Tom Frank or Grobard the Great

This is an account of my having run across this particular magician at Universal City's CityWalk yesterday evening.

I saw a man setting up and getting ready to perform a magic show. He pulled out a few things and started building his crowd (which at this venue consists of "Hey!" and you've got fifty people). My friend and I stopped to watch and he began his show.

He started by changing a penny into a dime off of a kid's hand via touching it with a box. The patter was shit; the execution, decent. But a decent execution doesn't make a shit trick decent. He then told everyone he was selling that trick for $10.

Ok. A demo show. He could probably make more money doing a decent show, but whatever.

He then pulls out a mental photography deck and does a shitty routine with it and tells everyone it's on sale for $20.

Next was the stripper deck. He announced what it was and that it could do over 100 tricks. He fanned them out and asked me to pick a card. Naturally I took one and was extremely careful not to turn it around, making sure that his trick worked. He then found the card and moved on to a four ace bit with them winding up on the top of a shuffled deck. Great. Whatever.

Then, he explained in detail how each trick worked and how the deck worked. Explained it. To everyone there. Over 30 people, closer to 45 or 50.

I was amazingly upset. I get it. He makes a living selling magic gimmicks. But at what point is deliberately exposing how a gimmicked deck works, a deck you're selling, become okay? What the hell? I was most upset because I was so careful to make sure his trick worked, upholding my end of the Magician's Oath and then he blatantly and intentionally exposed how it worked to everyone within earshot.

His website is www.industrialstrengthmagic.com.

~Cameron Rivers, Kings To You Magic