Valuetainment - Episode 182： Mafias Most Wanted Card Magician - Richard Turner

00:00:00.440 30 seconds. One time for the underdog. Technician sequence start.

00:00:06.980 Let me see you put them up. Reach the sky, touch the stars up above.

00:00:11.100 Cause it's one time for the underdog. One time for the underdog.

00:00:17.300 Look, I've sat down with a lot of different people in my career, but one of the things I can tell you,

00:00:20.500 sometimes I'll sit down with a person and I'll interview them, and afterwards, the commentary of people will say,

00:00:26.300 oh my gosh, I never knew about this guy. This guy's amazing. Who is this guy? I learned so much.

00:00:31.420 This is one of those interviews, and that's with Richard Turner.

00:00:34.280 Richard Turner's the greatest car mechanic in the world. Eight degree black belt, and a few other things that he'll talk about,

00:00:40.240 but there's one thing at the end that's going to shock you.

00:00:42.060 And about 10 minutes into the interview, he's going to reveal something to you.

00:00:45.580 That if you're in your car driving, in your room, wherever you're at, you're going to get the chills all over your body.

00:00:51.700 So with that being said, here's Richard Turner.

00:00:53.500 I watched his documentary last night. It's called Delt. Only two documentaries have brought tears to my eyes,

00:01:00.840 and you know I love documentaries. One was Senna, and the other one is His Life Story,

00:01:05.620 which is one of the most emotional yet inspirational documentaries I've watched in my life.

00:01:11.960 In the world of magicians and card mechanics, he's not recognized as one of the best.

00:01:17.780 He's recognized as number one. You know you're number one.

00:01:21.040 And when the best come and ask you for an autograph and picture, that's who we're talking about.

00:01:25.500 Just to announce a couple of the things that he's had recognition-wise,

00:01:28.180 he was a 2015 and 2017 close-up magician of the year from the Academy of Magical Arts.

00:01:34.320 He's in the Hall of Fame at the Magic Castle.

00:01:37.040 And on top of that, in 1982, Siegfried and Roy honored him with a Golden Lion Award in magic.

00:01:43.320 So with that being said, again, there's going to be a surprise reveal in about 5 to 10 minutes,

00:01:47.000 but I want to introduce to you a very special guest, Richard Turner.

00:01:50.920 Richard, thanks for being on with us here on Valuetainment.

00:01:53.320 I am so honored to be with you here today, Patrick. It's very cool.

00:01:57.040 I've been so excited about this interview.

00:01:59.020 So excited about this interview because I am a product of studying people,

00:02:03.900 and there are some that you study that you see,

00:02:05.800 wow, this person really took their game to a whole different level.

00:02:08.280 But you've been able to do it in your profession, in your personal life,

00:02:11.080 in parenting, in your health, in so many areas.

00:02:14.400 And I want to get into topics of, you know, divergent, obsession,

00:02:18.660 you know, some of the experiences with your sister,

00:02:21.100 which we'll get into, maybe a little bit of Phil Ivey,

00:02:23.360 on what happened with him at UK when, you know,

00:02:25.740 the $10 million issue that he had, I think was 7.2 million pounds.

00:02:28.880 You know which one I'm talking about.

00:02:29.940 Maybe we'll get into a little bit of that.

00:02:32.080 And then some other topics which will happen after the reveal.

00:02:34.540 But prior to doing that, why don't you kind of do a little bit of your work

00:02:37.440 and show us what you got.

00:02:38.320 Okay. And what I am is a card mechanic.

00:02:41.580 And you mentioned that term, and generally the public,

00:02:43.740 no, card mechanic? You mean card mechanic?

00:02:45.320 No, card mechanic.

00:02:46.920 And the term goes back like 50 years before the invention of an automobile.

00:02:51.420 And a card mechanic is somebody who can fix a card game.

00:02:54.540 In other words, I can make anybody win or lose

00:02:56.960 under just about any set of circumstances you set before me

00:03:00.800 and on just about any type of card game,

00:03:03.320 which is different than a close-up or a card magician.

00:03:05.760 Magicians learn certain tricks for the purposes of fooling and entertaining,

00:03:10.100 but those tricks will not give them any advantage at the card table.

00:03:13.980 The techniques for the card table are literally thousands of times

00:03:17.500 more difficult to develop.

00:03:18.780 There's thousands of very good card magicians.

00:03:22.160 There's a dozen, half-dozen, top world-class card mechanics,

00:03:27.760 card sharp, card sharp.

00:03:28.940 There's a bunch of slang terms for it.

00:03:30.820 But the bottom line, when you play poker, blackjack, bridge,

00:03:33.220 whatever the game, you want to make sure the cards are evenly mixed, start off with.

00:03:36.160 So you have a deck, yes?

00:03:37.100 I do, yes.

00:03:37.680 Okay, so in the casinos, they give you about 20 seconds

00:03:40.320 to give the deck three shuffles and a series of cuts.

00:03:42.720 So give your deck a few cuts.

00:03:45.780 Oh, cuts or shuffles?

00:03:46.420 Okay, okay, let's just go right into it.

00:03:48.380 Okay.

00:03:48.640 Shuffle.

00:03:49.600 Then this is basic casino procedure.

00:03:51.640 Riffle, riffle.

00:03:53.000 And then you have to give what's called a running cut.

00:03:55.680 Okay.

00:03:55.920 And you give it another riffle and a cut.

00:03:58.620 That's basic casino procedure. 0.80

00:04:01.060 So the deck should be pretty evenly mixed, yes?

00:04:03.040 Yep, yes.

00:04:03.800 Hold your cards in your hand off the table.

00:04:06.540 Okay.

00:04:07.780 Does that look pretty even?

00:04:09.220 Are you kidding me?

00:04:10.200 Do we have ace, two, three, four, five, six, seven?

00:04:11.660 Yes.

00:04:11.800 Did I shuffle them back in the perfect order?

00:04:13.260 Yes, you did.

00:04:13.800 Oh, what do you know?

00:04:15.020 We did it.

00:04:15.880 Okay, now I'm going to do what's called a casino watch.

00:04:18.220 I'm doing it face up, and that's for the purposes the camera can see that the cards are being scrambled

00:04:23.880 because magicians will have what are called shaved, tapered cards where they're different sizes,

00:04:27.340 and they can feel stick out, and so this will ruin that.

00:04:30.840 Now, I want you to take and give that deck a shuffle. 0.63

00:04:33.480 Okay.

00:04:38.320 And just set it right here.

00:04:39.460 We're just going to...

00:04:41.460 Okay, and...

00:04:43.460 Oh, okay.

00:04:46.080 Cut the deck in half.

00:04:47.020 Just cut the deck.

00:04:47.600 Cut off half.

00:04:48.220 Cut off half.

00:04:49.240 Cut off half.

00:04:49.900 Yeah, give me a...

00:04:50.700 So you don't think I had you cut...

00:04:51.940 Give me a random number.

00:04:52.840 Three, four, five, six, seven.

00:04:54.300 Seven.

00:04:54.780 Seven.

00:04:55.580 One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

00:04:58.640 And what's that card?

00:04:59.780 Ten of spades.

00:05:00.560 Okay, tens are wild.

00:05:02.820 Because in poker games, they have, like, deuces are wild.

00:05:05.760 Sometimes trays are wild.

00:05:06.780 Baseball have multiple wild cards.

00:05:08.340 So tens are wild.

00:05:09.160 Pass, you shuffle that deck.

00:05:10.480 Pass, switch with me now.

00:05:11.400 Okay.

00:05:12.000 Shuffle them up.

00:05:12.660 Shuffle it.

00:05:13.960 Now, have you ever played blackjack?

00:05:16.360 I have.

00:05:17.100 21.

00:05:17.880 Yes, I have.

00:05:19.140 Have you seen the movie about the MIT students that took on the casino?

00:05:24.400 Anyway, I was...

00:05:25.040 I saw the interview.

00:05:25.980 Are you talking about the movie with Kevin Spade?

00:05:27.560 Are you talking about the actual interview you did with MIT?

00:05:30.240 I was on a TV show where one of these world-renowned card counters was going to demonstrate how

00:05:34.420 he could beat the house.

00:05:35.780 And what he didn't know is they brought me as the dealer for that segment.

00:05:38.580 We filmed for two hours, never won a single hand.

00:05:40.920 He was ticked.

00:05:41.460 So if you're ever a dealer at a home game, at a house game, I shouldn't play there.

00:05:44.720 Good luck.

00:05:45.080 Okay.

00:05:45.980 Well, burn a card.

00:05:46.960 But I'm going to reverse it.

00:05:47.900 Instead of me taking the money all the way around, I'm going to reverse it.

00:05:50.840 How many players should we have at this table?

00:05:52.640 Five.

00:05:52.920 Five players.

00:05:53.720 Where do you want to sit?

00:05:54.560 One, two, three, four, or five?

00:05:56.480 I'll sit at four.

00:05:57.540 Number four.

00:05:58.440 One, two, you're at Benny Bennion's place.

00:06:00.640 You're right here.

00:06:01.140 Number four, player five, player six.

00:06:04.440 Benny Bennion will let you make any bet for any amount you like.

00:06:08.640 Okay.

00:06:08.960 Okay.

00:06:10.000 One, two, three.

00:06:13.400 And you chose four.

00:06:14.440 Now watch this.

00:06:15.520 Before I take your card, this is the burnt card.

00:06:17.700 I'll hold it back.

00:06:18.540 Do something with those cards very quickly.

00:06:20.660 Mix them, shuffle them.

00:06:22.560 I've suffered one time.

00:06:24.040 Put them back on the burnt card.

00:06:25.480 Okay.

00:06:27.340 And you're right here.

00:06:29.140 Number four.

00:06:29.700 Yep.

00:06:29.860 What's your first card?

00:06:30.780 Ace of spades.

00:06:31.680 What's that card?

00:06:32.540 Queen of hearts.

00:06:33.860 Bingo.

00:06:34.780 You just walked out with a million and a quarter.

00:06:36.840 But you just shuffled.

00:06:38.220 You just cut.

00:06:39.160 You chose five players.

00:06:40.140 You chose to sit at number four.

00:06:41.840 And you messed those cards up right before I took your card.

00:06:45.620 And I took care of business for you.

00:06:47.180 See?

00:06:47.760 That's what a mechanic does. 0.86

00:06:49.220 I fix the card game.

00:06:50.720 I made you.

00:06:51.360 How does Vegas feel about you, by the way?

00:06:52.800 Oh, they love me.

00:06:53.680 I'm a legend over there.

00:06:55.140 They're very.

00:06:55.640 The people that are in charge of catching cheaters are all very good friends of mine.

00:07:01.300 So let me ask you the opposite question.

00:07:03.400 The guys that go and play, do casinos cheat against the players?

00:07:07.200 No.

00:07:07.680 The safest place to play in the world now are in the casinos.

00:07:11.500 Particularly the upright ones in the States.

00:07:14.580 Because of gaming rules, their gaming licenses are so valuable that it's not worth risking

00:07:21.240 their license to try to cheat somebody.

