Banksy on advertising

“People are taking the piss out of you everyday. They butt into your life, take a cheap shot at you and then disappear. They leer at you from tall buildings and make you feel small. They make flippant comments from buses that imply you’re not sexy enough and that all the fun is happening somewhere else. They are on TV making your girlfriend feel inadequate. They have access to the most sophisticated technology the world has ever seen and they bully you with it. They are The Advertisers and they are laughing at you.

You, however, are forbidden to touch them. Trademarks, intellectual property rights and copyright law mean advertisers can say what they like wherever they like with total impunity.

Fuck that. Any advert in a public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It’s yours to take, re-arrange and re-use. You can do whatever you like with it. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head.

You owe the companies nothing. Less than nothing, you especially don’t owe them any courtesy. They owe you. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don’t even start asking for theirs.”

- Banksy

Good Luck!

The 5 spaces are allocated on a first come first served basis!

I am holding a Cardworks session on the 22nd of August at Eteaket Tea Boutique & Café (http://www.eteaket.co.uk/) in Edinburgh. It will probably last for 5-6 hours but of course it may go a little longer, it all depends. My aim is to teach you brand new things and improve everything you do with playing-cards. If there is anything in particular that you would like me to talk about then let me know and I’ll do my very best without missing out on the new things that I want to teach. Below is a little more information including some reviews from previous attendees.

Regards

Ben

Cardworks is an exclusive workshop on card magic and card technique. I will be revealing the ‘real work’ behind my routines, techniques and practice methods. Cardworks is designed to appeal to serious students of the art who are ready to take their card magic to a completely new level. It will be an intensive day of focused training, teaching, and exploring. You will learn:

1. Some previously released material
2. Brand new/unpublished material
3. Some of my most prized underground routines and ideas
4. You will receive an exclusive manuscript which is not available anywhere else
5. Showmanship, presentation and new philosophy
6. I will also help Cardworks attendees with their own current moves and routines.

This will be 5-6 hours of intense card work so be prepared for your hands to scream with pain and your brains to ache…but the rewards will be worth it! There are only a limited number of spaces as I feel that a small intimate group is a perfect space for performing, learning and development, therefore I am only looking for a maximum of 5 attendees.

• All food and drink requirements will be provided for the day.
• This day is only for a handful of people (5 maximum) and spaces are allocated on a first come first served basis.
• I will be going through intermediate to advanced material from Past Midnight and Gambit Magazine so if there is anything that you want help with in these publications then let me know in advance.
• A vast portion of the day will concern my new/unpublished/underground work so be prepared to ask questions and get involved.
• You will sign a confidentiality agreement on arrival so that the unpublished routines that you will learn remain a secret between the Cardworks attendees only.

Review from previous attendees:

“Quite genuinely the best £250.00 I have ever spent. There were only five of us; which meant we benefited from some real hands-on training. Ben held nothing back; he taught genuinely astonishing magic, I lost count of the number of times he fooled me. It’s really exciting to have access to this kind of material. But it isn’t the tricks that make this session worthwhile; Ben completely changed what I do, what I aim to achieve when I perform. I was reminded of how great magic can be; given definitive proof that it is cool; that is worthwhile; that it can be elevated to art. He has changed the way I practice, I can’t go in to too much detail, but he taught techniques that will help make my magic infinitely more deceptive. Furthermore, Ben is a genuinely lovely guy who is so passionate about what he does that you can’t help but feel enthused about your own magic. I can’t recommend Cardworks highly enough.” Nick Wait

“I agree with everything Nick has written. I attended Cardworks in the hope of improving some sleights but came away with so much more. It was a lovely relaxed atmosphere that encouraged interaction and questioning. It wasn’t however, just the technical aspects that were impressive, but also Ben’s attitude towards the psychological subtleties that transform good magic into miracles. Throughout the day, Ben demonstrated some incredible things. There were two moments when I became entangled in Ben’s psychological web and the ground beneath me feet began to tremble. I shall never forget those earth-shattering moments – they were monumental. For the first time, I knew exactly where I wanted to take my audience. Where Ben had taken me.” Dan Andrews

The price to attend Cardworks is £250. To reserve your place at Cardworks please make a payment of £250 via Paypal to info@benjaminearl.com

I have 10 copies of Gambit issue One available. They are only available on a first come first served basis so I cannot reserve any. As soon as the 10 copies have been sold Gambit One will be automatically marked as ‘sold out’. These are the last ones that I have and there are only 10!

