Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:05 <inaudible>
Speaker 1 00:00:37 Thank you for joining disability and progress, where we bring you insights into ideas about and discussions on disability topics. My name is Sam. I'm the host of the show. Thanks so much for tuning in Charlene doll is my research woman. Good evening, Charlene. Good evening in this beautiful spring day in Minnesota. It is pretty awesome. Tonight. We are speaking with another awesome person. He is all over the web and it is Richard Turner and Richard is a blind card mechanic. Good evening, Richard
Speaker 2 00:01:08 Salmon. Charlene,
Speaker 1 00:01:10 Thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate it. You really are all over the web.
Speaker 2 00:01:16 I'm all over the world, all over the world as well.
Speaker 1 00:01:19 Yes. Well, you're just a worldly person, so thank you so much for coming on. I apologize that I'll have to ask the simple questions first, but, um, you know, there are people who don't know you still, so, uh, I want to start out by just kind of giving us a, a little brief history of you. Like what, tell us about you growing up and you have a visual impairment obviously. And tell us about that.
Speaker 2 00:01:48 I'm going to real quickly. I have that echo that you're talking about. No, sorry. I'm going to try something else.
Speaker 0 00:01:56 All right. Can you hear me? We can hear you now. Oh, I can hear me too. Excellent.
Speaker 2 00:02:06 Okay. Um, well I grew up in San Diego, California, a beautiful area and losing my vision when I was nine years old. And by 1963, I remember a card playing family, very, very, very poor family at four games, monopoly, chess, checkers, and a deck of cards. I was the oldest and, uh, I didn't like to lose. I started figuring out ways how to make sure I won when we played cards and monopoly. Um, that was kind of my, uh, upbringing, him and my interest in with cards.
Speaker 1 00:02:47 What a poor example you set for your siblings?
Speaker 2 00:02:52 We see, we played, we played for M and M. The Redlands was the most valuable. And then I wanted the green ones. Then the yellow ones I'd settle for the Brown ones, FDA
Speaker 1 00:03:03 For so, so for me, I would have said, well, it's all chocolate, right? So you got to have it all. So you had your visual impairment was Charles Benet syndrome or Charles bonnet syndrome.
Speaker 2 00:03:17 Tell us about,
Speaker 1 00:03:19 Tell us what that is and what happens.
Speaker 2 00:03:22 Okay. Hold on one second. I'm trying another experiment. Yeah, it is. When you have that echo, you hear yourself? I know there, um, <inaudible> syndrome, it was first documented by child, but back in 1760, and basically what it means is I see my subconscious and external space. Most people don't see what, see nothing or black or whatever. Um, but I see all kinds of beautiful vivid colors, patterns, shapes, every subconscious image you can imagine. And like I said, I don't see them in the back of the brain or in the, in your mind, like when you're dreaming, interrupt matches. I actually looked at them. I see them in front of me just as clearly as a sighted person. We'll see what's in front of them. But the cool thing is I can design houses and decks and play games and create games. I can write him air, like you're writing on a chalkboard and I'll write down a phone number and I will take a picture of it. And because I have what's called a Devic memory, I'll never forget it. So I like how,
Speaker 1 00:04:51 Oh, wow. So what causes it?
Speaker 2 00:04:57 Um, they, Dr. Oliver sacks is the one that's done the most studies on that particular condition. And he was a best selling author. He, one of his books was called hallucinations and they call you dove into child when they send her more than anything else. And the other one was called the mind's eye and the mind's eye is the way he defined seeing, uh, the way someone with CVS child when they syndrome sees. And up until 1990, there are only six documented cases. And then he documented she doesn't others, but most people that have it have a hard time with it because, you know, they almost borderline suicide. Um, but for me, I look at it as to just a real blessing because I live in was very, very beautiful and I wouldn't trade my world for someone else's world.
Speaker 1 00:05:58 What was your family's reaction to your vision loss and it, did it have anything to do with how you reacted to it?
Speaker 2 00:06:08 Yeah. First my mom was sympathetic and then she tried to looked at me and my sister as if we were broken. And, uh, so that was a, that was a very hard time in my life because I basically was rejected because of the fact that I was losing my sight and my sister lost her sight as well. We don't know if this is the commonality of what caused it, but we both got Scarlet fever.
Speaker 1 00:06:42 Oh wow. And we both had
Speaker 2 00:06:44 The same thing happened to each of us and we're four and a half years. I'm sorry. We're three and a half years apart in age.
Speaker 1 00:06:53 So she is wild and outgoing as you.
Speaker 2 00:06:57 Yeah. My cycle called my genius sister owned and ran one of the largest construction companies in the entire state of Idaho. Wow. She did 10 million, 50 million, a hundred million dollar projects.
