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CONTROLLED MIRACLES B B I L L
y S I M O N
E D I T E D B R U C E
BY
E L L I O T T
I L L U S T E A T E D B Y P R A N K
G A R C I A
PUBLISHED
BY
THE BACK ROOM PRESS 284 WEST
7 0 STREET
HEW YORK 23, NEW YORK
COPYRIGHTED
1949
PRINTED IN U. S. A.
T A B L E
OF
C O N T E N T S
FORWARD
4
ON MAGIC AND MAGICIANS
4
A Matter of Miracles Cut Control The Chinese Cut Simpl-speller The Simon False Table Cut The Stab Force The Jack Miller Card Change Sensitive Fingertips The Card in the Hat Dual Discovery The Grlppo Grab Card in Cigarette "Wrinkle" The Scarne Puzzle Elliott' s Card Change Smoke Screen The Startling Four Coin Routine The Rising Coin and Climax Ten Fingers and a Silk
4 5 6 7 7 9 9 10 11 11 12 13 13 14 14 16 18 20
I L L U S T R A T I 0 N S
Cut Control The Chinese Cut The Simon False Table Cut The Stab Force The Jack Miller Card Change Sensitive Fingertips The Card in the Hat Dual Discover; The Grippo Grab Elliott's Card Change Smoke Screen The Startling Four Coin Routine The Rising Coin and Climax
6 6 6 • • •.
and Ten Fingers and a Silk
8 8 8 15 8 6 15 15 17 17 19 19
Foreword
There are many elements that go Into producing a magic bookt Among them are: experience, experiment, inventiveness, nerve, and the assistance of others. It is here that I would like to express my thanks for the element known as "the assistance of othersl". Thanks to John Scarne for giving his fine card study, "The Soarne Puzzle", to this book. Thanks to jimmy Grippo for his "Grlppo Grab". Special thanks to Frank Garcia, vtoose inventiveness and unique style of magic is present in many of $he routines and effects in Controlled Miracles, for his expressive and clear illustrations that make your task (the reader's) a greatly simplified Job. And finally, thanks to Bruce Elliott for his many suggestions, aids, and editing that made this a clearer, more oomprehensive work. Controlled Miracles was originally a large, several hundred page book. The cost of production of such a book was quite formidable, so Controlled Miracles has been broken down into several volumes of much lesser size. Thus, what you now hold in your hands is Volume One of a series. The forth-coming volumes will follow the pattern of this book, with new materials, effects, and ideas being explained as the new data is developed. The magic in Controlled Miracles is a composite of both skill and subtlety. Subtlety has been invaded to the maximum; skill has been kept at its minimum point. It is by this blending that CONTROLLED MIRACLES
On Magic and Magicians There have been many splendid thoughts written on the presentation of magic by many writers who have the prestige, ability, and know audience reaction. Such men as Jean Hugard and John Booth fall into thiB category. Still, as every man palms a card differently, so must each make different observations and form different conclusions. We would like to give a few of the many impressions we have received in magic, and an insight into the type of presentation and misdireotion we have developed as a result of them. So here are ideas, routines and suggestions that will provide food for thought—so let us start to control our miracles.
A Matter of Miracles. S. Leo Horowitz (Mohammed Bey) once gave us an excellent bit of advice. He said that all tricks should be presented in as direct and simple a manner aB possible. The average person desires and enjoys being entertained by magio. Complicate the process and your tricks become problems ...the entertainment gets lost. Mr. Horowitz went a step further when he pointed out that a triok should never be cluttered with technique. Mr. Horowitz Bald, "If a triok requires five moves to complete it, it is too Involved and sleighty to be practical. If you cut it down to four moves it is still a little too top heavy. Eliminate a move by some thought and only have three moves and it enters the realm of the practioal. Add misdirection and make it two moves and you've got a nice trick. Use subtlety and eliminate another move, now; necessitating one move, and your trick has great value. Now, if you can eliminate the laBt move and complete your effect with no moves, then you have a miracle I" Mr. Horowitz's advice is difficult to top. This book is primarily a book of sleight of hand. Subtlety is injected wherever possible, and sleights have been cut down to a minimum. There is a striving toward the miracle effeot suggested above. When doing a trick, including the tricks