pages: practicalmagicia00harr.pdf, 60
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practicalmagicia00harr.pdf | 60 | 50 THE PRACTICAL MAGICIAN. The reader will have seen that, in some of the tricks explained in previous papers, there is simply some one definite object to be carried out. For instance, in the two tricks which concluded the last paper, the performer simply undertakes to throw the spools off the tape, or to restore a tape which has been cut. Ho sets about this, accomplishes it, and the trick is over. This is all very well as far as it goes. If the trick is really a good one, it is like a host furnishing his guests with a solid joint to satisfy their appetite; ; and it may do so. But still it comes short of a lively entertainment. It is confessedly dull for an audience to / come to pauses O1 gaps between isolated tricks. Their attention is unoccupied while the performer, having finished off one trick, is making mute preparations to introduce some other trick wholly unconnected with what has gone before. Such a method will not keep awake the lively interest that the skilful combina- tion of the conjuror's art will sustain. I maintain that varied by-play and supplementary sets-off will greatly heighten the in- terest of the performance. It will also serve to disarm the suspicious and incredulous, preparing them to believe what they might otherwise stand on their guard against. Bare tricks brought forward as isolated ex- periments give time for the mind to take its estimate of their possibility ; and, of course, in attempting to exhibit wonders, the improbability of them is apt to stare people strongly in the face. They are perfectly convinced that a dime cannot fly into an orange at the other end of the room, that ink cannot become water, nor a hat be safely used as a frying-pan ; but if you inter- pose appearances and movements that are consistent with such processes going on, they are gradually prepared to recognize as a legitimate result what you have previously indicated as the contemplated end of those processes. The amplification or fuller development which I speak of can be effected at any of the following stages: 1. In the introductory matter leading on to the main trick or transformation 2. In the subsequent stages of its development; or, 3. In the winding-up smartly or variedly the conclusion of a trick. |