Speaker 1 00:07:13 When you were growing up, it sounds like you were really kind of out there meaning that you, you really, if there was anything to try to do, you would try to do it. If anything, if you could overcome anything, you would do it. Do you think that attitude made a difference in how kids treated you while you were growing up?
Speaker 2 00:07:34 Well, I think it was probably the flip of that in that I didn't like when I was teased or, or harassed and because I was the littlest or second livest in my class, and then I was the one that losing my sight or lost my sight, you know, I was teasing. So I felt like I had to take things to the extreme and I really did go the other direction. I reclined thousand foot cliffs without equipment. I lived on the trapeze under Bob new Yorkers who was, who's done more stents than anybody in the history of Hollywood, thousands of movies, thousands of, uh, all of these shows. I was just with him about three weeks ago, he's 89 years old and they're doing step work for 73 years now. A great, great brother friends. And, uh, and then my karate instructor, John Murphy, I started the martial arts when in 1971 and Murphy didn't care if you were blind, deaf or dumb, he'd beat everyone equally. So he really kind of beat heart into me. In other ways, he gave me the confidence to believe that I can overcome anything, you know, cause he, it was a hard style, uh, cutoff the school that was in Chihuahua, Mexico, South of San Diego. And the reason why it was there is because it was never very few rules and
Speaker 1 00:09:12 So on. And so
Speaker 2 00:09:13 It's, it was very hard, hard towards, but anyway, I wanted to be a fighter and I, you know, as they called them cutting checker and uh I've so I would, uh, exercise my brains out and do things to overcome the fears that I had that were partly established as a kid from two things, two main things. One was a movie called Lord of the rings. It was about a group of boys that were stranded on an Island savages. And then one of them's name was Piggie P I G G Y piggy. And he was a chubby one asthmatic coward and they ended up killing piggy. And I kind of felt like I was a skinny, blind asthmatic coward and I did not want to be that counted. So that was one movie that kind of pushed me to the point of going the opposite direction.
Speaker 2 00:10:15 The other one was a TV show called lost in space. And Jonathan Harrison was, he played Dr. Smith who was, uh, a coward that would behind hiding behind some wall paper, Mashiach monster would come up and little Billy money would go and fight the monster while the adult cowered behind a rock. And so between those things, I, I kind of went the other direction. If there was a challenge out there, I had the GoPro, there was a tree that fell across a a hundred foot cliff. I had to cross that tree. That was a, if there was a cliff, I had to dive off the cliff into the ocean and I had a few crazy accidents during the years, but I could go on and on. So I'll let you ask your question because I've done a thousand things in my crazy life.
Speaker 1 00:11:15 I know that movie that Florida's flies that you're talking about. That's a horrible movie, by the way. I totally agree with you. It's, it's a horrible movie. It's sad.
Speaker 2 00:11:25 All that, you know, all that was when we had to watch it, 1962, 63 and 64. And that second, third and fourth grade,
Speaker 1 00:11:34 That's it. I don't understand why people would show that to. Yeah, that's sad. I wonder
Speaker 2 00:11:42 Their they're they're rationalization at the time was that it proved evolution that if you put a bunch of boys together, they will revert back to the animalistic, uh, tendencies. So that was the rationalization between the, uh, the teachers.
Speaker 1 00:12:02 You put a bunch of grownups together, they do the same thing. So I I'm wondering, you know, as you're getting older and going through stuff, you people do this to people with disabilities. I noticed they S they see them as like this amazing person. And when you do something that is even hard for somebody who can fully see or can fully do whatever, they always come off as seeing you as amazing and on and on and on. Did you want to be seen as that? Or did you want to be seen like them?
Speaker 2 00:12:36 No. I wanted to be perfectly honest and excuse that arrogant sound. I wanted to be the best at what I did. And, uh, not based on, I didn't want it to be the best card guy in the world, the best blind card guy. I want it to be the best card guy, period. And, uh, so that's just the way I approach things. And so I did whatever was necessary, whatever was necessary to make that happen. And basically what that entailed was thousands and thousands of hours of constant practice with the cards I would put in 10 to 20 hours a day, seven days a week. And I sustained that for 26 years straight.
Speaker 1 00:13:25 Richard, could you tell me, I know I noticed you like to be called a blind card mechanic, so what's the difference between a mechanic and a magician? I'm sure you get asked that all the time.
Speaker 2 00:13:36 Okay. That's a very good question. And I don't, I don't like to be called a blank card. We can. I just like to be called the part we can. It's okay. Um, a card mechanic is somebody who can control the outcome of a card game, the techniques for the card table to make somebody win or lose at poker blackjack, bridge, hold them, whatever the game, those techniques are a thousand times more difficult to accomplish. Then the techniques used for a magician to perform card magic. There are thousands of very good top card magicians. There are half a dozen world-renowned card mechanics because they work is just so much takes. It just takes so many more years. Most hustlers back from the 19th century, they would spend 10, 20, 30 years of their life developed even one or two moves. And that's what they were known for. And I just happened to just put in a lot more time and developed, developed everything under the sun.
