Mafias Most Wanted Card Magician - Richard Turner

mechanicus somebody can fix something an auto mechanic fixes a car a body mechanic is a professional killer I'm a card which I think I can fix a card game but I see what you have in the pocket let's have ten what's up so the card you cut to you just walked out with a million and a quarter one hundred percent used means they kill you when they're done with you you know those Middle East Dillman he said they own half the world he said we own the other half you're not one of the best you are the best there's a big difference why you know what I consider the worst disability of all procrastination and laziness is your ability or talent attract us an interesting audience right oh and tell her if I perhaps fooled you do you want to communicate with me my right ear reads lips I said for thousands a lot of money so it's not for a judge he says now if you ever want to have your wife killed I can arrange for that so look before we get right into the interview there's gonna be reveal here with my guest Richard Turner in about ten minutes maybe which you probably will flip out when you find out what the reveal is but I want to say a couple things to you I watched his documentary last night it's called dealt only two documentaries have brought tears to my eyes and you know I love documentaries one was Sena and the other one is his life story which is one of the most emotional yet inspirational documentaries have watch in my life in the world of magicians and card mechanics he's not recognized as one of the best he's recognized as number one you know you're number one when the best come and ask you for an autograph and picture that's who we're talking about just to announce couple the things that he's at recognition wise he was a 2015 and 2017 close-up magician of the year from the Academy of magical arts he's in the Hall of Fame at the Magic Castle and on top of that in 1982 Siegfried and Roy honored him with a Golden Lion award in magic so with that being said again there's gonna be a surprise of revealing about five to ten minutes but I want to introduce you a very special guest Richard Turner Richard thanks for being on with us you're my tainment I am so honored to be with you here today Patrick it's very cool I've been so excited about this interview so about this interview because I am a product of like studying people and there are some that you studied that you see why this person really took their game to a whole different level but you've been able to do it in your profession and your personal life in parenting and your health in so many areas and I want to get into topics of you know Dai Vernon obsession you know some of the experiences with your sister which we'll get into maybe a little bit of Phil Ivey on what happened with him at UK when you know the ten million dollar issue that he had I think was 7.2 million pounds you know which one I'm talking about maybe we're into a little bit of that but and there's some other topics which will happen after the reveal but prior to doing I want you once you kind of do a little bit of your work and show us what you got okay and what I am is a card mechanic and you mentioned that term and generally the public though card McKay you mean Carmen Kane no card mechanic and and the term goes back like 50 years before the invention of the automobile and a card mechanic is somebody who can fix a card game in other words I can make anybody win or lose under just about any set of circumstances you set before me and on just about any type of card game which is different than a close up or card magician magicians learn certain tricks for the purposes of fooling and entertaining but those tricks will not give them any advantage at the card table the techniques for the card table or literally thousands of times more difficult to develop there's thousands of very good card magicians there's a dozen half dozen top world-class card mechanics card shark card shop there's a bunch of slang terms for it but the bottom line when you play poker blackjack bridge whatever the game you want to make sure the cards evenly make start off with so you have a deck yes I do yeah okay so in the casinos they give you about twenty seconds to give the deck three shuffles got in a series of cut so give your deck a few cuts or cuts or show okay okay let's go just go right into it shuffle then this is basically casino procedure riffle riffle and then you have u-boats called a running cut and give it another riffle and a cut that's basic casino procedure so the deck should be pretty evenly mixed yes yep yes hold your cards in your hand off the table okay this is that look pretty even are you kidding me do we have h two three four five six years I step on back in a perfect yes what do you know that we did it okay now I'm gonna do what's called us casino washing I'm doing it face up and that's for the purposes the camera can see that the cards are being scrambled because magicians will have what are called shaved taper cards where the different sizes and they can feel stick out and so this will ruin that now I want you to take you give that deck of shuffle okay and just set it right here we're just gonna shoot okay and oh okay cut the deck in half just cut the deck cut off half cut off half yeah give me a oh you don't think I had you cut give me a random number three four or five six seven seven seven one two three four five six seven and what's that card ten of spades okay tens are wild because in poker games they have like deuces are wild someone I'm crazy well baseball have multiple wild cards so tense about a panic past you shuffle that deck path switch with me now okay shuffle shuffle it now have you ever played blackjack I have 21 yes I have you see the movie am I about the 20-month MIT students they took on the casinos anyway I thought the interview you're talking about the movie with chemistry you talk about the actual interview you did with MIT I was on a TV show where one of these world-renowned card counters was gonna demonstrate how he can beat the house and what you didn't know if they bought me as the dealer for that sake we film two hours never won a single him he was so if you're a big dealer at a home game on the house game I should lay their luck okay we'll burn a card but I'm gonna reverse instead of me taking the money all the way around I'm going to reverse it how many players should we have at this table three five players where do you want to sit one two three four or five I'll sit at for number four one two you're at Betty beignets place you're right here number four player five player six Benny Binion will let you make any a bet for any amount you like okay one two three and you chose fourtner watches before I take your card and this is the burnt car to hold it back mix it do something with those cards very quickly mix them shuffle them I've suffered one time put them back on their burn card okay and you were right here number four yeah what's your first card ace of spades what's that card Queen of Hearts bingo you just walked out with a million and a quarter but you just shuffled you just cut you chose five players you chose to sit at number four and you messed those cards up right before I took your card and I took care of business for you see that's what a mechanic does I fix the card game I made you how does the Vegas feel about you about oh they love me I'm a legend over there they're very the people that are in charge of catching cheaters are all very good friends of mine so let me ask you the opposite question the guys that go and play new casinos cheat against the players know the safest place to play in the casino in the world now are in the casinos particularly the upright ones though you know in the in our in the States because the gaming rules they're what they're gaming licences are so valuable that it's not worth risking their license to to try to cheat somebody now you go back before the 1980s when the mob was more in control that wasn't necessarily the case now when the corporation's have come in it's probably really the safest places again will are in the casinos because the security that I am us interesting sky all the stuff they have is it keeps it pretty safe didn't mob ever contact in 280 saying hey Richard can we strike a deal together do some oh you already wanted you know yeah I have so many bumps do you really I want to get into it why don't you share a couple than with us okay well it started in about 