Dai Vernon — The Professor, the master of close-up

Houdini had one claim: 'Do a trick three times in front of me and I'll know how it works.' In 1922 a young Canadian approached him in Chicago, performed the same card trick seven times — and Houdini gave up. That young man was Dai Vernon, who later became known as The Professor: the master teacher of all modern close-up magic.

The man who fooled Houdini

Vernon wasn't a show magician with expensive props. He worked with a deck of cards, a few coins and his hands. His secret was naturalness: his movements looked like those of an ordinary card player, not a magician.

The trick that fooled Houdini was the Ambitious Card: a card that keeps appearing on top of the deck no matter how many times you put it in the middle. Vernon had developed a new variation Houdini didn't know — and it became his signature for life.

The Magic Castle and his disciples

From 1963 Vernon was resident magician at the Magic Castle in Hollywood. He sat there every evening, with a glass of cognac and a deck of cards, teaching the new generation everything he knew. Among his pupils: Ricky Jay, Doug Henning, Steve Martin and hundreds of others who would later become famous.

His book 'The Dai Vernon Book of Magic' (1957) is still the standard work for close-up. Every modern card magician has read it — some of them dozens of times.

✦Born: 11 June 1894, Ottawa, Canada
✦Died: 21 August 1992, Los Angeles (age 98)
✦Nickname: The Professor
✦Famous for: Ambitious Card, Triumph, Cups & Balls Routine

His philosophy: naturalness is everything

Vernon preached a revolutionary principle: 'Be natural.' No pose, no drama, no attention-seeking. A magician who looks like a magician has already lost — because the audience braces for a trick. A magician who just chats and 'accidentally' makes magic is unbeatable.

He died in 1992, ninety-eight years old, still curious, still experimenting. His pupils say: 'He invented something new every evening.'