00:07:24.400 Now, you go back before the 1980s, when the mob was more in control, that wasn't necessarily

00:07:29.260 the case.

00:07:30.140 Now, when the corporations have come in, it's really the safest places to gamble are in the

00:07:35.080 casinos because the security, the IMS sky, all the stuff they have keeps it pretty safe.

00:07:41.540 Did a mob ever contact you in the 80s saying, hey, Richard, can we strike a deal together,

00:07:44.880 do something or no?

00:07:45.660 Oh, you already want to get off our mob stories now, are you?

00:07:49.000 I have so many mob stories.

00:07:50.600 You really?

00:07:51.180 I want to get into it.

00:07:52.000 Why don't you share a couple of them with us?

00:07:53.840 Okay.

00:07:54.340 Well, it started in about 1981.

00:07:56.580 Okay.

00:07:57.000 In 1982, I was on a show called That's Incredible.

00:07:59.360 So, people saw me all over the world.

00:08:01.440 And then the mob people started thinking, skills, dollar signs.

00:08:06.760 This one guy first approached me and he wanted me to show him what I could do.

00:08:10.360 He was a mechanic.

00:08:11.780 And I showed him.

00:08:13.360 He said, I'll give you $1,000 a day to come work for me. 0.83

00:08:16.600 This is 1982.

00:08:17.880 So, that's the $1,000 a day was good money back then.

00:08:20.160 And then I said, no thanks.

00:08:21.280 He said, $2,000 a day.

00:08:22.840 And again, I politely refused.

00:08:24.380 And he said, how much will it cost to buy it?

00:08:26.740 That was his actual, that's exactly what he said.

00:08:28.840 How much will it cost to buy it?

00:08:30.340 And I flashed back to my memories of the movie Godfather where, you know, the guy wakes up

00:08:35.620 with a horse's head in his bed.

00:08:37.480 He made up a deal he couldn't refuse.

00:08:39.360 And so, I said, no thanks.

00:08:41.780 And that guy followed me around for about six years trying to get me to work for him.

00:08:45.280 And then twice, I watched him on the news with he and one of his New York partners hauled

00:08:51.080 off to jail because one of the operations were, was raided.

00:08:54.940 Another officer came from the Middle East, started off with a phone call, very strongly

00:08:59.140 accent and voice wanted to talk to me about doing business.

00:09:01.840 And I said, meet me aboard the boat where I was in nightly entertainment.

00:09:04.600 I get aboard the boat and there was five men of Middle Eastern descent and only one spoke

00:09:09.300 English.

00:09:10.340 The interpreter sat here, the boss, and then three other guys didn't say anything.

00:09:14.300 And they said, they threw a stack of bills on my table.

00:09:16.940 So, let's see what you do with those cards.

00:09:18.640 So, I sat down and started showing how I could win some of the things that you and I were

00:09:22.500 doing.

00:09:23.220 And then he says, we'll give you $10,000 a week to come to the Middle East and play cards

00:09:27.200 for oil money.

00:09:28.200 Because apparently there was a lot of Texans that had involvement with the oil business,

00:09:32.980 obviously, and there was a lot of high state games they were playing.

00:09:36.640 They wanted me to control which direction the money went.

00:09:39.320 And I said, no thanks.

00:09:41.300 He goes, he was irate with me.

00:09:42.600 He said, what?

00:09:43.100 You're turning down $10,000 a week?

00:09:45.100 I said, yep.

00:09:46.700 We argued.

00:09:47.360 He talked to his boss.

00:09:48.340 His boss was mad at him.

00:09:49.880 He's mad at me.

00:09:51.140 And so, they're arguing back and forth.

00:09:52.460 Then he said, how about $20,000 a week?

00:09:54.760 And I said, nope.

00:09:55.880 They argued again.

00:09:56.620 Now his boss is getting really mad at him for not securing a deal.

00:09:59.560 He goes, $30,000.

00:10:00.680 Finally, he said, how about a million dollars?

00:10:02.860 Now he didn't say if that was by the week, but I did say no.

00:10:05.540 And they were so irritated.

00:10:06.940 They had just received their food.

00:10:08.400 They threw down their forks.

00:10:09.520 They threw down their napkins and threw another stack of bills on my table and left.

00:10:15.760 And when I got the bills, I thought they were all like ones or fives.

00:10:18.640 It was a stack of $100 bills.

00:10:20.700 So I still had a good night.

00:10:21.640 I didn't have to compromise myself.

00:10:23.620 Another person, very wealthy, very successful, and we were in his beautiful mountaintop mansion.

00:10:35.220 And I was telling him about this offer I had from the Middle East, this million dollar offer I had from the Middle East.

00:10:39.720 And he told me, don't take it.

00:10:41.560 He said, in a situation like that, you'll be 100% used.

00:10:44.580 He said, you understand what I'm trying to tell you, Richard?

00:10:47.280 And for those that know, 100% used means they kill you when they're done with you.

00:10:51.720 I told him, I know what it means.

00:10:53.040 He said, you know those Middle East dorms?

00:10:55.120 He said, they own half the world.

00:10:56.780 He said, we own the other half.

00:10:58.520 That's what he actually said.

00:10:59.600 We own the other half.

00:11:00.980 He said, we can arrange to have these card games take place in the United States, and we're back here.

00:11:05.220 And I thought to myself at that point, I thought, wow, I'll be 100% used in my own country.

00:11:10.380 I'll die here.

00:11:11.040 That's the deal I was looking for. 0.97

00:11:12.300 I want fresh American dirt.

00:11:14.200 I want to be buried in it.

00:11:15.100 I don't want any of that foreign dirt. 1.00

00:11:17.780 Now, if you want, I can even tell you the scariest offer, but it's going to take a couple minutes.

00:11:23.560 I want to hear it.

00:11:24.400 Tell us.

00:11:25.280 I'm on a flight, headed to a performance, and I hear this paper rattling next to me.

00:11:30.680 All of a sudden, this guy lowers his paper and says, hello, Mr. Turner.

00:11:33.340 I want to talk to you about doing a little business together.

00:11:36.320 And I thought, how did this guy know what flight I was on?

00:11:39.580 How did he know what seat I was sitting in?

00:11:42.600 Anyway, he was a diamond broker from Sun City, South Africa, and he wanted to offer me $200,000 to $300,000 to play cards in these games.

00:11:51.920 There's a large Jewish community.

00:11:53.820 His mother was Jewish.

00:11:56.240 His father was Italian.

00:11:57.860 And he wanted me to play in these games to, once again, control the direction of the money.

00:12:01.920 And we had a conversation, and it was nice to be flattered.

00:12:04.940 He was flattered to have someone recognize you and talk in the playing land.

00:12:08.360 And I thought, that was the end of it.

00:12:09.580 That was just the beginning.

00:12:10.960 I'm in a hotel.

00:12:12.440 I just finished doing it.

00:12:13.320 We did a lot of media.

00:12:14.280 I just finished some television appearances and then my show.

00:12:17.660 And now I'm in my hotel, and the phone rings.

00:12:19.640 I answer the phone.

00:12:20.120 He goes, Richard, it's me, Diamond.

00:12:21.920 I'm downstairs.

00:12:22.620 Let me buy you dinner.

00:12:23.700 I nicknamed him Mr. Diamond because he was a diamond dealer.

00:12:27.320 So I called our chauffeur.

00:12:29.320 His name was Ira.

00:12:30.000 And he said, take me down to the hotel's restaurant.

00:12:35.440 Go down there.

00:12:36.220 And he said, Richard, have a seat.

00:12:38.240 He didn't offer to stand or shake my hand.

00:12:40.920 He just said, have a seat.

00:12:41.840 And then Ira left.

00:12:42.960 He held his hand up in front of my face and said, I know you're a version of, well, you know, shaking hands.

00:12:48.640 And I thought, how did he know I didn't like to shake hands?

00:12:51.800 Now, it wasn't because I was weird or quirky.

00:12:53.980 It's because the moisture or sweat from other people's hands affects my touch with the cards.

00:12:59.240 So, you know, if someone was sweaty or whatever, that would diminish my touch.

00:13:04.260 So that was the reason.

00:13:05.560 And so I thought, how did he know that?

00:13:07.120 Oh, not even a half a dozen people know that.

00:13:09.360 So then he said, hold out your hand.

00:13:11.020 And he handed me a five-carat diamond pinky ring.

00:13:14.400 Back then, the gamblers were these big old pinky rings.

00:13:16.640 And the first guy I mentioned, he had a big old giant one, the biggest of marble.

00:13:19.520 He says, we're $70,000.

00:13:21.600 He says, it's a gift, a token of my good faith.

00:13:23.860 And I knew if I accepted that ring, I would be owned by him.

00:13:27.680 And I gave it back, said, thanks, but I'm not all that hot on jewelry.

00:13:31.520 And so then I'm on the road again.

00:13:34.980 I'm in another hotel.

00:13:36.460 I walk in another place, another city, walk into this bar.

00:13:40.480 Sitting at the bar again is Diamond.

00:13:42.400 He goes, Richard, let me buy you a drink.

00:13:43.860 I thought, how did he know I was going to be?

00:13:45.100 I didn't know I was going to be walking in here.

00:13:47.940 So we sat, talked.

00:13:49.700 We sat at the little, where those little two-man booze.

00:13:53.640 He's across, and he goes, now, you're in the martial arts.

00:13:57.180 Now, how did he know I was in the martial arts?

00:13:59.080 And he casually put his hand on my shoulder.

00:14:01.620 He said, now, if you, you know, and he reaches across, like it was a small table.

00:14:05.820 And he put his hand on my shoulder.

00:14:06.880 And if you're in there, what you do is you take the punk.

00:14:08.720 And then I'll say, grab my head, you know, behind me with my head. 0.66

00:14:12.640 It went to drive my nose into his forehead. 0.92

00:14:15.880 He says, what you do is you take your thick skull, and you drive it in the punk's nose.

00:14:20.180 Call it what you want.

00:14:21.240 Glasgow kiss.

00:14:22.180 West Texas takedown.

00:14:23.880 He says, sometimes, if you're lucky, the punk will bite through their own tongue.

00:14:28.040 And now I'm scared of this guy.

00:14:29.740 And then we were getting ready to leave.

00:14:31.360 He said, you're in the entertainment business.

00:14:33.480 Perhaps you'd like to be on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.

00:14:36.280 Take this.

00:14:36.740 This is Johnny Carson's business number, his personal number.

00:14:40.540 And this third number is an answering service.

00:14:43.060 Just leave a message that you called, and I'll get back to you.

00:14:46.720 I had no way of directing him directly.

00:14:49.080 So I got home, and I went to a friend of mine who was involved with our karate school.

00:14:53.360 His name was Chuck Curtis.

00:14:55.020 And he was the captain of one of the most successful SWAT teams in the history of law enforcement.

00:14:59.960 He took down a number of serial murderers, including David Allen Lucas.

00:15:03.260 And he said, with these mobsters being fallen, you need to be able to protect yourself.