1981 okay in 1982 I was on a show called that's incredible so people saw me all over the world and then the mobs mob people saw if they can skills dollar signs there's one guy first approached me and he wanted me show him what I could do he was a mechanic and I showed him he said I'll give you $1,000 state can work for me this is 1982 so I saw thousand all day were good money back then then I said no things he said two thousand a day again I politely refused then he said how much will it cost to buy it that was actually that's exactly what it said how much one I cost to buy it and I flashback to my memories of the movie Godfather were you know the guy wakes up with the horses bet he made a big deal he couldn't refuse and so I I said no thanks and that guy followed me around for about six years trying to get me to work for him and then twice I watched him on the news with he and one of his New York partners hauled off to jail because one of the operations were were was raided another offer came from the Middle East started off with a phone call very strongly accented voice wanted to talk to me about doing business and I said meet me aboard the boat where I was the nightly entertainment I get aboard a boat and there was five men of Middle Eastern descent only one spoke English the interprets at hear the boss and then three other guys didn't say anything and they said they threw a stack of bills on my table so let's see what you knew of those cards so I sat down I started showing how I could win and some of the things that you and I were doing and then he says we'll give you ten thousand dollars a week come to the Middle East and play cards for all money it was apparently there was a lot of Texans that played deal would have boiled involve involvement with the oil business obviously and there was a lot of high state games they were playing they wanted me to control which direction the money went and I said no thanks you go he was irate with reason what you're turning down ten thousands of dollars a week I said yep we argued he talked to his boss his boss was mad at him he's mad at me and so and they're arguing back and forth then he said how about twenty thousand a week and I said nope they argued again now his boss is getting really mad at him for not securing a deal he goes thirty thousand finally said how about a million dollars now he didn't say if that was by the week but I did say no and they were so irritated they had just received their food they threw down their forks their pull-through down in their napkins and threw another stack of bills on my table and left and when I got when I got the bills I thought they're all like ones or fives it was a stack of $100 bills so I still had a good night didn't have to compromise myself another person I'm very wealthy very successful and we were in his beautiful mountaintop mansion and I was telling him about this offer I had from the Middle East this million dollar if I had from release and he told me don't take it he said in a situation like that you'll be a hundred percent used you said you understand what I'm trying to tell you Richard and for those that know a hundred percent use means they kill when they're done with you I told him I know what it means he said you know those Middle East Dillman he said they own half the world he said we own the other half he said we can arrange to have these card games take place in the United States and we're back here and you know I thought to myself that one I thought wow I'll be 100% used a Mountie buried in that foreign dirt now if you want I can even tell you the scariest offer but it's gonna take a couple minutes I want to hear it tell us I'm on a flight headed to performance and he was paper rattling next to me off so this guy lowers his paper says hello mr Turner I want to talk to you about doing a little business together and I thought how this kind of what flight I was on how did he know what seat I was sitting in anyway he was a diamond broker from Sun City South Africa and he wanted to offer me two to three hundred thousand dollars to play cards in these games there's a large Jewish community he was his mother was Jewish his father was Italian and he wanted me playing these games to once again control the direction of the money and we had a conversation and it was nice to be flat he was flattered to have someone recognize you and talking in the plane land I thought that was the end of it that was just a beginning I'm in a hotel I just finished do we did a lot of media I just finished some television appearances and then I let my show and now I'm in my hotel and the phone rings answer the phone he goes Richard it's me diamond I'm downstairs let me buy you dinner I I nicknamed a mr. diamond because he was a diamond dealer so I I called our chauffeur his name was IRA and he took me he said take me down to the restaurants rest a hotel's restaurant go down there and he said Richard have a seat he didn't offer to stand or shake my hand he just have a seat in it IRA left he held his hand up in front of my face said I know your version duh well you know shaking hands and I thought how did he know I didn't like to shake hands it wasn't because I was weird or quirky is because the moisture sweat from other people's hands affects my touch with the cards so you know if someone was sweaty or whatever that would that would diminish my touch so that's what was the reason how did he know that well not even half a dozen people know that so then he said hold out your hand and he handed me a five carat diamond pinkie ring back then the gamblers were these big old pinkie when he said mister the first guy mentioned he had a big old China one of these a marble he says we're $70,000 is it's a gift a token of my good faith and I knew if I accepted that ring I would be owned by him I gave it back said thanks but I'm not all that hard on jewelry and so then I'm on the road again I'm in another hotel I walk in another place another City walk into this bar sitting at the bar again it's diamond he goes Richard let me buy you a drink how did he know I was gonna be I didn't know I was gonna be walking in here so we sat talked we sat us though what the little were those little - man booze he's across any he goes now you're in the martial arts martial arts and he casually put his hand on my shoulder he said now if he reaches across there like it was a small table he put it out on my shoulder if you and they meet you I should take the punk and then I'll see grab my head but you know behind me my head it went to just drive my my nose into his forehead his way to do as you think your thick skull on you driving in the punch nose call it what you want Glasgow kiss West Texas takedown he says sometimes if you're lucky the punk could bite through their own tongue and now I'm scared of this guy and then we were getting ready to leave you said here you're in the entertainment business perhaps you'd like to be on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson take this this is Johnny Carson's business number his personal number and this third number is an answering service just leave a message that you called and I'll get back to you I had no way of directing him comfort directly so I got home and I went to a friend of mine who was involved with our crowd school's name was Chuck Curtis and he was the captain of one of most successful SWAT teams in the history of law enforcement he dipped down a number of serial murders included David Allen Lucas and he said with these mobsters being following you need to be able to protect yourself and you need to have a handle a gun and of course I was looking for a Larry of guns so anyway it speed up the story for you so he had me for six months out on the sheriff's I arranged you throw a rock at the target I'd aim and fire in the army with a Walther PPK James Bond I'm a choice and then I realized I can't take the gun on the plane I had to chat that back then you had to put it in a locked case that the airlines had the key to and then that would be very dysfunctional so I'm in another city again diamonds there invites me to have dinner with him and he goes you know he tells me how it costs him four hundred thousand dollars to buy off a judge for a murder he had committed and I said for thousands a lot of money says not for a judge he says now if you ever want to have your wife killed I can arrange for that I can make that happen for you he did he said there'll be an accident he said there'd be an explosion