Speaker 1 00:14:52 So are you telling me that no casino will let you play.
Speaker 2 00:14:55 If you see those around the world, know me very well. They say, Richard, how you doing? Maybe by your dentist, they tend to feed away from the table.
Speaker 1 00:15:06 I was wondering about that.
Speaker 2 00:15:09 No, in fact, we know each other so well, I can tell you off hand their private home numbers and their private cell numbers.
Speaker 1 00:15:18 Oh, that's funny. So you have some amazing experiences in your karate. Um, when you, when you did all of this, that, did you feel like that that helped you with mechanics of knowing your spatial area and everything, since you had a visual impairment?
Speaker 2 00:15:40 Oh, big time, very, very astute on your end. So situational awareness in the martial arts, if you're fighting somebody, you need to know exactly how far that person away is, where the threat lies, how far their foot is from your face versus how far their sister's from your face. So that did teach me spatial awareness. But as a fighter, I was never a counter puncher as a counter puncher. I just got hit. I was always on the offense. So as soon as it was time to fight, I would just, I would run down my opponent. And then once, once you have any kind of contact or know where they are, you, where every part of the body is saying, you can go from there. Okay.
Speaker 1 00:16:30 And what, what part of you, what made you want to do something like that?
Speaker 2 00:16:36 Well, I, with S a little now, let me tell you a story. I was in a voice competition in San Diego, California. It was a statewide competition, and I was a very good artist. Started at five years old. I could paint and draw beyond my years. And I got a lot of attention for that. And then my vision started going South when I was nine. And so now I can no longer paint and draw. And so I was in this competition and I was painting three vases with the proper lighting, shadowing, and so forth. And my nose was literally against the canvas. So I could just see what I could out of the corner of my eye. And I took first place. And then there were these two boys that didn't like that. And so they, uh, came up to me, they started pushing me around.
Speaker 2 00:17:38 One of them picked the wallet out of my back pocket while the other one flipped the burden in front of my face and said, Hey, we do, how many fingers am I holding? And then, yeah. And then, so then he would hold the wall for my face and go got any money would go. And whenever he grabbed for my wallet, he had shot over my face, over my head to his friend behind me of cruel game and people. Then they start slapping me across the face with that wallet to say, Gotti money, blind boy. And then they took my money that they take, they tripped me. And that when kick me guy kicked me in the ribs, they took my $3, which for me was a massive fortune, threw the wallet back at me and said, thanks for the hot dog bite and boy. And that, that is what made me go. I want to kick their faces. And, uh, and then at that time on TV was a show called the green Hornet started Bruce Lee as Kato. And I thought one day I will work for audience and not have that happen anymore.
Speaker 1 00:18:50 Charlene knows that show. I had five brothers. So yeah. Do you, how talk a little bit about your relationship with your sister? You both were kind of in that same camp that you were losing your vision, it sounds like kind of together. Was that a kind of a bonding thing between you two, then you could kind of confirm and feel what each other's going through.
Speaker 2 00:19:18 Yeah, not really because we are so far apart in age. Let me ask this. Did you see the movie Delt? No. Yeah. Well, they made a movie on my life last year called Zell D a L T as in Delta card. It's audio described, it's run all kinds of awards. It's 95 on rotten tomatoes. And in the States, you watch it on Hulu iTunes, Google play, Amazon prime or any video on demand platform outside the us. It's on Netflix and other other platforms. But my sister is, uh, is a part of the story and she approached things differently than I did where I did not want anyone to mention anything about the fact that I had a vision issue, where she had no problem with that. And it took me to the point when I lost my vision 100% that I finally realized that I needed to accept help from others and not be so darn stubborn and bullheaded.
Speaker 1 00:20:27 Do you think it was because you could hide it for a while?
Speaker 2 00:20:32 Oh, I did a good job of hiding it. I was in my first director was a guy named Steve Terrell. He was a TV and movie star back in the fifties and early sixties. He's 89 years old. Now he had, he had the God that I mentioned earlier. My stepdad said Bob you're cause they grew up from Hollywood together. That's why those same age. And, um, Steve taught me how to play the side of a pipe sighted person. I subbed gym theater and we would be rehearsing a scene. And at the time I had no forward vision. So I'd have to cut, turn my head to the side and look out of the corner of my eye to see, to see the actor that I was speaking with. And he said, when they called me, Rick back then said, Rick, um, that looks odd to the audience.
