QUOTH THE MAVEN - ISSUE 26

Remembering the Thief of Thoughts

Welcome to Cardopolis 26 and Seasons Greetings to you all. As it’s the end of the year, and the season of remembering, I thought I’d put down a few words about Max Maven who died recently. In this newsletter, you’ll find some thoughts and thanks for the time and the magic he shared.

If you are new to Cardopolis, let me remind you that all previous issues are online for reading. Just click here. That’s 25 issues filled with dozens and tricks and videos. All free. If you want to support Cardopolis, then you can do so at the Ko-Fi website for the price of a coffee. Just click the link below.

SOMETHING STRANGE

Something Strange was a paranormal TV series produced for HTV in Bristol, England. It was pitched by Frankie Glass and me. We first met on Simon Drake’s The Secret Cabaret and went on to do several other projects together. In the late 90s, Frankie had made connections with CST, a production company in Bristol, which opened up an opportunity to pitch a couple of paranormal TV series for regional channels. These shows featured magicians and ‘psychics.’ One of them was Something Strange.

I borrowed the title, Something Strange, from Tony Shiels’ 1972 booklet on bizarre magick. Thank you Tony! The intention was to mix interviews and demonstrations from self-proclaimed psychics with performances from a magician, letting the audience compare and contrast the two for themselves rather than openly debunking the paranormal. The magician we had in mind was Max Maven, which is how a local TV station ended up with a Hollywood star. They were really thrilled to have Max. The studio audience loved him and always stayed behind after the show to have a few words with the beguiling Thief of Thoughts.

A SENSORY EXPERIMENT

I liaised with Max about the material he used on the show. One day, too close to recording time to be comfortable, Max told me of a psychological experiment he wanted to do. I’d never heard of it before. It seemed very risky and if it didn’t work, we didn’t have an opening to the show. Max gave me assurances that the item would work and so I took him at his word.

Just as we were about to part and get ready for the show I asked him how many times he had performed the item. ‘Oh, this’ll be the first,’ he said as he turned to go to his dressing room. I was crossing my fingers that night. But Max was right as you shall see in the following video.

Years later I found the stunt mentioned in The Sphinx magazine. You’ll find it in an article by Paul R Rockwood titled The Psychology of Magic (Sphinx, December 1919). Rockwood wrote:

A chautaqua lecturer sometime ago began his lecture by stating that he was a crank on ventilation and was at work now upon an investigation on the circulation of air. He asked their pardon for taking a moment of their time to test the currents in the tent. He then stated that he would scatter a little oil of peppermint on the platform and asked that each one as he smelled the peppermint would raise his hand so that he could see how fast the air in the tent would change. He remarked that those in front would smell it first and that it would probably take one or two minutes for it to reach the back of 'the tent. He opened the bottle and in a minute hands began to go up all over the tent. In a couple of minutes it reached the back rows and hands were raised there. The performer then delivered his lecture on "The Power of Suggestion."

The bottle contained nothing but water. At a test made by psychologists on school children it was found that 73 per cent of 540 children responded to a suggestion of perfume.

HOW TO MAKE AN ENTRANCE

I first met Max Maven at the IBM Convention in Hastings, 1978. I knew the name of Phil Goldstein from the tricks he’d put out but had never seen him perform, which is something he did in the guise of his alter ego Max Maven. It was at the Close Up session that Max made a huge impression on me. The card trick he opened with was absolutely astounding and you’ll find it described later in this newsletter. The trick cleverly softened me up psychologically for the second effect Max performed which I vaguely remember involved a named or selected card.

Max spread the deck facedown across the table and, stressing the impossibility of the effect, asked the participating spectator to push one card out of the deck. The spectator did and one card was separated from the spread. What were the chances of this card being the named one? It all looked so clean. I couldn’t see any way that this would be the card but then I hadn’t foreseen the outcome of his first trick either. And it briefly crossed my mind that if this trick worked, then I really had no idea what Max Maven was doing. This was magic I had never experienced before.