00:15:07.840 And you need to handle a gun.

00:15:10.680 And, of course, I was a little leery of guns.

00:15:12.700 So anyway, I'm going to speed up the story for you.

00:15:14.600 So he had me for six months out on the sheriff's firing range.

00:15:17.060 He'd throw a rocket or target.

00:15:18.120 I'd aim and fire.

00:15:19.180 And he armed me with a Walther PPK.

00:15:20.780 James Bonner, gun of choice.

00:15:22.560 And then I realized, I can't take the gun on the plane.

00:15:25.060 I had to check that back then.

00:15:26.720 You had to put it in a locked case that the airlines had the key to.

00:15:30.840 And then that was very dysfunctional.

00:15:33.320 So I'm in another city.

00:15:36.420 And again, Diamond's there.

00:15:37.520 Invites me to have dinner with him.

00:15:39.520 And he goes, you know, he tells me how it cost him $400,000 to buy off a judge for a murder he had committed.

00:15:47.020 And I said, $400,000 is a lot of money.

00:15:48.700 He says, not for a judge.

00:15:50.280 And he says, now, if you ever want to have your wife killed, I can arrange for that. 0.99

00:15:53.960 I can make that happen for you. 0.86

00:15:55.600 He did.

00:15:56.180 He said, there'll be an accident.

00:15:57.540 He said, there'll be an explosion.

00:15:58.680 Boom.

00:15:59.340 He said, no one would know you were behind the killing.

00:16:01.440 He said, I just wanted to let you know that's another service I can provide.

00:16:05.340 Now, this guy really scared me.

00:16:07.820 But that's half the story.

00:16:09.240 The rest of the story is even more interesting.

00:16:11.020 But I told too much already and taken too much time.

00:16:14.160 Wow.

00:16:14.920 So your ability, your talent attracted some interesting audience right there.

00:16:18.700 Yeah.

00:16:19.080 And that's four out of a dozen interesting stories.

00:16:24.360 I think this may not be a bad time for us to make the reveal.

00:16:26.820 What do you think?

00:16:27.280 If we kind of let the audience, or do you want to wait a little bit?

00:16:29.460 Is that okay with you?

00:16:30.180 Oh, why not?

00:16:31.020 Why don't you make the reveal?

00:16:31.940 Well, I see with my mind and my fingers.

00:16:37.340 It was 1963.

00:16:40.360 I was told, you will eventually lose all your sight.

00:16:43.360 He had an eye disease.

00:16:45.020 It's something they can't do anything about.

00:16:46.980 My vision started going south when I was nine.

00:16:49.520 My sister, Lori, and I both got scarlet fever.

00:16:52.320 We don't know if this is what caused it, but it was the only thing that was the commonality

00:16:56.560 between the two of us.

00:16:57.460 And my retina, first my macula started dissolving, which is the center part of the retina.

00:17:02.540 So, overnight, within minutes almost, there was like a hat in front of my face, a hole.

00:17:10.080 And then out of the hole, the blood started not going to the rest of the retina.

00:17:16.020 And so, my best corrected vision out of the corner was 20 over 400, which is twice as low

00:17:21.120 as what's considered legally blind.

00:17:22.420 And then that hole eventually encompassed my entire retina.

00:17:27.320 So, the whole retina has been destroyed.

00:17:30.800 And so, that's why my touch is so fine.

00:17:35.820 The neural network that went to the visual cortex is now focused on the touch areas of the brain.

00:17:44.980 So, that's kind of the cool thing.

00:17:47.700 Now, what are the odds of you and your sister, though?

00:17:50.860 And both of you took your life, and you didn't use that as a crush to say, hey, because of

00:17:56.360 this, I'm doing this.

00:17:57.220 You still pushed the envelope.

00:17:58.480 So, I've read a lot of stories, mythical stories about Bo Jackson, right?

00:18:02.900 There's a Bo Jackson jumped over a 40, you know, foot this, and Bo Jackson ran a 40 and

00:18:07.540 this fast, and Bo Jackson did this when he was a kid.

00:18:09.820 Some of the stories I hear, one of your friends was talking about the stories that you were

00:18:14.460 buying a motorcycle, and you would go, and you would go climbing, and why don't you talk

00:18:19.800 about some of the wild things you did growing up?

00:18:21.560 I've had a bunch of surgeries because of my high-impact living.

00:18:25.440 Well, I'll tell you the motorcycle story.

00:18:27.660 I came up with a great idea for the blind and deaf driver.

00:18:31.420 So, I bought a motorcycle, and I had a friend named Jim Blowers, and I had another friend who

00:18:35.080 was deaf named Roy Otterman.

00:18:36.400 He was my auto mechanic.

00:18:37.260 He would sit on the back and say, right, right, left, left, he had a big old strong

00:18:41.600 guy with a little high-speaky voice, left, right, right, red light, red light, green light.

00:18:45.740 And one day, we were pulled over for suspected armed robbery.

00:18:49.080 There was a Winchell's Donor Shop that was held up, and we fit the profile.

00:18:53.180 And so, we're pulled over, and then there was only one small discrepancy with us being

00:19:01.220 the suspects.

00:19:02.660 The getaway driver wasn't blind.

00:19:04.260 His accomplice wasn't deaf.

00:19:06.380 And once we proved to the cop that we couldn't see the lights flashing or hear the cyber and

00:19:09.440 blasting, I received a ticket for driving while blind.

00:19:14.180 He let us drive away.

00:19:15.940 Just talking.

00:19:17.400 And then he says, you better hope you get Judge Lord.

00:19:19.280 And then when I went to court, they switched judges right when it was my case.

00:19:22.460 And I was scared this last time I rode my motorcycle.

00:19:24.880 I thought, what am I going to do?

00:19:25.880 And I went up to Judge Church.

00:19:28.060 I'm so sorry.

00:19:28.900 I can't get a license because I can't see.

00:19:31.560 He says, what?

00:19:32.280 You can't see to get a license?

00:19:34.040 Well, case dismissed.

00:19:35.860 I thought, is that it?

00:19:38.340 He totally looked at the thing from the opposite point of view.

00:19:41.880 I thought he was going to yell at me, what the hell are you driving a motorcycle for when

00:19:45.000 you can't see where you're going?

00:19:46.360 Instead, he went, well, you can't see well.

00:19:48.160 Case dismissed.

00:19:49.620 Anyway, so, and then I started in the martial arts March 5th, 1971.

00:19:57.200 And we had one of the toughest karate schools in the country, actually anywhere in the world.

00:20:02.280 And to get a black belt under my karate instructor, John Murphy, you had to fight a 10-round

00:20:07.660 bout with a fresh opponent each round.

00:20:10.060 He figured if a boxer can go 10 rounds with the same guy, he's going to do the same thing,

00:20:14.880 except you're going to have a fresh fighter every round.

00:20:16.740 So it'd be like Ollie going Frazier, Holmes, Foreman, and so on.

00:20:21.640 And they're all black belt? 0.93

00:20:22.800 Yes.

00:20:22.920 The ones you're going up against?

00:20:23.600 So they're black belt, and they come fresh to you for those rounds?

00:20:27.240 For three minutes each one, exactly.

00:20:29.620 And so it took me 13 years and three months of training before I was ready to take on the

00:20:34.380 10 fighters.

00:20:34.780 But to start off with, when I went to my first test, I had to fight five two-minute rounds.

00:20:40.460 And he had his testing across the border in Tijuana because he didn't want to deal with

00:20:44.660 lawsuits.

00:20:45.880 And so it was across the border because it was really almost like cockfighting, you know,

00:20:50.100 to be perfectly frank and put it in a...

00:20:52.360 Because it was very radical.

00:20:53.640 And we're bare-fisted, and there was very, very few rules.

00:20:56.380 We respected the knees.

00:20:57.640 The only place we didn't shoot were the knees.

00:20:59.620 And we wore a cup and a mouthpiece.

00:21:01.500 Anyway, so my green belt test, which I had to fight 10 two-minute guys.

00:21:05.980 And it was August 2nd, 1973.

00:21:10.640 It was 105 degrees outside with a 90-plus percent humidity.

00:21:15.540 And the dojo was this solid brick building, cement block building, 30 by 50 foot, no windows,

00:21:22.240 no air conditioning, not even a fan.

00:21:24.060 One door to go in and out.

00:21:26.320 And there was like 75 sadistic spectators all crammed on benches because they always

00:21:31.700 like when these bloodbaths came, you know, they came there to watch the bloodbath.

00:21:35.660 Anyway, I got so beat.

00:21:37.040 When I was done, I was drinking out of a Tijuana toilet.

00:21:40.180 And my friend comes in who was there testing for his black belt that day.

00:21:44.460 He goes, you realize you're drinking out of a toilet?

00:21:46.780 And I'm going, I was just gasping for air because I couldn't breathe.

00:21:52.600 I didn't care.

00:21:53.660 But so anyway, that caused me to realize, okay, if I'm going to overcome asthma, because

00:21:58.560 I had asthma, and fear can trigger an asthma attack.

00:22:01.720 And you can't fight if you can't breathe.

00:22:03.860 So I started putting myself in crazy positions.

00:22:07.180 And Jim Blower's was there for a lot of it, as was a whole lot of other friends.

00:22:13.120 I've climbed 1,000 foot cliffs.

00:22:15.740 We climbed the tops of Split Mountain, 80, 100 miles outside of San Diego in the desert

00:22:19.960 there.

00:22:20.960 And that was, there's a whole bunch of stories just there.

00:22:24.320 I learned to swing on the trapeze.

00:22:27.060 Bob Yurkis, very dear friend, wonderful man.

00:22:29.860 He's 86 years old.

00:22:30.980 I've done more stunts than anybody in the history of Hollywood.

00:22:33.280 And he had a whole circus in his backyard, and I lived with him in the early, in the

00:22:39.000 1973, 73, 74, 75, 76, in that time frame.

00:22:44.120 I learned to swing on the trapeze, take high, high, high falls, a tightrope around the rim

00:22:49.700 of multi-story building.

00:22:51.620 Tightrope?

00:22:52.200 Tightrope, tightrope, uh-huh.

00:22:53.360 Were you like this prior to being blind, or did this happen after?

00:22:56.720 No, this is after.

00:22:57.720 This is all.

00:22:58.200 I guess what I'm trying to ask is, were you pushing the envelope your entire life

00:23:01.500 from the day you were born?

00:23:02.540 Yeah.

00:23:02.680 So this is not a new thing.

00:23:04.040 You were wired like this from day one.

00:23:05.960 You wanted to push the envelope.

00:23:07.100 When I was five years old, I got a lot of attention because I have an eidetic memory, a photographic

00:23:12.340 memory.

00:23:12.960 Well, there's no real such thing as a photograph, but I have an eidetic memory.

00:23:15.440 And I took a, I did a picture that I saw in National Geographic with a finger paint, and

00:23:19.980 they're going, look what Ricky did, and they're all stunned.

00:23:22.740 And so all first, second, third grade, that was my, kind of my identity was my ability

00:23:27.700 to paint and draw.