Speaker 2 00:21:27 When you look, you're talking to the person, but you're looking at two o'clock instead of at 12 o'clock. And he said, Oh, a blind, a sighted person will play the part of a black person. He said, I want you to flip the roles. You're going to be a blind person and you're going to play the part of a sighted person. So he taught me how to square my head towards any person I'm talking to. Oh, do the voices. And then I taught myself how to take my eyes and have them focus in on short distance, long distance, because a lot of people, uh, will have this space outlook with their eyes because there's different types of issues. You know, there's, there's close that visual. When you reading a book, you know, your, uh, eyes are, uh, have a different focus to them like a camera lens. And if you're looking out at some something 50 feet away, that's a different focus that your eyes do. And so I trained myself to, to, uh, to create a picture using my CBS by child ChildNet syndrome of somebody that's five feet away say, and I would focus my eyes right on the center of their, of their voice, uh, based on a five foot distance of seven foot distance, a 20 foot distance.
Speaker 1 00:22:52 Excellent. And I presume in the movie Delt, you were playing yourself.
Speaker 2 00:22:59 Yes. It, um, um, it's, what's called a feature documentary film. They spent five years in production and they had a very, very substantial budget. And, uh, they have, I basically had one to 10 cameras following me and my family around the world as I'm performing and doing this, that, and, and they, they got all of my archival footage. When I took my black belt test. I had to fight 10 in a row, three minute rounds with a fresh black buddy swell. And all you had to do is come out alive. And, um, and, uh, it was, it was covered by ABC news. And it was also on the front page of Los Angeles, times sports section. And so they had all this archival footage of the stuff I've done over the past 40, 45 years in the entertainment business. So between that, and then the, the new footage that they shot, which was over 3000 hours of footage, um, they put together the narrative.
Speaker 1 00:24:16 Are you aware of the ordeal that's going on now in regards to, you know, entertainment, not being willing so much to hire people who are visually impaired or blind to play cited roles or even play blind roles, um, that they,
Speaker 2 00:24:32 Oh, yeah. There's, I've heard some of the controversy on that.
Speaker 1 00:24:35 What's your feelings on that?
Speaker 2 00:24:38 Well that, um, a lady named Michelle Pitts, P I T Z, she's an heiress. She has done more audio description for different films, I think, than anybody I know. And she's a great advocate on it. When she heard that they want to turn my life into a major motion picture. She said, Oh, that'd be great to get, get a blind person to play you. And I told her that can't work because that the actor that plays me is going to have to have that person has got to be able to lift 300 bench, press 350 pounds. They're going to have to be a, be able to do the splits. They're going to have to be able to do all kinds of very high-end physical figures. That you're your best. After out there with the fully sighted is going to have after really go through a lot of work, to be able to prepare for the part. So, and then when she realized that she, Oh, of course you can find someone that shouldn't be able to, uh, play that a blind person pay that part, because I don't know any athletes out there that were world-class.
Speaker 1 00:25:56 So you played it.
Speaker 2 00:25:58 Yeah, but they're, uh, they're taught when they're, they have a couple with the narratives that, that, that that's tend to be coming out narrative as a Hollywood word for a major motion Fisher. Cause they're going to turn this film into a where someone else will play with me and it will have to be a high-end athlete as well as suddenly they can learn that some of the stuff that cards I will, I will be there. I told myself I'll be the card stuck, man. No one else is going to be able to do the things that I do with the cards. All that will have to be a CGI in or something.
Speaker 1 00:26:40 Right. Richard, tell about card mechanics. What does it mean exactly? What can you do
Speaker 2 00:26:49 That was said earlier? It's somebody who can control a card game. I'll give you some for instances because people have a picture of the mind. Oh, he does card fix. No, here's a, for instance, you can take the different cards and shuffle them up. You can say, I want to play Texas. Hold'em I want to have five players at the table. I want player three to be the winner. And I want player three to win with a full house. You shuffle those cards up, handle it to be played at three, just one with a full house. Or you can say let's play blackjack. And I will whip everybody. Every single hand. You may have heard that there was a movie out called 21 about the MIT students that took chronic casinos. I was on a TV show. One of these world renown card Shauna's was going to demonstrate how he can beat the house.
Speaker 2 00:27:49 But what he didn't know is they bought me as the dealer for that segment. And we filmed over two hours, never one, one hand. Here's another, for instance, for you, you can say, I say, what card you, like you say seven, I'll say, how many players do you want? You'll say six. Uh, I'll say, where do you want sit? Why don't you see four or five stations? Like pick four. So I would give the deck three casino samples definitely stay space on the table. I will then hand you the deck back. And I'll say deal out six hands, uh, of whatever the game. We'll just say. We do them all face up in the fourth, 10th, 16th, and 22nd called off the deck with the seven. So in other words, I shuffled your cards back in the deck. Exactly what you chose and then you dealt to prove that I did it. So that's, that's a for instance of what a card mechanic is. I can through the door, natural normal course of a card game without creating suspicion or use a misdirection, make anybody win or lose.
