PRACTICE.
In conjuring, as in all other arts and sciences, perseverance is
requisite in order to become expert and successful. There is no royal
road, or possibility of acquiring the end, without exercising the means
to that end. Let my young friends, then, carefully practise over and
over again the passes and the tricks which I have already explained to
them. It is the only way to attain dexterity and confidence, without
which they will never be able to make any creditable exhibition of
the art of conjuring. After they have attained considerable skill and
sleight-of-hand in displaying a few tricks, they will easily extend the
range of their performances, and gradually rise to greater ability. I
may, therefore, parody an old injunction for obtaining success, and
say: There are three rules for its attainment: The first is “Practice.”
The second is “Practice.” The third is “Practice.” In a word, constant
and careful practice is requisite, if any wish to be successful as
amateur conjurors. They should never attempt to exhibit before their
friends any tricks that they have not so frequently practised that no
bungling or hitch is likely to occur in their performance of it.
Let no one be staggered by the simplicity of the processes recommended
in these tricks. The result will in fact be all the more astonishing,
the simpler the operations employed.
The great point is the address of the performer, and that will
carry through successfully the means employed. However simple and
insignificant those means may appear to the learner when they have been
explained to him, if there is good address and accurate manipulation,
the astonishment at the result will be infinitely greater than any one
would imagine possible to be produced by such simple means.
There is one help that I can suggest towards the better management
of the hands in concealing or removing objects; it is the use of a
conjuror’s rod or short magic wand. This is, now-a-days, commonly a
stick of about fifteen inches long, resembling a common rule, or a
partially-ornamented one. You may often have observed this simple
emblem of the conjuror’s power, and deemed it a mere idle or useless
affectation. The conjuror waves it mystically or majestically as he
may be disposed. Of course you are right in your judgment that it can
do no good magically; but it does not follow that it is useless. The
fact is, that it is really of considerable service to him. If he wants
to hold a coin or any object concealed in his hand, without others
observing the fact of his hand being closed, the wand in that hand is a
blind for its concealment. He may require to pick up or lay down some
object, and he can do so while openly fetching or laying down his wand.
If he wants to gain time, for any illusion or process of change, he
can obtain it while engaging the attention of the spectators by some
fantastic movements of his wand. By the use of the wand, therefore, you
will be able to prevent the observation of your audience too pointedly
following the movements which you wish to carry on secretly. You may
also, at the same time, dispel their attention by humorous remarks,
preventing it from being concentrated on watching your movements.
As a general rule, you must not apprise your audience of what you are
actually doing, but must often interpose some other thought or object
to occupy their mind. For instance: Do you desire that a person should
not examine too closely any object which you place in his hand, tell
him to hold it well above his head. That takes it out of the range
of his eyes. It would never do to tell him not to look at it. He
would then immediately suspect that you are afraid of something being
observed.
Have you perchance forgotten to bring on your table any article
requisite for displaying any trick, a feint must be made that you must
have more candles, or must remove some other object, thus gaining the
opportunity to fetch what you require without naming it.
Do not even announce too fully or vauntingly beforehand what is to be
the result or development of any trick; rather proceed with it, and
let the audience come unexpectedly upon a result which they had not
contemplated. Their surprise will be greater, and their amusement more
lively, at such unexpected result.
It is for this reason that it will be well to avoid the repetition of
the same trick in the same evening, though requested to perform it over
again. The minds of the spectators have already traced once the whole
performance of it—the beginning, the middle, the end. The zest of it,
therefore, is gone off; their minds are languid and disinterested about
its second repetition; and the conjuror’s art proportionately sinks in
their estimation.
Having offered these general remarks, I will now invite the attention
of my young friends to another batch of interesting tricks, which, with
a little effort, they may succeed in exhibiting.
TRICK 11.—A sudden and unexpected supply of feathers from under a silk
handkerchief or cloth.
PREPARATION.
