had sold (with his photo in the back) is on the top two rows, the 12th deck from the left. The Indian decks might be on the 3rd and 4th row down and the 3rd decks from the left. Best regards, Levent http://www.LeventMagic.com http://www.MagicQandA.com
Levent
www.LeventMagic.com |
|||||||||
Bill Hegbli Eternal Order Fort Wayne, Indiana 22797 Posts |
I purchased the Joe Cossari notes of his act. It is only a few pages with drawings but nothing earth shattering.
The decks offered with his picture in the center were sold or are sold by Haines House of Cards. Haines no longer has a web site, so you have to telephone them for information and purchase. I purchased 2 decks. The colors are not bright but more pastel looking. If I remember correctly the notes are available from Haines also. It may be good to note that this type of act is not really considered magic presentation, but a demonistration of skill only and designs that can be made and created with playing cards. |
|||||||||
Anatole Inner circle 1912 Posts |
Levent,
Those are the cards exactly! I think I also saw them on eBay a year or two ago. Can you tell me the manufacturer? Also, in row two a little to the right of center you display what looks like the Harry Stanley Unique Studios fanning deck--twice--followed by what I think is an Abbott fanning deck that borrowed a lot from the Unique Studios design. The Unique studio cards are what I think Johnny Hart used on his Ed Sullivan appearances. Does that sound right to you? Is there any real difference between the two Unique studios decks? Was Ganson instrumental in designing the Unique Studios deck? I see the Cardini deck is in row five, followed by the two Tannen fanning decks that borrowed liberally from the lower right corner of the Cardini Peau-Deux cards, as did the Cossari deck in row two. Remember the "Buzz Saw" fan flourish from the Goodlette Dodson book? The cards are fanned faces toward the audience showing only the black pips. Then a "buzz saw"effect is performed in which the indices change from black to red pips. It looked much more magical than the standard color changing fan effect, but could only be appreciated by people who were very close to the performer since from a distance I think the red and black pips look the same. I always thought it would be nice if a fanning deck incorporated that concept in its back design where 26 of the cards would have a red stripe and the other 26 blue, so that a more prominent buzz saw effect could be created. Have you ever considered designing your own fanning deck? I sent a design to a custom deck service, and although they faithfully followed my design, the cards themselves had a very thick plastic coating that made them pretty useless. (My design was a combination of some of the Unique Studios deck and the Zinab deck.) ----- Amado "Sonny" Narvaez
----- Sonny Narvaez
|
|||||||||
Levent Special user USA 801 Posts |
Sonny:
It will take some time for me to get my hands on those Indian decks, but I will get back to you with the information soon. I bought those Indian decks from a magician, who had purchased them from Cardini at the dealers room at Tannens Jubilee in the 1960s. They are still sealed in the box. The difference between the two Harry Stanley decks is as follows. The first production run had American indexes and came with a blank faced card. The second production run had European (four corner) indexes and also came with a mostly useless black faced card! Regarding your inquiry, early this year I designed an entirely new kind of fanning deck. In the future my deck will be produced in partnership with Christian "Card Shark" Schenk in Germany. I don't want to talk about the technical features at this time, but I will say that it is very unique and when I showed the prototype to Johnny Thompson a few weeks ago, Johnny told me that it was the best deck of it's kind that he had ever seen! Best regards, Levent http://www.LeventMagic.com http://www.MagicQandA.com
Levent
www.LeventMagic.com |
|||||||||
hugmagic Inner circle 7655 Posts |
The Cosari card rouine was sold by John Fedko in a book form. As to how complete it is or isn't, I really can't say.
