Posted by Ian on 2009-07-25
in Magician
The death was announced this week of one of my earliest heroes in magic. It was at a period in my life when I was obsessed by cards and had totally unrealistic dreams of becoming an international gambler. If I had pursued that aim I could have done worse than modelled myself on Martin Nash, otherwise known as the Charming Cheat.
As far as I’m aware Martin Nash only used his considerable skills for entertainment purposes; but in his appearance he lived up to his name, right down to the finely groomed moustache, the oiled back hair, the expensive suit and the flamboyant rings.
Over the course of five years, from 1975 to 1979, he produced a trilogy of books – all written by Stephen Minch - covering his remarkable output of card magic. They were called Ever So Sleightly, Any Second Now and Sleight Unseen. I devoured the contents when they came out and still perform to this day a couple of his routines: the modestly entitled $10,000 Ace and Aces for Experts Only.
I am looking at my three copies now in their rather old fashioned comb bindings. They are all signed to me by Martin with little inscriptions – my favourite being “May the ‘Shuffled Deck of Life’ deal you only happiness.” With anybody else those words might sound a little hackneyed; but not coming from his pen.
In 1983 he came over to the UK to do a lecture organised by my friends, Chris Power and JJ. He stayed in my house in London - I was living in Tooting Bec then - for a few days and he was most put out that it was so far from the flesh pots of Soho! It wasn’t only in the way of cards that he epitomised being a cheat.
In his lecture he demonstrated he’s one of the few whose reputation in performance actually exceeded ones expectations from reading the books. Although I did catch him out with one of his sleights – The Flip Switch: a mid-air double lift colour change. I could never master it and asked him if he could show it to me: he couldn’t do it either!
He had some great stories about how to impress people. When he had arranged a meeting with someone who he hadn’t met before, he made sure he found out what they looked like. He would always arrive early at the meeting place and immediately approach them shaking them by the hand and saying their name. When buying lunch he would get them to order first; and then order something which was just a little bit more expensive.
Another comment I remember was with reference to his business card – which just had his telephone number on it. “If they can’t afford to ring me, they can’t afford to book me”, he said. And when it came to his magic, he said he constructed his routines like a Shakespearian play.
I like to think that even as I’m writing this he’s swindling the Bard out of some of his royalties in a celestial game of cards.
As far as I’m aware Martin Nash only used his considerable skills for entertainment purposes; but in his appearance he lived up to his name, right down to the finely groomed moustache, the oiled back hair, the expensive suit and the flamboyant rings.
Over the course of five years, from 1975 to 1979, he produced a trilogy of books – all written by Stephen Minch - covering his remarkable output of card magic. They were called Ever So Sleightly, Any Second Now and Sleight Unseen. I devoured the contents when they came out and still perform to this day a couple of his routines: the modestly entitled $10,000 Ace and Aces for Experts Only.
I am looking at my three copies now in their rather old fashioned comb bindings. They are all signed to me by Martin with little inscriptions – my favourite being “May the ‘Shuffled Deck of Life’ deal you only happiness.” With anybody else those words might sound a little hackneyed; but not coming from his pen.
In 1983 he came over to the UK to do a lecture organised by my friends, Chris Power and JJ. He stayed in my house in London - I was living in Tooting Bec then - for a few days and he was most put out that it was so far from the flesh pots of Soho! It wasn’t only in the way of cards that he epitomised being a cheat.
In his lecture he demonstrated he’s one of the few whose reputation in performance actually exceeded ones expectations from reading the books. Although I did catch him out with one of his sleights – The Flip Switch: a mid-air double lift colour change. I could never master it and asked him if he could show it to me: he couldn’t do it either!
He had some great stories about how to impress people. When he had arranged a meeting with someone who he hadn’t met before, he made sure he found out what they looked like. He would always arrive early at the meeting place and immediately approach them shaking them by the hand and saying their name. When buying lunch he would get them to order first; and then order something which was just a little bit more expensive.
Another comment I remember was with reference to his business card – which just had his telephone number on it. “If they can’t afford to ring me, they can’t afford to book me”, he said. And when it came to his magic, he said he constructed his routines like a Shakespearian play.
I like to think that even as I’m writing this he’s swindling the Bard out of some of his royalties in a celestial game of cards.
