Great magic causes happiness, and you can do this with sleight-of-hand, especially if you cause laughter and merriment. In doing this, however, it is best to get the laughs legitimately and not at the expense of others. Although there are instances where a slight badinage, banter or a little repartee may be indulged in, it should be done in a light and NOT a brusque fashion. No one should be made to feel unduly conspicuous, or stupid. Of course the fellow who tries to be “fresh” is expected and should be put in his place.
Don’t overuse the wand – this will make it all the more effective when some special change or effect is introduced with its use.
When entering a business deal, ALWAYS get a contract. No matter how much of a friend, implied, expressed, intimated or imagined, having the terms down in black and white will more than frequently save much time, money, explanation, argument and wrangling.
An old trick to gain applause and bows on a magic act in vaudeville is to have some large piece of apparatus standing on the stage or a table which you do not use. The audience will see it, note that you have not used it, wonder what it is, and the chances are 10 to 1 they will applaud to make you come back to do it, feeling they were cheated. Whether this is real showmanship, fair, ethical, an alibi, a trick unworthy of a competent magician, unnecessary, or cleverness, each must judge for himself. I saw one magician, however, who was at the top employ the device.
There seems to be a growing tendency to decry the amateur among some of the professionals. This should not be – one may learn something from anyone and everyone. In most sciences today, a great many of the most important discoveries are made by amateurs.
Small bone rings, which may be purchased in ten cent stores, offer little friction to cords when sewed as aids to the free passage of such adjuncts. I have also found that the graphite of a soft lead pencil will aid materially in certain pieces of apparatus in an elimination of friction for the same purpose as mentioned above.
Avoid depending too much on assistants, and try to produce as many of your effects as possible without their aid. The best of them at times are undependable at critical moments.
Cultivate an attack – I do not mean by this to be harsh or brusque, but make your initial address as if you meant business, and let your first trick show what you do.
Vocalists devote a part of the day to practice, so do acrobats, jugglers, dancers, in fact all professionals who get anywhere? Why not magicians? An hour a day every day will work wonders with your sleights.
Learn to do a sleight well rather than employ a subterfuge. One is sure, the other is doubtful.
So many ways of producing the Rising Card trick have been devised that nearly everyone in the audience loses sight of the fact that the magician has found out which cards have been selected. This is a point that has been most neglected of late.
When giving a stage performance, avoid borrowing objects. This was the fashion in the older days, but we’re living in a different, a faster age today. Not only does it take time to borrow and to return the objects, but it rarely adds anything to the culminative effect.
Avoid intimate talk with a few in the front rows. This is not only inconsiderate but impolite to the others in the house too far away to hear what you are saying.
Say “Ladies and GenTLemen“, not ‘gemmen’, “handKERchief“, not ‘hankuchiff’, “goverNment“, not ‘goverment’, and TAKE where it should be spoken instead of “bring”. (This was contributed. Ed.)
A well known magician once was asked if he knew this trick and that trick, and if he could do such and such. The answer deserves to be put in capital letters, so here goes, “I ONLY KNOW FIVE TRICKS – AND I AM TRYING TO LEARN TO DO THOSE WELL.”
The best dead black quick-drying paint I ever used, or know of, is Jap A Lac.
In making a top or bottom change, after making the change do not move away the hand containing the card, but gradually move away the hand containing the PACK. This is a good one – get it.
One would think that a magician would know how to handle a rabbit, and yet I have seen many who did not. Almost everyone knows the proper way to lift the animal is by the ears, and yet there is more to it than that. Cup the hand holding the ears underneath the head of the rabbit so that the little finger rests on the spine at the base of the head.
If you can produce four billiard balls well, remember that nothing is gained FROM THE AUDIENCE STANDPOINT by producing eight or twelve – in fact it is apt to grow tiresome ‘out in front’.
A dampened blotter, hidden where it may be easily reached (behind some piece of apparatus, or on a servante), will prove valuable to those whose hands are inclined to be too dry. Simply touching the fingers to the blotter and then the palm, is all that is necessary. Or a very little glycerine, well spread, may be used on the blotter.
Do not use short lengths of elastics on pulls. The longer the better, even if necessary to go around the body twice. To those who do not know this “wrinkle”, try it – you will be surprised with the results.
Many pieces of apparatus constructed of metal “talk”. Quite a few could be made of leather or other material which would obviate the undesirable feature, and, furthermore, if dropped by accident or design, would attract no attention.