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MAGIC
By
MISDIRECTION
CHAPTER ONE
In the first several lines of THE TRICK BRAIN, I stated that the black cord elastic, which pulls the vanishing handkerchief from sight, cannot be considered as something profound or difficult to understand. In contrast, I cited the miracles of chemistry, the magic of radio and radar, and the important levitations of modern aeronautics. Further evidences of similar cynicism appeared at intervals throughout that work in connection with the mechanical methods used by magicians. Irreverently, I admit, I dragged in television, the methods of modern detectives, psychiatrists, electric eyes and other miscellanies. All this, as it might be suspected without profound meditation, was designed to embarrass those who burn incense at the altars of the mechanics of magic.
Lest some take such heresy to heart, I shall now offer a new deity to worship. It would distress me sorely if, as the result of my, perhaps, rash words, there should be an epidemic of long-haired and ornamentally-bearded gentry diving off skyscrapers and high bridges, throwing themselves in front of trains or tippling prussic acid high-balls.
I said, " A new deity." Really, it is not a new deity. In fact, it is an old god-an idol that has inhaled many a joss paper ignited by the magically discriminating. Robert Houdin worshipped at his shrine. Maskelyne and Devant were his devotees. And many other magicians of illustrious attainment trod his temple with humble acknowledgments of his supreme power.
It is true that the elastic cord, which powers the handkerchief pull, is not profound. It is true that the person, who, idly and without inspiration, watches the flight of the multi-ton aeroplane, will tear his hair in perplexed frenzy when a common black thread hauls a crumpled piece of tissue paper up through the air. No, they are not profound. Yet, they are!
Monotonously often there has been loud hubbub and uproar when some ambitious magician consents to reveal-usually for some consideration-the secrets of magic. Dire, indeed, are the penalties and curses heaped upon the exposer's hapless head. But almost invariably the exposer, aside from the drafts created about him by the aspirating protestants, experiences no ill effects except the fatigue induced by ducking the verbal brickbats.
Why does he not pay the supreme penalty? Because-and this is confidential-no matter what he has revealed, he has not disclosed the secrets of magic. I mean, of course, the real secrets of magic. Oh, I admit he may have illustrated some double-bottomed boxes or some peculiar contraptions. I also admit the exposer may have misrepresented what he offers as being the secrets of magic. It is further admitted that the gullible public may have accepted the word of the exposer. People may have believed actually that the secrets of magic were being imparted to them.
But they were not. No exposer can ever reveal the secrets of magic - even as prolific an exposer as I, whose revelations are made exclusively to the most dangerous clientele in the world-those who are interested because they intend to make use of what they learn. Not even I can expose, for reasons which will be made clear some pages hence.
I, personally, am quite certain that the explanation or the illustration of the mechanical apparatus of a magic trick is not really exposure. It is true that it may be the explanation of the mechanics of a trick. But the layman, given the apparatus and the necessary patter, cannot perform it deceptively. And with the identical apparatus-borrowing it, in fact, from this layman-the skilled magician will quickly convince the former of the absolute truth of the Darwin theory, even if the layman must accept the truth only as far as his own lineage is concerned.
Note that I said skilled magician. Actually, there is only one kind of magician. To be a magician at all, skill is necessary. Without skill, a man is not a magician-no matter what he calls himself, no matter what his cards read, no matter what clubs he belongs to, no matter what shows he does, no matter what tricks or books he owns. Without skill, he is just a plain, self-deluded egocentric duffer - with a capital "D."
And skill does not mean knowing under which cylinder the shell bottle happens to be. It does not mean an ability to make an invisible triple-pass with one hand, meanwhile juggling seven ice cream cones with the other simultaneously. It does not mean an ability to remember all of the gags heard over the radio for the past nine years. None of these is the true skill of the magician, any more than an intimate knowledge of the current prices of all of the tricks in the dealers' catalogues is skill.
Some years ago the manufacturers of Camel cigarettes-which cigarettes magicians continue to smoke in very large quantities-as I started to say, some years ago these manufacturers explained the vanishing bird cage. The trick was explained and many magicians, except those who knew better, stewed in their own juices.
But thinking magicians capitalized upon it. Stephen J. Shepard comes to mind, as I think about it.