boom he said no one would know you were behind to kill it he said I just wanted to let you know that's another service I can provide now I was route this guy really scary but that's half the story the rest of the stories even more interesting but I told too much already didn't take it too much time Wow so your your ability or talent attracted some interesting audience right there yeah and that's that's that's four out of a dozen interesting stories I think this may not be a bad time for us to make the reveal what do you think if we kind of let the audience or do you want to wait a little bit is that okay we thought why not want to make the reveal well I see with my mind and my fingers it was 1963 I was told you will eventually lose all your sight he suddenly can't do anything about my vision started going south when I was nine my sister Laurie and I both got scarlet fever we don't know if this is what caused it but it was the only thing that was the commonality between the two of us and then my retina first my macula started dissolving which is the center part of the retina was so within or overnight within minutes almost there was like a hat in front of my face oh and then out of the hole when I started losing the blood started not going to the rest of the retina and so the my best corrected vision out of the corner was 20 over 400 which is twice as low as what's considered legally blind then that hole eventually encompassed my entire retinas or the whole retina has been destroyed and so that's why my touch is so fine is that the neural network that went to the visual cortex is now focused on the touch areas of the brain so that's a kind of the cool thing now what are the odds of you and your sister though and both of you took your life and you you didn't use that as a crutch to say hey because of this I'm doing this you still push the envelope so I've read a lot of stories mythical stories about Bo Jackson right just go Jackson jumped over 40 you know foot this and jabo Jackson ran a 40 in this fast and bull Jackson did this when he was a kid some of the stories I hear one of your friends was talking about the stories that you were buying a motorcycle and you would go and you would go climb in and he want you to tell my some of the whomp things you did a grown up I've had a bunch of surgeries because of my high impact living well I'll tell you the motorcycle story I came up with a great idea for the blind and deaf driver so I bought a motorcycle and I had a friend named Jim plows and had another friend who was deaf named Roy ottoman he was my auto mechanic he would sit on the back and say big old strong guy but the high speaky voice look like green light and one day we were pulled over for suspected armed robbery there was a Winchell's donor shop that was held up and we fit the profile and so we're pulled over and then there were there was only one small discrepancy with us being the suspects the getaway driver wasn't blind his accomplice wasn't deaf and once we proved to the cop that we couldn't see the lights flashing to hear the siren blasting I received a ticket for driving while blind he let us drive away and then he says you better hope you get judged Lord then when I went to court they switched judges right when it was my kitchen I was scared this last time I motor rode my motorcycle I thought what am I gonna do of it and I went up to judge Church I'm so sorry I I can't get a license because I can't see because what you can't see to get a license well-paced dismissed I said it he totally looked at the opposite point of view I thought yelling what's happening you driving a motorcycle when you can't see where you going this technique you might well you can't see well case dismissed anyway so and then I yeah I started the martial arts March 5th 1971 and we had one of the toughest karate schools in the country actually and anywhere in the world and to get a black blood under my cot instructor John Murphy you had to fight a 10-round out with a fresh opponent each round he figured if a boxer can go ten rounds with the same guy he's gonna do the same thing except you're gonna have a fresh fighter every round so it'd be like alley going Fraser Holmes Foreman and so on and they're all black belt or going up it's a jet black belt and they come fresh to you for three or four for those around a for three minutes each one exactly and so it took me 13 years and three months of training before I was ready to take on the ten fighters but to start off with my foot one in my first test I had to fight five two-minute rounds and he had his testing across the border in Tijuana because he didn't want to deal with lawsuits hmm and so's across the border because it wasn't really my almost like cockfighting you know to be perfectly frank and put it enough there because it was very radical and we're bare fists and there was very very few rules we respected the knees only place we didn't shoot were the knees and we worked up in a mouthpiece anyway so my green belt test which I had fight ten too many guys and I was it was August 2nd 1973 it was 105 degrees outside with a 90 plus percent humidity in the dojo was this solid brick building blocks the Met block building 30 by 50 foot no windows no air conditioning not even a fan one door to go in and out and there was like 75 statistics sadistic spectators all crammed on benches because they always like when these blood baths came you know they came there to watch the bloodbath and I got so beat when I was done I was drinking out of a Tijuana toilet and I my fine comes in who's there attention for his black belt that day he goes you realize you drinking out of a toilet and I'm going just gasping for Erick's I couldn't breathe I didn't care but so anyway that caused me to realize if I'm gonna overcome asthma because I had asthma and fear can trigger an asthma attack you can't fight if he can't breathe so I started putting myself in crazy positions and Jim Bowers is that was there for a lot of it as was a whole lot of other friends the odd climbed thousand foot cliffs we climbed the tops of split mountain 80 hundred miles outside of San Diego in the desert there and that was there's a whole bunch of stories just there I learned to swing on the trapeze Bob Yorkist very dear friend wonderful man he's 86 years old I've done more stunts and anybody in the history of Hollywood and he had a whole circus in his backyard and I lived with him in the early in the 1973 73 74 75 76 in that timeframe I learned to swing on the trapeze take high high high falls ID tightrope around the rim of multi-story building tightrope tightrope Oh tightrope aha would you like this prior to being blind or did this happen this oh no this is after I'd ask is were you pushing the envelope your entire life from the day you born I was this is not a new thing you were wired like this from day one you wanted to push the envelope when I was five years old I got a lot of attention because I have a debt Achmed photographic memory there's no such thing as a photograph but I have a debt agree and I took a I did a picture that I saw in National Geographic with a pay finger pay and they're going look Ricky didn't they're all stunned and so our first second third grade that was my kind of my identity was my ability to paint draw and and so I always pushed it and I always wanted to be good at whatever was then of course when the vision started one's self then obviously couldn't paint draw anymore and that kind of you know at first there was some rebellion that took place and but then I joined I graduated high school early and I joined a theater company and my director was a man named Steve Terrell he was a TV and movie star back in the 50s early sixties when of the Stephen King his late win was later latest books at 11/22/63 about the assassination of Kennedy he references the movies as Steve Terrell were in in his latest book called drag strip girl starring Steve Terrell would sit there and watch me well first of all he taught me how to play the part of a sighted person because I'd be on stage and I'm interacting with another actor and I'm looking like this because I had no forward vision so play here's the Hat so I'd have to go like this and look out of the corner of my eye to even see where your silhouette was yes and so any goes in here in the director or he was the director here and whether assistant directors were going you're not here I'm talking it doesn't look right to dad see Rick Rick can you look at the