The Boys' Book of Magic: The Art of Conjuring Explained and Illustrated

YOU can become a Master of Magic!

There is no need for you to buy all sorts of gadgets at a conjuring shop, and there is no need for you to spend long hours practising to palm cards and to back-palm coins.

Most of the tricks explained in this book can be performed with simple household articles. Pieces of cord, cards, coins, matchboxes, a few scraps of coloured material which can be made into little handkerchiefs—these are all you need in order to become a first-class magician.

Once you have started, you will find that with a few pieces of cardboard and a box of paints you can make all your props look very attractive. Props" is the name given to the various pieces of apparatus used for your show. With a little care you can make your performance just as colourful and impressive as that of a stage conjurer.

Remember . . . a conjurer is always a great favourite anywhere.

Some of the tricks described require a little preparation, but it is always quite easy, and once you have mastered a few of the simpler tricks you will be only too eager to improve. Then you can spend a few pleasant hours in constructing some wonderful little gadgets with which you will be able to perform really amazing feats of wizardry.

Then there are two ways in which you may wish to display your powers of magic. Sometimes at a party you may be able to give your show from one end of the room, having a little table with all your magical props on it, while your audience will be grouped together at the other end of the room so that they cannot see the secret of any of your tricks.

For this sort of show you will see that several complete programmes of tricks have been worked out all ready for you. Any one of these will enable you to put on a grand fifteen-minute show to amuse and amaze your family and your friends.

On the other hand there are times when people will say, Show us a trick! You may find that they are grouped all around you and it is impossible to demonstrate any of your proper stage tricks.

Well, spread out between the various programmes here you will find plenty of fascinating little mysteries which can be performed right under the noses of your audience. You can perform them sitting round the fire, or sitting at the tea-table.

As you make progress you will find that you are able to build up programmes of your own, and you must always keep trying to improve those programmes by adding clever little ideas to them. You will find plenty of examples of how these improvements can be made as you read on through this book. There is a whole chapter showing how you can invent your own tricks, and there are many hints on how to arrange your tricks and how to present them in the best possible way.

One important thing must be realised before you start to become a conjurer, and that is this: when you read how a trick is done, NEVER say, Oh, that’s too easy! the trick a little and then try it out on one of your practise friends.

In this way you will learn that the simplest tricks are always the most deceptive!

Do not feel that to know how a trick is done is the key for you to be able to do it. Even the very simplest trick must be practised carefully before it is performed in front of an audience.

Take each trick in turn, reading the explanations carefully and studying the diagrams. But do not make the mistake of trying to take in all the tricks at once by reading right through the book. It is better to be able to do ten tricks really well than to have half-an-idea how a hundred tricks are worked.

Your job as a conjurer is to be entertaining and amusing. Therefore you must keep talking easily and naturally the whole time you are performing. This patter, as it is called, should have plenty of jokes in it, for this distracts the attention of the audience from any tricky move you may want to make.

Most conjurers write out their patter and learn it by heart. If you can manage to do this (and it is not really difficult), then your show will become twice as good. Your patter being automatic, there will be no hesitating or fumbling for words. You won’t have to bother about what you are saying, and then of course you can concentrate properly upon whatever trick you are doing.

Well, these few hints are necessary to start you on the road to becoming a Master Magician. Now we are ready to go right ahead with learning some tricks.

Don’t try to learn too much all at once, and . . . good luck to you.

EVERY magician needs a magic wand. Perhaps you have wondered why conjurers on the stage usually carry a wand. One reason is that there are several tricks in which the wand is used as a piece of apparatus, and a second reason is that when you are holding a wand in your hand it is very easy to conceal something else in that hand without the audience knowing anything about it!

You can make your own wand very easily. All you need is a round length of wood a little more than twelve inches long. This can be bought at an oil-shop for a penny or two. Lengths of such wood are called dowels and are sometimes used for curtain rods.