Have ready a good supply of plumes of feathers. They may be obtained
from a fur or fancy store, or purchased there loose, and tied up so as
to lie thin and flexible where you wish to place them. You may have at
least four batches of them. The common hackle feather will do, stitched
round a thin piece of whalebone. Feathers that are a little injured for
sale as ornaments may be picked up at little cost.
Take off your coat. You may then have one or more batches of feathers
placed round each arm; the lower point of the stem on which the
feathers are fixed being near your wrist, and the top of each batch of
feathers confined near your elbow by a slight worsted string, so that
they do not stick out the coat sleeve too much, or slip down together
if two batches are concealed in the same sleeve. You can have one or
more batches placed just within each side of your waistcoat, with the
lower point of the stem within easy reach of your hand—about four
inches below your chin. Then put your coat on.
[Illustration: FIG. 8.]
Commence the trick by borrowing a large silk handkerchief or cloth of
the same size. Show it to be empty by holding out the two top corners
in front of your breast, and shake the handkerchief while it falls
loosely down over your vest. Then moving the handkerchief toward your
left, catch hold (with your right thumb and finger) of the end of
the stem of the plume, No. 1, and draw it from under the left side
of your vest. It will remain concealed behind the handkerchief while
you move your two hands to the right, which will draw out the plume
from under your vest, then over the centre of your chest. Then toss
the handkerchief about, enveloping the first batch of feathers; say,
“Handkerchief, you must supply me with some feathers.” In a minute or
so, take off the handkerchief, and display the plume to the spectators.
Show the spectators again that the handkerchief is quite empty. Move
your arms toward your right till your left hand comes just over
the edge of the right side of your vest. With your left thumb and
forefinger catch hold of the stem of the feathers there concealed, and
by moving your arms back towards the left, you can draw out without its
being observed the plume that had been concealed under the right side
of your vest. Toss about and display as before this second batch of
feathers, and then place them aside.
Then show to the company again that your handkerchief has nothing in
it, and lay the handkerchief over both your hands. While waving it
mysteriously about, exclaim that the handkerchief must furnish you with
some more feathers. Draw out of the left sleeve one of the plumes,
shake the feathers out while taking off the handkerchief from this,
which will be plume the third.
Then, throwing your handkerchief over the hand, and clapping your hands
together, (with the left over the right hand,) manage to catch hold of
another point of a plume, and pull it out from your right sleeve while
waving about your two hands with the handkerchief over them. You have
now produced four plumes.
The exhibition may be continued to an increased number of plumes, if
you have more concealed in your sleeves, or elsewhere; but four will
probably be sufficient to manage at the commencement of your career as
an amateur conjuror.
TRICK 12.—Heads or Tails?
I shall now give directions for reproducing, before a juvenile
audience, a trick that will carry us back to the primitive style of
conjuring in old times. I cannot say that there is anything very
scientific or elevated in it, but, if neatly and adroitly executed, it
will tell very well with a youthful audience.
PREPARATION.
You must take care that your table be so placed that none of the
spectators can see behind yourself or the table. You must provide
yourself with some young pet of the juveniles, such as a puppy,
a kitten, or any other small pet. The performer must either have
some little bag hanging under his coat-tails, or some provision for
concealing the little animal behind him, or in a drawer before him; so
that there will be no chance of any of the audience seeing it before
the proper time. He must have ready also a penny, or any coin.
To begin the exhibition of the trick. Standing with all the nonchalance
you can assume, and placing one or both your arms behind your back,
you may say, “For a variety, I will challenge one of my young friends
to come and try which of us will succeed best in a few tosses of this
penny.”
Induce some young person to come to the front of your table, and tell
him to bring forward his hat. Ask him to toss first with the cent and
put the hat over it, while you will guess “heads” or “tails.” Say it
shall be seen who is most successful in five guesses. After he has
tossed up twice, you can take the penny, and say, “Now, I will vary
the method of tossing. You shall name now which you choose, ‘heads’ or
‘tails.’”
