Teller

​About a year ago I phoned David to ask a question about "Matchmaker," his brilliant balloon prediction trick.  I told him the mathematics of his method seemed extremely hard, and was wondering about a simpler alternative.  He said nothing could be simpler and demonstrated with three or four intricate calculations done in his head, impromptu on the phone.  He was ninety-six at the time.  A week later a huge envelope came to my front door.  It was a set of his lecture notes, inscribed and annotated to help his simpleminded brethren across the Atlantic.  

A little later, when I had bypass surgery, David dropped me a note telling me how the doctors had given him eight years to live -- and that was thirty years ago.  Where does a man get that kind of mental resilience?

This spring when we were playing London, I invited David and Ruth to see our show.  David's mobility prevented him from attending, but he invited me to tea at their house on Sunday, May 22nd.  They had a sumptuous buffet of delicacies. David and I talked about his history, his creations, my Shakespeare productions.  But it was only when I asked Ruth to show me her garden that I began to see the answer to my question:  Ruth among the roses was pure life.  She beamed, she joked, she filled the air with intelligence, humor, and love.  So now I knew.  Here was the real Berglas Effect.  Here was the magic.  With love, from Teller in Las Vegas.
(​Teller is an American magician. He is half of the comedy magic duo Penn & Teller, along with Penn Jillette)
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