00:23:29.460 And so I always pushed it, and I always wanted to be good at whatever it was.

00:23:34.800 Then, of course, when the vision started going south, then all of a sudden I couldn't paint

00:23:37.160 and draw anymore.

00:23:38.280 And that kind of, you know, at first there was some rebellion that took place, but then

00:23:43.480 I joined, I graduated high school early, and I joined a theater company.

00:23:48.860 And my director was a man named Steve Terrell.

00:23:51.660 He was a TV and movie star back in the 50s, early 60s.

00:23:54.380 One of the, Stephen King, his late, one of his later, latest books at 11, 22, 63 about

00:23:59.160 the assassination of Kennedy.

00:24:01.240 He references the movies that Steve Terrell were in, in his late, his book called Drag

00:24:06.060 Strip Girl, starring Steve Terrell.

00:24:08.280 Steve would sit there and watch me.

00:24:10.840 Well, first of all, he taught me how to play the part of a sighted person, because I'd

00:24:14.300 be on stage, and I'm interacting with another actor, and I'm looking like this, because I

00:24:19.760 had no forward vision.

00:24:20.680 So here's the hat.

00:24:21.700 So I'd have to go like this and look out of the corner of my eye to even see where your

00:24:25.720 silhouette was.

00:24:27.340 And so, and he goes, and he and the director, well, he was the director, he and one of the

00:24:31.600 assistant directors were going, and I could hear him talking, it doesn't look right to

00:24:35.620 the eye.

00:24:35.860 I'd say, Rick, Rick, can you look at the person you're talking to?

00:24:40.720 Because from the audience point of view, it doesn't make sense why you're talking to this

00:24:44.180 person, you're looking over here.

00:24:45.660 So he taught me how to play the part of a sighted person.

00:24:47.980 Wow, what a skill to learn.

00:24:49.520 And I had to learn it in different ways, because there's different visions.

00:24:52.920 There's close-up vision.

00:24:54.520 There's, you know, so if I want to focus on something that's five feet away, that's a

00:24:58.920 different look than if you're looking at something that's 50 feet away.

00:25:02.380 You know, there's, you know, your eyes will adjust.

00:25:04.400 So I had to train myself to give that impression when I'm looking at somebody that's five and

00:25:10.320 half foot away, like you are, versus somebody that's 10 foot away.

00:25:14.160 Anyway, so, and then he would see me, watch me before and after scenes.

00:25:17.760 I'm sitting there practicing moves all the time.

00:25:20.660 And he goes, you love cards.

00:25:23.260 He said, if you become the best card man in the world, you will earn the respect of others

00:25:27.980 and that will open doors for you.

00:25:29.420 When you earn their respect, doors will open.

00:25:32.720 And he quoted the old apostle Paul who said, run the race to win, become the best.

00:25:37.360 So those words stuck in my head.

00:25:40.500 And so that really kind of was one of the foundations for my obsessive focus.

00:25:46.380 So I started putting in an average of 10 to 20 hours a day.

00:25:51.680 A day.

00:25:52.200 A day.

00:25:53.000 And my average practice day was 14, to be perfect for honest.

00:25:56.580 You know, a low day would be 10 hours.

00:25:58.360 Average was 14.

00:25:59.320 But there would be a day I'd get up at 6 and go to bed at 3 and I would have practiced

00:26:02.200 for a full 20 hours, 21 hours.

00:26:04.100 And the only time I was not practicing is when I was training or fighting.

00:26:08.440 That's the only time the cards were not working.

00:26:10.100 Or even when in the shower, I had waterproof cards.

00:26:13.000 When I'd be in the Pacific Ocean, I had cards with me.

00:26:16.020 Well, your wife told a funny story. 0.99

00:26:17.500 She told her friend, which this is one of the funniest parts of the documentary.

00:26:20.740 She said, one time, you know, Richard and I were making love.

00:26:25.620 And while we're making love, I hear him shuffling the cards.

00:26:30.420 She hears this.

00:26:34.100 Well, you know, my hand, that hand was free.

00:26:40.620 So, you know, why waste the opportunity to at least one hand practice?

00:26:45.200 So, the obsession, I'm curious if we get into a little bit of the obsession.

00:26:49.080 Maybe, you know what, before we get into it, why don't you show one more?

00:26:51.320 You want to show one of us, another trick of yours?

00:26:53.300 Okay.

00:26:54.280 This deck has been shuffled a bunch of times here.

00:26:57.640 We'll deal with my favorite game, which is seven cards.

00:26:59.260 I'll show you how far I can push the envelope.

00:27:01.040 Give me a number, okay, move those, here, this card's out of your way.

00:27:06.060 How many players should we have?

00:27:07.740 Five.

00:27:08.140 Five players.

00:27:08.800 Where do you want to sit?

00:27:09.540 One to five.

00:27:10.100 One.

00:27:10.680 Five and one.

00:27:11.480 So, right out of the chute, this is you.

00:27:13.200 One, two, three, four, five.

00:27:17.900 You chose this one, number one.

00:27:19.840 Now, watch this.

00:27:20.560 I want you to take these cards.

00:27:21.700 I want you to mix them up.

00:27:22.940 Okay.

00:27:23.340 And then pull out a stack and hand them to me.

00:27:25.140 I don't want you to give me the whole deck back.

00:27:26.460 Okay.

00:27:26.800 And I'm going to have you do this each time we go around the table to make this as impossible as possible.

00:27:32.020 So, just mix them up and then pull out a stack and put them in my hand.

00:27:34.480 And I think we left one.

00:27:38.520 Now, we have player two, player three, player four, player five.

00:27:42.420 Now, we have the door cards.

00:27:43.420 What's that card?

00:27:44.100 Jack of Spades.

00:27:44.900 Take them back, mix them up.

00:27:46.260 You have the whole deck, mix them back with the rest of them.

00:27:47.820 Mix the whole deck.

00:27:48.500 The ones with that, yes.

00:27:49.620 And then hand me any part of the deck you want.

00:27:51.940 So, you're going to do everything you can to make this, like I said, as impossible as possible.

00:27:56.560 And the point is, people say, how can you tell what a card is?

00:27:59.460 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.

00:28:05.860 What's that?

00:28:06.560 King of Clubs.

00:28:07.480 Those cards go together.

00:28:08.440 Mix them up.

00:28:08.900 Hand me any part of the deck you want.

00:28:10.920 And we're going to see what we can do.

00:28:11.860 We're playing seven standard.

00:28:12.800 We always play what's called High Chicago.

00:28:14.700 That means High Spade and the whole splits the pot. 0.91

00:28:17.560 So, hand me a random stack of cards again.

00:28:19.600 And we have player two.

00:28:20.960 We have player three.

00:28:22.220 Player four.

00:28:23.000 Player five.

00:28:23.720 Player one is you.

00:28:24.420 What's that?

00:28:25.120 Queen of Spades. 0.98

00:28:26.520 Jack, Queen, King.

00:28:27.800 How are you doing this?

00:28:28.780 I'm doing pretty good so far.

00:28:30.020 Yeah, but how are you making it happen?

00:28:32.080 I have no idea what you're doing.

00:28:34.340 This is actually pretty interesting because this is different.

00:28:37.120 If you have control of it the entire time, that's one thing.

00:28:39.340 But here.

00:28:39.700 You are doing everything you can to screw things up.

00:28:42.040 Oh, my gosh.

00:28:42.980 And we have player two.

00:28:44.480 Player three.

00:28:45.360 Player four.

00:28:46.080 Player five.

00:28:46.720 You chose number one.

00:28:48.220 What's that?

00:28:48.840 Come on.

00:28:49.560 What is it?

00:28:50.080 Come on.

00:28:50.840 It's Ace of Diamonds.

00:28:52.160 How did you do that?

00:28:54.120 Come on.

00:28:54.960 Go, Patrick.

00:28:55.620 Go.

00:28:56.840 Oh, my gosh.

00:28:58.740 Hand me a stack.

00:28:59.860 There you go.

00:29:00.860 Oh, he's getting stingy.

00:29:02.000 That's three cards less than last time.

00:29:04.360 Okay.

00:29:04.620 We have player two.

00:29:05.920 Player three.

00:29:06.720 Player four.

00:29:07.440 Player five.

00:29:08.180 Now, the last card, they called the expression down and dirty.

00:29:10.760 This is where it came from this game.

00:29:12.080 One, two, three, four.

00:29:13.920 Put that last card with the rest of the stack.

00:29:15.560 Okay.

00:29:15.740 Once again, you shuffled, you cut.

00:29:17.640 You chose five players.

00:29:19.460 You chose to sit at the first position.

00:29:22.740 And you shuffled each time and hand me a random part of the deck after you mixed them.

00:29:27.160 We're playing seven stud, high spade, and the whole splits of pot.

00:29:29.560 Let's see what you have in this hand.

00:29:30.840 Again, what's that card?

00:29:31.800 Ace of Diamonds.

00:29:32.300 Ace.

00:29:32.620 What's that?

00:29:33.140 Queen of Spades. 0.98

00:29:33.860 What's that?

00:29:34.300 King.

00:29:34.780 What's that?

00:29:35.280 Jack of Spades.

00:29:35.800 You're sitting on what would be the equivalent of an inside strike.

00:29:39.240 Only one way would fix it.

00:29:40.380 What's that?

00:29:40.900 King of Spades.

00:29:41.740 A pair of Kings.

00:29:42.400 That's good.

00:29:42.940 What's that?

00:29:43.640 Ten of Clubs.

00:29:45.420 Ten, Jack, Queen, King, Ace.

00:29:47.840 Ace, high straight.

00:29:48.620 We're playing high spade and the whole splits of pot.

00:29:50.580 What's that?

00:29:51.220 Ace of Spades.

00:29:52.320 Half the pot.

00:29:53.840 But you shuffled.

00:29:54.720 You cut.

00:29:55.220 You chose how many players?

00:29:56.080 You chose where you wanted to sit.

00:29:57.860 All I did was cheat.

00:29:58.880 This is scary right here, what you just did.

00:30:01.560 Especially when there's money involved.

00:30:02.960 Oh, my gosh.

00:30:04.300 So you did everything you could to try to mess me up.

00:30:08.120 And sorry, but you were the big winner, so you should be happy.

00:30:12.980 Yeah, but this is insane here.

00:30:15.100 And my mentor was a man named Di Vernon.

00:30:18.420 I mean, Di Vernon.

00:30:19.560 Di Vernon is the guy that he tricked Houdini in front of his wife, right?

00:30:23.600 And Houdini's wife initialed on the card.

00:30:26.840 Right.

00:30:27.140 By the way, this is what he said about you.

00:30:28.540 Having seen countless number of card experts execute for over eight years, I consider Richard

00:30:33.060 Turner to be by far the most skillful.

00:30:34.980 He performs the most difficult moves with the greatest ease.

00:30:38.160 I doubt if anyone can equal him.

00:30:40.580 He does things with cards that no one in the world can do.

00:30:43.180 No one.

00:30:44.000 And this is Di Vernon saying this about you.