Speaker 1 00:29:04 And you're going by like thickness, weight,
Speaker 2 00:29:09 Thickness, weight, texture, caliper, all exactly right. All things based on, um, very, very fine touch. And she'd been a study of the two Harvard projects on the brain because of the level of touch that I have. They say, I have the most developed have haptic contact or no network of anybody on the planet or, huh.
Speaker 1 00:29:36 You know, I never want to play you. Nobody wants to play. I know. I'm so sorry. You know, you talk about being a card snob. Talk a little bit about that. How do you choose your deck of cards? What you like?
Speaker 2 00:29:57 Yes. I bought my phone. Oh, be quiet lady. Be quiet. That's my iPhone talking at me. Um, uh, well, I'm actually the touch analyst for us playing card company. They're the biggest card Baker in the country. Just about every brand that you're familiar with bicycle is the most recognized. They've been making those since the 1880s, B is their premium product they've been making no since 1892. And then they cam oil, steam boat, tally ho all the other labels, really cheap, even quarters, cars and FC back cards and, um, I'm their touch. And so I helped them make better cars because I can feel things that are different cards that, um, is more precise. I'm more precise than some of the measuring devices. So they put me on retainer about 20 years ago to help them, uh, make them, make sure their cards are a certain quality.
Speaker 2 00:31:04 And, uh, so, uh, yes, I am a snob card snob. And, and the thing is I make, I make the best made cards in the world with you explaining hard company. And like I said, bicycles, the most recognized deck, and you can Google either gold, gold, standard bicycles, stolen, sealed bicycles, or just Richard Turner cards. But there's a card inside the box that says tested and approved by Richard Terman and all the top gamblers, all the top card magicians and they card top card men around the world. Use Mike use the cards that I've tested them for them.
Speaker 1 00:31:49 And what is it about them that makes it a quality deck?
Speaker 2 00:31:52 Ooh, yes. Well, there's about a half dozen actually about a dozen things that I will test. One is the first is the snap that that's based on moisture level. You probably didn't know that you could, you could touch a car and you probably didn't know there was like a 5.2% moisture level in that I did not. Yeah. Most people think it's dry, solid, but no. And, uh, it'll be determined by like ablation level of 4.5%. That's the first thing that would determine the snap, how long the card will last when you bend it, it will snap back into place. The next thing is the cut. If it's traditionally cut or non traditionally cut, traditionally cut is with a blade, goes through the face of the card when it's cut into a single cut versus the blade going through the back of the card. And why that makes a difference is almost everybody was shuffled the cards face down with some on the bottom working its way up because you have the rounded edge on the underside.
Speaker 2 00:33:06 You're going with the brain. If the cards are non traditionally cut it's, I turn a deck over and you go to shelter. They, they find up on you. And, and this was a change that first date, 1993 by accident. And the casinos were really checked the dealers. They didn't know what the problem was, but they always do as the cards were not as use the family. And I'm the one that identified the problem and solve the problem for them. Now I'm on the sour dozens of other things, but that's a couple of the things that I looked for. And then the caliper, I'd like a caliper of between 10.9 thousands to 11.5 thousands. That's the thickness of the car, the caliper, and then the in bossy depth, I want a deeper and bossy depth on the back than on the face of the party. The reason for the bossy is so that the cards can breathe. When your moisture, from your fingers, shit on a card that will start sticking together.
Speaker 1 00:34:18 Ah, that's what that is. What is your favorite card thing to do? What's your favorite thing to do to show people?
Speaker 2 00:34:28 Well, one of my favorite, most difficult pieces that I do is I will have someone shuffle up a deck of cards. And my favorite game is seven cards. I will say, how many players I'll say six, whatever it happens, I'll say, where do you want to sit? Once you see four, five, six now say, say, they said they choose three. They will shuffle them up. And I sell them. Don't give me the whole deck back. Just hand me any random part of that deck. They might give you 10 cards, 12 cards, five cards, and I'll start getting around. I'll deal the card. It's a slow motion, the selected position. I'll give whatever remainder charge back in my hand to them, tell them to shuffle them up some more and just hand me any, pull out any stack out of that deck. And then I'll do the next round. And I'd have them read that every time I go around the table. And the point of that is even if the deck was faced up and you could see every card coming off the deck, or it had a giant embossed K on the K and J on the J a M a, it would have been inconceivable would have controlled everything. Even she could see or feel every car coming off the deck. So when I really want to really bug somebody,
Speaker 1 00:35:54 I want to talk about probably the one, the first times that I was introduced to you, um, was on the Penn and teller show. And so whose idea was it to have you do that? And what were your feelings when you actually went on there to do it?
