Al Koran (1914-1972)

Al Koran was born Edward Doe in Britain. Koran started out as a hairdresser before becoming a professional magician/mentalist.

He began his career as a close-up performer and gained a reputation for his incredible card effects; among them a card stab which fooled well-posted magicians, and which was described in "Mastered Amazement."

Though not an inventor of effects, Koran possessed the ability to see magic from a lay person's point of view; he was thus able to take long-negected magical concepts and create with them strong presentations.

After a time he shifted the focus of his performances to mental magic, and here he achieved his greatest successes, including his own television series.

Unlike many magicians who have specialized in mental magic, however, Koran often wove conventional magic into the presentation of his mental feats; he might, for example, divine the contents of a locked box-and then cause the box to vanish.

In 1964, a book titled "Bring Out The magic In Your Mind" was published, supposedly written by Koran but actually ghosted; it was a combination of self-help positive-thinking advice with a number of publicity stories about Koran.

The book has been described as the "world's thickest advertising brochure."

In 1969, Koran moved to Chicago, Illinois, and he began to build a new career in the united States making frequent appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show; shortly thereafter he was stricken with cancer, however, and died two years later.

After Koran's passing from cancer his ashes were handled by his good friend and fellow magician Billy McComb.

He invented many tricks, including a special deck of cards known as the Koran Deck, but his best known effect is "Ring Flight."

Some of his effects and presentations are described in three books " "Professional Presentations," and "Koran's Legacy," both by Hugh Miller, and "The Magic of Al Koran," edited by Martin Breese.


Information courtesy of The Encyclopedia of Magic and Magicians.

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(1914-1972)
British mentalist (real name Edward Doe), author and magic inventor of Ring Flite.
Also Invented: A variation of the Bagshawe Deck, now called the Koran deck, The Koran Medallion
Wrote: Al Koran's Professional Presentations (1967), Bring Out the Magic in Your Mind (1988), Mastered amazement: Mainly for the manipulator(1947)
Media: Al Koran Performance CD
For more information, see Al Koran's Legacy (1973) by Hugh Miller and The Magic of Al Koran (1984) by Martin Breese.

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Al Koran (1917-1972) was a British mentalist (born Edward Doe), who was also an author and the magic inventor of the effect known as Ring Flite (1968).[1] He also invented a special deck of cards known as the Koran deck.

Contents
1 Biography
2 Publications
3 Effects
4 Further Reading
5 References

Biography
In 1945, he became the youngest member ever to be awarded London Society of Magicians Gold Medal. It was after this that he selected the stage name "Al Koran" and make magic a full time job. EmbedVideo received the bad id "2233850/al_koran_on_the_ed_sullivan_show" for the service "metacafe".

In January, 1969, he emigrated to the United States. First to Cleveland, Ohio and then later settling in Chicago.


Publications
Mastered Amazement: Mainly for the Manipulator (1947)
Bring Out the Magic in Your Mind (1964) ("ghosted")
Al Koran's Professional Presentations (1967) by Hugh Miller
The Magic of the Mind in Action (1976)
Effects
The Jonah Card (1948) (sold by Abbott's) - Three cards are chosen. Magician states that he will reverse the three chosen cards while the deck is behind his hack. This is done, then the deck is spread out – but each spectator states that his card is not one of the reversed cards showing. Magician requests that the three chosen cards be named – and strangely enough – each spectator names the same card. Magician says that there must be some mistake as the card named is his JONAH CARD and that he always removes that card from the deck. To prove his words, he reaches into his inside coat pocket and removes the card chosen by all three spectators.
Medallion - A metal medallion is displayed in a jewelry box. The mentalist has a number chosen and then shown that
this same number was inscribed on the back of the medallion.

Further Reading
Al Koran's Legacy (1973) by Hugh Miller.
The Magic of Al Koran (1983) by Martin Breese.

References
↑ The New Tops, Vol. 12, No. 8 & 9, August & September 1972
Wikipedia-logo.png This page incorporated content from Al Koran,
a page hosted on Wikipedia. Please consult the history of the original page to see a list of its authors. Therefor, this article is also available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License
Genii, Vol. 36, No. 6, June 1972, OBITUARY, Koran, page 286
The New Tops, Vol. 12, No. 8 & 9, August & September 1972, AL KORAN LOSES THE LAST TRICK, page 28
The Magic Circular, Vol. 73, No. 793, January/February 1979, Show and Lecture Reports, A Tribute to Al Koran—Comrie Mackay, A.I.M.C., page 11
The Linking Ring, Vol. 79, No. 9, September 1999, OUR SIDE OF THE POND by Elizabeth Warlock, page 135