00:30:46.120 I know.

00:30:46.560 It's pretty darn cool, I have to say.

00:30:48.200 And for those in the business, know who he is.

00:30:51.560 For a century, the whole 20th century, he was the most influential person in the whole

00:30:56.820 area of magic, sleight of hand, close-up magic, gambling work.

00:31:00.140 And he kept making it come back to the top.

00:31:01.980 Okay, take all these cards, turn them one direction.

00:31:04.980 Turn them one direction?

00:31:05.980 Because two of them are, two of them are, okay.

00:31:07.800 Yeah.

00:31:08.460 And put the rest of the cards back with them.

00:31:10.680 In other words, put the deck back together.

00:31:12.100 Okay.

00:31:12.940 You want me to turn the cards or no?

00:31:14.280 Leave them the way there.

00:31:14.720 Yeah, turn them all face up.

00:31:15.500 Make sure they're all in one direction, yes.

00:31:16.940 Okay.

00:31:17.640 Okay.

00:31:18.480 Yeah, Di Vernon had very nice things to say about you.

00:31:21.160 Yeah, and he was born in 1894.

00:31:23.520 Yep.

00:31:23.960 He lived to be almost 100 years old.

00:31:25.680 My wife, Kim, and I threw him his 98th birthday in 1992.

00:31:29.000 You want the cards up?

00:31:30.060 You want the face up or no?

00:31:31.480 Why not?

00:31:32.260 Face up.

00:31:32.760 Okay.

00:31:33.560 Name a card.

00:31:35.340 King of hearts.

00:31:36.160 Take out the kings.

00:31:36.960 Okay.

00:31:37.740 Take out the four kings.

00:31:38.940 Okay.

00:31:39.140 And while you take out the kings.

00:31:39.920 Take all the kings?

00:31:40.900 Take out all four kings, yes.

00:31:43.200 King.

00:31:44.500 But yeah, anyway, Vernon took a liking to me back in 75, and I became the recipient of

00:31:51.740 a century worth of his most guarded card table artifice.

00:31:55.400 You got your kings?

00:31:56.180 I did.

00:31:56.660 Yes.

00:31:56.800 Okay.

00:31:57.300 And what he would do, which was kind of unique and brought to my attention later,

00:32:03.500 hand him to me face up.

00:32:05.000 What's your favorite suit?

00:32:06.840 Spades.

00:32:07.440 Take the spade.

00:32:08.460 Okay.

00:32:09.180 Okay.

00:32:09.700 I'm just for now, I'm just going to leave him sit there for a minute.

00:32:12.640 Okay.

00:32:12.880 So he would, when he would describe moves to me, because I couldn't see what he was

00:32:20.440 showing me, he tricked me.

00:32:22.680 He didn't describe them to me in the way that he could do them or the way that anyone else

00:32:26.340 has ever been able to do them.

00:32:27.680 But he believed in naturalness, in doing things in a way that you don't think something's

00:32:32.560 happening.

00:32:33.660 And so he described them in a perfect manner.

00:32:35.940 And he would say, Richard, this is how it's done.

00:32:38.080 And he put the deck in my hand, in his hands.

00:32:40.520 And I'd get us really close and try to get an idea.

00:32:43.500 And then I'd touch his hands.

00:32:45.260 And so he showed me, this is how it should be done.

00:32:49.180 And I spent thousands of hours, tens of thousands of hours working on many different moves, techniques,

00:32:55.460 controls.

00:32:56.380 And it wasn't until years later that he admitted to me that he made them up.

00:33:00.120 He did not think they were possible to do that way.

00:33:02.560 He did it just to see what this obsessed kid would come up with, because he would see

00:33:08.040 that I would put in 10, 15, 20 hours a day.

00:33:12.320 And then every time he'd see me, he would go, that's it.

00:33:17.440 And what you just saw there, when I first, the one I read, just still fast stud him,

00:33:22.700 we were at the Magic Castle in Hollywood.

00:33:25.000 And I said, Professor, what do you think about combining this with this and this?

00:33:29.600 Because I thought, this is the ultimate.

00:33:31.120 This is the most deceptive, ultimate way to control a game.

00:33:34.500 And he goes, it's not possible.

00:33:36.440 He said, your brain can't work that fast.

00:33:38.220 Your hands can't be that sensitive.

00:33:39.740 You break rhythm.

00:33:40.600 It won't work.

00:33:41.440 It can't be done.

00:33:42.100 He said that to you.

00:33:42.640 That's what he said to me.

00:33:43.340 I'm standing, I'm standing.

00:33:44.320 He's sitting at the bar at the Magic Castle.

00:33:46.160 I'm standing there going, and I was depressed.

00:33:48.520 I sat there and I was going, oh, bummer.

00:33:51.120 He says, it can't be done, but it's the ultimate.

00:33:53.200 It's perfect.

00:33:54.320 And so for about 10 minutes, I was depressed.

00:33:56.680 Then all of a sudden, I thought, hold it, but I can do it.

00:33:59.480 And I said, professor, come watch my show.

00:34:02.040 And so he came to the, he watched my show at the castle there.

00:34:04.240 And he came up and goes, Richard, what the hell are you doing in there?

00:34:07.100 I don't understand what the hell you were doing.

00:34:08.780 I said, remember when you said you can't do this?

00:34:10.640 That's what I'm, I don't understand how the hell you can do that.

00:34:13.720 And anyway, for the next 18 months, everybody that came over, Max, come here, watch this.

00:34:18.400 Max, watch this.

00:34:19.020 Shuffle the cards.

00:34:19.620 How many players are real?

00:34:20.380 And he would go on and on and over and over.

00:34:22.640 And then two years later, he goes, I still don't understand how the hell you can do that.

00:34:27.600 And he even knows exactly what I'm doing.

00:34:29.820 He can't do what you're doing.

00:34:31.200 No, no.

00:34:32.360 Seriously, he can't, Di Verne couldn't do what you did.

00:34:35.020 Almost everything I do in my show, the techniques and the methods that I'm using, it's very exclusive.

00:34:42.580 You won't see it done again.

00:34:43.720 I'll put it that way.

00:34:44.240 Wow.

00:34:44.720 I'll show you some moves.

00:34:45.620 See that?

00:34:45.920 There's your king of spades.

00:34:46.800 Yes.

00:34:47.560 Now, I want the king of spades.

00:34:48.900 This is one of the things that Professor showed to me.

00:34:52.400 We deal cards around the table.

00:34:55.860 Watch face up.

00:34:57.440 Sell the card stays as the second card is dealt.

00:35:00.580 But see, this particular second deal is actually named after me.

00:35:03.900 It's called turn or sweep second.

00:35:05.360 But what I have to do is my left thumb must apply the precise amount of pressure to push over exactly 22.6 thousandths of an inch.

00:35:14.420 And that is the, and that's the caliper of two cards.

00:35:18.720 See?

00:35:19.380 Exactly two cards.

00:35:21.740 And so, and then my right thumb, it only has a 64th of a second as it's sweeping across the deck here to engage that second card and then deal it out.

00:35:33.080 You know, it's only that blink of a moment.

00:35:36.000 Now, I'll do it.

00:35:37.040 See?

00:35:37.680 You know, because you figure what people.

00:35:38.620 Is that top or bottom what you're doing right now?

00:35:39.960 That's the second card.

00:35:41.240 It's the second card.

00:35:42.800 Your other kings are still on the bottom.

00:35:44.540 See?

00:35:45.640 And here, I'll do it.

00:35:46.340 Oh, my gosh.

00:35:47.480 I'll do it real slow.

00:35:48.280 It really needs to slow it down.

00:35:51.000 Get some more cards back here.

00:35:52.380 So, I'll use them all a little.

00:35:54.300 All right.

00:35:55.460 Were you a math guy?

00:35:56.520 Were you a math guy growing up?

00:35:57.960 Not really.

00:35:58.680 And nothing I do is based on math.

00:36:00.900 It's all based on finger control, fingertip control and touch.

00:36:05.080 See that card, King?

00:36:06.500 Let's see if I can do this really, really.

00:36:07.940 This is one of the first second deals that I came up with.

00:36:12.200 But you do it really, really, really slowly.

00:36:15.000 You turn it face up so you can see more clearly.

00:36:17.760 See?

00:36:18.420 But you have to deal the card.

00:36:19.800 Second card is neatly.

00:36:21.040 See, Vernon would talk about relaxed grip, natural grip.

00:36:25.620 And see, here's one-handed.

00:36:27.980 Now, when the card's face down, see, when it's face down,

00:36:30.800 see, it's hard to tell that you're being taken.

00:36:34.060 But that's dealing seconds.

00:36:36.380 Anyway, so he kept showing me move after move after move.

00:36:39.660 And he would describe them to me in a way.

00:36:41.860 And so, I developed them only to find out that he couldn't do them that way

00:36:45.640 and other people couldn't do them that way.

00:36:47.600 And a lot of the times, he just thought it was flat out not possible to do it that way.

00:36:51.920 Say a number 10 to 20.

00:36:53.580 10 to 20?

00:36:54.260 Yeah, pick a number.

00:36:55.320 Okay, 17.

00:36:56.800 Okay, I'm going to try to cut with one hand 17 cards.

00:37:00.400 Come on.

00:37:01.160 Count them.

00:37:02.360 Come on.

00:37:03.040 Well, count them.

00:37:03.620 We'll find out.

00:37:05.800 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17.

00:37:14.220 Come on.

00:37:15.320 Pat him back.

00:37:15.780 Pat him back face down.

00:37:16.580 Come on.

00:37:17.000 Okay.

00:37:17.380 Come on.

00:37:18.540 I mean, how could you do that?

00:37:20.240 Okay.

00:37:20.900 One hand that I just said in one second, he gave it to me.

00:37:23.520 Let me try this.

00:37:24.080 4 and 10.

00:37:24.860 Two different numbers at the same time.

00:37:26.480 1, 2, 3.

00:37:27.420 I got that one.

00:37:27.860 See if that's 10 cards.

00:37:29.920 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

00:37:35.040 Okay.

00:37:35.440 Put him back on the deck face down.

00:37:38.420 Okay.

00:37:39.400 Now, take the deck and cut it. 0.99

00:37:41.460 Cut half the deck and put the other half on top.

00:37:43.520 Cut it and finish it.

00:37:45.140 Okay.

00:37:45.580 Now, because people are always asking, why would you waste your time developing a touch like

00:37:50.040 that?

00:37:50.620 I'll show you one of the purposes.

00:37:51.780 Give me a number of players in the card.

00:37:53.080 Three, four, five.

00:37:54.500 Pick a number.

00:37:54.980 Four.

00:37:55.600 You're my partner.

00:37:56.360 You want to set it one, two, three, or four?

00:37:58.800 Two.

00:37:59.600 Four and two.

00:38:00.340 Okay.

00:38:00.980 And once again, as we mentioned earlier, the way you're allowed to shuffle in the casinos,

00:38:04.340 the deck has to stay face down on the table.

00:38:05.840 Okay.

