Magic Tricks

I was working walk around table magic and emcee-ing a comedy club back when "The Masked Magician" was on TV every week. One week, he exposed the exact rising card deck I used nightly (the one with the "weighted action block" that was very popular for many years). I suddenly remembered I had bought this to try out several months back (but preferred my tried & true deck). I decided to make up a few of these "gimmicks" and practiced for the 2 1/2 days I had till performance. That night, a spectator (with a bit of a smug attitude) asked if I could make a card rise out of the deck like he had seen on TV and I told him "I Can". I proceeded to do the effect via Kundalini Rising and just as the card was at the brink of exiting the deck completely, he swiftly grabbed the deck out of my hand and loudly told all of the other 3 guests that I was using a weight and some fishing line in a secret block as he spread thru trying to find a non existent block. His friends ridiculed him and cut him off as he was fairly drunk at that point. He said over and over that "The Masked Magician" exposed that trick earlier in the week. I explained to the group that "The Masked Magician" was a fraud that we magicians pay to spread misinformation about our tricks and he shouldn't feel bad for falling for it. His friends told him a lot worse for being a @#*% about it (and tipped me a $50). Out of sheer luck, when he grabbed the deck, the gimmick sprang right onto my wrist and I was able to repeat the effect for other tables that night. I guess the old saying is rue here - "There is more than one way to skin a ... Oh, I mean Rise A Card" To this day, I still own both methods but use this exclusively due to the reveal on TV by the Masked Magician of the "mechanical method" but I hold it as a memory and a keepsake of that night. Thank You Jeff McBride, for supplying me with an inexpensive item that gave me a priceless memory.