INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA [Assembly Report for April 2006]
Harry Riser Assembly No. 31
President: Ken Kern
Secretary: Paul Harnishfeger
Meets the first Monday, 7 PM at Mystic Tai Lodge, SE corner of Illinois & North St.

Harry Riser Honored At Book Signing Event

Harry Riser, Assembly 31 namesake, was honored by local magicians on the occasion of the release of his second book, Secrets of an Escamoteur. Mr. Riser presented a 2 hour lecture using material from his book. Chapter 1 of the book begins with â??Travels with Charlieâ??, that is Charlie Miller. An important topic was the Malini-Miller Egg Bag. Harry acknowledged that his wife Margy probably had as much to do with the construction of the egg bag as Charlie and Harry did with the routine. The plans to make an egg bag and Harryâ??s presentation are included in the book. We were treated to a live performance of Harryâ??s egg bag routine.

Harry discussed card handling techniques. These are brilliantly discussed in his book. Some mentioned include carrying a break, second dealing, gauging and estimating, using a corner short card, the double lift, clever cuts, card controls, and spectator management.

Chapter 2, Dreams from Flatland, and Chapter 3, In the Land of the Faro, include a plethora of wonderful card tricks inspired by some of Harryâ??s closest friends in magic. Harry discussed the original and how he improved the handling of the trick. Harry performed The Descending Cards Revisited where a selected card is lost in the deck and appears when the deck is released inside a card box. Harry continued with Almost Legitimate Cutting the Aces where a one handed cut produces an ace each time after the deck is apparently shuffled. Harry performed his world famous Three Ring Routine fully described in Chapter 4. Harry continued with Gauging the Aces where two spectators cut four packets from a shuffled deck and it is found they have cut to the four aces. Harry concluded the evening with Anywhere and Somewhere where a selected card is lost and three cards are shown not to be the selected card, but one of the three magically turns into the selected card.

Secrets of an Escamoteur is an excellent companion to Harryâ??s first book, Feints and Temps of Harry Riser. These two books represent a life time love affair with magic inspired by great masters of magic. Harry Riser, once a student of magic has become a master magician himself. The evening ended with Harry signing books for all of the magicians that attended this splendid evening honoring our mentor and friend, Harry Riser.

Bob Vasileff, Scribe