I think it is odd everyone raves about Jeff McBride's card work (which is very good) but a lot of those routines can be found in Cosari's card manuscripts. L. L. Henry also used to do a big card fanning routine. He added blacklight to his performances. Richard
Richard E. Hughes, Hughes Magic Inc., 352 N. Prospect St., Ravenna, OH 44266 (330)296-4023
www.hughesmagic.com email-hugmagic@raex.com Write direct as I will be turning off my PM's. |
|||||||||
Levent Special user USA 801 Posts |
We also know that Cardini did a double tiered card fanning routine (whilst wearing gloves) when he needed to extend the time in his act. You can see three photos of him doing this on page 320 of the book "Cardini the Suave Deceiver" by John Fisher.
When we manufacture my fanning decks, I will certainly include an instructional DVD, that will explain a lot of these rarely seen moves from the past. Best regards, Levent http://www.LeventMagic.com http://www.MagicQandA.com
Levent
www.LeventMagic.com |
|||||||||
Bill Hegbli Eternal Order Fort Wayne, Indiana 22797 Posts |
||||||||||
Bill Hegbli Eternal Order Fort Wayne, Indiana 22797 Posts |
Here is a scan of the individual card, the scan does not do it justice.
Click here to view attached image. |
|||||||||
Bill Hegbli Eternal Order Fort Wayne, Indiana 22797 Posts |
Here is a larger scan of the Joe Cossari Fanning Card. They have the Air Cushion Finish. They may be printed on Aviator Brand Card Stock from U.S. Playing Card Company.
Click here to view attached image. |
|||||||||
mtpascoe Inner circle 1932 Posts |
Joe also did an American flag color change of the deck to end his act. He never gave the explanation to that in the Fedko book.
|
|||||||||
Bill Hegbli Eternal Order Fort Wayne, Indiana 22797 Posts |
Quote:
On 2010-08-02 11:26, mtpascoe wrote: The "Fanorama Deck" is mentioned on the last page, #26. It is mentioned but do to it being an Ed Mishell and sold by Haines House of Cards, he just did not explain how the deck was designed. The effect is a Red Fan of cards is created, then a White, then a blue, and finally a fan of the American Flag is shown as a fan of cards. |
|||||||||
Levent Special user USA 801 Posts |
Quote:
On 2010-08-01 22:47, wmhegbli wrote: That's very cool, I've never seen that kind of deck before. Levent http://www.LeventMagic.com http://www.MagicQandA.com
Levent
www.LeventMagic.com |
|||||||||
Levent Special user USA 801 Posts |
Hi Sonny:
I just looked at the Indian decks. They where made in England by the "Universal Playing Card Company - Leeds and London". The box says, "De Luxe Pictorial Playing Cards - Fabric Finish" "The New Bond - Manufactured Specially for F.W. Woolworth & Co. Limited" Attached is a photo of the cards. Best regards, Levent http://www.LeventMagic.com http://www.MagicQandA.com Click here to view attached image.
Levent
www.LeventMagic.com |
|||||||||
Daveandrews Special user London, UK 723 Posts |
Levent, does this mean you are issuing a dvd on card fanning, card fanners etc, similar to your other BB dvd?
