The effect IS the thing, and this effect IS different. Three books or magazines are shown and one selected by choice. The performer has three piles of envelopes, each of a different size so they can be nested one within the other. From the smallest pile he gives a spectator one into which he puts a blank piece of paper and seals. The envelope is placed into one of the next size larger and the spectator writes his name across the flap. This marked set of two envelopes is now sealed in the last and largest size of the three.
With envelope in hand the performer passes to a number of people obtaining a figure from each. With these jotted down in a column, a line is drawn beneath and the envelope given the man who signed the middle nested one. He adds the column and calls aloud the total. We will assume it to be 54.
The performer asks the person with the magazine to open it to page 54 – BUT PAGE 54 IS FOUND TORN OUT AND IN ITS PLACE DROPS OUT THE BLANK PIECE OF PAPER.
The performer acts annoyed to no slight degree, explaining “Tituba likes to have fun in her witchy way. She was the West Indian slave who started the witchcraft scare back in 1692 with her voodoo stories. I generally have a word selected on the chosen page of the book and Tituba, believe it or not, scrawls the word on the piece of paper inside the envelopes. She never knows what the word means because she was burned at the stake just when the children of Samuel Parris were trying to teach her to read and write.
She duplicates the printing as best she can and I’ve noted quite a bit of improvement over a period of the five years since I learned of her presence but when she gets impatient, mad, or just want to play a joke, she’ll rip the entire page out. Books never meant much more to her than something with which to start a fire. I’m sorry things have gone wrong. I can finish now only the way she’ll let me”.
The spectator with the envelope opens the first and identifies his signature on the second. And across the face of this envelope is scrawled in large crayon figures the page number 54. Underneath is childishly attempted the name TITUBA. “You see ?” says the performer, “One never knows for sure what will happen. Maybe she thinks she knows enough about the alphabet and wants me to teach her arithmetic”.
The envelope is opened and the inside one removed. When this is opened THERE IS FOUND INSIDE THE MISSING TORN OUT PAGE and the performer finishes wryly “Well, if a word could have been selected on the page, Tituba certainly made sure that it would be found in the envelope”.
It’s a long way from Bombay, India, to Salem, Mass., U.S.A. but that’s where the basic idea for this effect started. Then, from Prof. Mino, The Mystic we jump to 1907 and an ageless bit of ingenuity by Henry Harden. The envelope subterfuge is clouded but Al Baker is our bet. We like to think the book selection is our own idea of underhandedness but there again one runs into too many close variations to argue. We can, however, admit to putting the parts together as you read it here and, while deploring the incident, give thanks to history for the patter scheme.
To prepare for Tituba’s coming : Have three magazines or books of a decidedly different appearance. From one tear very roughly and jaggedly (leaving at least an inch wide piece behind in the book) a page in the 50’s or 60’s. At that spot leave a blank piece of paper. Pile the three books up with the prepared one in the center.
Have three stacks of envelopes, call the smallest size 1, then 2 and 3. 1 and 3 piles are ordinary and unprepared. The top envelope of pile 2 (flaps up) has its flap entirely cut away. Then the flap of the next envelope under it overlaps the top envelope and everything appears right. Fold the torn out page, not nicely, but at angles, until it fits into the smallest envelope. Seal it and place this inside the second envelope of pile 2 whose flap overlaps the top flapless one.
Then, on the face side of this second envelope which now contains the sealed page, scrawl the page’s number and Tituba’s name. A duplicate piece of blank paper and a pencil completes the set-up.
Lay the three books in a row with the faked one in the center. A spectator steps up and you ask him to give you two of them. Seldom will he give you the two end ones but when it does happen, toss them aside and tell him to hold the other. When the faked book is among the two given you, immediately say “Now take one back”. If he takes the faked one, say “Hold it for a few minutes.” If he takes the other, you hold up the faked one, saying “One book out of three. Put the others aside and watch this one carefully”. The whole thing must be done quickly and without hesitation or stalling.
The #1 stack of envelope is picked up in the left hand with flaps upwards and to the right. The top one is taken off and given a person to blow in. Then he is given the piece of paper to seal. During this you lay down the first pile and pick up the #2 pile in the same manner. Take back the sealed envelope in the right hand and apparently put it into the top envelope. The audience sees the flap lift up but it’s really the second envelope’s flap and the sealed envelope goes into the top flapless envelope. Grasping the opened flap the right hand pulls the envelope away from the pile. You swing to the right as this is done and left hand lays its pile on the table. The face side of this envelope is kept down and with a moistened finger you seal the flap and hold it for the spectator to sign across the flap side. Pick up the #3 pile and slide the envelope into the top one of the pile. Hand it to spectator for sealing. Then take it back for the addition part.
Each of six or seven people whisper figures from 1 through 9 to you as you approach them. You write them on the face side of the envelope in a column. However, you add them as you go along keeping the total after each figure in your mind. When the total reaches less than 9 from the page number you want to force, stop. Say that you will have them added up and at the same time make a flourish of drawing the line beneath. However, you have just added another figure before that, a figure that brings the total to the page number desired. Simple as it is, the subtlety hasn’t found its equal for simplicity in 32 years.
The trick is done but for the histrionics. I recommend that it be presented without any fussing around or any attempt to justify your actions other than a simple detailing of what you are doing.
The time for the audience to think is when you find the page gone, give them the patter and rake Tituba over the coals, and then wind things up with the discovered page plus the plaint that you’re sorry. Just impress them that you are embarrassed by failure and go into your next item as if you are sure this will work and make up for the one which just went wrong. You’ll find out that they’ll remember Tituba longer, sometimes longer than they’ll remember you.
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