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SM: Do you then have knowledge of magical props so that you steer clear of what has been done?
Ray: No.
SM: It’s very hard for me to understand how you do this-
Ray: I’m addicted.
SM: That I believe. But if I was going to invent a new card trick I would have to go all the way back to some tome in the 17th century where four aces are placed thusly into the center of the deck proper and are by magick, risen to the top forthwith. See what I’m saying?
Ray: You don’t want to know that.
SM: So you don’t even bother with that sort of thing, you just go right to the source?
Ray: I just work backwards. I begin with the finished product and go backwards. That’s all I do. I’m going to send you a number of my effects and you’ll see. Joe Stevens wrote about my X-spot. He said that no matter what you do with this deck of cards, even burn them, blah, blah, blah, you will never find the secret.
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Scarab Secretary (CL) – (Click the name of the product to visit the product page)
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A great Ray Piatt item! This handy pocket secretary features appointment cards and a notepad inside as well as a business card pocket on the outside. It also allows you to secretly write upon your business card while it is “inside” the wallet pocket! Handcrafted from leather. Use with the Ray Piatt Scarab, (or other nail writer) to make a miraculous prediction. Regular price is $45.00…YOU SAVE $15.00! – $30.00
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$30.00
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SM: I did see the Scarab.
Ray: I sold that to Norm Vanderberg.
SM: Okay. How did you meet the Stevens?
Ray: I’ve known Joe Stevens for twenty-five years and I’ve never met the man. We’ve never ever met.
SM: He does conventions. I’m surprised that you’ve never gone to one of his.
Ray: I’m just not a convention guy. I’m an oddball. I don’t mind admitting it. I don’t play cards; I don’t play pool. I don’t go hunting, I don’t go fishing, and I don’t go bowling. I get invited to go to a local poker game and I never go. I’m out here now in my shop and I’m here twenty-five hours a day. This is my addiction. It’s an obsession. I wake up in the middle of the night and wake my wife up and say, I just had the greatest idea. There’s gonna be cards and they’re gonna be up at the top of the stage… She’d tell me in the morning that I was talking out loud and I can’t remember a thing. But I’m a poor excuse for a human being. That’s all I can say. But I love what I do. My applause comes when I feel that grin on my face after I’ve got the product done. And you’re from Riegelsville…
SM: Yep.
Ray: How about that.
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Piatt’s Prompter (CL) – (Click the name of the product to visit the product page)
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Three books are distributed to spectators. Each is asked to call aloud a number, which is written on the slate. All three spectators are requested to open their books to the page corresponding to their called out numbers. Two are asked to look at the first line of print on that page and concentrate on the last word on that line. The spectator with the dictionary is asked to look at the first word on that page being defined. As the spectators concentrate on their words, you psychically divine that information. The spectators announce their words; the slate is turned around displaying the three words you have written. They match! The slate is self-explaining and self-working. An impressive twist on the “Slate Of Mind” routine. With respects to Peter Warlock. Regular price is $115.00…YOU SAVE 25% ($28.75)
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$86.25
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SM: How old are you?
Ray: I’ll be seventy-two in April.
SM: Twenty years older than me.
Ray: Yeah, I was in the Army. I had no props. I had a deck of cards. I came out with a thing and then about fifteen years later I found out somebody had invented the same thing. It used a piece of clear plastic and it was cut the same size as the card and a pitcher of water. Ten years after I was out they were selling something like that. I don’t know how somebody can invent somebody else’s trick — but as you can see – it can happen.
SM: That happens to me. I write things and then years later it appears on television. Is there some psychic thing where they pick up your idea?
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TENLOC (CL) – (Click the name of the product to visit the product page)
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A great Ray Piatt item! TENLOC – The East Indian lock Mystery. A long time ago in East India, in the area of Ishitar, there were a band of nomadic thieves that roamed the countryside. They were known as the TENLOCS. The villagers got together and built a huge wall around their homes to prevent the TENLOCS from invading their properties and stealing their possessions. A huge “number lock” was installed on the entrance door to prevent the TENLOCS entrance. The secret numbers were changed daily and since a villager could easily forget the new numbers, they carried a set of special cards that by way of a code contained the ways they could always know the correct combination of numbers for the lock for that day. The magician explains that he has a packet of special cards here that contain the exact secret numbers and symbols used by these people many years ago. The magician also produces a number lock that is set to open today using only one of the combinations of numbers that appears on one of these special, coded cards. We will attempt to see if it is possible for you to somehow select the only card containing the secret number combination that will open this lock. As you can see this packet consist of quite a few cards that contain many combinations of numbers. I am going to play a psychic hunch right now and test your psychic ability. Do you have a favorite number between one and ten? The spectator calls out FIVE. She takes the five card and enters the numbers listed on card five – and to the amazement the lock opens! The lock is then closed again, and all the other numbers (listed on the remaining 9 cards) are tried – unsuccessfully to open the lock! This effect works on an interesting principle that could be applied to many other routines too. Regular price is $55.00…YOU SAVE $30.00!
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$25.00
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Ray: Has anyone ever told you a real psychic experience?
SM: I have heard a few, yes.
Ray: Okay. I was nineteen years old. I was seeing a girl from Bethlehem. We were at my Mom and Dad’s house in Phillipsburg and we were going down the basement steps. Now if I’m lying, may God strike me. There was just the four of us. My Dad was half way down and the girl was next. As we were going down the steps, I saw my body on the slanted part of the ceiling, hovering up there. It was an out-of-body-experience, an O.B.E. It went forward a little bit. It scared me. I thought I was possessed. It seemed to take about twenty minutes but it only took a few seconds to go down the steps. We went outside and the girl was still in front of me. Outside she was shaking and she said, I don’t know how to tell you this. She said, I saw you floating up on the ceiling above the steps. I know you weren’t, but I saw you floating over us when we were coming down the steps and I know you weren’t floating but I saw you up there! Now how could she see me floating above the steps when she was in front of me?
Okay, not only was I scared out of my wits because I saw myself floating but how in the world could this girl see what only I saw. This isn’t in print. You’re the first person I’ve ever told this to. I saw it and she saw it too! Nobody can give me an answer to that. Is there ESP, what do you want to call it? Are there psychic happenings? Sure there are. What is it? How did it happen? If you could control that at will, you’d be the richest man in the world. So help me, it’s the truth. True story. At the time, I wouldn’t admit it to her, because I thought I was possessed or something. I would need one of those things where the priest comes in and beats the crap out of you.
SM: (laughing)
Ray: I felt very awkward about it. Then I got married and just forgot about it.
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