00:38:06.340 Riffle shuffle, and it's because it's the hardest way to control if you're going to control.

00:38:12.560 Four players, second position.

00:38:14.860 Take the deck so you don't think I'm doing anything dirty.

00:38:18.160 Deal a card off the top, face up, player one right here.

00:38:20.800 Okay.

00:38:21.320 And I think you chose kings and you're player number two, face up a card right here.

00:38:24.840 What's that card?

00:38:25.520 That's king of clubs.

00:38:26.420 First one was nine of hearts.

00:38:27.320 Player three right here.

00:38:28.360 Okay.

00:38:28.860 And player four.

00:38:30.100 Okay.

00:38:30.300 Start here again, player one.

00:38:32.460 Okay.

00:38:32.660 Number two is you.

00:38:33.820 Okay.

00:38:34.020 What's that card?

00:38:34.500 Okay.

00:38:35.020 Come on.

00:38:36.080 Player three.

00:38:37.440 Okay.

00:38:37.880 Player four.

00:38:38.760 Okay.

00:38:39.080 Just keep circling the table.

00:38:40.400 Player one, tell us what number two is.

00:38:41.840 Oh, my king again.

00:38:43.000 Start, Betty.

00:38:43.720 Big time there.

00:38:44.780 Patrick makes money off the producer.

00:38:46.640 Oh, my gosh.

00:38:47.560 Did I get the last one?

00:38:48.680 Ten.

00:38:49.440 Deal the next card out of curiosity.

00:38:51.520 King of spades.

00:38:52.100 I missed.

00:38:52.900 So let me explain what happened here.

00:38:55.040 Sure.

00:38:55.120 I shuffled your cards back in the deck exactly where you chose every fourth position starting at

00:39:00.600 number two.

00:39:01.200 But I missed one of those shuffles by the thickness of 11.3 thousandths of an inch.

00:39:07.460 And that's why that one card was off by one.

00:39:09.500 That one card was off by one card.

00:39:11.000 Are you kidding?

00:39:11.840 So I explained how and what happened there.

00:39:14.040 So listen, obviously, a lot of our viewers are entrepreneurs, but you're also an entrepreneur

00:39:18.920 yourself because as an artist, you found a way to monetize this.

00:39:22.340 And this is what you've done for a living for many, many years.

00:39:24.960 So how did you find a way to monetize your ability?

00:39:27.720 And monetizing a close-up act is different than like David Copperfield because he can put

00:39:32.400 10,000 people in an audience.

00:39:34.600 Good point.

00:39:35.080 Mine, it's intimate.

00:39:36.320 Nowadays, we have video projections.

00:39:38.820 So when I toured China, we mentioned, you know, they had the most, I was in the most

00:39:42.780 beautiful theaters in the world.

00:39:44.140 I mean, the screen that my show was projected on was four stories tall and five stories wide.

00:39:49.200 But how I made it viable for me is I became an asset, an added asset to my performing venues.

00:39:56.160 In other words, I was hired to entertain, but as an added bonus, I got them what is known

00:40:00.500 in the industry as earned media.

00:40:02.380 You probably know what that means.

00:40:03.740 I got them, I got their name mentioned in primetime television, worldwide television,

00:40:08.600 newspaper figures, magazine cover stories.

00:40:11.120 So I would have long-term running engagements.

00:40:14.000 I had one engagement that went 2,190 days in a row.

00:40:18.400 That's seven days, seven nights a week performing six years straight.

00:40:22.240 And it was because whenever I, you know, I got them, well, Ripley's, that's incredible,

00:40:26.620 all kinds of shows.

00:40:27.340 And I'd always made sure they mentioned the places I was performing in and on those shows

00:40:32.340 or on all the different media.

00:40:34.060 So they got very expensive advertising just because I was there.

00:40:38.720 And I replicated that in a number of different places over the years.

00:40:42.440 And that's how I made it more viable.

00:40:44.960 And of course, now with projection, now I don't need to do that so much.

00:40:49.540 I had people say, there's no way you can make a living.

00:40:52.040 And they were, they were looking, they were looking down at me.

00:40:55.280 It's going, you're crazy if you think you can make a magician with a deck of cards,

00:40:58.140 make a living with a deck of cards.

00:40:59.680 And so I had, I actually had it all calculated out probably two or three years before I actually

00:41:04.800 did what I did when I got that first long engagement from 1979 to 84 on that riverboat.

00:41:11.200 And that changed the game.

00:41:12.280 And that changed the game.

00:41:13.160 There was a story saying how when you were seven years old, you liked to watch the show

00:41:16.760 Maverick because the guy would do magic tricks and you would sit right in front of the TV

00:41:20.440 and your mom would say, hey, what are you doing, Richard?

00:41:23.000 And is that where the fascination came from for you from that movie you watched?

00:41:26.400 Is that what it was for you?

00:41:27.460 Yeah.

00:41:27.680 It was a TV show called Maverick starring James Garner.

00:41:31.420 It was a Western and he was a gambling, he was a card player, a card shark.

00:41:36.180 And sometimes there would be people at the table trying to cheat him.

00:41:39.100 He'd out cheat the cheaters.

00:41:40.720 And I thought he was so cool.

00:41:42.380 And so I wanted to be a gambler like Maverick.

00:41:45.080 We were very poor.

00:41:46.940 We had four games.

00:41:48.540 We had Monopoly, checkers, chess, and a deck of cards.

00:41:52.440 And I was the oldest.

00:41:53.920 One thing about the oldest, I had this thing about, I didn't like to lose.

00:41:58.060 So we'd play cards for M&Ms.

00:42:00.300 When we'd get a nickel and we were able to get a deck of packs of M&Ms.

00:42:03.740 So we'd play cards for M&Ms and the red being the most valuable, the brown being the least

00:42:07.560 valuable.

00:42:08.360 And I wanted all those M&Ms for my sisters.

00:42:10.340 And so we played cards and I started noticing if I tell myself one extra card, I increase

00:42:16.420 my percentages like by 20%.

00:42:18.320 And so I started coming up with these ways of creating an advantage.

00:42:22.920 And that's kind of where the obsession started.

00:42:26.600 Then my sisters would tell her girlfriends, my brother's so good, he never loses.

00:42:30.620 And that just encouraged me to keep developing more and more things.

00:42:34.080 Your sister, she said she lost her vision a year and three months after you or some number.

00:42:39.820 Yeah, hers was a couple of years after mine.

00:42:42.880 But we both, I was nine, she was five when we both got scarlet fever.

00:42:46.800 What are the odds of that, by the way?

00:42:48.100 Like, what did the doctor say when that happened?

00:42:49.820 Our whole elementary school was in quarantine.

00:42:52.880 And they gave them an antidote and we had to take something else.

00:42:57.220 And we don't know.

00:42:58.500 And the thing is, that's the only thing that they could figure that caused the vision to

00:43:02.680 go south because the exact same thing happened to both of us.

00:43:06.120 And for me, I was in my fourth grade class, teachers writing, Mrs. Gaston writing on the chalkboard.

00:43:12.160 And all of a sudden, the chalk just got like someone took a ration and smeared it.

00:43:18.580 It was just, and I'm going, I'm trying to, and then I looked down at my book and I couldn't

00:43:23.960 see the print.

00:43:24.540 I'm going, what the heck?

00:43:25.720 And Mrs. Gaston, I can't see the chalkboard and sent me to the nurse. 1.00

00:43:30.280 And so that's what happened with me and my sister.

00:43:32.340 Same thing within 60 seconds.

00:43:34.760 It's like a lens on a camera just went fuzzy on you.

00:43:37.500 You know, I noticed one thing is when I sit with people that become the best at what they

00:43:41.400 do, not just one of the best, but the best at what they do.

00:43:44.120 Like you're not one of the best.

00:43:45.260 You are the best.

00:43:46.220 There's a big difference, right?

00:43:47.740 Almost every one of them that I talked to, there was something happened that was extremely

00:43:52.780 painful growing up.

00:43:54.280 And I think it happens to a lot of us, right?

00:43:56.020 And when it happens, imagine God, if you believe in a higher power or, you know, if

00:44:01.080 you believe in Greek mythology, like you're being tested to see how you're going to react

00:44:04.440 because this is your chance for the world to know that it could be the best at something.

00:44:07.340 Every one of these guys has a very difficult story in that moment when we're being tested.

00:44:12.380 You've shared a few of them in a documentary.

00:44:14.500 What would you say some of them were?

00:44:15.820 I know you said one of them, your mother once, you had a book so close to your eyes you were

00:44:20.160 reading and your mom said, do you have to put the books so close to you?

00:44:22.640 And you remember that when you explained that.

00:44:24.260 How many more of those instances happened that stayed with you?

00:44:27.720 Well, a number of them.

00:44:28.940 One of them that stayed with me was we were forced to watch a movie called Lord of the

00:44:33.480 Flies back in second grade, third grade, fourth grade.

00:44:36.300 It was about a group of boys that were stranded on an island and they became savages.

00:44:43.160 And there was one kid on the island called Piggy.

00:44:46.340 He was chubby, wore glasses, and he had asthma.

00:44:49.400 And the other kids end up, they go off in teams and they end up taking Piggy and they

00:44:54.620 end up killing him.

00:44:55.680 And I was always afraid of turning out like Piggy, you know, because I would, except I was 0.72

00:45:00.120 skinny, blind, and had asthma.

00:45:02.180 And then there was another show called Lost in Space.

00:45:04.620 Jonathan Harrison playing Mr. Smith. 0.97

00:45:06.300 And he was always the coward hiding behind this rock while this goofy looking monster would 0.83

00:45:11.340 come up while the little 10 year old Billy Mummy goes and saves the day. 0.98

00:45:15.120 And I was always afraid that I was going to be like that coward.

00:45:18.280 And I, and the same thing with Tarzan movies.

00:45:20.300 I'd watch Tarzan movies and there was always a scene where they're going across a tree that

00:45:24.020 fell across, you know, some canyon that's a thousand feet below.

00:45:27.300 And then someone would always stop and go, whatever you do, don't look down.

00:45:31.380 And then there's always the one person that stops and looks down, you know, go screaming

00:45:35.940 to their death. 0.95

00:45:36.660 What if I'm that coward? 0.69

00:45:37.680 And so it was because of the fact, I can't, I can't see how am I going to be able to deal

00:45:42.260 with things?

00:45:42.620 How, how's a woman going to want to deal with, want to be with a guy that can't see? 0.99

00:45:46.120 And it caused me to flip and just go all the way to the other extreme.

00:45:51.980 And I took extreme risks, wrestling seven foot sharks too.

00:45:56.420 Oh, I, I, I.

00:45:57.340 Well, did you say wrestling seven foot sharks?

00:45:59.340 Yeah.

00:45:59.840 You want that story?

00:46:01.300 Give it to me.

00:46:02.000 I love shark hunting.

00:46:03.060 And we'd go out off Nine Mile Island, which was about, well, nine miles off of the San Diego

00:46:08.440 point in the Mexican waters.

00:46:10.020 It would pour blood in the ocean. 0.86

00:46:12.860 And I was always the pole man.