Cut your wand to the right length and smooth it very thoroughly with fine sandpaper. Then mark two lines round the wand about one-and-three-quarter inches from each end. Paint the centre part in glossy black paint, and the two short end sections in white.

Now we are ready for the first trick on your programme.

A Painless Operation

It is best to give names to all your tricks because it is easier to remember them and to refer to them in this way.

Now this little trick is more of a stunt than anything, but it is very amusing and makes a quick, effective opening for your show. You enter with your wand in hand, and call for two of the audience to come forward and assist you in a magical experiment.

When your assistants volunteer, ask one of them to stand on one side of your performing space or stage, and one on the other side. Ask the gentleman on your left to turn his back towards you so that his right side is facing the audience.

Now, taking your wand, you place one end of it against his back and push it about six or nine inches into his body! The wand goes right in and out several times, much to the amusement of the audience, but your assistant doesn’t seem to feel any discomfort.

To conclude the trick, you finally draw out the wand, ask the gentleman if he feels quite all right, and hand him the wand so that he can examine it and make quite sure it is solid.

The Secret

This is a very effective stunt, and like all good tricks it is quite simple. Remember, the middle part of the wand is black, and the tips are white.

Very well. You prepare beforehand by having a piece of stiff, shiny white paper fitted round your wand like a collar. It is exactly as long as one white tip of your wand, and fits perfectly over it.

You can rap your wand on the table to show that it is solid, and of course nobody can see that there is a cylinder of white paper on it because this collar matches perfectly and looks just like the tip of the wand itself. Also, it is this end of the wand that you hold in your hand, and so it is partly hidden.

When the gentleman turns his back to you, you place the unprepared tip of your wand against his back and hold it there with your left hand. You must be sure to cover all the white tip at that end with the fingers of your hand, as shown in Figure 1 (A).

Figure 1 (B) shows the prepared wand, with the collar of white paper round it. You will notice that the size of the collar has been exaggerated to show it more clearly. Actually it should fit quite snugly to the wand, but at the same time it must slide up and down the wand without difficulty.

Holding your right forearm parallel with the floor, you slide your right hand forward, holding the sliding collar lightly with your finger-tips and pushing it along the wand as you make this movement. The solid wand slides up your sleeve on the inside of your forearm, but this cannot be seen by the audience.

Figure 1. ‘A’ shows how the wand seems to be pushed into the assistant’s back. ‘B’ shows how the wand is prepared.

A glance at Figure 1 (A) will make the whole movement quite clear, and you can well imagine the startling effect from the point of view of the audience.

As soon as you take the wand away, you pick up a handkerchief to wipe away the assistant’s influence, as you explain. In doing so, you slide off the paper collar into the handkerchief, where it remains concealed. You can then hand your wand to either assistant for examination, proving that it is quite solid.

Let us suppose that the assistant on your right is busy examining the wand. You can now follow on quite naturally with the next trick.

A Magical Mix-up

For this you will need two lengths of soft cord or rope, each about five feet long, two handkerchiefs and two ordinary bone bangles.

Every conjurer must have several coloured handkerchiefs. All the tricks in this book can be performed with, say, two green and two red handkerchiefs in your outfit. They should be of the flimsiest material possible, and if your mother or your sister has a few scraps of silk, then the best thing is to ask if they can provide you with four little squares, hemmed round like handkerchiefs. These need only be about eight or nine inches square.

For this particular trick you can borrow ordinary handkerchiefs from the audience. You can borrow the bangles, too, if it is possible, but it is best to have them with you, in case nobody in the audience can provide a suitable bangle. Cheap bone bangles are quite good enough, and you will find them useful for several different tricks.

In this experiment, you ask one of the assistants to hold the wand horizontally between his two hands. Turn him so that the audience can see what you are doing, and place the two cords over the wand so that they hang evenly on either side, dangling from the middle of the wand.

These cords you tie in a knot. Ask one assistant to take one pair of ends, and the other to take the opposite pair of ends so that the cords are stretched out between them, the wand being suspended in the centre, held there by the knot.

