Lessons
BY
DAVID DEVANT WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS
LESSONS IN CONJURING
n
LESSONS IN CONJURING
BY
DAVID DEVANT Author of Our Magic,
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
etc.
IN THE
TEXT
A A A A A A AA A A A A A A A A A A AA A V 4 BEST SINCE 1910 ». ^ Manufacturer • Importer k ^of FINE MAGICAL APPARATUS •
3
^ ^ < 2 ^
Purchased From "ART IN MAGIC" ELMER ECKAM, Prop. 14O7 E. MAIN ST. ROCHESTER, NEW YORK
^ • £ T L
LONDON GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS LTD NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & CO. 1922
CONTENTS CHAP.
I.
PAGE
The Thirty Card Trick
...
...
i
The Cards up the Sleeve
...
...
8
III.
The Diminishing Cards
...
...
20
IV.
The Cricket Bat Trick
II.
27
V.
The Multiplication of Money...
...
37
VI.
The Coin and the Envelopes ...
...
46
The Dyed Handkerchiefs
...
62
VIII.
The Soup Plate and Handkerchiefs...
72
IX.
The Watch, Glass, and Handkerchief
79
The Lawyer's Cracker
...
86
A Simple Thought-reading Experiment
93
War-time Cookery
95
VII.
X. XI. XII.
...
...
... ...
...
XIII.
The Egg Bag
100
XIV.
The Ropes and Rings
109
The Cups and Balls
122
XV. XVI. XVII.
Flowers from Nowhere My Drawer-box
...
...
141 147
INTRODUCTION One day, being busily employed in giving lessons in conjuring, I suddenly thought that I might enlarge my circle of pupils by giving lessons on paper. I do not suggest that such lessons are as effective as those given personally, but I believe that this book will be found to be a good substitute for a course of lessons in conjuring from me. I have endeavoured to teach each trick exactly as I should teach it to a pupil coming to me for lessons. There is a very great difference between knowing how a trick is done and knowing how to do it. Anyone with a fairly good memory may soon learn how hundreds of tricks are done. All he has to do is to buy a lot of books on conjuring and study them, but the knowledge he will thus gain will be quite useless to him unless he tries to perform some of the tricks himself. I promise him that at his first private rehearsal he will discover for himself the very great diffeience between knowing how a trick is done and knowing how to do it. Some years ago, when I was performing at the old Egyptian Hall twice a day and was in the habit of receiving more offers of private engagements than I could possibly accept, a young conjurer called to see me. I asked him how many tricks he knew. He made a rapid calculation and replied: "About three hundred." I told him that T knew eight tricks myself. He seemed to be very puzzled, but he is puzzled no longer by that reply, for he has since learned wisdom and is now a very popular performer; he now appreciates the difference between knowing how a trick is done and knowing how to do it. When I told this young conjurer that I knew eight tricks, I meant, of course, that I performed eight tricks. That was quite true. For some years my repertoire consisted of eight tricks, but I knew them thoroughly. I was always ready to show them at any time, at any place, vii
viii
INTRODUCTION
under any conditions. Until a man knows a trick so well that he is always ready to do it when he is called upon for a trick, he does not really know it. To the amateur who has a superficial knowledge of many tricks and an unfortunate habit of bungling even the simplest of them, my method of teaching will seem to be painfully slow. I must ask that young man to take my word for it that my method is sound. If he will take some of the tricks in this book and practice them according to my directions he will certainly know those tricks thoroughly. That knowledge will have some value, because in any assembly the man who can respond to the request : " Show us a trick," is usually very popular. Perhaps I ought to explain that throughout this book I have used the word " t r i c k " in the popular sense; strictly speaking, a trick is the device by means of which a magical effect is produced. I would strongly urge the reader of this book to take one trick at a time and practice it thoroughly, until the performance is almost automaticâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;so far as he is concerned. To the audience the performance must appear to be spontaneous, and that effect will be produced if the pupil will use his brains and do his share of the work thoroughly. When a man knows a trick so well that he does not have, to think, during the performance, of what his hands are to do for him and what stage directions he has to obey, he is then able to devote a'1 his mind to the important task of creating the right effect on the minds of the audience. He has to convince the audience that he achieves what is apparently impossible, and if he does not do this his performance is tame and uninteresting. The man who can do one trick well is, to my mind, a better conjurer than the man who meanders through halfa-dozen tricks and leaves his audience wondering what he is supposed to have done. The pupil who learns from this book will understand my meaning. This book is in the nature of an experiment; if it succeeds in getting an encore I shall hope to publish another course of " Lessons in Conjuring."
CHAPTER I THE THIRTY CARD TRICK
I am going to explain my version of the card trick known to all conjurers either as " The Thirty Card Trick" or " The Cards ,from Pocket to Pocket," but, as will be seen, I never limited myself to the use of thirty cards. Here is the description of the trick as the audience saw it. I asked someone to help me in a simple card trick. The volunteer assistant took up his position behind my table, and I stood on his right, facing the audience. I handed him a pack of cards, and asked him to divide it into two or three packets and choose one of them. I then asked him to count the cards in the packet he had chosen by dealing them on the table, and I impressed upon him the necessity of dealing slowly and counting accurately. To show the assistant just how he was to go to work, I held one of the other packets and counted off a few cards, letting them drop
2
LESSONS IN CONJURING
separately on the table, my hands being about eighteen inches above the table. I pointed out that by dealing slowly and counting at the same time, there was no possibility of a mistake and everyone would know exactly how many cards he had got in his packet. When the assistant had counted his part of the pack, I asked him to put the cards in his pocket and button up his coat. I then addressed the audience for a moment, telling them that I could not possibly have known how many cards my assistant was going to take, and that I had not touched his cards and could not possibly touch them because they were now in his pocket. I asked the audience to remember the number of cards in the man's pocket, and also begged them not to forget that he had dealt them out and counted them himself, put them in his pocket himself, and that I had not touched them. I then gathered up the rest of the cards, and went down to the audience and asked someone to take any card from the pack. I pointed out that I was going to use a certain number of cards in the trick, and that the number should be determined by the number of pips on the card now to be taken from the pack and that a court card would count as ten.
THE THIRTY CARD TRICK
3
The card was taken and the number of pips announced. I then said that the trick merely consisted in passing so many cards from those I was holding to those which my assistant had counted and placed in his pocket. I " riffled " the cards in my hand, and said that the first card had travelled invisibly to my assistant. The same movement—riffling the cards—was repeated for each card. When I got to the last card, I used to pretend that it had lost its way and I took it from the man's sleeve, put it back on to the cards I was holding, and riffled them again. Then I asked the assistant to take the cards out of his pocket himself—and again I, reminded the audience that I had not touched them—and requested him to count them by dealing them out slowly, as in the first instance. I counted with him, to avoid any possibility of a mistake, and—the trick always came off. A certain number of cards had added themselves to those in the assistant's pocket. I had more than one object in arranging the trick in this way. The plot of the trick was made very clear and distinct, and the working of the trick was simplified. A child of six could understand this version of the trick, and yet it was a real puzzle to the grown-ups.