Speaker 2 00:36:12 Well, one of the, one of the, um, judges on Penn teller is a guy named Johnny Thompson. Sadly, he passed away about a month and a half ago. I was just at the funeral at the dependent teller theater. He was one of my mentors, 50 years ago. He was 83, 84 when he passed away. Anyway, uh, so he, I would get emailed Richard they're inviting me to come on Penn and teller TV series and I ignored it season one, and I get the invitation to come on season two, I ignore it. And then Johnny Thomas Vegas with giant Tufts and Johnny goes, Richard, I've been at invite you to come on Penn and teller. So why do you keep ignoring me? I said, Johnny, Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know that was you. And so, um, know I went on the show and I pulled them faster than anybody in the history of their shovel. They had absolutely no clue of what I was doing even afterward. I spent a lot of time together and showing them in slow motion. And Pam actually, uh, told this story on some TV show somewhere or Forbes something fortune magazine talk show anyway. Um, and he said, shellers eyes are two to three inches away from Richard's failures. And he's explaining exactly what he's doing. And he still can't see it. He says, all he's doing is make it our brains.
Speaker 2 00:37:48 And so when I went to do the show, the little backstory beforehand, they said, Richard, you have to tell us how you do it so we can make a judgment. I said, nobody in the world knows how I do what I do. And they said, we know that, but you gotta give us something to work with. And so then I, I said, okay, watch. And I showed him what I was going to do. And they let, Oh my God, it really is impossible. And so that's when Penn stood up and I was supposed to have a six minute interview with Alison gnosis of the show and Penn just stood up and they couldn't tell, I have a non-verbal way of communicating with each other. And then, and Jen turns around and says, we have to say, and then I won't tell what teller said afterwards, because he's very political.
Speaker 1 00:38:38 Right, right. Yeah. I saw that. W because one never talks and on the show. And so, you know, right. And so there's that communication, but that goes on. I want to step back a minute and talk about, you know, years before where you did not. And I think this isn't uncommon, you know, people want to be seen as the best or good ever, whatever what they're doing, but you did not want really your disability or blindness to get in the way of anything. And I think that's, that's common with a lot of people, but I think now you're kind of like embracing it. What changed?
Speaker 2 00:39:23 Well, that, that, yeah, I, I, I'm 65 now. Uh, I don't share what people think about me anymore. I don't have to, I don't, I'm not, I have to be this tough karate guy that, you know, you know, Mr. Macho or whatever. Uh, you know, and so as my wife said, get over yourself, you know, people want to hear, people want to help you, but you have to say is encouraging to people. It shows them that whatever their situation is, and everybody has a situation or a problem, something to deal with, they may have been assaulted when they were kids. They may be just lazy. I think that's one of the worst disabilities you can have, or for credit procrastinator people that procrastinate. I need that. And I would rather have blankets over that any day of the week. And, uh, but if it's sick at the same time, like I have people from all over the world sending me notes, saying they saw the movie Delt and that it inspired them to realize that it doesn't matter what my situation is. There's I have no excuse not to accomplish what I want to accomplish. So before my thing was, I just wanted to be an entertainer. I didn't want to be the blind entertainer. I just wanted to be a performer, the entertainment, the card guy. Um, but now, because of the effect that has on people, uh, as my wife says, I've got over myself and, um, and I'm happy to share if anyone, anyone has a question, whatever it is, I'm happy to say and share, um, and, and not be such a coward.
Speaker 1 00:41:15 You know, it's interesting because, and I know it'd be hard to answer this, but it's, I think, you know, now, like you have done it, you know what I mean? You you've reached those highest Heights of your career. You were the best mechanic. You are the, you know, you were an excellent, um, martial arts person. I wonder if you would have felt the same, had you not been in the place where you were
Speaker 2 00:41:41 Have, if I have not lost my sight,
Speaker 1 00:41:43 If, if you would, if you'd lost your sight, but not achieved the high Heights that you have achieved,
Speaker 2 00:41:52 Not quite,
Speaker 1 00:41:55 If, if you, if you had lost your vision, but not, not achieved to being like one of the best card mechanics, would you?
Speaker 2 00:42:03 I think it was in my DNA. My father was a gifted man. And my, like I said, my sister is, my brother is my other brother's that champion surfer. And anyway, so there's something in our DNA, a family that we there's something about us that makes us push ourselves beyond the standard points that other people will push themselves. I can't sit still.
Speaker 1 00:42:34 Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:42:36 They say, they say this, this feels chill to me. I felt chill. That's punishment telling me to chill is to relax. That's I say, put me in the corner. When I was a kid, as a punishment, my mom would make me stand in the corner when I did something bad to me, that's chili, that's punishment. I, as the whole time I've been talking with you here, I've been practicing certain moves with the cards. Um, and I, I, I love stretching, stretching my mind in other areas, in areas that I'm not, I'm not good with, or I would never good with like righty reading and the, on that. And then my sister really kind of pushed me in those areas. When the tech, when they're talking technologies came available to me, they really did open so many wonderful doors. Yes, they have. And I've been the keynote speaker at Apple, Google, Facebook, all those people, they're all a bunch of friends of mine. And they just create some of the most amazing, uh, not toys, but, uh, devices that, uh, that are just so make it, it just, it just puts you at a level playing field with any sighted person when it comes to just basic technology of typing emails, uh, texting and everything else under the sun.
