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Dai Vernon (1894–1992) was a Canadian magician who's expert sleight-of-hand technique and extensive knowledge garnered him universal respect among fellow magicians and the nickname of The Professor. His influence was considerable in the magic world with his generous mentoring to a number of famous magicians. He lived out his last years at the Magic Castle.
Biography
Due to his extraordinary skill at sleight of hand, Dai Vernon is affectionately called The Professor. Harry Houdini (who in his early years billed himself as "The King of Kards") often boasted that if he saw a card trick performed three times in a row he would be able to figure it out. Vernon then showed Houdini a trick, where he removed the top card of the deck and placed it in the middle, and then turned over the top card to again reveal the original card. Houdini watched Vernon do the trick seven times, each time insisting that Vernon "do it again". Finally Houdini's wife, and Vernon's friends said, "Face it Houdini, you're fooled." For years afterward, Vernon used the title "The Man Who Fooled Houdini" in his advertisements.
Vernon first fell in love with magic when he was eight years old after his father took him to see a magic show. The first real magic book he ever owned was an early edition of perhaps the most famous card book of them all, "Expert at the Card Table", by S. W. Erdnase. By the time he was 13 he had completely memorized the contents of the book. He also had a famous encounter with another up-and-coming young magician from his town who asked Vernon, "What kind of magic do you do?" Vernon responded by asking the boy to name a card. Upon pulling a pack of cards from his pocket, Vernon turned over the top card of the deck to reveal the named card and replied to the speechless boy, "That's the kind of magic I do. What kind of magic do you do?"