you're the person you're talking to because from audience point of view it doesn't look make sense why you're talking this bushy looking over here so he taught me how to play the part of a source watch what are skill to learn and I had and I had to learn it in different ways because there's different visions there's close-up vision there's you know so if I'm if I want to focus on something that's five feet away that's a different look than if you're looking at something that's 50 feet away you know there's you know your your eyes or just so I had to train myself to give that impression when I'm looking at somebody that's five and half foot away like you are versus somebody that's ten foot away anyway so and then he would see me watch me before and after who scenes I'm sitting there practicing moves all the time and he goes you love cards he said if you become the best card man in the world you were earn the respect of others and that will open doors for you when you her earn their respect doors will open he quoted the old papaw so Paul who said run the race to win become the best so are those words stuck in my head and so that really kind of was one of the foundations for my obsessive focus so I started putting in an average of 10 to 20 hours a day a day a day and I average practice day was 14 to be perfect for honest though a load day would be 10 hours average was 14 but every day I get up at 60 to go to bed at 3 and I would have practiced for a full 20 hours 21 hours the only time I was not practicing is when I was training or fighting that's the only time their cards were not working or even when I shower I had water proof cards when I be in the Pacific Ocean I had cards with me well your wife told the funny stories she told her friend which this is one of the funniest part of the documentary she said one time you know Richard and I were making love and while we're making love Here I am shuffling the cards she hears this my hand with that one hand was free so you know what why wasted opportunity to release one hand practice so so the the obsession I'm curious if we get into a little bit of obsession maybe you know what before we get into once you show one more do you want to show one about a truck of yours okay um this deck has been shuffled a bunch of times here but we deal my favorite game which is seven-card stud I'll show you how far I can push the envelope okay give me another okay we moved out here oh this card's out of your way how many players should we have five five players where do you want to sit one two five one five and one so right out of the chute this is you one two three four five you chose this one number one mm-hmm now watch this I want you to take these cards I want you to mix them up okay and then pull out a stack and hand them to me I don't want you to give me the whole deck back guy and we'll have you do this each time we go around the table to make this as impossible as possible so just mix them up and then pull out a stack and put them in my hand okay and I think we left one we have player two player three player four player five now we have the door cards what's that card jack of spades take them back mix them up you have the whole deck books maximum with retic the whole deck with that yes and then hand me any part of the deck you want so you could do everything you can to make this like I said as impossible as possible and the point is people say how can you tell what card is in this case even if they were face-up and you can see every card coming off the deck to control it in this instant what's that king of clubs post cards go together mix them up have me any part of the deck you want and we will see what we can here we're playing seven stud we always play what's called high Chicago that means high Spade in the hole splits the pot I have me a random stack of cards again and we have player two we have player three player four player five player what is you what's that Queen of Spades Jack Queen King how are you doing this I'm doing pretty good so you yeah but you're how you making it happen I have no idea because I'm doing this is actually pretty interesting cuz this is different if you have control of it the entire time that's one thing but you are doing everything you can to screw things up and we have player two player three player four player five you chose number one what's that come on where does it come on it's a sub diamond how did you do that come on go Patrick go oh my gosh hand me a stack there you go oh he's getting stingy that's three cards less than last time okay we have player three player four player five now the last card they called the expression down-and-dirty this is where it came from this game one two three four put that last card with the rest of the stack okay once again you shuffled you cut you chose five players you chose to sit at the first position and you shuffle each time and hand me a random part of the deck after you mix them we're playing seven stud high Spade in the hole splits apart let's see what you have in this hand again what's that card ace of dollars what's that queen what's that King what's that Jack so you're sitting on what we would be a the equivalent of an inside straight only one way would fix it what's that King of Spades a pair of kings that's good what's that ten of clubs ten Jack Queen King ace ace high straight we were playing high Spade in the hole splits the pot with that a half the pot but you shuffle do you cut you chose how many players you chose where you wanted to sit especially with there's money involved my gosh so you did everything you could to slow it to try to mess me up and sorry but you were the big winner so you should be happy yeah but this isn't this is insane here am i and my mentor was a man named die Vernon I mean die Vernon die Vernon is the guy that he he tried to Dini his wife right and her wife and his hold on the card or you know and right the by the way this is what he said about you having seen countless number of card experts executed for over 80 years I consider Richard Turner to be by far the most skillful he performs the most difficult moves with the greatest ease I doubt if anyone can equal him he does things with cars that no one in the world can do no one this is diver Anna saying this about you you I know it's pretty darn cool I have to say and and for those in the business know who he is for a century the whole 20th century he was the most influential person in the whole area of magic sleight of hand close-up magic gambling work and he kept making it come back to the top okay take all these cards turn them one direction turning one who put us with it more - demora okay yeah and and put the rest of the cards back with them but in other words put the deck back together you want me to turn the cards oh no leave em all faced up make sure all the one direction yes okay okay yeah die Vernon had very nice things to say about you yeah and he was born in 1894 yep he lived to be almost 100 years old my wife him and I threw him his 98th birthday in 1992 you want the cards up you want to face up or no why not face up okay name a card tink apart take out the Kings okay take out the four cubes okay you know while you take out looking all the kinks all take out all four key guys but yeah anyway Vernon took a liking to me back in 75 and I became the recipient of a century worth of his most guarded card-table artifice you got your Kings I did yes and what he would do and which was kind of unique and bought to my attention later hand him to me they said what's your favorite suit spades what take this bait okay okay I'm just for now and she won't even sit there for a minute okay so he would when he would describe moves to me because I couldn't see what he was showing me he tricked me he didn't scribed them to me in the way that he could do them or the way that anyone else has ever been able to do them but he believed in naturalness in doing things in a way that you don't think something is happening and so he described them in a perfect manner and he would say it Richard this is how it's time he put the deck in my hand in and in his hands and you'd and I'd get us really close and try to get an idea and then I'd touch his hands and so he showed me this is how it should be done and owned and I spent thousands of hours tens of thousands of hours working on many different moves techniques controls and it wasn't until years later that he admitted to he made them up he did not think they were possible