Robert Neale is a magician who is an incredible thinker in terms of methods, as well as a very spirited artist when it comes to presentation.

In this post, you'll get a glimpse of the mind of this amazing performer and inventor.

Back in 1983, Robert Neale released what has become one of his best-known routines, called the Trapdoor Card. This week's episode of Scam School teaches this classic, but sadly neglects to credit the inventor:



Robert Neale himself has given Scam School permission to perform and teach his classic Rock/Paper/Scissors routine back in episode #71, published as “My First Trick” in Neale's book, Tricks of the Imagination:



Perhaps part of Neale's genius is in creating things that are so simple and yet so deceptive that those who aren't directly familiar with his work just think they're things that “have always been around.” Earlier this year, bicyclecards.com presented his Hypercard, first as a puzzle, then in a post explaining how it's made. They correctly credit Martin Gardner with popularizing it, but never mentions Robert Neale himself. Here's a video created by a reader of that tutorial:



If you really want to see the man himself at work, as well as learn some of his amazing thinking, the easiest place to begin is his Celebration Of Sides video. In this video, you see not only his amazing and ingenious approach to creating routines, but his warm and charming ways of presenting even the most abstract concepts. Here's a quick glimpse of some of the things shared on this video:



Hopefully, you've enjoyed this look at some of the work of one of the most creative thinkers in magic, and maybe even learned something new.