A Series of Stage Illusions Perfect for Amateurs - Magic Tricks for Those Ready to Step on Stage

By Anon Anon

This unusual book, containing an impressive variety of stage illusion tricks, is sure to delight young and old alike and is the perfect introduction to magic of this type. Its 57 pages contain a wealth of anecdote on a variety of tricks and stunts that are guaranteed to liven up your dinner party. Thoroughly recommended reading for the budding magician. Extensively illustrated with black and white drawings and explanatory diagrams. This book contains classic material dating back to the 1900s and before. The content has been carefully selected for its interest and relevance to a modern audience.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: May 6, 2015
• ISBN: 9781473394483

Book preview

HERE is a programme which is worthy of a really first-class stage performance, yet every trick in it can be performed by any boy who is willing to make a few simple preparations and carry out a little steady practice.

There are one or two points of the programme for which a small amount of skill with the hands is needed, but these movements are so simple that they cannot be called sleight of hand, and anybody can master them after practising for ten minutes or so.

In the opening trick of the programme there is one item which can only be obtained from a conjuring shop. The cost, however, is only a few pence, and so this trick is included in the programme because it is one of the most fascinating and popular tricks in the whole art of magic.

You have probably seen it performed several times by stage conjurers, but it never loses its great attraction. Here it is then, the opening trick of your programme.

The Great Hat Production

Most stage magicians use a top hat for this trick, but top hats are not very common nowadays and a bowler hat will do just as well.

On making an entrance, you pick up the hat and hand it down to a member of the audience so that it can be examined thoroughly. Taking back the hat, you place it on your table and pick up the magic wand. After the wand has been waved over the hat, you reach inside and pull out a yard or two of coloured paper, similar to the streamers used at parties.

Strike the end of the paper sharply with the wand, and begin to make a swift circular movement. As the wand whirls round and round, an apparently endless stream of coloured paper comes pouring out of the hat. By the time it does end, you will find that the tip of your wand is simply loaded with a great mass of gaily coloured paper.

Now you remark to the audience that it is one thing to get the paper out of the hat, but quite another thing to get it back again. You make an attempt to do so, but there is far too much paper to get back into the hat. Just as you are about to give up the attempt, you notice that something else seems to be in this magical hat.

Reaching inside, you bring forth a whole variety of objects—half-a-dozen coloured handkerchiefs, a dozen or more pretty cones shaped like dunces’ caps, perhaps two or three Japanese lanterns of the sort that are hung up as decorations at Christmas time, a couple of eggs and, finally, a huge bundle of firewood, almost large enough to fill the hat on its own!

The Secret

The first thing you will want to know is where all this mass of objects is to start with, and the answer to that is that they are resting on a small shelf at the back of your conjuring table. This shelf is known to conjurers as a servante, and is a very useful gadget for a whole variety of tricks.

There are many different types of servante, but the simplest possible method is to use an ordinary wooden table with the drawer pulled out at the back for a distance of about six inches, as in Figure 53. You will not always manage to find a suitable table for this, however, as the drawer may be too high or too low, so the best thing to do is to make a servante of your own which can easily be fitted to any table.

Figure 53. An open drawer—the simplest form of servante.

Figure 54 shows a simple way in which you can do this. The shelf of the servante is made of plywood, with two small metal brackets, one at either end, to take the upright batons. At the top of each upright baton, there is another thin baton of wood about 3/4-inch wide. These run at right-angles to the uprights and will lie flat along the surface of the table when the servante is in position.

For securing the servante to any table, get two of the screw-up brackets that are used for fixing table-tennis nets to a table. These must be drilled, and then screwed to the uprights and horizontal batons, as shown in Figure 54. Now you have a sturdy servante which can be used anywhere. The shelf of the servante should be roughly six inches wide and twelve inches long. When in position, it should