to do that way he did it just to see what this obsessed kid would come up with because he would see that I would put in 10 15 20 hours a day and then every time he'd see me he would he would go that's it and what you just saw there when I first would the 100 I wedges still that stud stud him I was worth a Magic Castle in Hollywood and I said professor what do you think about combining this with this and this because I thought this is the ultimate this is the most deceptive ultimate way to control the game and he goes it's not possible he said your brain can't work that fast your hands can't be that sensitive you break rhythm it won't work it can't be done say that that's we said to be I'm standing I'm standing he's sitting to the if the bars the bed yes I'm standing there going and I was depressed I said that I was I was going oh bomber he says it can't be done but it's the ultimate it's perfect answer about ten minutes I was depressed then all of sudden I thought hold it but I can do it I said professor come watch my show and so he came to the we watch my show at the castle there and they came on goes rats or what the hell were you gonna know I don't understand luck - how am I gonna I said remember when you said you can't do this that that's what I in any way for the next 18 months everybody that came over came over max come out watch this max watch it shuffle the cards how many players real and he would you're on and on and over and over and then two years that later he goes I understand how you can do that so even those exactly what I'm doing he can't do what you're doing no no seriously he keep that diverting couldn't do what you did almost everything I do in my show the techniques and the methods that I'm using it's very exclusive there you won't see it done again Wow I'll show you some moves see that there's your King of Spades yes now I want the King of Spades this is one of the things that Professor show to be with you we deal cards around the table watch face up so the card stays as the second card is down but see this particular second deal it's actually named after me it's called Turner sweep second but what I have to do is my left thumb must apply the precise amount of pressure to push over exactly twenty two point six thousandths of an inch and that is the and that's the caliper of the two cards see exactly two cards and so and then my right thumb it only has a 60 64th of a second as its sweeping across the deck here to engage that second card and then deal it out so just it's only that blink of a moment now I'll do it see because you figure out what type or bottom which your that second card it's the second card your your other kings are still on the bottom same and here I'll do it Mike yeah I'll do it real slow really be to slow it down get some more cards back you're all right and nothing I do is based on math it's all based on finger control yeah fingertip control and touch see that card you King let's see if I do this really really this is this is one of the first second deals that I that I came up with whether you do it really really really slowly you turn it face up so you can see it more clearly see but you have to deal the card second card is neatly see learn would talk about really you'll relax to create read natural grip and see here's here's one handed now when the cards face down she was face down it's hard to tell that you're being taken but that's that's dealing seconds anyway so he kept showing me move after move after move and and he would describe them to me in a way and so I developed them only to find out that he couldn't do him that way and others people couldn't do him that way and a lot of the times he just thought they were it was flat-out not possible to do it that way say number ten to twenty ten to twenty yeah pick a number okay seventeen okay I'm going to try cut with one hand seventeen cards come on come on well we kind of will find out on two three four five six seven eight 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 come back okay come on I mean how could you do that okay we in one hand that I just said at one second game in two maybe try this for intent do you have our numbers at the same time one two three I got that one Steve that's ten cards one two three four five six seven eight nine okay put them back on the deck face down okay now take the deck and cut it cut half the deck and put the other half on top cut it and finish it okay now because people are always asking why would you waste your time developing a touch like that I'll show you one of the purposes give me a number of players in Accardi one three four five pick a number for you and my partner you I said at one two three or four to four and two okay and once again as we mentioned earlier the way you're allowed to shuffle in the casinos a deck has to stay based on the tape by riffle shuffle and it's because you know it's the hardest way to control if you're going to control for players second position take the deck so you don't think I'm doing anything dirty do you like card off the top face up player one right here okay and I think you chose Kings and your player number two face up with card right here what's that card that's king of clubs for Drina parts player three right here and player four start here again player one number two is you that's that card three okay player four okay keep circling the table player one tell us what number two is oh my king again they start very big time they're how she makes the last one ten no the next deal the next card out of curiosity King of Spades I missed so let me let me explain what half I shuffle your cards back in the deck exactly where you chose every fourth position starting at number two but I missed one of those shuffles by the thickness of eleven point three thousandths of an inch and that's why that one card was off by one that one car was out by one card so I explained how and what happened there so listen obviously a lot of our viewers are entrepreneur but you're also not to preneur yourself because as an artist you've found a way to monetize this and this is what you don't for living for many many are so hard to find a way to monetize your ability and and monetizing a close up act is different than like David Copperfield because he can put ten thousand people in an audience before mine it's intimate nowadays we have video projections so when I toured China where we mentioned you know they had the most I was are the most beautiful theaters in the world I'm in the screen that my show was projected on was four stories tall and tall and five storeys wide but how I made it viable for me is I became an asset an added asset to my performing venues in other words I was hired to entertain but as an added bonus I got them what is known in the industry has earned media you probably know what that means I got them I got their name mentioned in primetime television worldwide television news paper figures magazine cover stories so I would have long-term running engagements I had one engagement that went 2100 90 days in a row that's seven days seven nights a week performing six years straight and it's because whenever I got them well Ripley's that's incredible and I always made sure they mention the places I was performing in and on those shows or all the different media so they got very expensive advertising just because I was there and I replicated that in a number of different places over the years and that's how I made it more viable and of course now with projection now I don't need to do that so much I had people say there's no way you can make a living and they were they were looking they were looking down at me he's he wanted you're crazy if you think you can make him adjust by the decade call make a live with a deck of cards and so I had I actually had it all calculated out probably two or three years before I actually did what I did when I got that first long engagement from 1979 to 84 on that riverboat and that changed the game not changing there was a story saying how when you were seven years old you liked to watch a show maverick because the guy would do magic tricks and you would sit right in front the TV and your mom would say hey what are you doing Richard and is that word the fascination came from for you from that movie watch is that what it was for you yeah it was a TV show called maverick starring James Garner it was a West and he was a gambling he was a card player the card shark and sometimes there would be people at the table