00:46:14.100 I'd have a marlin pole, small marlin pole with a 12 foot steel leader, 120, 140 pound steel

00:46:19.360 leader, 120 pound line.

00:46:20.920 And the shark starts circling.

00:46:22.640 And then they would grab your bait and take off.

00:46:25.280 And then I had to pull the rest of the 12 feet by hand because it couldn't go through

00:46:28.180 the eye of the thing.

00:46:29.200 And then another friend, we called him gaffer.

00:46:31.120 He would gaff the sharks.

00:46:32.500 And then my friend, Randy Dick, he was our shot, shoot, his shooter. 0.56

00:46:35.600 He would shoot it because you can't kill a shark once it's on the boat.

00:46:37.900 And we had these red snapper heads and guts tied onto the back of the boat. 0.86

00:46:41.920 And this seven foot blue starts chomping on those things. 1.00

00:46:45.820 So we pull that rope in, grabbed a gaff and gaffed him, put a bullet in him, but he's not

00:46:52.800 dead because he only put it in the middle.

00:46:54.380 So I said, hang on to him.

00:46:55.400 So he's holding that shark by the head.

00:46:58.320 And I reach in and I grab them.

00:46:59.980 I figure if I can get a noose around his tail, we won't lose him.

00:47:02.900 So I'm sitting there, got this thing. 0.94

00:47:04.120 I'm sitting there trying to muscle the darn thing with one arm. 0.96

00:47:07.100 With the other hand, I'm trying to tie a noose on his tail. 0.99

00:47:09.240 I thought it'd take a 30 second.

00:47:10.540 It took me about six or eight minutes.

00:47:12.440 And finally I got a noose on his tail. 0.89

00:47:14.080 We shot him, pulled him on, on board the boat.

00:47:17.160 And then started chewing on our gas lines.

00:47:20.740 So he's sitting there chomping away.

00:47:22.560 And Randy goes, somebody better stop that.

00:47:24.780 We're not going to be able to get home because we're like many miles from shore.

00:47:29.560 And so I said, give me my softball back.

00:47:31.380 I grabbed my softball back and I went down, down, down, down.

00:47:34.380 I said, heal, heal, heal.

00:47:36.140 And you hit that shark hard enough and he's finally settled down.

00:47:39.640 Then about five minutes later, there he is again, mouth up and down, getting ready to

00:47:43.760 chomp our gas lines.

00:47:44.840 And the second time when you do it, the eyes pop out.

00:47:48.540 Anyway, the shark stopped.

00:47:49.820 I relate, I mean, not at that level with you, what you're doing.

00:47:52.260 But the idea of somebody said you couldn't do it, the idea of somebody tried to feel

00:47:57.220 bad for you.

00:47:58.180 You grow up poor.

00:47:59.660 People give you money.

00:48:00.720 They say, oh, poor you.

00:48:01.860 Oh, poor this.

00:48:02.600 And you don't even want to get help.

00:48:04.180 Like I remember I had a challenge asking for help for a long time.

00:48:07.400 It was kind of like, I don't need your help.

00:48:08.880 I don't want you to help me out.

00:48:09.820 I don't want you to help me out.

00:48:10.440 I don't need anybody's help.

00:48:11.380 Seems like that's a little bit of a positive thing.

00:48:14.860 But also it's a little bit of a Achilles heel because it limits you to how much you can

00:48:18.860 grow.

00:48:19.160 Because yes, you want to prove a point that you don't need anybody's help because growing

00:48:22.320 up you had something.

00:48:23.520 But then eventually if you want to do something big and be able to do it for a long time,

00:48:26.520 you need help from other people.

00:48:27.580 How did you overcome that?

00:48:29.740 And what was the process?

00:48:31.020 And was it your sister talking to you?

00:48:32.380 Was it your wife talking to you? 0.81

00:48:33.500 How did you go about saying, I'm okay getting help now?

00:48:37.280 When I was first asked to be on a show called That's Incredible, at the time it was one of

00:48:40.920 the biggest shows on television.

00:48:42.100 And they wanted me to walk with the White King. 0.80

00:48:43.700 I said, I'm not going to do that.

00:48:44.940 That's a tip off.

00:48:46.600 You know, blind people do that. 1.00

00:48:48.140 I'd get in their face sometimes and I wasn't too polite about it because I wanted my stuff

00:48:53.220 to stand on its own.

00:48:54.120 The thing is, as the years went on, the vision kept going south.

00:48:58.520 And before I could, when I'd fight, I could at least see out of the corner of my eye, where

00:49:03.080 are my, the silhouette of my target.

00:49:05.120 I have a very rare condition.

00:49:06.720 It was first documented in 1760 called Charles Bonnet Syndrome.

00:49:10.000 It's French.

00:49:10.980 English is Charles Bonnet Syndrome.

00:49:13.260 And Dr. Oliver Sacks, he's a best-selling author, he's written a number of books on the

00:49:16.820 subject.

00:49:17.160 One was called Hallucination, the other one was called The Mind's Eye.

00:49:20.880 And that he calls this scene with the mind's eye.

00:49:24.020 So my condition is where other people that have lost their seat just see black, they've

00:49:28.800 lost their seat, they see nothing.

00:49:30.020 I see a 360-degree kaleidoscope of beautiful, vivid, every shape of royal blue, blues, reds,

00:49:40.460 greens, every shape of, and then when I'm in the red spectrum, every shape of royal red

00:49:46.620 down to the, you know, to everything in the red spectrum.

00:49:50.360 And then sometimes they will intermix with each other.

00:49:52.740 And then amongst all this is every subconscious image you can see just floating around.

00:49:57.240 So just picture yourself underwater with a light shining in, breaking down the prism,

00:50:02.260 the light spectrum, and in the water is just thousands of things floating around.

00:50:06.840 That's my normal state.

00:50:07.800 And you can lock me in a vault with no light of any source, and I'm still these things,

00:50:14.080 these colors, just as vivid.

00:50:16.220 And the cool thing is, I can zoom in on any particular image, zoom it up, I can take my

00:50:24.460 beautiful wife and zoom her around in her bikini and whatever, you know, and then, or I've 1.00

00:50:31.460 designed houses, I've built decks, and I would engineer, my wife would watch, I'd sit in a

00:50:35.560 chair and I'd watch, I'd watch the whole thing, I could, it's like living in virtual reality.

00:50:39.960 Okay, I need four by 12, so it's being, and they'll have to be anchored over here.

00:50:45.400 And I'll engineer a big, giant project without a single piece of paper.

00:50:49.560 At that time, my dad was my cutter.

00:50:51.540 I'd say, Dad, this board needs to be 192 and a quarter inches.

00:50:55.440 We cut it, we built this three giant, I don't know how many square foot, giant deck, all

00:51:00.180 different layers, levels, and all without a single piece of paper and all engineered with

00:51:06.840 this CBS, Charles Bonnet syndrome. Now, all of a sudden, I couldn't see anything anymore,

00:51:13.040 anything that's real. And see, I go like this. I put my hand in front of my face, and I will

00:51:17.140 see a digitized, I guess that'd be like something that's not flesh looking. I don't see things

00:51:21.780 flesh looking. But I will see something go back and forth like a pendulum. I close my eyes,

00:51:27.020 I see the exact same thing with the colors just as vivid. And so I would go like this,

00:51:33.540 and I couldn't tell that there was nothing left. In other words, out of the corner of my eye,

00:51:38.280 I could not see my hand move because, and I didn't know that I had lost the rest of my sight

00:51:43.560 because my CBS created the vision that I had. So then, now, I'm running into everything under

00:51:50.300 the sun. My wife was sitting there, recliners at night, and the phone rings. I dashed to answer

00:51:55.860 the phone. I ran square into the corner of the wall. I split my head wide open. She looked up for

00:52:01.960 her book, and she said, now, that one had to hurt. When you get off the phone, don't forget to wipe

00:52:06.360 up the blood. So in our family, me running into things is par for the course. Happens every month.

00:52:12.240 I either have a big split face or a black eye. And sadly, it's almost always before I do an interview,

00:52:18.140 somehow, I managed to not have one for you. And anyway, so she kept trying to get through to me,

00:52:25.360 you need help. You need to have, you need someone to walk with you. You need to touch somebody,

00:52:31.820 you know, because I just kept hurting myself. And so finally, I realized that nothing that I was

00:52:37.980 seeing was real. And that for me was, that was as a big of loss to me as if you just went from your

00:52:45.800 2020 to zero, how that would be to you. What little I had meant as much to me is what you have means to

00:52:53.400 you. Because I went from a independent disabled person to a dependent disabled person, in that I

00:53:01.160 now needed somebody to touch as I walked. I needed someone to either touch me or I touch them to keep

00:53:07.800 me from walking off cliffs, which I've done, falling down. Really?

00:53:11.860 My wife and I were, we're, we're, she, we were roller coaster junkies. We're, we've climbed

00:53:19.960 giant mountains, seven foot, seven mile high mountains in Montana. And whatever I do, she'll

00:53:26.560 do whatever she does, I'll do. She's a man. She's fantastic. You've been married, what, 28 years?

00:53:31.340 28 years. 28. You have a son, which you've named. So the name of your son, can you talk about that?

00:53:37.440 I mean, obviously you came up with the name, but no, you can't, you didn't come up with

00:53:42.280 the name. She came up with it. I'll tell you what happened. My, my son's name, our son's

00:53:45.800 name is Asa Spade, spelled A-S-A, like King Asa from the Old Testament. And King David's

00:53:52.040 great grandson was King Asa. And the Bible says, and Asa did what is good and right in

00:53:57.500 the eyes of the Lord, his God. He was one of the good Kings. And she, and she said, and

00:54:01.580 it means physician or healer. Then my wife said, and his middle name could be Spades.

00:54:06.260 And I thought, Asa Spades, that's perfect. That's the perfect name for the son of a card

00:54:11.660 check. She goes, no, no, we're not naming our son Asa Spades. I said, yes, that's perfect.

00:54:16.020 She stepped in it. And once she stepped in it, she couldn't get out of it.

00:54:19.460 Oh my God. So that's a great name.

00:54:21.280 And he loves his name. He's world famous because of his name. People know him all over the world

00:54:25.920 because, and they think I would kill for Richard Turner's son's name. He's got the coolest

00:54:30.600 name in the world. And he doesn't go by Richard or Asa Turner. You know, after his father and

00:54:36.120 her mother, he goes Asa Spades. He goes by the name of Asa Spades.

00:54:40.900 You see people that do very well on their career side, but some, you know, not necessarily family

00:54:45.340 and then kids and all that. So that kind of becomes complicated and difficult to do for

00:54:48.760 you. You, you, you become the best at what you do here. Your marriage, 28 years, and you

00:54:54.220 guys seem like you're having a blast together. And then your son going to where he's at and

00:54:58.760 he's, you know, good kid doing the right things for himself. Your sister. So you become the

00:55:03.720 best at this, but your sister, which is fascinating is she, you said she ran the largest construction 0.95

00:55:09.280 company in Idaho, in the state of Idaho.