Good luck.

I will be holding a Cardworks session at some point over the next couple of months, releasing Gambit 3 and starting work on two books. That is as much information as I’m willing to release at the moment but stay tuned for updates.

I am looking at several locations in the country to hold Cardworks 2 but have made no solid plans. I am looking at county’s like Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Cambridgeshire as possible locations. However, I am open to suggestions so please feel free to send an email to info@benjaminearl.com.

B

I know it’s been a while since my last update but things have been very busy for me to say the least. I have moved house, been abroad several times, started work on several publications and taken up Morris dancing.

I have several interesting things to feature in The Bug over the next few weeks about what I’ve been up to so stay posted

Ben

According to the Indiana Star, Institute astrophysics professor Scott Tremaine  -himself a world renowned expert – confirmed the authenticity of Jake’s theory. In an email to the family, Tremaine wrote: ‘I’m impressed by his interest in physics and the amount that he has learned so far. ‘The theory that he’s working on involves several of the toughest problems in astrophysics and theoretical physics.

‘Anyone who solves these will be in line for a Nobel Prize.’ But for his mother Kristine Barnett, 36, and the rest of the family, maths remains a tricky subject. Speaking to the paper, Mrs Barnett said: ‘I flunked math. I know this did not come from me.’ And it hasn’t gone un-noticed by Jake, who added: ‘Whenever I try talking about math with anyone in my family they just stare blankly.’ Jake was diagnosed with Aspergers syndrome, a mild form of autism, from an early age. His parents were worried when he didn’t talk until the age of two, suspecting he was educationally abnormal. It was only as he began to grow up that they realised just how special his gift was. He would fill up note pads of paper with drawings of complex geometrical shapes and calculations, before picking up felt tip pens and writing equations on windows. By the age of three he was solving 5,000-piece puzzles and he even studied a state road map, reciting every highway and license plate prefix from memory. By the age of eight he had left high school and was attending Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis advanced astrophysics classes.

His classroom presence is quite unnerving for many of the 18-plus year old students at his IPIU lectures. Speaking to the Indy Star, Wanda Anderson, a biochemistry major said: ‘When I first walked in and saw him, I thought, ‘Oh my God, I’m going to school with Doogie Howser.’ She added: ‘A lot of people come to him for help when they don’t understand a physics problem. ‘People come up to him all the time and say, ‘Hey Jake, can you help me’. ‘A lot of people think a genius is hard to talk to, but Jake explains things that would still be over their head.’ And his Professor John Ross said his performance in lectures had been ‘outstanding’. ‘When he asks a question, he is always two steps ahead of the lecture. ‘Everyone in the class gets quiet. Poor kid. . . . He sits right in the front row, and they all just look at him. ‘He will come to see me during office hours and ask even more detailed questions. And you can tell he’s been thinking these things through. ‘Kids his age would normally have problems adding fractions, and he is helping out some of his fellow students.’ According to his parents Jake has trouble sleeping at night as he constantly sees numbers in his head. But far from complaining, Jake has turned the sleepless nights to his advantage – debunking the big bang theory. The next step, according to professor Ross, is for Jake to leave class altogether and take up a paid research role.

So how do cheaters learn to move under fire? The countless hours of practice at home in front of the mirror builds the necessary muscle memory in the hands to execute the move, now it must be field-tested.  In the casino environment there are the added pressures of having to move in full view of surveillance, a floor supervisor, and whatever square John tourists happen to be on the table as well.  However in talking to others who’ve been down the same path the process seems to be pretty much the same no matter what the move.