trying to cheat him he had out cheat the cheaters and I thought he was so cool and so I wanted to be a gambler like maverick we were very poor we had four games we had monopoly checkers chess in a deck of cards and I was the oldest one thing about the oldest I had this thing about I didn't like to lose so when we play cards for M&Ms when we get a nickel and were able to get a deck I pack the M&Ms so we play cards for M&Ms and the red being the most valuable the brown being the least valuable and I wanted all those M&Ms for my sisters and so we we play cards and I started noticing if I tell myself one extra card I increased my percentages like by 20% and so I started coming up with these ways of giving creating an advantage and that's kind of where the obsession started in my sisters we're told her four girlfriends my brother's so good he never loses and that just encouraged me to keep developing more and more things your sister she said she lost her vision a year and three months after your something yeah yeah hers was a couple years after my but we both I was nine she was five when we both got scarlet fever what did the odds of that by the way like whatever doctors say when that happened what our whole in elementary school was in quarantine and they gave them an antidote or and we had to take something else and we don't know and the thing is that's the only thing that they can figure that cause the vision to go south because of the exact same thing happened to both of us and for me I was in my fourth grade class teachers ride mrs. Gaston riding on the chalkboard and all of a sudden the chalk just got like someone took a raishin smeared it it was just at I'm going I'm trying to I and then I looked down at my book and I couldn't see the pram one and I miss yes and I can't see the chalkboard and sent me to the nurse and so that's what happened with me and my sisters same thing within 60 seconds it's like a lens on a camera just went fuzzy on you you know I noticed one thing is when I said with people that become the best at what they do not just one of the best but the best that what they do like you're not one of the you are the best there's a big difference right almost every one of them that I talked to there was something happened that was extremely painful growing up and I think it happens to a lot of us right when it happens imagine God if you believe in a higher power or you know if you believe in Greek mythology like you're being tested to see how you're gonna react because this is your chance for the world to know that it could be the best that's something every one of these guys has a very difficult story in that moment when we're being tested you shared a few of them in a documentary what would you say some of them were I know you said one of them your mother once you had a book so close to your eyes you were reading and your mom said do you have to put the books up close to you and you remember that when you explained that how many more of those instances happen that stayed with you well a number one of them that stayed with me was we were forced to watch a movie called Lord of the Flies back in the second grade third grade fourth grade it was about a group of boys that were stranded on an island and they be they became savages and there was one kid on the one kid on the island called piggy he was chubby wore glasses and he had asthma and the other kids end up they go off in teams and they end up taking Kip piggy and they end up killing him and I was always afraid of turning out like piggy you know cuz I would except I was skinny blind and had asthma and then there was another show called lost in space Jonathan Harrison playing mr. Smith and he was always the coward hiding behind this rock while this goofy looking monster would come up while their little ten-year-old Billy Mumy goes and saves the day and I was always afraid that I was gonna be like that coward and I in the same thing with Tarzan movies I'd watch Tarzan movies and they were always a scene where they're going across a tree that fell across you know some cang and that's a thousand feet below and then someone would always stop go whatever you do don't look down and then there's always the one person that stops and looks down you know screaming to their death what if I'm not coward and so it was because of the fact I can't I can't see how am I gonna be able to deal with things out how's a woman you're gonna want to deal with want to be with a guy that can't see and it caused me to flip and just go all the way to the other extreme and I took extreme risks wrestling seven-foot sharks - oh well did you say wrestling seven four sharks yeah you want that story give it to me I love shark hunting and we go out off nine mile island which was about well that was off of the San Diego point into Mexican waters it would pour blood in the ocean and I was always the poem and I'd have a Marlin pulse Marlin pole with a 12 foot steel lead 120 40 pound steel leader 120 pound line and the shark starts circling and then they would grab your bait and take off they not to pull the rest of the 12 feet by hand because he couldn't go through the other thing then another friend we called him gaffer he would gaff the Sharks in my van tranh D dick he was our shot shoot his shooter he would shoot if she can't kill a shark once it's on the boat and we had these red snapper heads and guts tied onto the back of the boat in the seven-foot blue you start chopping on those things so we pull that that rope in grabbed a gaff and gaff him put a bullet in him but he's not dead because he only put it in the middle so I said hang on to him so he's holding that shark by the head and I reach in and I grabbed them I figure if I can get a noose around his tail we won't lose him so I'm sitting I'm sitting there trying to muscle the darn thing with one arm who lives the other hand I'm trying to tie a noose on his David I thought it'd take a 30 second thing without six or eight minutes and finally got a noose on his tail we shot him pulled him on onboard the boat and then started chewing on our gas lines so he's sitting there chomping away and Randy goes somebody better stop that and we're not gonna be able to get home because we're like many miles from shore and so I said give me my softball back I grabbed my softball back and I went BAM went down and you know you hit that shark hard enough and he's finally settled down then about five minutes later there he is again mouse up and down Shuji getting ready to chomp our gas lines and I the second time when you know you did it throw the ice pop out and anyway the shark stopped I relate pommy not at that level with you what you're doing but the idea of somebody said you couldn't do it the idea if somebody tried to feel bad for you you grow up poor people give you money they say oh poor you oh poor this and you don't even want to get help like I remember I had a challenge asking for help for a long time mm-hmm it was kind of like I don't want you I don't want you to help me I don't want you to help I don't need anybody's help seems like that's little bit of a positive thing but also it's a little bit of a Achilles heel because it limits you to how much you can grow because yes you want to prove a point that you don't need anybody saw because growing up you had something but then eventually if you want to do something big and be able to do it for a long time you need help from other people how did you overcome that and in what was the processing was it your sister talking to you was it your wife talking to you how did you go about saying I don't care I'm okay getting help now when I was first to ask me on the show called that's incredible at the time it was one of the biggest shows on television and they wanted me to walk with a white cane I'm not gonna do that that's a tip-off you know the blind people do that their face sometimes and I wasn't I wasn't too polite about it because I wanted my stuff to stand on its own the thing is as the years went on the vision kept going south and before I could I could I could when I fight I can least see how the corner my where my cell their silhouette of my target I have a very rare condition it was first documented 1760 calls child Benes syndrome is French English is Charles bonnet syndrome and dr. Oliver Sacks he's a best-selling author he's written a number of books on the subject one was called hallucination the other one was called the mind's eye and that he calls this scene with the