Take one handkerchief, place it over the double cord on the right-hand side of the wand, and tie the two corners together, thus forming a loose loop round the cords. Do exactly the same thing with the other handkerchief, but on the other side of the wand.

Take the two bangles, and pass them on to the double cord, one on either side of the wand.

The position is now as shown in Figure 2.

Ask each assistant to hand you one of the two cords he holds, keeping the other held taut. Take one cord from each assistant, and tie a single knot with these two cords, handing the ends back for your assistants to hold. This, of course, draws the handkerchiefs and bangles into a cluster round the wand.

Figure 2. The cords are knotted round the wand. Two assistants hold the ends while bangles and handkerchiefs are attached.

Everything seems to be well and truly secure. The audience will certainly think so, but you can quickly prove them to be wrong.

Tell your assistants to hold the double cord firmly. Take the lower end of the wand in your right hand and gather the handkerchiefs and bangles all together in your left. After a suitable bit of patter, make a magical pass and draw the wand free of the cords.

For a moment everything will seem to be hopelessly tied, but just move your left hand backwards and forwards gently and you will find that the four articles will come clear away from the cords, which are left stretched out between your two assistants without a knot of any sort to be seen!

The Secret

This mystifying trick performs itself. All you have to remember is to tie the first knot in a particular way.

Take a careful look at Figure 3. This shows the knot that must be tied.

The wand is being held horizontally, and you are just going to tie the knot. The cords, lying close together, are simply suspended from the middle of the wand. In this diagram the two cords have been shown as having different colours, but this is simply to show more clearly how the knot is tied. The cords must really be of the same colour of course.

However, let us imagine that one cord is red and the other blue. To tie the knot, you place your hands just below the wand and take hold of the two dangling parts of the red cord in one hand and the two dangling parts of the blue cord in the other hand. Now just tie a simple knot and the result will be as shown in Figure 3. This shows the knot tied loosely, but of course it should really be drawn tight round the wand.

That is the whole of the secret. Carry on with the trick as explained above, placing the bangles and the looped handkerchiefs on either side of the cords. Take one cord from each assistant and tie a single knot, handing back the ends again.

Figure 3. This exposed view shows how the cords are knotted.

When the time comes for you to show your wizardry, simply draw the wand away, give a little shake of the four articles which you hold in your left hand, and they will come free.

When you make the first knot, you must do it as smoothly and quickly as possible, chatting away all the time. Pull the knot tight as soon as you have made it, and then nobody can see that it is not made in quite the usual way. Also, where the two cords pass round the wand you must push those loops together. They have been shown spread out in the diagram to make everything quite clear.

All the articles seem to be so firmly fixed to the cords, and it is amazing to see the way that everything comes free once the wand is withdrawn.

As you still have your assistants on the stage, we are ready for the next trick on your programme.

The Acrobatic Cards

It is now time to introduce a card trick. Using an ordinary pack of cards, you ask each assistant to select one card from any part of the pack. They may hold them up for the audience to see, but they must not let you see what the cards are.

These two chosen cards are now returned to the pack; but so that you can have no idea of where they are, you hold the pack firmly squared up, and ask each assistant in turn to push his card into the pack. Right under their noses, you square the pack up after each card is returned, so that you cannot possibly know where it is.

Now you ask the assistant on your right to take your wand and to hold it high above his head. You place the pack flat on your outstretched hand and make some passes over it, telling the assistant to wave the wand round and round in a clockwise circle and it will make the chosen cards turn themselves face upwards in the pack.

After a moment or two of waving you say, Ah! I felt them go. You must be a very good magician, sir!

Spreading out the cards, you show that the two cards chosen by your assistants have turned themselves face upwards in the pack!

The Secret

Once again, this is a beautifully simple little trick, and in it you are introducing the art of misdirection. You must know something of this, for it is most important to any conjurer. It means directing the attention of the audience to something else just