1940-12-19 — Page 30

14

NO Christmas party would really be complete without its pur- Jour magician. There will always come the moment when his per- formance will be eagerly welcom ed as an aid to the general enter- tainment.

The guest who has a little re- pertoire of simple tricks of magic will be the most popular man in the room.

The tricks can be of the sim- plest kind--indeed, the less ela- borate they are the more the bewilderment and the greater the fun. Those I am going to des- cribe here have all been chosen because they require no other articles of apparatus than those found in daily use and require little preparation,

THE CHINA MAIL SPECIAL CHRISTMAS SUPPLEMENT, DECEMBER 19, 1940.

CARDS,

COINS

all

It's very baffling, and yet very simple. That box has a false lid. Between it and the real lid What they do require, of course, you will have concealed before is a little practice. Given that, hand five or six cards, the values and a little well-thought-out ac- and order of which you have companying patter, the tricks 1 memorised. The thump you give have selected will be found very

ffretive indeed.

41

Let us start with cards Here's irst-class trick which 18 tho-

10 the

au-

Loughly mystifying

chence, and which will be found

emarkably easy to perform,

Taking a pack of cards, you give them a thorough shuffle and then had the pack round to two three members of the

(1)

company

also to shuffle. That should con- Vince everyone that it is impossi- ble for you to have the slightest idea where any particular card

ま

placed in the pack when the shut- thing is completed

put

Regaining the cards, you them, without another glance, in a small box which is fitted with Tick

your

11

SUIT

CARD

CARD INSERTED THROUGH SLIT

HANDKERCHIER WRAPPED AROUND CARD

Disappearing Card.

down

the

By Bruce Keane

What you are going to do is to make a card disappear. You ac- cordingly display to your au- dience a card you have already selected, and then place it under the double handkerchief.

Your audience, of course, does pot suspect for an instant that it Is any other than an ordinary single handkerchief. Nor, if you do it adroitly enough-as you with a little practice-will

will they

notice you slip the card through the shit, which is on the underske of the double handkerchief.

Once you have the card through the slit you wrap the double handkerchief completely about it, bunching the ends of the fabric so that the shape of the card can be plainly seen, You can

even get some one to hold it, so that they can feel the card is still there.

Then, taking hold of a corner of the fabric, you bid the holder to release the card. As soon as he does so you flourish the hand- kerchief in the air.

handkerchief down

and CORKS

will be able to tell him just what heap he has in mind.

While he is in the throes of con-

2

centration you let your audience. see you scribble something on piece of paper with a pencil. Then you ask the man who has been concentrating just which heap he has had in mind.

Blow Sharply!

When he indicates it you smil- ingly point to the slip of paper and ask him to read aloud what you have written on it. He does

SO.

These, too, can be very simplex yet very effective,

Jumping Sixpence

Take this one of making a six- penny piece jump out from under a shilling without touching either coin. It's not nearly so difficult as it sounds, once you have the knack, and a little practice will soon give you that.

You take an empty white-glass, drop the sixpence into it, and the shilling on top. You challenge any of your audience to get the sixpence without touching either of the coins or the glass itself.

be It's a challenge that won't taken up. Then you proceed to do

Just a filck.

it yourself. What you do is to bend down towards the glass and blow as hard as you can. пос directly on to the shilling, but it little to one side.

And to the surprise of everyone the shilling will spin over, and as it does so flick the sixpence into the air and out of the glass.

Quite simple, too, after you have practised it, is this little trick with a penny. It is one that will cap- tivate any children in your au- dience.

Holding up the middle finger of your left hand, you carefully bal- ance on your finger tip a cigarette card. On top of that you place u penny, taking care to ensure that it is resting absolutely centrally over the finger tip.

This you close. Then, with A hearty thump on the top of the

The card will seem to have van- box you announce that you know

ished entirely. Throwing the quite well what the top card of

apparently the pack is. "It's the seven of

carelessly but in a spot where it spades." you say with assurance.

will escape examination-you then at the same time opening the box

ask someone to look, say, under and picking out the top card, which the box will knock

the, hearthrug or in a drawer, or

"Your choice will be the five you display to

heap," he reads. audience. dummy lid, putting the concealed there the card will be found.

under the maybe

clock. And They will see with astonishment cards at the top of the pack in the

You then direct him to turn that sure enough it is the seven order you have arranged them.

Or rather, a duplicate, from an over the heap he has selected. He of spades.

is startled to find it is a five heap. And all you have to do is to pick exactly similar pack, which you

The truth is that it was bound them from the box one at a time have quietly "planted"

there u

What you set out to do now is to their values with good deal earlier in the evening.

be. One of the three heaps, to remove the cigarette card with- and announce

A third effective little card trick which you will carefully have ar- out disturbing the penny. Every- your eyes shut, if you like.

Here's an excellent card trick- which I will now describe will, ¡f ranged beforehand, consists of five one will declare it just cannot be

cards; the second consists of the done. for which the little preparation properly

four fives-the five of each suit; and that is necessary will be found

the third of an ace and a pair of well worth while.

Thought-Reading Powers

carried

out, convince your friends that you really pos- sess thought-reading powers.

All you do is to put three little That preparation consists of heaps of cards face downwards sewing two ordinary pocket hand- on the table. Then you ask a kerchiefs together round the edges, member of the audience to think and then cutting a neat slit, just hard about any one of the heaps And you wide enough to take # playing he chooses. It, you explain, he card, in the centre of one of them. concentrates hard enough, you

You pick four

five other cards from the top of the boxed pack, and spread them fanwise on the table, still, of course, face downwards. You mame each card without a glance at its face, after- wards showing it to the audience to prove you are right.

absolutely.

aro

twos.

You just give the card

But it can. This is the way. a sharp flick, using the thumb and middle Each of the heaps, in short, finger of the right hand. would answer the description of a card will just fly right away, leav- And the

five heap. Take care, of course, ing the penny in position on the to shuffle up the cards as soon as tip of your finger, the trick is completed,

Now for some tricks with coins.

(Continued on Page 15)

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