00:55:11.340 Yeah. At one time they laid more found, more concrete than any other construction. She

00:55:15.840 doesn't ran it. She ran and was the owner of it. Her name was Drott, Drott Dairy Construction.

00:55:21.000 They built big dairies and then it just became Drott Construction because they, you know, she works

00:55:25.580 on very, very large projects, 10, 20, $50 million projects. That's amazing. What values and principles

00:55:32.180 did your parents pass down to you and your sister? What were, if you were to say my parents or my mom

00:55:36.320 or dad always said these three things, what were those things? Well, my dad was just nothing but a

00:55:41.840 positive influence on my sister. And we always said we had the best dad in the world. My, all, all of us.

00:55:47.580 My, my brother says the same thing because he loved us unconditionally. You know, there's, in the Greek,

00:55:52.840 there's different types of love. You know, eros, agape, storgoy, which is a family love, eros, philia,

00:55:58.680 which is a friend, friend, friend, family love. And agape is like a God love, unconditional type love.

00:56:05.080 He loved us with no conditions and he just, he literally gave everything for us and to us. And he

00:56:14.340 was just, he was just nothing but an encouragement. And here's, here's how he was. He'd go,

00:56:20.580 hey, yo, cheat. And that's how my dad addressed his son, me. Hey, yo, cheat. And he said it with

00:56:27.020 affection and, and he was so proud, you know. And so I got, my nickname was Richard Turner,

00:56:31.860 the cheat. So I went by that for years. If you look at old publicity things, it was always Richard

00:56:36.340 Turner, the cheat, in quotes. So you'd say the number one thing from him was a passing I love to

00:56:40.180 you guys. And, and, and his, and the way he did things, he did things to perfection. He was,

00:56:46.640 he had a seventh grade education and became, uh, one of the top engineers for a number of big,

00:56:52.600 big, big, big companies. And he was just started off as a welder, but he would engineer things and

00:56:57.940 he would do work on projects. He worked on the Alan Shepard, John Glenn, the first spacecraft all the

00:57:03.420 way up to the first space shuttle. And he would, um, work on things in the nuclear, the nuclear area.

00:57:10.080 And, um, but, and he would come up with ideas, but because he was working for them,

00:57:14.640 they got the rights to the patent. He got the pat on the back. If he wasn't, you know,

00:57:18.320 he could have been a wealthy man, but money meant nothing to him. And whatever he did,

00:57:22.220 he did it to such perfection. Um, and I would watch him growing up. He would, somebody would come over

00:57:27.800 and they wanted to build an engine or whatever he would, he would do it. And then I would just be

00:57:33.900 so amazed. And I thought, wow, I wish I could do that. I wish I had talent like that. And then when they

00:57:39.020 would want to pay him and he spent all the whole week into it, he would, he would never would take

00:57:43.800 a dime. So we, uh, we talked about Phil Ivey briefly earlier. So what do you think? I talked

00:57:48.760 to Phil Hallmuth and I was asking questions about him as well. Obviously you're in the world. So you

00:57:52.280 see a lot of the poker and all these other things that happens. What do you think about what happened

00:57:55.900 with Phil Ivey in, in London? Well, I think he is owed that money because there's what's called

00:58:02.440 advantage play. And if the casinos are dealing a game where if they have something, if there's a flaw

00:58:08.660 in their game or with their cards and, and you capitalize on that, that is not considered

00:58:15.320 cheating legally or ethically. And, uh, and you know, he, they, he was playing according

00:58:21.580 to their rules and everything was wide open. And now for them not to pay him, I think it's

00:58:26.500 wrong. He deserves to be paid. So, so I want to wrap up with a quote you said at the end of

00:58:31.480 the documentary. And I know one thing that I heard from the variety is the documentary, uh,

00:58:35.960 is now leading to a movie that they're doing on your life. And the P who were the people 0.61

00:58:40.580 that came up to you that are doing the movie on your life after watching dealt Mark orders

00:58:44.480 ski and Jane Fleming. They're with court five. He was the executive producer of the, uh, the

00:58:51.920 Lord of the Rings trilogy. He won 17 Oscars off that one trilogy alone, those three movies.

00:58:58.960 And, uh, he's produced, you know, 60 major motion pictures and they took a liking to dealt and they

00:59:06.560 have, uh, they were, we're in the development stages of, uh, of moving towards a narrative.

00:59:12.380 You said something in the documentary. You said, I think the loss of my vision ended up becoming

00:59:16.700 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

00:59:23.620 you to say that and believe it a hundred percent? Well, that came from my beautiful wife, Kim,

00:59:29.440 where it gets back to your earlier question. When I had to face things, she would, she would say,

00:59:33.980 you gotta get over yourself. You gotta let accept help from others. You are, you know, you are,

00:59:39.980 yes, you're Richard Turner, the blah, blah, blah. You know, you're not, you're not impervious.

00:59:44.500 You're not Superman, even though I like to think I am sometimes, but I'm not. Anyway, she said,

00:59:49.160 you can't fail. You can't deal with what you're not willing to confront. If you're not willing to

00:59:55.160 confront something, you can't deal with it. And so, um, she told me basically get over yourself,

01:00:01.720 accept help from others. And you know, when I went, what the heck? I don't need it. I'm old now.

01:00:08.180 I don't care what people say about me. I've made my mark. And, um, yeah, so it's been a good 25 years,

01:00:15.460 but it was, okay. So it's been a long time. It's been a long time. So Richard, any final thoughts

01:00:19.820 for entrepreneurs out there? I know you're, uh, you've talked at MIT and you said the two curse

01:00:25.100 words are hard work. And on Penn and Teller, you mentioned the fact that the biggest, the two

01:00:30.200 biggest disabilities in the world are lazy and procrastination. Why don't you talk a little bit 1.00

01:00:34.560 about the mindset of how you think to get yourself to the point of being the best of the best?

01:00:39.400 I say, don't let anyone tell you something's impossible. You know, have a healthy disregard

01:00:43.960 when someone says something's impossible. I say take possible out of impossible. You

01:00:50.180 know, and I understand that time to time we're dealt a better handed to, but it's how we approach

01:00:54.340 that handed. If we choose to fold, whine, quit, sit on our pity pot. A lot of people do, or

01:01:00.940 take your disadvantage, whatever it is, turn it into an asset, become like a soldier and, you

01:01:09.120 know, become a warrior and go all in. Like we're talking about with Phil Ivy. Ivy, go, go all

01:01:15.340 in. That's what separates losers from the winners. You know, don't let anyone stop, get in your

01:01:21.720 way and don't, don't hit them or knock them down on the way. Smile at them. And you know,

01:01:28.340 you know, I had a, you know, I was kind of like this for a large part of my life. Now,

01:01:34.560 you're right. I am a blind man, but let's go have some fun. That's a great attitude. You know,

01:01:40.480 for, for some, some of us, you know, we make the lamest excuses to say, well, you don't understand

01:01:45.540 what I went through and what I did this and what I did that. And we use that as a crush and I get

01:01:48.780 to the next level. And you're a prime example of somebody that can go out there and take all the

01:01:53.520 excuses away. By the way, we're going to talk on a side note about looking at your calendar on your

01:01:57.880 availability next year for inviting you to our conference. Cause I love to see you guys perform

01:02:01.760 for our guys so they can see. I'm sure after seeing this interview, people are going to be

01:02:04.820 fascinated by the story, but you also get invited to do a lot of functions, right? So how do people

01:02:09.460 get ahold of you? Do they contact your agent? Do they go on your website? Yes. My manager,

01:02:14.500 Kim at RichardTurner52.com. My website is RichardTurner52.com. Put Kim at in front of that

01:02:22.980 and you'll get right to my manager. And, you know, I speak and perform all over the world.

01:02:27.920 I just got invited to do a television special in Japan that I'm, we're negotiating the contract

01:02:32.440 on that. And I'm, that next week I'll be with Apple and anyway, so it's really fun. I enjoy speaking

01:02:38.860 and for some reason people are inspired or encouraged when I do, even though all I wanted

01:02:44.260 to be was a performer, but now I'm a speaker performer. So I do my car stuff within my speaking.

01:02:49.740 So it's also entertaining. Yeah. No, your message is multi-dimensional. It's not one

01:02:54.720 dimension. You have a multi-dimensional message that can inspire. Well, it's already entertained

01:02:58.920 a lot of people. I think your story can also inspire tens of millions of people around the

01:03:03.500 world as well, if it hasn't already. Yeah. When I did, I did a special for Japan. They said,

01:03:08.260 I've been seen by over a billion people now, 214 countries by over a billion people.

01:03:12.760 That's amazing. I know it's creepy. That is amazing. It's creepy. I think to me to think

01:03:16.880 about that, maybe we'll see my ugly old mug. So by the way, ugly old mug, you look like 0.99

01:03:22.760 you belonged in a movie. You look like a Chuck Norris slash like a Burt Reynolds, good looking 0.98

01:03:28.220 model that should have been in Hollywood doing movies. You had, you had the whole thing. 0.97

01:03:31.860 If you, if you see this documentary, you're going to see his physique and you're not going

01:03:36.640 to believe he's got the chest of a bodybuilder. He's got the arms of a bodybuilder, a fighter.

01:03:41.760 By the way, there's a couple of things I want you to do. If you watch this, you were inspired.

01:03:44.980 You got to go watch the documentary to really understand the story and the scope of things

01:03:49.820 because there's stories, videos of him. Some of these things we didn't even get into in

01:03:53.680 this video here today, in this interview here today. So do that too. If you do want to book

01:03:58.640 him, reach out to his manager, send that email over. And then three, comment below on what

01:04:03.160 you took away from this interview. And if you haven't subscribed, click on the subscribe

01:04:06.480 button to join value taming. And if you have the alert button, click on that as well to join

01:04:11.760 a notification squad. So with that being said, Richard, thank you so much for being

01:04:15.360 on Valuetainment here with us. Truly, thank you for coming out.

01:04:17.840 My pleasure. And here's one thing. Here's something you never do when you play for money.

01:04:20.940 Never shuffle a deck in each hand.

01:04:23.740 That's just amazing.

01:04:24.240 It makes the other players get up and run. Patrick, I'm so honored to be with you.

01:04:27.640 Thank you. The pleasure's all mine.

01:04:29.340 Thank you so much for coming out. Truly, thank you.

01:04:31.780 Thanks, everybody, for listening. And by the way, if you haven't already subscribed to

01:04:34.960 Valuetainment on iTunes, please do so. Give us a five-star. Write a review if you haven't

01:04:40.200 already. And if you have any questions for me that you may have, you can always find me

01:04:43.820 on Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube. Just search my name, Patrick MidDavid. And

01:04:48.860 I actually do respond back when you snap me or send me a message on Instagram. With that

01:04:53.940 being said, have a great day today. Take care, everybody. Bye-bye.

01:05:01.780 Bye-bye.

Valuetainment - October 05, 2018

Episode 182： Mafias Most Wanted Card Magician - Richard Turner

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