Toss up the penny, and while attention is occupied with this, and he
is looking to see which is uppermost, heads or tails, you withdraw
your left hand from behind you, holding the little animal you have
concealed, and slipping it into the hat, and turning the hat down over
it, exclaim, “Stay, I mean to pass the penny through the hat upon the
table, and the whole affair shall be settled by the result of the
present toss. You shall see the heads or tails on the table.”
By Pass 1, pretend to place the penny on the hat, but retain it in your
right hand. Say, “Fly, pass, and quickly.” Lift the hat, and show both
head and tail on the little animal or pet there concealed.
If you should have had a Guinea pig, you must make the guesses go on
till your adversary guesses “tails,” and then it will make a good laugh
to say, “He has won, and he had better now take it up by the tail.”
TRICK 13.—To cook pancakes or a flat plum cake in a hat, over some
candles.
REQUISITE PREPARATION.
Have two gallipots or earthen jars, of a size to go easily into a hat,
but of such dimensions that the one reversed will fit closely over the
other. Tie worsted or a strip of linen round the smaller gallipot, so
as to insure the larger one holding firmly round the smaller one. Have
ready some thin, fluent dough, some sugar, and a few currants, enough
for two or three pancakes or a small plum cake; also a spoon to stir
the ingredients up.
Have at hand two or three warm pancakes that have just been prepared
by the cook for you, with the same ingredients as mentioned above. Let
them be firm and free from grease. Have also at hand two small plates,
with knives and forks.
Commence the exhibition by borrowing two hats, to give you a choice
with which to perform. You can remark that as you should be sorry to
injure your friend’s hat, you will secure it from being soiled by
placing some paper in it as a lining. Hold up the paper to show it is
only paper, and then openly place it in the hat, and lay the hat down
on its side on the table near you, having the brim towards you.
Have the ready-prepared pancakes lying near you, and whilst taking off
the attention of the spectators by pretending to arrange the articles
on your table, slip the prepared pancakes or plum-cake into the hat.
[Illustration: FIG. 9.]
Unobserved, also place the smaller gallipot in the hat, and while
doing so, if requisite, add some remark, such as: “Please to shut,
or open, that door,” or any words that will draw off the attention
of the spectators from what you are doing. You must next, with some
parade, mix the fluent dough with the sugar and currants in the larger
gallipot. It must be fluent enough to pour out slowly, apparently into
the hat, but really into the smaller gallipot, which has been already
concealed inside the hat. Show you have emptied the larger gallipot,
all but a little; then, placing it over the smaller gallipot again,
empty the very last of it, and press the larger gallipot firmly down
over the smaller one. Then, with it, lift the smaller gallipot also,
with its contents, while you appear only to take back the larger
gallipot. Remove the gallipots, as supposed to be empty, out of sight.
“Now, ladies and gentlemen, I must request your patience a few minutes
for the process of cooking.” Put two or three candles near one another,
and move the hat at a safe distance above them for two or three
minutes, making in the meantime any laughable remarks that may occur to
you, such as: “My young friends will find this capital way of supplying
themselves with a delicate dish when they have lost their puddings
from being in the black books of their teacher or parents,” or any
similar humorous remark; but take care not to burn the hat whilst the
(supposed) cooking is going on. After a short interval, place the hat
on the table, and with some little ceremony take out the real pancakes
or plum-cake. Let it be cut up and handed round to the juveniles who
may be present.
REMARKS.
A more finished or surer arrangement for holding the dough, etc., can
be made with a tin apparatus, which can be prepared by any tinman, upon
the same principle as the gallipots, taking care not to have it made
larger than the inside of a youth’s hat.
[Illustration: FIG. 10.]
An amateur can render a common table more suitable for concealing any
little object he wishes to have secreted, by placing three or four
tumblers under each end of a plank, about the length to extend across
the table, and throwing any common cloth over the board and table,
or a kitchen table, covered with a cloth, having a drawer pulled out
about six inches, will furnish a very good conjuror’s table. It is
well to have the table rather broad, so as to keep the spectators at a
sufficient distance.
