A Book of Magic and Illusions

Anon

Description

This book contains a collection of puzzling magic tricks and illusions. Covering an array of different areas, from card tricks to conjuring, this book will mean that you can keep your friends and family amazed and mystified for hours. Using simple, easily obtainable props these tricks are practical to do anywhere, meaning you will always have the perfect trick up your sleeve at any party. The content has been carefully selected for its interest and relevance to a modern audience.

Sujets

• Magic (illusion)
• Card manipulation
• List of magic tricks

Informations

• Publié par: Read Books Ltd.
• Date de parution: 16 octobre 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 15
• EAN13: 9781528764742
• Langue: English

Extrait

A Book of Magic and Illusions
Copyright 2013 Read Books Ltd.
This book is copyright and may not be reproduced or copied in any way without the express permission of the publisher in writing
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Magic Tricks
Magic is a performing art that entertains audiences by staging tricks, or creating illusions of a seemingly impossible, or supernatural nature - utilising natural means . These feats are called magic tricks, effects, or illusions. Some performers may also be referred to by names reflecting the type of magical effects they present, such as prestidigitators (sleight of hand), conjurors (purportedly invoking deities or spirits), hypnotists (involving individuals mental states), mentalists (demonstrating highly evolved mental abilities) or escape artists (the art of escaping from restraints or traps). The term magic is etymologically derived from the Greek word mageia . Greeks and Persians had been at war for centuries and the Persian priests, called magosh in Persian, came to be known as magoi in Greek; a term which eventually referred to any foreign, unorthodox or illegitimate ritual practice.
Performances which modern observers would recognize as conjuring have probably been practiced throughout history. But for much of magic s history, magicians have been associated with the devil and the occult. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, many performers capitalised on this notion in their advertisements and shows. In the UK, this association dates back to Reginald Scott s The Discoverie of Witchcraft , published in 1584, in which he attempted to show that witches did not exist, by exposing how many (apparently miraculous) feats of magic were done. The book is often deemed the first textbook about conjuring, but all obtainable copies were burned on the accession of James I in 1603, and those remaining are now very rare. For many centuries, magic was performed either on the street as a type of entertainment for the common masses or at court, for nobility. During the early 1800s however, large-scale magic performances began making their way onto the theatre stage. Modern entertainment magic owes much to Jean Eug ne Robert-Houdin (1805-1871), originally a clockmaker, who opened a magic theatre in Paris in the 1840s. His speciality was the construction of mechanical automata which appeared to move and act as if they were alive; a feat which wowed his audiences for many years.
The escapologist and magician, Harry Houdini took his stage name from Robert-Houdin and developed a range of stage magic tricks, many of them based on what became known after his death as escapology . Houdini was genuinely skilled in techniques such as lock picking and escaping straitjackets, but also made full use of the range of conjuring techniques, including fake equipment and collusion with individuals in the audience. In the modern day, these forms of magic easily transferred from theatrical venues to television specials; a transition which has opened up myriad new opportunities for deceptions. It has also brought stage magic to vast audiences, as most television magicians perform before a live audience, who provide the remote viewer with a reassurance that the illusions are not obtained with post-production visual effects. Some modern illusionists believe that it is unethical to give a performance that claims to be anything other than a clever and skilful deception. Most of these performers therefore eschew the term magician (which they view as making a claim to supernatural power) in favour of illusionist and similar descriptions. On the other side of the coin, many performers say that magical acts, as a form of theatre, need no more of a disclaimer than any play or film; this viewpoint is reflected in the words of magician and mentalist Joseph Dunninger, who stated that for those who believe, no explanation is necessary; for those who do not believe, no explanation will suffice.
Although there is also discussion among magicians about how a given effect should be categorised, they broadly fall into the following categories: Production (where the magician produces something from nothing; a rabbit from a hat for example), Vanish (where something disappears), Transformation (where a silk handkerchief may change colour), Restoration (where the magician will destroy an object, then restore it to its original state, Teleportation (where a borrowed ring may be found inside a ball of wool, or a canary inside a light bulb), Levitation (where the magician, or some person or object defies gravity), and Prediction (where events are predicted under seemingly impossible and unexplainable circumstances).
Contents
Be a Thought Reader ; Tricks with Cards
The Lucky Seven Card Trick
Spelling Them Into Order
Duplicate Choice Trick
Using Key Cards for Tricks
Here is the Card You WANT
Magic by Remote Control
A Five-Card Trick
Try This Card Trick
Changing Aces Into Kings
Sawing a Matchbox in Half
Tricks with Cards; The Amateur Conjurer
Coin Tricks; The Amateur Conjurer
Tricks with Handkerchiefs; The Amateur Conjurer
Entertaining Illusions
An Eyesight Test
Seeing Through a Brick!
The Disks of Quong Lu
Releasing the Ring
A Trick with Two Tumblers
A Magic Trick with Paper Clips
A Magic Routine with Bands
Shifting Sand Trick
The Changing Reels
The Fakir s Bat Trick
Be a Christmas Conjurer
Divination of a Draughtsman
Be a thought reader
Tricks with Cards
REQUIRING no more apparatus than a pack of cards, the thought reading type of trick is ever popular.
For the first of these two tricks take out twenty-six cards from the pack, composed of half red suits and half black. It is preferable that the whole is a mixture of hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades, but there must be an equal number of each colour.
The performance of the trick will be explained first, then the actual mechanics of the trick.

