Magic Beginnings of Boston Based Magician. Part Two.

Magic Beginnings of Boston Magician Joe Ferranti

In 1973, NBC aired a new show called The Magician, starring Bill Bixby. The program only ran one season. I enjoyed the short cameos of professional magicians. One show had a very short clip of Dai Vernon performing his Cups and Balls routine. It began with a sequence of the vanish of three balls. I had a basic knowledge of sleight of hand and easily understood the vanish of the first two balls.

What fooled me badly was the vanish of the third ball. This is what I saw. Dai placed the third ball in his hand. He merely closed his hand, and when he opened it, the ball was gone. Wow! With my understanding of magic methods, this was not possible. Now I would attempt to find out how this was done.

Magic on TV

I have lived a major part of my life without the internet, and such was the case back in the 1970s. By this time, I had discovered the Joke/Magic Shops in Boston. My wife at that time worked in Boston and would stop at Little Jack Horner’s Joke and Magic Shop on Tremont Street and would pick me up books and various pocket tricks.

Boston got its first Magic Shop in 1975. Hank Lee’s Magic Factory. Just magic, no jokes, no backroom of “magazines”, no smoke products or marijuana paraphernalia. Just magic, from pocket tricks to large illusions. Professional magic by professional magicians. A very special time, Magic Lectures, I.B.M. meetings.

Finally, I knew where to get the secrets I wanted. I tracked down a booklet on Dai Vernon’s Cups and Balls routine for $5. (A bargain for the best Cups and Balls routine.) I learned it and performed it at every opportunity I could find, which was few. (More on this next time.)

Massachusetts Magician Joe Ferranti

Boston Magic show 

Walk Around Magic and The Intimate Magic/Comedy Parlor Show