Jinx #88 had a match effect Flame In Duplicate wherein a lucifer was made to light twice. This is another method and slightly different effect. You place a cigarette in your mouth, remove a match from your pocket and light up. The match is blown out and the burned stick dropped on the floor. Then you apparently think and mention about so many wasted matches. You pick it up, strike it anywhere, and it lights. This is really a cigarette move taken from the Keith Clark Encyclopedia. Make a fake match by dipping one about a quarter inch into black…
Magicians abroad have been very much amused with this stunt and, in turn, have made good use of it as a pocket trick. It has a slant on an old idea that makes it a fine thing for Jinx readers, and will fool even those who know the old version. Originally the idea came from the fertile brain of Tom Sellers. This improvement, however, gives it a 100% kick. Two wooden safety matches are held perpendicularly with heads downwards between the thumb, first and second fingers of the left hand. The match to the right suddenly moves downwards very slowly…
N°1 - A ACROBATIC HANDKERCHIEF Here is an informal version of that trick made famous by Blackstone. It cannot, by any conceivable length, approach such a masterful effect, but as an impromptu (appearing) item simplicity is the keynote. All that is required is a clean handkerchief and a waxed paper drinking straw. This is drawn between the fingers so that it is flat, and then it is inserted in the hem of the handkerchief. About three inches of the hem are left free so that a knot may be tied in the corner of the handkerchief. Until needed the handkerchief…
The magician removes a match box from his pocket, slightly opens it, and places it on the table. He requests the loan of another match box which is initialed and handed over. The performer also borrows a hat which he puts to his right side leaving his own hat on the left side. Both of the match boxes are placed into the borrowed hat and the hands shown empty. With one hand they are now transferred to the performer's hat and this hand again shown empty. The performer makes a pass or two to magnetize the hat and boxes and…
Explanations for this cute table time waster are unnecessary with the thorough bit of artistry supplied by Fred Rothenberg. Harry Stern, of Elmira, New York, built it in six minutes flat one Saturday afternoon in Holden's Shop, said it was original, offered it to The Jinx, and because everybody present immediately made a sketch for their own use, I thought it might be accepted in the spirit with which it is hereby depicted.
A chap working in the Chicago Steel Mills invented this trick and passed it on to me. You can have a great deal of fun with it. Prepare about a dozen matches in the following manner. Cover the head and a small portion of the wood below the head with ink. You can do this by dipping the heads in ink or you can prepare the matches in a moment using a fountain pen. Carry a supply with you and when you have an opportunity, secretly drop several of them into an ashtray. The inked heads pick up some ash…
In this effect the head of a borrowed paper match is caused to change color. The trick is impromptu and can be done anytime, anywhere. Begin the trick with a blue headed paper match concealed in the right hand, held between the thumb and forefinger as shown in the first drawing. Ask someone for a paper match with a red head. Hold the red headed match upright in the fingers of the left hand. Explain that you intend to pull off the head of the match. Grasp the head tightly between the thumb and finger of right hand and pull…
Back in the March, 1935 issue of The Jinx ( #6 ) there appeared a billet reading method of great value. The test, in that case, used a newspaper and on a torn out piece a word was encircled. I have found that many are not in a position to read the stolen paper, and this variation in a slightly different dress, will make for greater ease in the reading. In your left coat pocket have a deck of cards and a match or two. Give the pack to a person with the request that he look them over well…
Quite a few nice letters were received after I printed the instructions for the stamp on the ceiling effect in The Jinx for October (N°13). I've never seen the following idea in print and it was first explained to me by John Northern Hilliard in the fall of 1933. It takes quite a bit of practice to get onto the knack of it, but once mastered and when you have confidence, it will cause great comment wherever you do it. The effect consists merely of burning a common match from end to end and then tossing it to the ceiling…