Can't wait to see your fanning cards. Many years ago, I use to used the Unique ones, at present I am playing about with a very thin, elongated Japanese deck. Quite like it. Regards, Dave
http://[URL]www.partymagic.org.uk" target="_blank">www.partymagic.org.uk" target="_blank">http://[URL]www.partymagic.org.uk
Winner of KIDabra International's 'People's Choice Award' Winner IBM British Ring Dittia Shield for manipulation x 2 |
|||||||||
Levent Special user USA 801 Posts |
Hi Dave:
Yes, I intend to make a DVD that will accompany my fanning decks, that will fully explain what I know about the subject. It will however be quite awhile before Christian "Card-Shark" Schenk will get around to making the fanning decks as he has a lot of other projects in the works at this time. So this could be a year or two away. When I was a kid I mostly used the Unique decks and sometimes the Tannens deck. Also I used Ed Mishell's Fanorama deck which was terrific and I am sorry that they are now discontinued. Levent http://www.LeventMagic.com http://www.MagicQandA.com
Levent
www.LeventMagic.com |
|||||||||
Anatole Inner circle 1912 Posts |
Ed Mishell's idea for Fanorama was "borrowed" for the American Flag Fanning Deck that you can see advertised at
http://themagicwarehouse.com/CD6471/Amer......eck.html Unfortunately, the concept of the routine was altered so that instead of a double fan finale, you ended up with a normal fan showing the stars and stripes. However... As I recall (I don't have the deck handy) it was possible to rearrange the routining of the new deck so that a double-fan could be incorporated. With the original Ed Mishell deck, I added some extra cards from a second Fanorama deck to increase the number of cards that formed the stripes, thus making for a nicer double fan of the flag. I also threw away the ordinary face card and the full stripe cards, replacing them with two special cards I made from two double blank bridge-sized cards. These special cards were blank on one side and red stripes on the other. Thus when I fanned the deck to show all white cards, there was no danger of any red stripes being visible. I closed the white fan, and in turning the deck over to fan the blue backs, I casually reversed the two blank cards to their striped sides and I was set for the Grand Ol' Flag finale. ----- Amado "Sonny" Narvaez
----- Sonny Narvaez
|
|||||||||
Levent Special user USA 801 Posts |
Hi Sonny:
I have a couple of those American Flag Fanning decks and in my opinion, they really missed the boat by not making it into a complete copy of Ed Mishell's Fanorama deck! I like your improvements for the original Fanorama deck. I personally had a pretty good and snappy handling to the deck and it never failed to get a great reaction! Best regards, Levent http://www.LeventMagic.com http://www.MagicQandA.com
Levent
www.LeventMagic.com |
|||||||||
Anatole Inner circle 1912 Posts |
I had the opportunity once to work with a veteran musician/comedian--Dick... His last name must have been erased when I had my bypass. Anyway, Dick was a trumpet player and we were both booked for the same gig. Dick's band offered to play live music for my act instead of using my pre-recorded music. I have a good sense of improv and took them up on the offer. Before the show, I briefly described my act to the band, what songs I normally used, key moments that required a fanfare... Ordinarily instead of musical accompaniment for the Fanorama, I pattered about what the colors stood for as I fanned each one. They suggested for the reveal of the flag fan a rousing version of the opening bars to George M. Cohan's "You're a Grand Ol' Flag!" It was a great spur of the moment change and the combination brought the house down. (I think good live music is better than canned music anyway.)
I remember part of Dick's comedy presentation centered on how marijuana was something that musicians were into long before hippies made it popular in the 60's. "Kids today call marijuana 'grass'," he said. "That's very imaginative. We oldtimers called it sh*t! We'd get together after a gig and someone would ask, 'Anyone got any good sh*t?'" The crowd loved it! (My apologies if my use of asterisks still offends anyone's sensibilities!) ----- Amado "Sonny" Narvaez
----- Sonny Narvaez
|
|||||||||
Daveandrews Special user London, UK 723 Posts |
Thanks, Levent. Will the dvd be out before the cards? Just so you know, and no pressure, I'm looking forward to it!
Take care, Dave
http://[URL]www.partymagic.org.uk" target="_blank">www.partymagic.org.uk" target="_blank">http://[URL]www.partymagic.org.uk
Winner of KIDabra International's 'People's Choice Award' Winner IBM British Ring Dittia Shield for manipulation x 2 |
|||||||||
The Magic Cafe Forum Index » » Finger/stage manipulation » » Joe Cossari (0 Likes) | ||||||||||
Go to page 1~2 [Next] |
[ Top of Page ] |
All content & postings Copyright © 2001-2024 Steve Brooks. All Rights Reserved. This page was created in 0.06 seconds requiring 5 database queries. |
The views and comments expressed on The Magic Café are not necessarily those of The Magic Café, Steve Brooks, or Steve Brooks Magic. > Privacy Statement < |