Classic Secrets of Magic

Index

Preface

I have many crotchets as the result of twenty-five years of interest in and appreciation of magic. These likes and dislikes have reflected themselves in my choice of material. There has not been space enough to go into the reasons why I chose one trick at the expense of another. It will have to suffice to say that I think there have been cogent reasons involved in my selections.

Since magic can be all things to all men, it would be absurd to say that the tricks described here are the only classics of magic. No such claim is made. Two critical judgments were made, however. First, all the tricks described have proved their stature by having lived for years and, second, each trick is one about which I have some personal, specialized knowledge. For instance, there is no doubt that a trick like the die box is a classic. But I have never performed it, and I know nothing more about the trick than its actual modus operandi. Therefore, I have not included it in these pages. The same objections have ruled out the many wonderful silk tricks, thimble routines, and the like, which are truly classics.

What I have attempted to give you are the best, most efficient, and in many cases closely guarded secret methods of performing those classics about which I know most.

I have restricted those tricks which demand advance preparation or special apparatus, since I think that by definition the true classics of magic require little of these. In most instances the tricks you will learn here are those which can be performed under the most difficult circumstances, with a minimum of manipulative hazard and a maximum of effect on the audience.

Although I have described the various tricks in the course of this book in such wise that the complete beginner should have no trouble in the execution of any of them, it might be wiser if the tricks were learned in ascending order of difficulty.

The first, simplest routine for the cups and balls in Chapter 12 is a fine primer of all-around magic, since there are no complexities involved at all. From this simple beginning I would suggest that the student then progress to the chapter on coins called ‘The Miser’s Dream Come True!’ Once one has learned how to handle the small balls used in the cups and balls routines and the proper way to manipulate coins, one will be well on the way to a mastery of magic involving small objects. I would then suggest Chapter 11 as a good cornerstone for learning to handle a pack of cards. Once the ambitious card routine has been learned, all card tricks will become easier.

From this almost purely sleight-of-hand foundation I would suggest that the reader then learn a routine with the egg bag and the rice bowls, since these are tricks involving some slight preparation (in that a device is employed).

The razor blade trick and the pipes that smoke without tobacco or flame (Chapters 10 and 2) should be learned next, as these demand a degree of presentation and a flair for showmanship which should follow hard on the heels of learning the pure mechanics of magic.

Once these tricks, or routines rather, are learned, I would suggest that the student proceed to one of the billiard ball routines in Chapter 9. From then on the reader should choose those tricks that appeal to him most.

With these as a background any beginning magician will be well on his way to a mastery of what is to me the most fascinating of all hobbies or professions.

The interested reader can explore this subject further in an earlier book of mine called Magic as a Hobby. In those pages he will find a great variety of fine magic, all of which is easy to present and astonishing in effect.

There has been but one aim in the over-all plan in The Classic Secrets of Magic. I have tried to make this the kind of book I should like to have read when I first became interested in magic. I hope these pages will save you as much time and work as they would have me had I found such a book a quarter of a century ago.

BRUCE ELLIOTT

1

The Spectator’s Card is Produced

James G. Thompson, Jr., a bank president who loves magic very dearly, has said that if a magician knows a hundred ways of locating a card that a spectator has chosen, and only one way of revealing it, the effect to the audience is that the magician knows only one card trick. On the other hand, if the magician knows one way of finding a card and a hundred ways of revealing it, the effect is that he knows a hundred tricks.

I am in complete accord with this aphorism. Let me assume that the only way you know to find a card that a spectator has looked at is by means of a key card. A key card can be made simply, as by ‘crimping’ up the corner of a card. With this crimped, or bent-corner, card on top of the pack, the magician shuffles the pack, bringing the crimped card to the bottom of the pack.

The cards are fanned before a spectator, or ribbon-spread on the table, and a card is taken out and looked at by a spectator. The magician brings the pack together, cuts it in the centre, and has the spectator replace his card on the top half of the pack. The other half, the bottom half, of the pack is dropped on top of the chosen card. This places the crimped card on top of the spectator’s card. To find the spectator’s card all the magician need do is to cut at the crimped card, and the card on top of the pack is now the chosen card.

At this point the magician could just turn over the top card and show that he had found the selected card. That would be a revelation of sorts, although a dull and undramatic one. It could be revealed by means of apparatus inside a balloon, or it could be made to float up through the air in seeming defiance of the laws of gravity. In the case of that remarkably skilled performer John Scarne, the card can be found in the magician’s mouth. The card can be torn to pieces, burnt and then restored, or it can be magically transformed from an incorrect card to the correct one.

I will consider this last effect, since it is pretty and one that is easy of execution.

When the chosen card has been brought to the top of the pack a card is selected from the middle of the pack and shown to the audience as though the magician thought that this indifferent card was the selected one.

When the audience rejects it as incorrect, the magician seems surprised and drops the incorrect card face up on top of the pack as though puzzled by his seeming error.

Not long at a loss, however, the magician picks up the incorrect card and rubs it on his sleeve. Instantly, visibly and magically the face of the wrong card changes to the correct one!

This is a fine effect and one that is easy to do.

With the chosen card second from the top of the pack, and the indifferent, incorrect card face up on top of the pack all that it is necessary to do is to use the right hand to double-lift the two top cards (see Chapter 11) and lift them off the pack as one card.

