Our picture this month on the left shows us as of a temper when things
aren’t moving in a meritorious manner. It depicts ye editor during a
resounding declaration of principles and it is with regret that we cannot
show you the awed expressions of the staff at large.
However, one may rest assured that our firm stand did some good,
and the appearance of The Jinx on schedule for the first time during its short but
notable career is the result. Henceforth this sheet will be ruled by an iron hand.
An editor can only be as strong as his staff.
Certainly one of the hardest things I’ve had to do in a long while is
to mention the death of John Northern Hilliard. Some people were lucky
enough to have known him for many years. My acquaintance goes back only
six years, but in that time I was with him on many occasions and never was
there a minute wasted for me. John Hilliard could spellbind me for hours across
cups of coffee in some all night corner restaurant and when a man has traveled
the world as business representative and press agent for the world’s greatest
magicians for thirty years, he surely has material with which to spellbind. John
Hilliard was the undisputed creator of the telephone card trick. I don’t mean a
method either. I mean the effect itself of calling up someone who would name the
selected pasteboard. He was one of the few people who could work the original
Schlessinger living and dead test, and doing that successfully time after time, my
friends, was no mean accomplishment.
As the man who wrote T. Nelson Down’s book The Art of Magic, his name will
last as long as that perennial textbook. His untimely death has cut short what was
to be a continuance of that first writing published in 1907, (and still better than
modern works) a continuance of the best magic from that era to date. I can’t say
much more here because I don’t know the right words. He taught me so many
things that I’ll never be able to forget him.
I can finish only by saying that I would have missed a lot, had I never become
acquainted with John Northern Hilliard.
Why do magicians always insist upon insisting that everything they use
is fair and aboveboard, empty and unprepared ?
Why do they always think the
audience can’t see what is going on ? And if something is shown empty once,
why show it the second time ? Certainly a box or a hand can’t be more empty.
I remember one magi who featured the back hand routine, and although you
couldn’t see the cards he always reminded me of a person trying to transmit
Anthony Adverse by wigwagging.
Several years ago I met a fellow who had just purchased a set of the then new
Petrie-Lewis shears for the Fairy Ribbon trick. He was very enthusiastic about
them and talked to great lengths. I nosed around and picking up another set of
shears from the same box asked him what they were for. “Those are unprepared,”
he replied, “and after cutting the ribbon, I switch and can pass the shears out for
examination.”
Very few things or people can get my goat but the above circumstance was one
and likewise any of that type. It was like the story of the magician who wandered
away from his first love and became a legitimate thespian. In his part was an
episode wherein he was to stab some ungodly person and for which he was
supplied a rubber dagger. “But where is the real one ?” he is supposed to have
queried, eyes lifted and whatnot. The answer came that the rubber dagger was all
that was needed. “But,” again butted the former prestophyte, “suppose I have to
hand it out for examination ?”
Mr Al Baker himself quoted something when he gave me the line – “The wicked
flee when none pursue.” If magicians would stop worrying about handing things
out for inspection they would have more time to work tricks. But they wander
along, always inciting as well as exciting suspicion by inane remarks such as “it
is totally unprepared”, “my hands are empty”, “I will put the glass into the hat”,
“and the rabbit has vanished”, “I shall put the egg into this ordinary glass” and
a thousand more. One question : Did you ever see an acrobat do a headstand and
then, while in that position, say “I am now standing on my head.” ?
Not by a damned sight. Evenso that crack would be funnier than some of the
jokes they do pull. But think over what I’ve written. It’s one great fault of many
otherwise clever workers.
Usually tricks become greater as they become simpler and vice versa.
The Lemon Stunt by Conrad Bush and on the back page this month is an
example. I hope a good many will try it out. I have and am exuberating. All
tricks are simplified through use. I remember a long time ago when I used to use
alcohol on the back of an envelope in order to find out what was written on the
card inside. Now I have learned to cut out the side of the envelope and handle it
in such a manner so that it is never seen. Long ago I deftly (?) applied alcohol
and peered valiantly in order to fathom the writing through a partially transparent
thickness. Now I drink the alcohol and read the message easily through a hole.
The evolution of magic !
Very graciously received were the Impromptu Frame-ups collected and put
together last month.
Several more have come up since then and I’d like to make
as complete a file of this type of tricks as possible. I will give a period subscription
for every one that is sent in that I can use. There should be some fairly ingenious
effect worked out through use of this subterfuge, so think about it seriously for
a little while.
Jinx #8, for May, will contain a compiled list that I’ve worked on for
over six months and thought about for two years. To the best of my knowledge
it is the first time such a list has been put together and, being one man’s opinion,
I expect it to be the beginning of a controversy. It isn’t an overnight concoction
though so I’ll stick to my guns with plenty of reason behind all selections.