#cervon

Bruce Cervon on Francis Carlyle, from Genii Magazine, October 2004, p 69.

“A bunch of guys are playing cards in the library [of The Castle] - Vernon, Hy Berg, Kuda Bux, and Joe Cossari. I was doing a show and I came upstairs and I said to Francis: "My God. It was one of the worst close-up shows I ever did, and it wasn't my fault."

He said, "What happened?"

I handed Francis the deck of cards and said "You be me and I'll be the spectator. Just fan out the cards and ask me to take a card."

He fans out the cards and he says "Take a card." So I took out the card and put it up against my chest, and he said "All right, put it back."

And I say "No, I'm not going to. Tell me what it is."

Francis says, "Put the card back," and again I said, "No, tell me what it is."

"Put the card back, just put it back!" And I said "I'm not going to put it back, and it's a lousy trick if you can't tell me what it is."

He just exploded. He threw the cards up in the air and he jumped up and he ran around the room screaming at the top of his voice. He went over to where the guys were playing cards and he just tipped the whole table over. Ashes and cigarette butts went everywhere. He ran around the room screaming at the top of his lungs "AAAHHH, AAHHH, AAAHHHM" then he ran downstairs. The room has just turned into a demolished mess in a matter of 30 seconds.