As might be expected, the advertisement explained that the cage folded up and went into the sleeve. The drawing was very clear, and the actual mechanics of the trick was unmistakable. Mr. Shepard did not change the mechanics of the trick. He vanished the cage up the sleeve through the agency of the usual pull. But the very exposure itself made it possible for him to add a wallop that his spectators remember. They were deceived, make no mistake about that. How completely they were deceived will be revealed within these pages presently.
Let us get back to that hapless duffer I was abusing a few paragraphs back: I said that, if the magic practitioner is not skilled, he is not a magician. Without skill, I classified him as a duffer. But he need not remain so. Should he be reading this very book, at this very moment, there is hope for him. Not because this is my book, nor because I wrote it. Not even because of the subject matter, do I say this. I make this statement simply because the man, obviously, is aware that he has deficiencies. Few read books of this character from other than sincere desire to improve. Even if this book does not give him the impetus to become skilled in the direction necessary, sooner or later-after he reads enough-he will realize what he needs.
Somewhere in our magical careers we have all been duffers. We bought tricks. We learned about threads. We tried to learn sixty-two ways of accomplishing the pass. We endured excruciating fatigue in torturing our digits through the backhand palm. We pinned cockeyed looking gadgets about our clothing.
Then it was that we believed magician's skill to be the ability to lift the double cover of The Duck Pan without the inner lining falling out. We thought a magician was one who knew from which side of The Foo Can to pour. We were convinced we were skilled in magic if we had the strength to lift the celluloid disc from The Rice Bowls.
Those of us who are still of that mind may as well realize it. We are true duffers.
On the other hand, if we know the ability to do those things has nothing whatever to do with the true skill of the magician, we are getting out of the duffer class. The same holds true of sleight-of-hand moves. Ability to do these demonstrates nothing of the skill of the magician.
I expect to get called loudly on that statement. While many will admit that an ability to operate a mechanical device does not demonstrate any skill from the magician's viewpoint, a great many will desire to quarrel violently when I discount the magician's skill in having acquired the agility to accomplish sleight-of-hand calisthenics. Let me quickly assure you that much more magically exalted personages than I have uttered this heresy, as well. Robert-Houdin said so specifically. He should have known. Nevil Maskelyne said so. Certainly, he knew. Kellar, so I am told, bothered little with sleights. And who among us will say that he was not a skilled magician?
But it seems that the important things the great magicians have said have been ignored. They have been ignored as completely as if these things were said in some strange cabalistic double-talk. These men did not use unfathomable phrases. What they said has been available all these years in simple, understandable English.
Perhaps my way of stating it will make more impression. At any rate, it cannot make less.
The true skill of the magician is in the skill he exhibits in influencing the spectator's mind. This is not a thing of mechanics. It is not a thing of digital dexterity. It is entirely a thing of psychological attack. It is completely a thing of controlling the spectator's thinking. Control of the perceptive faculties has nothing whatever to do with it. Convincingly interpreting, to the spectator, what the senses bring to him, in such a way that the magician's objectives are accomplished, is the true skill of the skilled magician.
So I must insist again: Shell bottles do not constitute any part of the true secrets of magic. Neither do folding bird cages. Neither do billiard ball shells. Nor Svengali packs. Nor forcing decks. Nor flap slates. Nor pulled threads. Nor folding flowers. Nor any apparatus of any kind.
The real secrets of magic are those whereby the magician is able to influence the mind of the spectator, even in the face of that spectator's definite knowledge that the magician is absolutely unable to do what that spectator ultimately must admit he does do.
Here is a secret!
This skilled magician is an adept at disguise and attention control. He employs physical disguise with his apparatus. He employs psychological disguise-simulation, dissimulation, maneuver, ruse, suggestion and inducement. He exercises absolute control over the attention of his spectator by forestalling it, by catching it relaxed, by dulling it, by scattering it, by diverting it, by distracting it, and by openly moving it away.
He cleverly, skillfully and dexterously mixes the true with the false. With equal facility he convincingly interprets matters to accomplish his own ends. He contrives to so influence the things the spectator perceives that the latter is aware of them as the magician desires. All is built upon an unshakable foundation of naturalness, plausibility and conviction.
Here is real skill! Here are genuine secrets!
Do you care to come along with me a way?
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