Pick a Card

People walking into a performance are already in a skeptical mindset, trying to unravel the illusions. As they unfold. Their eyes are telling them one thing, but their minds no more is going on. They just can't see it, And so the magician must overcome that skepticism with feats of wonder, such as objects that levitate without any visible wires, or signed cards that appear in an audience member's wallet. Today's magicians hone their skills by building upon the techniques of old.

Many of today's tricks, the kinds that are performed on television competitions and variety shows, have their roots in well worn, hundred year old slights. But one trick, no matter how it has changed or how it's performed, has stumped magicians for decades. The concept is simple, but one man's execution has blown the minds of those privileged enough to see it.

And his name David Burglass. Burglass spent his early childhood in Nazi Germany, having once sat near Adolf Hitler at the nineteen thirty six Olympics in Berlin when he was just ten years old. As the political climate got worse, however, burglass family left Germany for England. World War two broke out a few years later, and in ninety five, as things were coming to it end, nineteen year old Burglass

volunteered to help. He didn't use a gun, though, Instead he joined an initiative being spearheaded by the Americans known as d Nazification. As a result, he spent eighteen months helping to rid Germany of Nazi propaganda, including books and other media. It wasn't until nineteen seven when he found his true love magic. He met Ken Brook, a talented magician who had been performing since the age of seven. Brooke ran a magic shop at London, and with his help,

Burglis spent the next several years studying intensely. On most nights he would go to a magic club or at send a show, all while developing his own routines. But it was in nineteen fifty three when he unveiled the trick that would put him on the map. Now most versions of it are known by the name any card at any number, or a can to magicians, but David's rendition was so powerful it has earned its own name,

the Burglass effect. Although executions changed depending on the magician, and every iteration of a can follows the same conceit dating all the way back to the eighteenth century. One member of the audience is asked to name a card in the deck, such as the seven of Clubs, and then another spectator is asked to pick a number between one and fifty two. If they pick twenty seven, then twenty six cards are dealt from the top of the deck, and as the seven card is turned over, it is

revealed as the seven of Clubs. The trick often receives a positive reaction, but every performance always has the same fatal flaw. The magician has to touch the deck at least once. They might shuffle it or push it towards the spectator sitting across the table, and in doing so, a manipulation of the cards is achieved right under the audience's nose. The Burgleiss effect, though it was different. Burgleis never touched the cards for the duration of the trick.

There was no sleight of hand, no funny business. The entire illusion was performed from a distance, and it puzzled both audience, says and his fellow magicians. Now, the immediate reaction is that people assume he had a plant in his audiences, someone who had been told to call out a card or a number that had been predetermined by Burglass before the effect had begun. Yet every time he performed for others in his industry, he won them over.

Sometimes he would do it only for one or two people at a time, not a stooge insight, Burglass had seemingly done the impossible, and his talents extended beyond any card at any number. Two. Another magician named Stephen Cohen had been a regular performer at New York's Waldorf Astoria hotel. On a two thousand two trip to London, Cohen had gone to dinner with Burglass. At the end of the night, his host offered to take him back to the subway station where he could take his train to the hotel.

They reached the station and Cohen told Burglass that he hoped the next time they met he could see his legendary version of the card trick. Immediately, the mood in the car shifted. Things got tense, and Burglass told him that he would never forget what he was about to see. He asked him to name a card, and Cohen called

out the Three of Diamonds. Burglas then asked him to reach into his own coat and select the deck of cards from its pocket, the only deck that Burglass had been carrying that night, and sure enough, right there on the bottom of the deck, just as he had predicted, was the Three of Diamonds. The Burgless effect continued to baffle amateurs and professionals for years. Eventually, David Burglass allowed an explanation to be published, but even some seasoned magicians

found themselves perplexed by the methods described. David Burglass had changed the face of magic with a simple idea. It wasn't about the cards or the numbers. He made the impossible possible. He made adults feel like kids again, and most importantly, he made people wonder and that perhaps was the greatest trick of all. The California gold Rush was technically never supposed to happen. In the months following the end of the Mexican American War, California was set to

officially become a part of the United States. The population was small but growing, and it wasn't ready for what was about to happen. Businessman John Sutter had come from Switzerland to Alta, California, to establish a new colony. It was called Nueva Helvetia Spanish for New Switzerland, and although history paints Sutter as a pioneer, he enslaved many of the native tribes there to help him build his settlement, but he also employed a number of people, including some

