Maurice Jack Fogel (7 July 1911 – 30 October 1981) was a British

magician Magician or The Magician may refer to: Performers * A practitioner of magic (supernatural) * A practitioner of magic (illusion) * Magician (fantasy), a character in a fictional fantasy context Entertainment Books * ''The Magician'', an 18th-ce ...

and

mentalist Mentalism is a performing art in which its practitioners, known as mentalists, appear to demonstrate highly developed mental or intuitive abilities. Performances may appear to include hypnosis, telepathy, clairvoyance, divination, precognitio ...

. He described himself as "the world's greatest mind-reader". Lamont, Peter. (2013). ''Extraordinary Beliefs: A Historical Approach to a Psychological Problem''. Cambridge University Press. p. 220.

Career

In 1948, on the BBC radio Fogel made the claim that he could read peoples minds. This intrigued the journalist Arthur Helliwell who wanted to discover his methods. He found that Fogel's mind reading acts were all based on trickery, he relied on information about members of his audience before the show started. Helliwell exposed Fogel's methods in a newspaper article. Although Fogel managed to fool some people into believing he could perform genuine

telepathy Telepathy () is the purported vicarious transmission of information from one person's mind to another's without using any known human sensory channels or physical interaction. The term was first coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Frederic ...

, the majority of his audience knew he was a showman. Fogel also became well known for performing the famous

bullet catch The bullet catch is a stage magic illusion in which a magician appears to catch a bullet fired directly at them ⁠— often in the mouth, sometimes in the hand or sometimes caught with other items such as a dinner plate. The bullet catch m ...

. Six

rifle A rifle is a long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting, with a barrel that has a helical pattern of grooves (rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus on accuracy, rifles are typically designed to be held with b ...

s were used in his routine. Five of these had genuine

bullet A bullet is a kinetic projectile, a component of firearm ammunition that is shot from a gun barrel. Bullets are made of a variety of materials, such as copper, lead, steel, polymer, rubber and even wax. Bullets are made in various shapes and co ...

s and one had no bullet. The rifles were mixed up and one was selected to be fired directly at Fogel."Maurice Fogel. The master showman dodges the bullet!"
Remarkable Magic.

Publications

*''Fogelism'' (1949) *''Top Secret Series: No. 1 The Gambling Ghost'' (1961) *''Top Secret Series: No. 2 The Fortune Formula'' (1962) *''Maurice Fogel Gives Himself Away'' (1978)

References

External links

Maurice Fogel on the Bullet Catch
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fogel, Maurice 1911 births 1981 deaths British magicians Mentalists

Career

Publications

References

Further reading

External links