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MAGIC
By
MISDIRECTION
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Good dissimulation depends, too, upon effective acting.
It has been pointed out before, but it is well to reiterate it. Dissimulation is the exact opposite of simulation. Where simulation is disguising a thing to make it appear similar to something else, dissimulation is the act of making something appear to be dissimilar to what it truly is.
The billiard ball move, mentioned before, illustrates the distinction. The right hand, which is supposed to have taken the ball, simulates its presence in the empty hand. The left hand, which really contains the ball, dissimulates in order to appear to be empty. The left hand appears to be dissimilar to what it truly is. It appears to be empty. Actually it is not. So it dissimulates.
Dissimulation, like its opposite, is most effective as a psychological disguise expedient.
Requiring considerable dissimulation on the part of the performer is The Neyhart Rising Cards, a trick in which any card called may be made to rise from a shuffled deck. As is quite well known now, the essential devices are a special houlette and a special deck of cards. The cards are made with little tabs at one end. The tab is in a different location on each card. The cards are selected by a small lever which operates in a notched slot on the back of the houlette. There is a notch for each card, and placing the lever in the proper notch causes that individual card to rise when the rising mechanism is operated. Motive power for the rising depends upon turning the little thumb crank, also located on the back of the roulette, with the thumb.
The dissimulation becomes necessary in several ways. First, the tabs are delicate. Therefore, the cards must be handled with extreme care. But it is not advisable to betray any solicitude in this direction. No such solicitude is necessary with ordinary cards, which this deck should appear to be.
It should hardly. be necessary to point out that no special deck should appear to be so to the spectator. How often have you done a card trick, perhaps even with an unprepared deck, only to have a curious spectator inquire as to whether or not a trick deck was used? How many magicians have you heard assure an audience that "ordinary" cards are being used? Is this simply to make patter?
Of course not. It is done for the same reason that the use of ordinary-appearing, familiar-looking properties was urged earlier in the text. Just as a property that appears to be a magician's tool lessens the deception, and even eliminates it with certain types of spectators, so does the known use of a trick deck. The trick deck is also a magician's tool. Even though he may not have any idea whatever as to how it functions, when the spectator becomes aware that an especially prepared deck is used, much of the mystery disappears.
That is why the magician, even instinctively, goes to such great lengths to assure the spectators that an unprepared deck is used. And that is the reason, also, that the magician must dissimulate in his handling of the pack for the Neyhart houlette. If he must handle the deck with extreme care, obviously it is not an ordinary deck. Psychologically, he is assuring the spectators that he handles an ordinary deck when he handles the Neyhart pack with extreme care, but gives the impression that his handling is quite normal and quite without special purpose. He dissimulates. He causes the deck to appear to be dissimilar to what it is.
The cards in this pack may not be reversed, with some tabs in one direction and others in the other. This fact is concealed by dissimulation. Again, special solicitude is kept from becoming apparent.
Special handling is essential in shuffling this pack. It is necessary to keep the tabs all at one end, and it is necessary in order that the
delicate tabs may not be broken off. It is further necessary to prevent the spectators from seeing these tabs, because in this event the deck would be betrayed as being other than the usual pack. But this special handling must not seem to the spectators to be special. The handling must appear to be quite guileless. The cards, and their handling, must seem to be dissimilar to what they are. Dissimulation is necessary.
All of these are accomplished, of course, by contriving the movements necessary, contriving them so that they do not appear to be for a special purpose. It is extremely difficult to riffle shuffle these cards without damaging the tabs, even if the performer succeeds in concealing them. The overhand haymow shuffle is impossible, with the hands in normal position, because the weight of one end of the pack would have to be supported by the delicate tabs. But the normal position might be varied somewhat. If the cards are held by the sides, instead of at the ends, the tabs are protected somewhat. But this would appear to be special handling and a special position, unless the way was prepared for this necessity by handling all other cards in previous tricks in this same manner.
Perhaps it may be necessary to utilize The Hindoo Shuffle to make the handling appear less calculated.
In any event, dissimulation in this connection is necessary.
