Card Under Glass from “The Art of Magic”

Originally published 12.3.2008

This is one of my favorite clips from the PBS documentary, The Art of Magic.  (Write and tell them they should re-release it on DVD!)

The Card Under Glass is a classic of Magic Bar, the creation of the seminal Magic Bartender, Al “Heba Haba” Andrucci (about whom I wrote in “A Brief History of Magic Bar,” which originally appeared in Genii magazine and was subsequently reprinted in my book, Shattering Illusions. I developed my own routine, from which this excerpt is drawn, as Magic Bartender at the Inn of Magic in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC, circa 1985/86.  Two weeks ago I had a great time performing it at the W.C. Fields Bar in the Magic Castle in Hollywood.