Poker finds more mainstream support as it becomes a TED fixture
Poker was in the limelight last week following the release of the new TED-Ed animation about the history of poker. James McManus, who wrote Positively Fifth Street and Cowboys Full: The Story of Poker, produced the script for the animation after the group contacted him last year.
“Their brief history of chess had racked up millions of views, and they wanted to make a similar one for poker,” said McManus. “Someone there had read Cowboys Full and thought I could do a good job.”
He added, “TED’s entire production team is top-notch. I think the animator, Chintis Lundgren, did a wonderful job with her signature, gently humorous style. The target audience is roughly grades 5-12, the next generation of poker players, or anyone who’s curious about the provenance and evolution of the game. The toughest part for me was deciding what to leave out of a 525-page book, since their videos must be under six minutes.”
TED-Ed is produced by the same team from the popular TED Talks series and offers educational animated shorts with extra learning materials. The history of poker is the latest release, with over 163,000 views in the first four days.
Other poker players have been featured in the TED Talks series, including Liv Boeree, who lectures about decision-making, probability, and the negatives of AI competition.
McManus says he has more projects upcoming, including a documentary series about the 200-year history of poker. In addition, producer and screenwriter Ben Cavell has continued working on a Positively Fifth Street limited series since the end of the recent actor and writer strikes and is also scripting a sequel called ‘Good Luck, Everybody.’