Fan out the cards, asking one of your audience to select a card, drawing it out of the pack, noting its value and suit very carefully. It may be shown to other members of the audience but not to you. You should observe, casually, from where the card was drawn. While the card is being examined, close the cards together, fan out again, asking for the selected card to be replaced in the pack.
You now ask for the full co-operation of your opponent and audience by concentrating on the particular card, while you are endeavouring to find it. Looking through the pack, now facing you and with the backs of the cards to the audience - with perhaps a show of hesitation - request a little more effort for concentration, when lo and behold, you select the correct card.
This is how the trick is done.
Before starting, arrange your twenty-six cards so that all the red ones are together and all the black ones together. When the cards are fanned out you must hold them so that your opponent has little option but to take either a black or red card. While the examination is being made, the cards are closed together again and fanned out the opposite way, so that the other coloured cards are offered for replacing the selected one. For example, if a red card has been chosen, by offering that end of the pack, the cards are fanned out so that only the black ones are available for inserting the card. When the red card is replaced among the black ones it is quite a simple matter to detect it, and incidentally the chosen card. A little practice in the manipulation of the cards will soon reveal the method of holding.
For the second trick, remove any five cards, leaving twenty-one in the pack. These cards are then given to a member of the audience, who is asked to select one without revealing the choice.
Now this trick is entirely different from the first and depends entirely on the way you handle the cards. Read these instructions carefully, then try it out for yourself.
Having received the cards back from your opponent they are dealt out in three piles face upwards. Start with one card on the left, the next beside it and then the third, so that you begin three stacks. Return to the left, dealing out the 21 cards so that you have three piles of seven cards. At the start of the dealing you ask your opponent to watch for the appearance of the selected card and when dealing is finished, ask which stack it is in.
Now pick up the cards and repeat the process, but this is where you have to be extremely careful.
Remember that the stack with the chosen card must be in the middle of the full pile. We will assume that at the first dealing the chosen card was in the left-hand pile. Take up the middle pile first, then the left-hand one (containing the chosen card) and finally the right-hand stack on top. With the cards face downwards in the hand, again deal out the cards face upwards into the three piles of seven each, asking the opponent for the particular pile. Again see that this pile is placed between the other two when picking up the cards, repeating the process for the third and last time.
After this last dealing, you must pick up the cards in exactly the same order as before with the selected card pile in the middle.
At this point ask for the vital effort of concentration on the selected card to transfer the thought, and holding them face downwards in the hand begin placing them on the table face upwards in a single pile, trying to find the right card. Incidentally it is a good plan to introduce some patter when performing this trick and as an example you may give the excuse that your opponent is causing the repeated dealings because of lack of