Speaker 1 00:43:58 Have you ever thought about doing some kind of thing that teaches people who are visually impaired or blind, how to do blind mechanics or tricks with the cards?
Speaker 2 00:44:13 I two to two weeks, a year, I'd take time off to teach a class at a place called the San Antonio Academy. And sometimes I will have some visually impaired, uh, kids in there. In fact, if you watch the movie Delt, you'll, you'll meet one of her name is Kayla. And she was like 13 years old at the time. And, and, uh, it was a, it was a inspiration for her and, and, and, and the, and the things that I teach them is, are magic tricks totally different than what, what I do for my own show, because if I do my own show, obviously, as I stated earlier, it's just way, way too difficult, but it does give them a level of confidence that you don't even have to be sight impaired or Edie impaired. It just, it just, uh, gives you something that makes people go wow. And all of a sudden you have an instant friend, or
Speaker 0 00:45:12 Yes, yes. What would you do
Speaker 2 00:45:15 Right now? One of the something really cool is, you know, I designed a number of board games and puzzle games. And, um, one of the puzzle games is called batty B a T T Y. And I invented it when I was at the DH room 54 years ago. Uh, you know, uh, I took the, the tower familially and I, they have a tower for noise, has a formula, and then you can see the Ford's new because they're there that get bigger as they go down. I took it and I used cards and I turned it into a game where the formula is buried and it will be coming out on the market, uh, as an app for your iOS device and, uh, and Android devices and every other thing, but it will, uh, that'd be hitting the world market in about two months. And then there's two other games that I created. One's called shark showdown, and then the other one's Texas showdown. And that's my, one of my partners said, if you, if you took blackjack, monopoly and poker, and they had a baby,
Speaker 0 00:46:36 That would be it
Speaker 2 00:46:37 W what would come out? This is, this is it. So it has three of the most classic games of all times, and that turned them into a totally unique gaming experience, but that will they be on an app as well? Yes, they will be a male. They'll be everywhere. In fact, they were even talking about putting them in the casinos and then, or what's called real, uh,
Speaker 0 00:47:03 Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 00:47:06 So, but yeah, they'll, they'll, they'll be everywhere, everywhere. And if I have to say, even though I'm the creator, I'm addicted to mountain games, they're fun. But one of them, one of them I use when I speak, I do, when I speak, I mean, I give keynote speeches, speakers, and performances sites combined my work with my speaking, which helps keep people's attention because people's attention drifts away after seven seconds. Right? So would it replace them with my live stories and experiences with the charge, and then that still, I will play this game baddie. And I will use my CBS where I can see with the mind's eyes, and I will have them have the cards in front of them, and they will turn the cards over and I will play that, play it in my mind, but I'll see in them and tell them where to do, where to move the card.
Speaker 2 00:48:06 And they're seeing the card and see if they can keep up with me. Well, they see it and I play it and I can not see it right now. Well, we can play, we'll play a load level five and, uh, and get an idea. So who will picture here? We have a, instead of this, we have a, B and a C from left to right. Okay. Now we're going to take a five. We pay out a low level five. We will put that five face down on the seat card. Now, now in my hand is a four, three, two, one sham. I'm handing you those cards face down. Nope, no Peaky. Now, now mix them up in your mind. Okay. Now they, them on top of the five that you're going to tell me what at a time, what the card is. And the object is for me to get those cards in a mixed up state on C in order on a five, four, three, two, one.
Speaker 2 00:49:09 And there's only one rule. Okay. You cannot put a high card on a low card. Okay. So right now you might have a four, three, two, one. Tell me what the mic set up in your head. Tell me what the first card is. Three, three, uh, but that's chart one, but Hey, Mr. Todd, put it on D. Now, now I'm going to move to one to the C of a move, the three on top of the four, having to move the one back to eight. Now turn over the two and I'll put it on this on the three. I'll move the one to the two. Now I can flip over the five. I'll move to the five to eight. Now I get fortunate for on the five, but the three, two, one in the wet or in the way. So I moved the one to this, see the two to the five, but the one on the tooth puts it's three on this.