TRICK 14.—TO EAT A DISH OF PAPER SHAVINGS, AND DRAW THEM OUT OF YOUR
MOUTH LIKE AN ATLANTIC CABLE.
PREPARATION.
Procure three or four yards of the thinnest tissue paper of various
colors. Cut these up in strips of half an inch or three-quarters of an
inch breadth, and join them. They will form a continuous strip of many
feet in length. Roll this up carefully in a flat coil, as ribbons are
rolled up. Let it make a coil about as large as the top of an egg-cup
or an old-fashioned hunting-watch. Leave out of the innermost coil
about an inch or more of that end of the paper, so that you can easily
commence unwinding it from the centre of the coil.
Procure a large dish or basketful of paper-shavings, which can be
obtained at little cost from any bookbinder’s or stationer’s. Shaken
out it will appear to be a large quantity. As you wish it to appear
that you have eaten a good portion of them, you can squeeze the
remainder close together, and then there will appear to be few left,
and that your appetite has reason to be satisfied.
Commence the trick by proclaiming you have a voracious appetite, so
that you can make a meal off paper-shavings. Bend down over the plate,
and take up handful after handful, pretend to munch them in your mouth,
and make a face as if swallowing them, and as you take up another
handful, put out those previously in your mouth, and put them aside.
Having gone on with this as long as the spectators seem amused by it,
at last, with your left hand, slip the prepared ball of tissue paper
into your mouth, managing to place towards your teeth the end you wish
to catch hold of with your right hand, for pulling the strip out from
your mouth. You will take care also not to open your teeth too widely,
lest the whole coil or ball should come out all at once.
Having got hold of the end, draw it slowly and gently forward. It will
unroll to a length of twenty yards or more in a continuous strip, much
to the amusement of the spectators.
When it has come to the end, you may remark: “I suppose we have come
to a fault, as there is a ‘solution of continuity here, just as the
strongest cables break off,’ so we must wait to pick up the end again,
and go on next year, when the Great Eastern again goes out with its
next Atlantic Cable.”
TRICK 15.—How to cut off a nose—of course without actual injury.
PREPARATION.
Have ready a piece of calico of light color, or a white apron, a sponge
saturated with a little liquid of the color of blood—port-wine, or the
juice of beet-root, will do; also two knives, resembling each other,
the one of them whole, the other with a large notch in its blade, so
that when placed over the nose it will appear to have cut through the
bridge of the nose. A cutler could supply such knives, or they may be
purchased at the depots for conjuring apparatus.
Having placed out these articles on your table with seriousness and
imposing formality, show to the audience the knife that is whole, and
call upon them to observe that it is sufficiently strong and sharp.
The other knife must be placed somewhere near you, but where it is
sheltered from the observation of the spectators.
Ask some young friend to step forward, assuring him that you will not
hurt him. Make him sit down on a chair facing the audience. After
having measured the real knife across his nose, say: “But I may as well
protect your clothes from being soiled, so I will put an apron round
your neck.” Go to the table to take up the apron, and, in doing so,
place down the real knife where it cannot be seen, and, with your left
hand take up the conjuror’s knife, holding it by the blade, lest any
one should observe the notch in it. Conceal at the same time also, in
your left hand, the piece of sponge.
Advancing to the chair, tuck, with your right hand, the apron round the
youth’s neck. Then press the conjuror’s knife firmly over the nose and
leave it there, as if you had cut into the bridge of the nose. At the
same time gently squeeze the sponge, and a little of the liquid will
make an alarming appearance on the face and on the apron; go on for a
short time, covering the face and apron with (apparent) blood. When the
audience have seen it long enough, seize up the apron, wipe the face
of the youth quite clean, throw away the conjuror’s knife, and exhibit
your young friend to the audience all right, and dismiss him with some
facetious remark on his courage in undergoing the alarming operation.