Doing a trick well before friends or in your room is not enough. You must
know it better than this to put it over well in public. In addition to the patter,
you must create the proper atmosphere, and figure accurately where on your
program it will be shown to the best advantage. Routining of effects is an
art in itself.

When part of the audience is at a distance and you are doing card tricks,
always pick the cards that may be seen best at a distance. These are not
sevens, eights, nines and tens. Even the court cards are indistinguishable at
a distance. The aces are the best.

If necessary to light a cigarette or a candle, see to it that you provide a
receptacle for the match. This will look neat and careful and is infinitely
superior to throwing the match on the floor. There is also manufactured a
pull for vanishing the match.

Whatever you do, finish your performance with a trick performed upon the
stage or platform – and not in the audience. Do not have anything to return
after your last effect.

Black wands have been used from time immemorial, but in my opinion a
white wand will give a better contrast against a black suit. This may be offset
somewhat by the wearing of a white vest, but nevertheless is a detail worthy
of consideration.

Impress the audience at the outset with your personality. This is what counts
– and even if you do make a slight error or a faux pas afterward they are
ready and eager to forgive you – the psychology being, well, he’s a good
fellow anyway, and it’s a shame.

A continual display of manipulative cleverness does not add to, but rather
detracts from your performance. It is far better to hide your digital dexterity.
For instance if you shuffle a pack of cards with one hand, spring them, do
the Ribbon-Catch or the Water-Fall Shuffle or any one of a number of other
manipulations and then do a trick, it will not have the effect of being so
wonderful as it would were the audience not acquainted with the fact that
you could handle cards so well. It detracts from the mystery.

A valuable suggestion (to me) is to have an extra pack of cards in one of
your pockets. In the event that anything goes wrong that cannot be rectified,
you always have something to fall back upon and can do a couple of tricks
if necessary to stall for a little time. I used to have two or three tricks of the
smaller variety lying on my tables which I never used unless the occasion
demanded.

Don’t overlook the adaptability of banjo strings where catgut is required –
they come in different sizes.

By close attention to the daily papers one may get many ideas as to novel
and up-to-date methods of dressing up a trick in a new setting.

When you go to see a magician in Vaudeville or at a nightclub, don’t spend
all your time trying to figure out all his methods so that you can copy them
– rather study from the angle of the presentation as a whole so that you
can understand what it is that makes him a commercial proposition to the
manager and booker while you are laying off.

I have seen so many fumble in presenting the Dyeing Tube, and I have often
wondered why. There are several methods of making the paper tube and
accomplishing the result neatly. However, if you are using the old method
in which the tube is constructed first and the critical stage embraced later,
make the tube much larger than is necessary so that the lower corner sticks
out in sort of a step, and then pull the tube to the proper size after the “load”
has been accomplished.

Avoid tricks in which the audience is asked to do a lot of mental calculation,
such as numbers to be added, subtracted, divided and one added to the result,
etc. They want to be entertained and not to help in the entertaining.

A fault with many using celluloid, wooden or cork eggs is that they forget
the imitation is supposed to be real. Handle the egg as if it were a real one –
with care – and you will convey a much better effect.

The remark is credited to Dorny. “Just because it says to use ten cards for
the sleeve trick in Hoffman’s Modern Magic is no reason why you should
not do it with seven cards – or even five.” Originate your own presentation
as well as your own method, or a combination of other methods. Don’t be
stereotyped.

Study to be entertaining first, and make your trick incidental. This has been
neglected so much. Fred Keating did it, Russell Swann is doing it, and Jud
Cole is another who always was better than his tricks. It is a different style,
but well worth the time and trouble spent in acquiring.

The color which may be seen at the greatest distance is red. Remember this.
Billiard balls painted white or in any other manner can not be distinguished
so well at a distance.

Did you know that feathers will keep and look better if, when they are not in
use, you would air them and give them a chance to expand ? Keeping feather
flowers compressed and packed tightly away doesn’t do them the least bit of
good.This same goes with folding flowers and other compressible objects,
even though they do take up a little room.

Select for stage use tricks of the sort where objects will be placed so that
they look natural and not awkward. For instance a vase of flowers looks
natural in the center or at the end of a table – but not placed at the extreme
rear edge. Also for stage use go in for the larger objects – those that may be
easily seen from all parts of the house.

If something definite is not accomplished in the near future towards
means and methods of stopping exposes, there will not be much left to write
a Think It Over ! page about !