Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Vick Lawston's Giant Surprise Catalog of Professional Magic

In the spirit of April Fools I thought I'd do a few posts this month about novelties, magic tricks and top it off with a little "fun" original animation.

Inspiration for my April Fools animation came from a skit on Joel Hodgson's The TV Wheel The TV Wheel was a ingenious "experiment" from 1995 that unfortunately never got beyond a pilot.  The sketch is "Vick Lawston's Giant Surprise Catalog of Professional Magic."  Paul Feig plays Vick Lawston, and Joel is supposedly the voice of Pumpernickel the monkey. Please watch the sketch below starting at 1:32...




Until I wrote this post I had always assumed that Vick Lawston was a fictional character created for the sketch, but to my 'giant surprise' he and the "Giant Surprise Catalog of  Professional Magic" are 100% real....



Gee, I feel like I'm the last to know. I sure wish I had a copy of that catalog.  The few scans of some of pages I've seen online look priceless.  Vick's son Jeff, who's in the reflective tape business, has a small page devoted to his late father right here. It's the most "official" Vick Lawston site you will find on the interweb. 

11 comments:

Unknown said...

Believe it or not, I actually HAVE this catalog! I sent for it from an ad in a Fantastic Four comic book. I still remember part of a poem the book contained..."Some people say that Vick Lawston's way off his trolley...But why not be silly? I'll soon wear a lily...and then it's too late to be jolly!" I swear to God, it's in the catalog!

David W. said...

Davy thanks for the comment. You are so fortunate to own this cool catalog. I'm certainly just a little bit envious.

Anonymous said...

I have vick Lawston Giant Surprise Catalog its said its copy r8ght if the 1940s i juat want to jnow how much it is to seel

Bobby J. Gallo said...

I had a copy as a kid and as typical I destroyed it by cutting out all of the pictures... Lately I found it all mangled and started kicking myself... After I was sufficiently bruised I went on the net and actually found one for sale in a used book store site... I bought it... I also contacted Vic's son awhile back and he told me that he had an old trunk full of his father's old tricks that he used to sell... Unfortunately he didn't want to sell them to me... I have a few tricks from that catalog... The catalog itself is far better than the tricks which were usually hand drawn or typewritten manuscripts... Although the Million dollar mysteries was cool...

C Parker said...

I'm his great-granddaughter he invented the milk carton but never got any credit for it.

Anonymous said...

Also FYI his name is actually spelled laustsen.

C Parker said...

I might be rich because my grandparents actually have the real pumpernickel and we have a copy of one edition.

Unknown said...

I have catalog No 1474. 48 Great Magic Tricks in good condition. Does anyone know what year that was published and its approximate value?

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Unknown said...

Actually….No…It’s Lawston

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