Combined with his natural talent as a showman, and a genuine ability to entertain and also to teach, as well as to create and innovate, he quickly became one of the leading names of his time. He emerged from a difficult childhood with a real interest in and love for card magic. While enormously successful in the area of memory training, Harry Lorayne's first love was card magic. I have continued to share some of those techniques with my own children and students (I recently passed on a copy of his book The Memory Book to one of my older children), because it is all so practical and useful, and it really works!īut of particular interest for this article are Harry Lorayne's skills with card magic. I didn't attempt to progress in mastering the advanced memory material that he taught in his books, but even the basic memorization concepts proved enormously helpful throughout my subsequent education in high school and university, and even still today. You can see a clip of a 1988 appearance on the show here and doing a memory demonstration on another TV show in 1958 here. He appeared on national television on many occasions, including regular performances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. He was especially known for being introduced to large audiences of as many as 1000 people or more, and being able to recall the names of every single person. Using the memory techniques that he taught in books and seminars, he would perform remarkable demonstrations of memory for large audiences. He's known not only for his expertise with card magic, but also as a memory training specialist, and is arguably the world's foremost expert in memory training. I first came across one of Harry Lorayne's work as a curious teenager, some time in the 1980s when I stumbled across his books on memory in a public library. It's this Jaw Droppers Lecture, which was released in 2016-17, that is the subject of this review. And better yet: still very adept with his card magic and able to perform a magic lecture at age 90. It's a small miracle that he's still alive, and even more so that he's as active on internet forums as he is. He may have lost some hair over the years, and is no longer the Bilbo Baggins of magic that he once was, but he's still an incredible magician, who has made a prolific and lasting contribution to card magic. After all, it's no small thing to sell sold more than 17 million copies of over 40 books! He has published a large number of classic works on card magic, and was one of the top showman of his time. Those who know something about the history of magic, and who are familiar with the biggest names of card magic from the second half of the 20th century, will certainly recognize Harry Lorayne and be aware of his work. In fact, he's still producing new material, and is currently working on yet another book. Given his age, Harry Lorayne is truly a man from a previous generation, and has outlasted many magicians around him.īut it would be a travesty not to build on the work of those who have preceded us, especially when they are as legendary as Harry Lorayne. Unfortunately it's often the case that only the truly dedicated that will take the time and trouble to look up and work with the experts in card magic that have long preceded them. They might be on the cutting edge of the latest and newest releases of magic, but American magician Harry Lorayne (born in 1926) is before their time. But even though he is a living legend of card magic, it is a reality that many younger magicians are unfamiliar with him. After all, shouldn't everyone in magic know who Harry Lorayne is? As I'm writing this, Harry is now in his early 90s. Some would say that I don't need to ask this question, not least Mr Harry Lorayne himself. Harry Lorayne's 2016 Jaw Droppers LectureĪ rare opportunity to see a 90 year old living legend perform and teach card magic!
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