pages: latestmagicbeing00hoff.pdf, 216
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latestmagicbeing00hoff.pdf | 216 | 200 LATEST MAGIC ited in the right hand, he has only to say, "Now I want you particularly to keep an eye on this" whatever the article in the right hand may happen to be. All eyes are for the moment, instinctively drawn to the object in question, and in that moment the deed is done. The artifice is ridiculously sim- ple, but it is effective, and it is on being fully pre- pared with the right thing to say and do at the crit- ical moment that the success of a magical enter- tainment largely depends. Careful rehearsal, pre- ferably before an expert friend, will furnish the best hints as to the danger-spots in the working of a trick, and how best to devise patter to meet them. A final word of advice-advice that has been often given, but cannot be too often repeated if you really aim to carry your audience with you. Never lose sight of the fact that you are, in the words of Robert-Houdin, "an actor playing the part of a magician," and take your office seriously. In par- ticular, never before an audience use the word "trick," which at once gives away all your preten- sion to magical power. An actor never tells his audience that he is an actor or that he is playing a part. He does not call their attention to his make-up, however excellent, or tell them that his wig comes from Clarkson. On the contrary, he does his best to make his audience for the time for- get that he is Hubert de Barnstormer, or whatever his stage name may be, and to keep up the illusion |