Max turned the card over. It wasn’t the card. ‘Of course not,’ he said, ‘that would be impossible.’ And then carried on to find the card in a different way. The audience laughed, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

I’ve thought a lot about the strategy Max employed that day. He had manipulated the emotions and expectations of the audience beautifully. This was no longer a card trick. This was a moment you would remember for the rest of your life.

NIGHT FLIGHT

When we were in Portugal, working with Luis de Matos and recording the Kayfabe DVD Album, I asked Max about the trick he opened with at Hastings in 1978. Not only did he share its secret, but he agreed to include it on the DVD. Thanks to Luis de Matos I’m able to share the performance and explanation of Max Maven’s Night Flight. Happy Christmas from us!

If you are looking to get some custom fake cards made, I can recommend Dustin Thomas in the USA. You can contact him at makingmagictoo@gmail.com. He made the fake used in Lost & Found as described in Cardopolis 23.

HOW TO MAKE AN EXIT

Late one evening, at the Hastings convention, Max sat down with myself and several friends. Naturally, having been awed by his performances we were enthralled by the man’s company. He was literally the star of the convention and yet here he was happy to chat to us and do card tricks. At the end of this session, Max performed another effect that left a long-lasting impression on me.

It was a prediction effect using a couple of decks of cards. There was some random cutting, counting and various processes that ended with a prediction card in a wallet. It was an interesting effect, but it was the way Max ended his performance that always stuck with me.

He stood up from his seat, bid us goodnight and then, pushing the cards on the table towards us, said, ‘And I never want to see those cards again.’ And then he left. It was the most dramatic exit you could wish for.

I mentioned this trick to Max when we were making the Kayfabe DVD Album in Portugal. Alas, he didn’t remember the trick or the wallet he used for its finale. But I’ve narrowed it down to two things. The first is a routine called Chainsaw which Max published in The New Pentagram (November 1978).

The second is the wallet Max used for another effect at that convention. It was Steve Dusheck’s A Case of Identity. This four-way wallet could produce any one of four playing cards as a prediction, and Chainsaw is a trick that has four possible outcomes. Instead of using the envelope suggested in The New Pentagram, Max used the Dusheck wallet. I found further confirmation that Max used this item at Hastings in an advert by Martin Breese in Abracadabra (25th August, 1979):

At last year's IBM do, Barry and I were completely baffled by an effect that Phil Goldstein showed us. Four cards were chosen in the fairest possible way by a spectator. These are face down and not known. Three of the cards are eliminated and one remains. Prior to all this the performer states that he has 'Chosen the Card for Today.' Quite casually he states that the 'Card for Today' changes every day and is kept in his credit card case. The selected card is turned over and the magician opens the case. Inside behind one of the windows amongst all the credit cards is . . . the very same card! Remember the final four cards allow the spectator to change his mind as often as he wishes. I wrote to friends all over the world and finally discovered where to get the effect and I can tell you now that it is called Case of Identity and it is created by Steve Dusheck of Philadelphia.

I’ve still not seen this Dusheck wallet but I believe it is mentioned in Jerry Mentzer’s Card To Wallet book. If anyone out there has the trick or the book, I’d love to see a scan of the instructions. The trick Max performed for us seemed more involved than the one titled Chainsaw. I don’t know whether I recalled more than I saw or whether Max had a more elaborate version of that trick. But the point of the story is not the trick. It’s the way Max presented it so an audience would remember a magical experience.

THANK YOU

A big thank you to everyone who has been in touch this year. I’ve enjoyed the emails, feedback, and videos readers have shared. Special thanks to anyone who has supported Cardopolis in the past via the Buy Me A Coffee or Ko-Fi platforms. I do appreciate it. As Christmas passes and the New Year looms on the horizon, let’s raise a glass to all those wizards of the past who have shared their thoughts, ideas, and our passion for card magic. We will be paying tribute to more of them in 2023 in the pages of Cardopolis. See you next year.

Best Wishes

David