mind's eye so my condition is where other people that have lost their seat just see black they lost her sight they don't see nothing I see a 360-degree kaleidoscope of beautiful vivid every shape of royal blue blues reds greens every every shape of and when I'm in the red spectrum every shape of royal red down to the eo2 everything in the red spectrum and and then sometimes they will intermix with each other and then in amongst all this is every subconscious image you because he just float around so just picture yourself underwater with a light shining and breaking down the prism the light spectrum and in the water is just thousands of things floating around that's my normal state and you can block me in a vault with no light of any source and I'm still these things these these colors as they're just as vivid and the cool thing is I can I can zoom in on any particular image zoom it up I take my beautiful wife in zoom her around in her bikini whatever you know and then or or I've designed houses I built decks and I would engineer my wife and watch I was sitting there chair and I watch watch the whole thing I could through it's like living in virtual reality okay I need 12 12 for by 12 so beam and then there have to be anchored over here and I'll engineer a big giant project without a single piece of paper my at that time my dad was my cutter I say dad this and the board needs to be 192 and a quarter inches we cut it we built this three giant oh I don't know how many square foot giant deck all different layers levels and all without a single piece of paper and all engineered with this CBS Charles bonnet syndrome now all of a sudden I I couldn't see anything anymore anything that's real and see I could like this I put my hand in front of my face and I will see it digitized I guess I'd be like something that's not flesh looking I don't see things flesh on it wood bit but I will see something go back and forth like a pendulum okay I close my eyes I see the exact same thing with the colors just as vivid and so I was no I would go like this and I couldn't tell that there was nothing left in other words out of the corner of my eye I could not see my hand move because and I didn't know that I had lost the rest of my side because my CBS created the vision that I had so then now I'm running into everything under the Sun I my wife were sitting there recliners at night and the phone rings I dash to answer the phone I ran square into the corner of the wall I split my head wide open she looked from her up for a book and she said now that one had to hurt when when you get off the phone don't forget to wipe up the blood so in our family me running into things is par for the course happens every month I either have a big split face or a black eye and sadly it's almost always before I do an interview somehow I managed to not have one for you and anyway so she kept trying to get through to me you need help you need to have you need someone to walk with you need to touch somebody you know cuz I just kept hurting myself and so finally I realized that nothing what that I was seeing was real and that for me was that was as a big of loss to me as if you just went from year 2020 to zero how that would be to you what little I had meant as much to me is what you have means to you because I went from a independent disabled person to a dependent disabled person in that I now needed somebody to touch as I walked I needed someone either touch me or I touched them to keep me from walking off cliffs which I've done falling down really my wife and I were were she we a rollercoaster junkies were we've climbed giant mountains seven foot seven mile high mountains in Montana and whatever I do she'll do whatever she does I'll do she's a man she's men fantasy you've been married what 28 years 28 years 28 you have a son which name so the name of your son can you talk about that I mean obviously you came up with the name no you came up with my son's our son's name is ASA spades belt AAS a like King ASA from the Old Testament and King David's great-grandson was King ASA and the Bible says and ASA did what is good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God he was one of the good kings and she and she said it means physician or healer then my wife said and his middle name could be spades and I thought he sustains that's perfect that's the perfect set name for the son of a car truck she goes no no we're not naming our son I said yes but she stepped in it and once she stepped in it she couldn't yeah world famous because of his name people know him all over the world because and they think I would kill for Richard Turner son's name he's got the coolest name in the world and he doesn't go by Richard or asa turner you after his father and her mother he goes ASA spades he goes by the name of ASA spades you see people that do very well on their career side with some you know not necessarily family and then kids and all that so that kind of becomes complicated and difficult to do for you you you become the best at what you do here your marriage 28 years and you guys seem like you're having a blast together and then your son going to where he's at and he's you know good kid doing the right things for himself your sister so you become the best at this but your sister which is fascinating is she you said she ran the largest construction company and I don't in the state of Idaho yeah at one time they laid more found more concrete than any other consonant construction him she doesn't Ram it she ran and was the owner of it and her name was draught draught dairy construction they built big dairies and then it just became draught construction because they you know she works on very very large project ten 20 50 million dollar project that's amazing what values and principles that your parents passed on to you and your sister what were if you were to say my parents or my mom or dad always said these three things what were those things well my dad was just nothing but a positive influence on my sister I we always said we had the best dad in the world my bra all of us buy my brother says the same thing because he loved us unconditionally you know there's in the Greek there's different types of love a guy eros agape store GUI which is the family love arrows philia which is a frantic French family love and agape as they like a God level unconditional type love he loved us with no congested conditions and he just he literally gave everything for us into us and he was just he was just nothing but an encouragement and here's here's how he was he'd go hey yo cheat and that's how my dad addressed his son be hey yo cheat and you said it with affection and and he was so proud you know and so I got my nickname was Richard Turner the cheat so I went by that for years if you look at old publicity things it was always Richard Turner that cheatin clothes so you'd say the number one thing from him was the passing I love to you guys and and and his the way he did things he did things to perfection he was he had a seventh grade education and became where the top engineers for a number of big big big big companies yeah and he was start off as a welder but he would engineer things and he would do work on projects you worked on the Alan Shepard jungle in the first spacecraft all the way up to the first space shuttle and he would work on things and the nuclear-nuclear area and but and he would come up with ideas but because he was working for them they got the rights of the patent he got the pat on the back if he wasn't you know he could have been a wealthy man but money meant nothing to him and whatever he did he did it to such perfection and I would watch him growing up he would somebody would come over and they wanted to build an engine or whatever he would he would do it and then I would just be so amazed and I thought wow I wish I could do that wish I had talent like that and then when they would want to pay him and he spent all the whole week into it he would he move never would take a dime so we we talked about Phil Ivey briefly earlier so what do you think I talked to Phil Hellmuth and I was asking questions about him as well obviously you're in the world so you see a lot of the poker and all these other things that happens what do you think about what happened with Phil Ivey in London well I think he is owed that money because there's what's called advantage play and if the casinos are dealing a game where if they have something that there's a flaw in their game