now sleight of hand uh is the uh
i'm sorry i'm influenced by jackie chan
so um
i like to combine my martial arts skill
with with card tricks
uh let's talk about it slate of hand
you've got you've got a deck of cards
there uh yeah i'm never anywhere without
them this is how i defend myself
but they're actually uh there's so many
variants of what you can do with side of
hand so let me start by showing you uh
uh some flourishy concept can i get you
to just touch your card
touch a card any card anyone okay uh
that guy right there
the jack of spades yes okay so now let's
try to do something uh kind of unusual
with the jack of spades
this would be considered a manipulative
manipulative so one card of 52
yes the jack of spades this is tough as
an opener
the jack of spades watch this
oh my god look at that
well on my way to the luckiest night of
my life
incredible and uh is that something well
i'm not going to ask you i'm not going
to ask if that's something i could learn
uh you know um don't ask me okay i want
to ask you that
incredible what else do you have for us
um well i can show you something in a
different way well why don't you take
care of this time that i don't see maybe
some people would consider this more
difficult
okay can i show that yeah why don't you
show that uh up to the audience yeah
okay you look away well wait there's a
monitor everywhere i don't know how to
why don't you close your eyes no i hate
that okay close your eyes right there
you don't like having your eyes closed
what do you think you're going to be
attacked or something
indeed there we go right there you can
all see that right there okay
we've taken care of things yes now you
have to put it back i mean that is
important
uh so so let's see there are a number of
things to do from this particular
position so you've
selected a card somewhere in the deck
and this is a more surreal approach i
suppose to
the concept of sleight of hand because
i'm going to ask you questions
and i'm going to try to learn things
that i couldn't possibly know
as a clue to finding your card okay so
uh
i'm going to try to spell things uh
yeah here's what i'm going to ask you
things that i couldn't know in advance
if i asked you your
name or where you lived i know so what
do your favorite fish you know where i
live
[Applause]
you creep i'm sorry my favorite fish
your favorite fish i love swordfish
swordfish s-w-o-r-d
uh fish f-i-s-h sword fish
there's no way that i could have known
that swordfish some people say the pen
is mightier than the sword yeah 10 p-e
and
the penn writers conference the man they
wouldn't let come over for the writers
conference gabrielle garcia marquez
m-a-r-q-u-e-z who's right now teaching a
course in mexico
with rizor kapuchinsky the famous polish
writer
k-a-p cop uh s-u-c-i-n-s-k-i who's your
favorite author
my favorite author s.j parrelman
pearlman p-e-r is it e-l
yeah e-l-m-a-m-a-n
all right and what is the card which you
actually took the one
can you still remember it was a long
time can i say yes please four of
diamonds four examples f
o yeah four u r o f
d i a m o n d s the four of diamonds
the only thing i know is you're a little
slow on your spelling sometimes
and for a man your age it's actually
shocking you had you had trouble with
fish
and that that scared me all right um
let's let's let's
i want to kick things up and i'm taking
this from emerald but i want to knock
things up a notch
how so what's cook no
no i want to take it to the next level
you can use cards
uh i've heard that you can use cards
almost as a weapon
i wrote a book called cards weapons well
there you go that's probably where i got
the idea yeah it's a martial arts device
like the shuriken yeah
it's a martial arts device this is
something that that jackie chan could
learn something from
i i can't imagine that's the case but
i'd love for him to watch sure
let's see this tell me what you do okay
uh can i walk over to the uh to the
table over here
uh no yes of course where do i go do i
stay here i don't know
many of you know that i throw cards
further and further than anyone in the
world
thank you very much i'd like to do a
brief demonstration of that perhaps you
know you'll understand that if i was
throwing that at your head
it would be tough yeah i'm going to get
you big okay
look at that he's blocking them
[Applause]
[Laughter]
are you all right okay i was frightened
for you jackie
but i know what you're saying sure this
man can throw cards with incredible
speed and chill and accuracy
but can he throw a card and have that
card return to his hand
a simulacrum of the australian boomerang
but i know what you're saying sure this
man can throw cards and have them return
to his hand
a simulacrum of the australian boomerang
can he defend himself
against fruit
[Laughter]
ladies and gentlemen i will not waste
your time with kumquats pears are pruned
no no no
the most prodigious of household fruits
his majesty the watermelon
i'll attempt to penetrate the rich red
interior
of said melon with a few perfectly
placed tosses
from the ordinary pack watch me work
yes yes
yes yes yes
yes why is he still doing this yes
yes yes i think it's i think you killed
it i think
yes ladies and gentlemen please notice
this
my last two shots have landed in exactly
the same
slit in the watermelon a feat so
impressive
i am forced to mention it myself
understand i can continue to throw coins
in the same slit in the melon all night
long
but it's too much fun for the melon
but i know what you're saying you're
saying sure this man before cries into
the rich red interior
of said melon can he penetrate the even
thicker pachydermatis outer melon layer
yes
no who the hell to do that
but encouraged by your approbation i
will attempt to penetrate the thicker
pachydermatis outer melon layer
this scares the melon
this wounds the melon
yes
very nice work thank you uh i should
mention on the stem
is now playing at the second stage
theater right here in new york city
fantastic show people love this show
four more weeks we just added and uh
i'd love for people to come you're out
of breath fighting a watermelon
[Applause]
i think it was from that moment when you
jumped down and attacked right now yeah
you also have a book out uh one of your
many books but this
is the latest next week yes dice
deception fate and rotten luck appears
in bookstores
next week a real thrill having you here
thank you very much ricky j will take a
break we'll be right back
you