Al Schneider (magician)

Last updated
Al Schneider
Born
Alvin Duane Schneider

(1943-02-03) February 3, 1943 (age 80)
Detroit, Michigan
NationalityAmerican
Years active1960–present
Known forMagician

Alvin Duane Schneider (born February 3, 1943) is an American magician, author, physicist and mathematician known for his contributions to magic. He developed the Matrix magic trick, a modern version of Yank Hoe's "Sympathetic Coins". [1]

Contents

Biography

Schneider was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. He lived in Minneapolis, Minnesota, for most of his life and spent a year in Denver, Colorado. He started in magic in 1960 during his senior year in high school. In 1967, Schneider graduated from Wayne State University with a degree in physics after seven years of part-time schooling. During his free time, he studied magic, working toward his goal of a career in professional magic.

In 1960, Schneider developed the Matrix magic trick, where four cards are placed over four coins, and the coins then invisibly move between cards. Matrix is a modernized version of Yank Hoe's "Sympathetic Coins." Countless magicians have since developed variations and improvements upon the effect, cementing Schneider's legacy in the annals of coin conjuring.

In 1969, Schneider left his job as a mathematician for Uniroyal and accepted a position as a systems analyst for Univac, specializing in computers. Univac transferred him to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he worked as a systems programmer.

In 1972, he began writing and publishing magic books after the computer industry suffered a downturn. He worked as an editor of the house organ Goldshadow Newsletter and also as a dealer for Goldshadow Industries. Schneider theorized that "misdirection, while essential for effective magic, is actually a supporting technique for the greater concept of hiding the spectators' false assumptions." [2]

Since early 2001, he has operated a web page sharing magic information titled World Magic Center.

Schneider was also interested in full-contact karate, sword fighting, golf, skiing, theoretical physics, and quantum mechanics. Schneider gave magic lessons to a magician duo who tricked Penn and Teller on Penn & Teller: Fool Us with a magic routine called "A Mother's Love." [3]

Books

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martin Gardner</span> American mathematics and science writer (1914–2010)

Martin Gardner was an American popular mathematics and popular science writer with interests also encompassing scientific skepticism, micromagic, philosophy, religion, and literature – especially the writings of Lewis Carroll, L. Frank Baum, and G. K. Chesterton. He was also a leading authority on Lewis Carroll. The Annotated Alice, which incorporated the text of Carroll's two Alice books, was his most successful work and sold over a million copies. He had a lifelong interest in magic and illusion and in 1999, MAGIC magazine named him as one of the "100 Most Influential Magicians of the Twentieth Century". He was considered the doyen of American puzzlers. He was a prolific and versatile author, publishing more than 100 books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Penn & Teller</span> American illusionists and entertainers

Penn & Teller, Penn Jillette and Teller, are American magicians, entertainers, and scientific skeptics who have performed together since the late 1970s. They are noted for their ongoing act that combines elements of comedy with magic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Penn Jillette</span> American magician and actor (born 1955)

Penn Fraser Jillette is an American magician, actor, musician, inventor, television presenter, and author, best known for his work with fellow magician Teller as half of the team Penn & Teller. The duo has been featured in numerous stage and television shows, such as Penn & Teller: Fool Us and Penn & Teller: Bullshit!, and is currently headlining in Las Vegas at The Rio. Jillette serves as the act's orator and raconteur.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mentalism</span> Performing art in which practitioners appear to demonstrate exceptional mental abilities

Mentalism is a performing art in which its practitioners, known as mentalists, appear to demonstrate highly developed mental or intuitive abilities. Performances may appear to include hypnosis, telepathy, clairvoyance, divination, precognition, psychokinesis, mediumship, mind control, memory feats, deduction, and rapid mathematics. Mentalists perform a theatrical act that includes special effects that may appear to employ psychic or supernatural forces but that are actually achieved by "ordinary conjuring means", natural human abilities, and an in-depth understanding of key principles from human psychology or other behavioral sciences.

The Indian rope trick is a magic trick said to have been performed in and around India during the 19th century. Sometimes described as "the world’s greatest illusion", it reputedly involved a magician, a length of rope, and one or more boy assistants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Teller (magician)</span> American magician (born 1948)

Teller is an American magician. He is half of the comedy magic duo Penn & Teller, along with Penn Jillette, and usually does not speak during performances. Teller, along with Jillette, is an H.L. Mencken Fellow at the Cato Institute.

Penn & Teller's Magic and Mystery Tour is a 2003 television documentary miniseries starring Penn & Teller. The program was created by the CBC in association with Channel 4 Film. Ric Esther Bienstock was series producer and writer. She also directed the China episode.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Gertner</span>

Paul Gertner is an American close-up magician from Pittsburgh. He is best known in the magic world for his Steel and Silver book and set of DVDs.