Speaker 2 00:50:04 She put the one on the Belford, the two on the three, but the one on the two. Now the fours though, but I put the four on top of the five on eight. That guy has a three on there, but so two and one of the ways, some of the ones of the four moved to two to the middle, but the one on the two, uh, now I've moved the three overdue for not move the one over the, see a move with the two onto the three and the one on the street. And now I have five, four, three, two, one on a N order without placing a higher card on low card. And the game starts at a level three, which is resolved in three, I'm sorry, between six to seven moves. And I done it up to a level 14, which is between 16,030 2000 moves in a particular sequence without a mistake, based on that level or in the bit they cost you thousands of moves to fix the move. And the combinations are in the trillions times. Trillions,
Speaker 1 00:51:05 I think I'll stick with level three. You know, it's almost like
Speaker 2 00:51:10 Let's, let's, let's do a level three together. Okay. I'm in mixed them up in my head. Now picture in front of you right now on your left, you have a middle, you have a B uh, on the, on the right. You have a C. Okay. Then the three is down on top of the seat are now mixing up the one and two. Okay. And I'm turning, I'm turning over the first chart for you. And it is a, what, what are you going to do with it? Uh, ARB good natural Vanessa guard for two. And you know, you can't put it on the one. So what are you going to do with it? Well, be right. Very good. And we know that third part. This is a three. If we flip it over, no, we can't move it anywhere because it's higher than boats, but we want that three on the eighth. So what's our next move. Probably put one is on the three, right? The one is on the eight right now. Be very good. Now, now you can move your three where exactly now, but our next to the sea. Very good. And then the two to the <inaudible> one, do the, a very good, you just play the level three and you get to make a single mistake.
Speaker 1 00:52:37 I can do simple.
Speaker 2 00:52:41 Yeah, but you have real critical thinking skills. I can tell if somebody's right brain or left lane, by just how they, how they, uh, initially start off playing in that game. So you have, you have strong right brain, uh, uh, capabilities.
Speaker 1 00:52:56 It's good. I have one of them. Uh, w what, what advice would you give people out there who have lost their vision and are just in that last state
Speaker 2 00:53:10 Without with the weight. But I just tell anybody is, look at everything as an adventure. Everything that I, you know, right now, I just had, I had a total knee replacement last week. Oh, wow. And it's my second one. I had one, two and a half years ago. And it was from all those roundhouse kicks. I took to the knees from the years of fighting. And I look at it as an adventure. How fast can I be back up and doing what the doctor said you can't do, or you can't do this fast. So I always have to turn something into a challenge. I left the hospital. They want you to be at 120 degree angle on the bend of your knee. After six weeks, I was at 120 degree angle when I was still in the hospital that the day after the surgery. Wow. And, um, and, and I've all, I'm already, you'll no Walker, no chain. And, uh, of course there's still the pain. I'm still going through the rehabilitation. It's only been a week. Right. But, but my point is that was an adventure. I'm looking at it as, Oh, God, you know, you just say Lord safety for this opportunity. And for this chance to, uh, to, uh, have a little mountain and climb. But even though it's not, not that preferred to climb, but I just look at any situation, uh, as, as an adventure.
Speaker 1 00:54:44 Richard, thank you so much for coming on. I really appreciate it. I will definitely go watch the movie Delt. I'm looking forward to it actually. And, uh, tell us where can people keep an eye out when your games are coming out? How can they know this,
Speaker 2 00:55:01 Uh, Richard Turner, 50 two.com? It's my website, Richard Turner, 50 two.com. Richard Turner. I'll many cards on the deck.
Speaker 1 00:55:11 52. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:55:14 And, um, and then my YouTube channel is act 52. My son's name is of spades. That's a, this building the stage, but just a S a T five T. So, but if you just Google Richard Turner, I'm the first person that shows up. Definitely. And they, they have 172 million people that will be hearing <inaudible> that works right now.
Speaker 1 00:55:45 Well, I'm excited. I can't wait to get it. So thank you.
Speaker 2 00:55:50 You'll be able to play it. You'll be able to pull it, play it. Um, uh, like I said, how much can you see Sam? Okay. Okay. We're twins. We're twins. Yes. Yeah. Okay. So the thing is, it's one that you can play in the mud and you just have them tell you what the card is, and then you start moving around it. Like I said, if I, I could sit here and take whatever level and move them faster than the person seeing them on stage can move. So it just kind of a fun thing. And it's a good, it's a good planning.
Speaker 1 00:56:24 Thank you so much, Richard.
Speaker 2 00:56:27 You're very welcome. And thank you for inviting me. It was honored to be with two lovely ladies. Happy travels, happy travels, and ha ha ha. Okay.
Speaker 1 00:56:38 You've been listening to disability and progress. The views expressed on the show are not necessarily those of KPI or its board of directors. This, this KPI 90.3 FM, Minneapolis and KPI that org. My name is Sam. I'm the host of this show. If you want to be on my email list, you can email me at disability. Add progress at Sam, jasmine.com. Feel free to join us and see our podcast list. Ask your smart speaker to play the podcast or download art crusty smart app on your smartphone. Thanks so much for joining us. Goodbye.