with their cards and and you capitalize on that that is not considered cheating legally or ethically and and you know he they he was playing according to their rules and everything was wide open and now for them not to pay him I think it's wrong he deserves to be paid so so I want to wrap up with a coach you said at the end of the documentary I know one thing that I heard from the variety is the documentary is now leading to a movie that they're doing on your life and the people who were the people that came up to you that are doing the movie on your life after watching built a mark order ski and jane fleming there with court v he was the executive producer of the the Lord of the Rings trilogy he won 17 Oscars off that one trilogy alone those three movies and he's produced you know 60 major motion pictures and they took a liking to delt and they they were in the development stages of moving towards a narrative you said something a documentary you said I think the loss of my vision ended up becoming a blessing it made me who I am and I am thankful for it I like the way I see how long did it take you to say that and believe it 100% well that came from my beautiful wife Kim it gets back to your earlier question when I had to face things she would she would say you got to get over yourself you gotta let Excel help from others you are you you are yes you're Richard Turner the blah blah blah you know you're not you're not impervious you're not Superman even though I like to think I am sometimes but I'm not anyway she said you can't fate you can't deal with what you're not willing to confront if you're not willing to confront something you can't deal with it and so she told me basically get over yourself accept help from others and you know when I what what the heck I don't need it I'm old now I don't care what people say about me I've made my mark and yeah so it's been good 25 years but it okay so it's been a long time it's yet alone yeah so Richard any final thoughts for entrepreneurs out there I know you're you've talked that MIT and you said the two curse words are hard working on panatela you mentioned the fact that the biggest two biggest disabilities in the world are lazy and procrastination once you talk a little bit about the mindset of how you think to get yourself to the point of being the best of the best I say don't let anyone tell you something's impossible you know have a healthy disregard win someone says something's impossible I say take possible out of impossible you know I understand that time to time we're Delta Betty handed to that's how we approach that hand if we choose dough fold wine quit sit on a pity pot a lot of people do or take your disadvantage whatever it is turn it into an asset become like a soldier and you know become a warrior and go all-in like we're talking about with Phil Ivey Ivey go go all-in that's what separates losers from the winners you know don't let anyone stop get in your way and don't don't hit him or knock him down on the way smile at him and you'll you know I had a you know I was kind of like this for a large part of my now you're right I am a barn bear but let's go have some fun that's a great that's you know for for some some of us you know we make the lamest excuses to say well you don't understand what I went through and what I did this and what I did that and we use that as a crutch and I get to the next level and you're a prime example of somebody that can go out there and take all the excuses away by the way we're gonna talk on a side note about looking at your calendar on your availability makes it for inviting you to our conference because that long as you guys perform for our guys so they can see I'm sure after seeing this interview people gonna be fascinated by the story but you also get invited to do a lot of functions right so how do we get a hold you do they contact your agent do they go on your website yes my manager Kim at Richard Turner 50 do calm my website is Richard Turner 52 that's how many cards are calm but Kim at in front of that and you get right to my manager and you know I speak and perform all over the world I just got invited to do a television special in Japan that I'm we're negotiating the contract on that and I'm that next week I'll be with Apple and anyway so it is really fun I enjoy speaking and for some reason people are inspired or encouraged when I do even though all I wanted to be was a performer but now I'm a speaker performance so I do my car stuff within my speaking so it's also entertaining ya know your messages multi-dimensional it's not one dimension you have a multi-dimensional message that can inspire well it's already entertain a lot of people I think your story can also inspire tens of millions of people around the world as well if it hasn't already yeah a day when I did I had a special for Japan they said I've been seen by over a billion people now 214 billion people it's amazing I know it's creepy that is amazing it's creepy I think to me to think about that maybe we won't see my Mowgli old mug mug so by the way ugly old mountain mug you look like you belongs in a movie you look like a Chuck Norris slash like a Burt Reynolds good-looking model that should have been in Hollywood doing movies you had you had the whole thing if you if you see this documentary you're gonna see his physique and you're not gonna believe he's got the chest of a bodybuilder he's got the arms of a bodybuilder a fighter by the way there's a couple things I want you to do if you watch to see you were inspired you gotta go watch two cumin or to really understand the story in the scope of things because there's stories videos of him some of this think we didn't get into in this video here today and this interview today so do that too if you do want to book him reach out to his manner just send that email over and then three comment below on what you took away from this interview and if you haven't subscribed click on the subscribe button to join value taemin and if you have to have a lord button click on that as well to join a notification squad so with that being said richard thank you so much for being on value taming here with us truly thank you for coming out my pleasure and here's one thing here's something you never do when you play for money never shuffle a deck unionism is so honored to be here thank you so much that coming up sweetie thank you okay I'm sure you played in different types of poker games I have where the deck is passed around the table you know where it's do your deal a deal it goes around you just handed me a shuffle deck so hey my deal now watch I'm going to use casino procedure what I just showed you and I'm gonna try to do what's called color slug riffle riffle you do a running cut okay and another riffle and a cut now we're gonna deal the hand to hold them you choose after the fact you can tell me how many players five six seven how many over at this table six six okay hold you put your card there you go perfect 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 burn and we have a flop what are those 3 cards 9 of clubs King of Spades ten of clubs and the 10 is wild remember yeah it's a while you chose what's that well what's that Jack of Hearts so right now they're with the wild card there's possible straight what's that enough space so there's two wild cards at table now you're my partner sitting over here and hand number 5 just casually raising the limit let's see what you have in the pocket was that 10 what's that so the card you cut to I took care of business so with that other well a thing that you would have had a Royal Flush actually would had five of a cup oh my gosh we're in the wrong business maybe we gotta go like around that some casinos in Europe but then they already know what yeah everybody knows you're a time

Channel: Valuetainment

Views: 968,089

Rating: 4.9061799 out of 5

Keywords: Entrepreneur, Entrepreneur Motivation, Startup Entrepreneurs, valuetainment, richard turner, card magician, card shark, Mafias Most Wanted Card Magician- Richard Turner, mafia most wanted, penn and teller fooled, penn and teller, card mechanic

Id: YVDwKxlcx-4

Length: 66min 27sec (3987 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 06 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/akgyger]

This guy has an amazing act and story. He’s got a documentary called DEALT, and his penn & teller FOOL US performance is stellar

[u/Begotten912]

I thought the title said Mafias Most Wanted Cardigan at first