Native peoples as well as several Europeans. One such employee was a New jerseyman named James Marshall. In January, Marshall was working on the construction of a new water powered lumber mill along the American River when he noticed something shining in the water. They were flakes of metal. Marshall rushed them back to Sutter, who had the pieces tested,

and sure enough, the two men had struck gold. They tried to keep the news quiet for a while, knowing that if word got out about Golden California, there would be a massive rush of people into his territory. Well, things didn't stay quiet for too long. By March, San Francisco journalist and business owner named Samuel Brannon had also discovered gold near Sutter's mill. Realizing what he had found,

Brandon set up shop nearby. Literally, he opened a store selling prospecting supplies, then returned to San Francisco, where he walked the streets a little bottle of gold flakes in hand, announcing where he had found them. And the rest, as

they say, was history. The gold Rush brought hundreds of thousands of people from across the globe to California in search of the American dream, But the ships docking in the San Francisco Bay brought more than just eager gold hunters, entrepreneurs, families, and ne'er dwells off locked to the West Coast for a chance at fortune. Of course, this also led to overcrowding. With so many people taking over, it got harder and

harder to make a living as a miner. But there was another place out there where fortune was waiting to be found, and all one had to do was make the twenty eight mile journey by sea to get there. Off the coast of San Francisco is a cluster of islands known as the Farallon Islands or the fairy Lands. The forty two acre territory had been untapped during the gold rush, and for good reason, it was almost impossible to reach. The waters were choppy and the islands were

surrounded by sharp rocks and even sharper teeth. You see. The seals that shored there attracted great white sharks. But many forty Niners were undeterred by the dangerous hurdles between them and riches beyond their wildest dreams, because upon reaching the islands, enterprising men like pharmacist Doc Robinson began sailing back with loads of eggs. That's right, eggs. You see, the miners who had come to California weren't just draining the rivers and mountains of gold. They were also eating

the local farming community into bankruptcy. The agricultural industry couldn't keep up with demand. But even if the prospect of gold wasn't to guarantee, one thing was always certain. People had to eat. So Robinson started selling the eggs he stole to local markets and restaurants, kicking off a whole new kind of rush on the West Coast. Unfortunately, one basic tenant of business held true even then. When one

person found success, they also found competition. By the early eighteen sixties, other egg hunting outfits started coming to the island for a slice of the pie, though Robinson's Pacific Egg Company had laid claim to the islands for their exclusive use. One man in particular, David batch Elder, didn't

care who owned the far Allns. He had grown tired of the egg company running the show, so he gathered up enough men to fill three boats and sailed over to confront him on June three of eighteen sixty eight. Robinson's men had been waiting, though. When batch Elder's crew arrived, one of the egg company employees shouted a warning that went ignored. Batch Elder was going to get what he felt was his. In response, Robinson's eggers fired at the boats,

and batch Elder's men fired back. One of the egg company employees was struck by a bullet and killed, as was a rival egger on batch Elder's side. Despite each side's losses, though Robinson's men had successfully driven Batch Elder and his boats away from the island. After the short lived Egg War of the Farallons, the federal government stepped in and ordered an end to all commercial egging on the island, but that didn't stop unscrupulous people from sneaking

over from time to time whenever they needed more. Luckily, for the native birds, though illegal egging eventually came to a stop, chicken farming became the new and easier way to harvest eggs for cooking, and so people no longer had to risk life and limb by sailing to the Farallon Islands anymore. The native bird population at an opportunity to recover, and that, my friends, is what I would call an excellent outcome. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided

tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can learn all about it over at the World of lore dot com and until next time, stay curious. Yeah,