The pack remains in the left hand with the thumb at the left outer edge of the cards. The right hand holding the two cards as one by the bottom corners as in Fig. 1, sketch 1, at the very tips of the middle finger and the thumb, buckles the two cards slightly as in sketch 2.

FIGURE 1

Next the card(s) is moved gently back and forth on the left coat sleeve, as in sketch 2. The left thumb runs down the side of the pack making a sharp sound. At the moment the cards emit this sound, the right forefinger tip presses down on the centre of the buckled card(s) (see sketch 2). The two cards are flipped over as the grip is transferred from the middle finger to the forefinger and thumb. The forefinger has moved over so that it is just above the thumb (see Fig. 2, sketches 1 and 2).

The unexpected sound from the pack of cards provides a division of attention just as you turn the two cards over, and the effect to the onlooker is that the indifferent card has visibly changed into the selected one (sketch 2).

The right hand does not pause. Once the cards have been turned around, the hand immediately returns to the pack and drops the two cards as one on to the pack. The left thumb then pushes the top card, the correct one, off the pack on to the table.

The pack is cut, getting rid of the indifferent card, and the audience can then examine the selected card and the pack to its collective heart’s content, and no clue can be found as to how this amazing transformation took place.

Fast, easy, and truly magical in effect, this is the kind of card location that makes a lasting effect on any audience.

Requiring but one tiny bit of preparation is an astonishing card location which has come to be known as the card through the handkerchief. Many means have been devised to get the seeming effect of a card being able to penetrate a piece of cloth. None of them are quite so astounding in appearance as a method conceived by Dai Vernon and Wallace Galvin.

A card is selected and replaced in the pack. The magician shuffles the pack and then places the pack on the table or on the floor. Next he plucks a pocket handkerchief from his jacket and drapes it over the pack of cards. Pausing, he says, ‘I’m sorry, I forgot to let you . . .’ As he speaks, he lifts the handkerchief off the pack and drapes it over his left arm as shown in Fig. 3, sketch 2.

FIGURE 2

‘Lift up the top two or three cards, will you please?’ the magician requests a member of the audience. One does so, and looks at the faces of the cards, making sure that the chosen card is nowhere near the top of the pack.

With the audience convinced on this important point, the magician proceeds. He again drapes the handkerchief over the pack as in Fig. 3, sketch 1. Next he wraps the playing cards in the cloth. When they are completely encased, he mutters a cabalistic spell over the pack, and then plucks the handkerchief by its opposite corners. The handkerchief lifts free of the cards, and the chosen card is seen to penetrate right through the cloth of the handkerchief!

An awe-inspiring effect, which is the reason that it has survived as one of the classics of magic.

The only thing needed besides a pack of borrowed playing cards and a handkerchief is a small ball of wax or a tiny bit of scotch tape. The tape is rolled on itself so that it can be stuck to the very centre of the handkerchief, and still have a sticky surface facing downward (Fig. 3, sketch 1).

Thus prepared, the card is chosen from the pack and controlled by the magician to the top of the pack by using the crimped card. The pack is placed on the table and the handkerchief thrown over it. As this is done, the magician smooths out the cloth, seemingly anxious to rid it of wrinkles, really in order to press the sticky scotch tape down on the back of the top, chosen card on the pack.

This is the point where he ‘remembers’ that he has forgotten to show the top cards in the pack. Taking the handkerchief by its corners as in Fig. 3, sketch 1, he picks it up and drapes it over his arm. This picks up the chosen card and carries it, hidden, along with the cloth (sketch 2).

FIGURE 3

Of course the spectator can now look at the top cards on the pack and not find the one that he selected!

When the spectator has checked, the magician then drapes the cloth over the pack again, which replaces the chosen card on top of the pack, in a cloth sandwich (Fig. 4, sketch 1).

Next the performer drapes the handkerchief as shown in sketches 2, 3, 4. It will be found that with the pack covered this way, all that it is necessary to do is to pull corners A and B sharply. The handkerchief lifts up toward the performer and the chosen card, stuck to the handkerchief, revolves, turning face up. It is this turning motion which can be seen by the audience which gives the illusion that the card is coming through the cloth! (Sketch 5.)

This must be tried to be appreciated as words do not convey the illusory value of this turning motion.

One of the classical methods of producing a chosen card is to throw the pack of cards at the ceiling, whereupon all the cards fall to the floor but for the chosen one, which remains stuck to the ceiling! (Fig. 5, sketch 5.)

From Herrmann the Great to Max Malini, from Malini to Matt Shulien, this trick has proved its effectiveness. It is great for advertising, since the trick is so astonishing that people leave the card in place, sometimes for years, pointing it out to visitors as a trick done by whoever performed it.

In one freak case Alexander Herrmann threw a pack at the ceiling of a room in a bank in Springfield, Massachusetts; fifty years after Hermann’s death the card was still stuck to the ceiling! The ceiling was a high one, and therefore inaccessible, and so the card stayed on and on, advertising the prowess of the long-dead performer.

FIGURE 4

Max Malini, great self publicist that he was, knew well the value of this trick and therefore did it on every occasion.

Jay Marshall, surely one of