Like anything it starts with baby steps to work up your balls and confidence.  I remember when I first broke-in dealing 21 here in Vegas when it was time to shuffle I would start by carrying a top or bottom slug via short shuffles and a false strip (order unknown).  That was easy enough as many dealers do this unintentionally anyway, odds are if the floorman notices (they don’t) they’ll chalk it up to the weak skills associated with break-ins.  Then during the riffle shuffles I’d hold back a certain number of cards, say 4 or 5, every now and then.  Nobody jumped so this became a breeze.  In the later weeks I’d do all sorts of shit, getting bolder and bolder.  I remember while dealing the shoe game I’d do anything from table faros to every type of full-deck control under the sun—push-thrus, strip-outs, sky shuffles, etc…  On the single deck pitch games I’d throw in the occasional deuce or top card peek.

A dear friend aptly referred to this process as “shadow boxing.”  He recalled playing in the card rooms up in Northern California many years ago when he was a young man, often against old drunk Indians.  Here while playing draw or lowball he’d break off a card and go out with it before kicking it into the muck.  This is how most learned to hold out.  When they got comfortable and smooth enough they were ready for Gardena.  While shooting dice at the craps table my friend and I would scoot one die down the table but throw it hard and fast enough so it’d hit the wall and no one would notice.  Again this was just to get comfortable lowering the hand in preparation for the eventual scoot that will go short of the back wall.  Another good one while playing craps was to have a cancelled pair of dice in the pocket that I’d palm before receiving the dice from the stickman.  This was to work out the timing for a dice switch.  You don’t want your dirty hand over the rail the whole time while the dice are sitting in the middle of the table.  You’re risking spilling the cubes or just having the dice stick to your palm due to the sweat, so you want to time it just so you’re palming them out of the pocket as the stickman is moving the dice to you.  The other extreme is when the dice are sitting there in front of you and you’re still fishing in your pocket with all eyes on you.  Again this is bad.

Now you have to put it all together.  On 21 after getting comfy with the false shuffles and riffle stacks now I was ready to start doing the whole sequence, i.e. culling a 20 or a snapper, running it up, and beating the cut.  I recall the first time I ever ran up a blackjack in the casino, it was in front of a full table of 6 players.  I gave the deck to the lady on first base to cut, she inserted the leaf and I hopped it.  After pitching the first round I flipped over an ace, so far so good, tucked my whole card, asked for insurance, and revealed the blackjack, busting out the whole table!  Other times I would give a hand to a random player, sometimes out of kindness to help the nice folk or I’d give it to myself to try to fend off the assholes.  One time I was dealing to this flea heads up he’s down to the cloth and I peek the top card as I’m gathering up the last round and spot an ace.  He makes a case bet and I deal him a deuce and keep the ace for myself, catching a snapper.  This is the type of stuff I’d do when I got bored.  Some friends used to joke that I was the last bust-out dealer in Vegas.

One incident I vividly recall, I’m dealing to this real obnoxious pain in the ass one night and am really hitting him over the head with moves.  Run-ups, deuces, etc…  Well my relief dealer was this total moron, who was such a terrific lump that they had to promote him to floorman just to put him somewhere.  As in most industries, in the casino business people often just fail upwards.  If a dealer can’t deal they promote him to floorman, if he can’t stand the floor they make him a shift boss or casino manager.  Anyways I go on break and when I come back I see the game has come to a halt and the player, dealer, and floor are in some kind of jackpot.  Apparently what happened is that the player made some funky 3-color bet, won, and this dope of a dealer tried to do some sort of fancy conversion and totally fucked it up.  Well now the floorman was on the phone with surveillance trying to determine what the guy had bet and what he was owed, and I must’ve stood there for a good 20 minutes till they decided what to do.  Of course what killed me is that had the eye reviewed the tape just a few minutes earlier when I was dealing they would’ve been treated to a barrage of shuffle and deal work.

Lastly the final step is partnering up and having your agent come down with a bankroll.  But I’ll save that one for next month.

Until then…

The Vegas Gypsy