<i>Penn & Tellers Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends</i> 1987 American film

Penn & Teller's Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends is a 1987 direct-to-video program hosted by magicians Penn & Teller. Produced by The Mofo Video Corp. and released by Lorimar Home Video, the tape features seven different swindles or tricks that the home viewer can use to fool their friends. The tape was a companion piece to their best-selling book of the same name, released two years later. All of the tricks involve using a portion of the videotape.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joshua Jay</span>

Joshua Jay is an American magician, author, and lecturer. He has performed in over 100 countries and was awarded top prize at the World Magic Seminar in 1998. He fooled Penn and Teller on the show Fool Us, and he holds a Guinness World Record for card tricks. Jay has performed on shows including Good Morning America and The Today Show. In January 2018, Jay was recognized by the Society of American Magicians for his contribution to the art of magic.

Platform magic is magic that is done for larger audiences than close-up magic and for smaller audiences than stage magic. It is more intimate than stage magic because it does not require expensive, large-scale stage equipment and can thus be performed closer to the audience and without a stage. Many of the tricks performed by platform magicians are sufficiently angle-sensitive as to make them impossible to perform as micromagic. Most working magicians are parlor/platform magicians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chink-a-chink</span> Magic trick involving coins

Chink-a-chink is a simple close-up magic coin trick in which a variety of small objects, usually four, appear to magically transport themselves from location to location when covered by the performer's hands, until the items end up gathered together in the same place. Variations, especially the Sympathetic Coins also known as Coins-n-Cards, have been performed since the 1800s. Popular modern variations are Shadow Coins and Matrix. A variation using playing cards as the objects is known as Sympathetic Aces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shawn Farquhar</span> Canadian magician

Shawn Farquhar is a Canadian magician and illusionist notable for his title as the "Grand Prix World Champion of Magic" from the International Federation of Magic Societies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magic (illusion)</span> Performing art involving the use of illusion

Magic, which encompasses the subgenres of illusion, stage magic, and close-up magic, among others, is a performing art in which audiences are entertained by tricks, effects, or illusions of seemingly impossible feats, using natural means. It is to be distinguished from paranormal magic which are effects claimed to be created through supernatural means. It is one of the oldest performing arts in the world.

Michael Vincent is a British magician. He won The Magic Circle's Close-up Magician of the Year award three times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piff the Magic Dragon</span> British magician and comedian

John van der Put is an English magician and comedian, who performs under the stage name Piff the Magic Dragon. A winner of multiple awards from British magic societies, he toured as a supporting act for Mumford and Sons and has appeared on Penn & Teller: Fool Us and America's Got Talent. In June 2019, van der Put was named one of Variety's 10 Comics to Watch for 2019. Van der Put lives in Las Vegas and has a residency at The Flamingo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kostya Kimlat</span>

Kostya Kimlat is a Ukrainian-American magician, motivational speaker, entrepreneur, and business consultant. With the use of magic tricks, Kimlat helps companies train employees. As a speaker, he lectures on the importance of perception in daily life through magic and sleight of hand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shin Lim</span> Canadian-American magician

Liang-Shun Lim, known professionally as Shin Lim, is a Canadian-American magician, recognized for his use of card manipulation and sleight of hand. He is known for elaborate close-up card magic routines, during which he remains silent with the tricks set to music. He is self-taught, having learned most of his skills from watching YouTube, and has in turn shared some of his own techniques in videos on the site.

Ryan Lam known professionally as Ryan Hayashi, is a Chinese Canadian magician, mentalist and performer. Hayashi focuses on coin magic and is known for his coin matrix. He also works in other forms of magic including cards, mentalism and displays of skill such as blindfolded performances with a samurai sword. Hayashi has performed magic in 18 different countries. He is a self-described "samurai entertainer" and has performed on multiple talent contests including Germany's Got Talent, Britain's Got Talent and Czechoslovakia's Got Talent.

Yank Hoe was an Italian magician known for performing the trick "Card through Cigarette" and inventing "Sympathetic Coins" also known as "Coins-n-Cards". Hoe began performing in London at the Trocadero in December 1885.

References

  1. Matrix Coin Trick by Al Schneider in Genii 1970 November, Vol. 35, No. 3, page 123.
  2. Cameron H. Malin, Terry Gudaitis, Thomas Holt, and Max Kilger (30 June 2017). Deception in the Digital Age: Exploiting and Defending Human Targets through Computer-Mediated Communications. Elsevier. pp. 20–. ISBN   978-0-12-411639-9.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. Pioneer Press (2015-10-06). "Twin Cities magician actually tricked Penn and Teller". Twin Cities. Retrieved 19 December 2019.

Further reading