Daub, which is an appropriate name for the substance used by gamblers and card artists in shading the back of a card just enough to identify it in a spread or on a deal, has become rather popular in the past few months and several of the dealers are stocking it. However, no one as yet has revealed a truly inside secret of the brethren, most instructions reading that the container is to be in vest pocket or under the edge of same. The real dope is that daub is rubbed well over the lower vest button surface, and on…
One wonders at times about the current fad of exposing and asks where will it end. Certainly at no time in the history of magic (and exposing has always been with us) has world wide revealing of secrets been so steady and thorough. It is our humble belief that it's mainly due to the greater production of picture and photo magazines. Like the radio, such publications are desperately hungry for material, and magical trickery lends itself very well for the purpose. Television, when it becomes a practical bit of household furniture like the radio, will be a boon to the…
Not confirmable, is Houdini's speech before the Club of Odd Volumes, in Boston, in 1922, about his having performed the bullet trick. In the Sphinx transcript of the talk is a reproduction of Houdini's margin notation, "This is what I "said"." It seems as if the quotes around the word "said" were appropriate. I called Dunninger, who had first pick of Houdini's private effects, and he stated that nowhere among all the notes, and at no time during many talks, was there any hint of Houdini ever presenting the trick. I'm interested very much in the facts, and will appreciate…
One of the prizes of magic will be published soon. I've promised not to reveal details this month, but this informative book is hand set, hand printed, and hand bound by its author who has been one of the 'behind the scene' masters of magic. Very seldom, if ever, has his name appeared in magic literature, but he has originated and built more illusions for both magical and theatrical productions than any other man. Over one hundred pages have been completed and there will be over twenty pages of illustrations. There is dynamite between those covers to be, especially in…
On the market this month has been placed a cute effect with a stick of wood and piece of string called You Try It by Cliff West. It is an amusing puzzler and after playing with it for a time I wondered why one couldn't make up a neat routine with a pencil. It would be practically an impromptu pocket act and nice for publicity close-up work. One could start by t a k i n g the pencil from the pocket and making it apparently bend like rubber (Swizzle Stick - Jinx #3). This could be followed by the…
A New York subscriber had to buy an extra copy of #23 for August when his dog chewed up the original copy. That's what I call a hound for magic. Mogul, at the N.Y. Paramount lounge, is pulling ticket buyers who do not bother with the show, according to a trade journal. His question answering, via Jinx #6, seems to have people buffaloed, and no wonder, because it's really good. Mickey MacDougal is a card detective according to the August 8th Liberty. He risks his life, exposing cheaters at bridge, as often as does a police detective who is running…
Frank Lane took exception to my remarks in the Winter Extra, for which I can't blame him if he actually thinks he originated the effect in question. He favored me with a delightful letter, though, and said with rare wit, "'You're a cockeyed liar if you say that routine is yours and it isn't Al Baker's either." Other quaint bits of Lane humor consist of, "Don't get fat-headed because you've got a quarter magazine." – "Don't think that the boys imagine you as any big-minded chap who has no faults." – "So wake up… before it's too late." All right,…
Now that the S.A.M. has Harlan Tarbell up on charges for exposing via the five and dime stores in the form of 'cut-out' illusions, perhaps the wish of Tom Worthington and his Osirian may come true. This enemy (and I mean enemy) of exposing and his Baltimore barb has been for several years making thrusts at the S.A.M. and challenging them to name just one member suspended or expelled for exposure. Mr Tarbell, I understand, says that he is an 'educator' which means little or nothing to me as long as one 'educates' the wrong people. In the back of…
Usually, magicians jeer at fortune telling and tellers for the reason that they like to yell "Fake !" It remains, however, for fortune-telling to take the play at parties quicker than anything else. The alert magus (oh Mr Wolff !) can do no better than learn the subject well enough to use it. It will increase his personal popularity a hundredfold, and personal popularity has a lot to do with business success. Learn a mysterious looking layout or two and a meaning for each card. Let the millions of combinations take care of your stories, and you'll never have any…
The S.A.M. Club Night was on December 3rd at the Hotel MacAlpin in New York. I had a review written out with all of the effects presented and the running time of each. In view of the fact that the show has been reported capably elsewhere before this, I've basketed my copy and will touch on the high spots only, especially those details which others didn't consider of value as news. Sam Margolies talked four minutes about the Annual Show for the Hospital and wound up by introducing Cardini, thereby upsetting Mr. Homer and causing no end of ruckus and…