In making the selection of the proper notch with the selector, we are confronted by another move that must be disguised. The performer cannot afford to have the spectators think he is operating some kind of a selection device. He cannot afford to have the spectators think he is operating anything. In the, rising card trick the basic secret to conceal, and the chief deception to stress, is the cause of the effect, the cause of the cards movement upward.
The spectators accept that any card may be caused to rise anyway, if the effect is properly presented. They are not expected to suspect that the cards that rise in the ordinary method have been forced.
If the spectators detect that some sort of secret manipulation is taking place, whether it is the operation of the selector or whether it is the turning of the thumb crank, they are quite likely to give it credit for the motive power for the rising mechanism. Nothing of this character, neither in connection with the selector nor particularly in connection with operating the crank, must become evident to the spectator. Therefore, the performer must dissimulate.
He must make the selecting movement, as well as the rising movement, seem dissimilar to what it really is. Perhaps in one case he may disguise the movement as adjusting the fingers for a more comfortable position to hold the houlette. Perhaps the other motion may be concealed in moving the houlette about so all may see.
But if an alternative, dissimulating and dissembling disguise is not provided, the movement-evident to the even moderately observant spectator-becomes a movement that causes the cards to rise. And the deception is destroyed.
Neither may the performer reveal that something about the trick is receiving his secret attention.
The rising card trick, explained by Tom Sellers some years ago, depending upon a rubber-tipped wand, requires dissimulation. The back of the houlette is open. The card to rise is at the back of the pack. The wand is placed under the arm corresponding to the hand holding the houlette. The tip is out and presses against the back of the card that is to rise. The houlette is lowered slowly. The card remains stationary or, perhaps, is levered up a bit. It seems to be rising from the pack.
Certainly this operation must be made to appear to the spectators as different from what it is. It must seem dissimilar to a movement that might cause the cards to rise. Perhaps, the performer may dissimulate to the extent that any movement on the part of the performer is unnoticed. But disguised in some manner the movement must be.
One card-rising trick, known by several names but listed by Thayer as The One Hand Houlette Rising Cards, depends upon the use of a sliding lever. This lever operates at the rear corner of the houlette. One end of the lever is needle pointed. This point engages the back of the rear card, which is the card that is to rise. Pushing upward upon the lever, with the thumb lifts the card.
Dissimulation is necessary to disguise the movement of the thumb as causing the card to rise. It is particularly difficult to conceal the movement of the hand and forearm muscles, even if the thumb itself may be hidden by the angle of the houlette. So, rather than have the fact that there is a movement betrayed to an observant spectator, it might be better to permit the spectators to know that the hand is making a movement. The flexing of the muscles, then, becomes explainable. The signs of the essential movement may be disguised as the signs of an alternative movement. Such an alternative movement might be, again, the turning of the houlette from side to side so all may see.
Even in the oldest known of rising-card methods, that employing the addition of a rigged extra packet, dissimulation is required when the extra load is added to the deck. The addition of the extra cards must appear to be dissimilar to what it really is. It must appear not to be the addition of cards to the deck.
As a matter of fact, almost any method of performing The Rising Cards requires some degree of dissimulation somewhere in the routine. This may be in the movement of the performer's body, if gradual pressure against a thread is the method of operation. It may be in disguising the lifting movement, where a stationary thread is looped over a thumb. Or it may be in the handling of the thread in connection with the use of a wrist or pocket reel. Even a clockworks pack, originally credited to Hartz, requires disguising certain operations.
The Passé Passé Bottle and Glass Trick has an excellent example of disguise being required where the shell bottle is stolen within one of the cylinders. The performer dissimulates when he slips the cylinder, which is to steal the shell, over the bottle. Apparently he is merely showing that the tube fits about the bottle closely. Actually he is stealing the outer shell. He causes the action to seem dissimilar to what it really is. It is a loading action, of course. It is disguised as part of the explanation of the apparatus. Further in the text I shall discuss where the same operation is accomplished through a maneuver, instead of dissimulation.
Dissimulation is further required after the shell is stolen. This is in the handling of the cylinder containing the load. To the spectators, the cylinder is empty. It must be so handled. The performer must dissemble, by handling the tube as if it were an empty one, whereas actually the shell bottle is inside. The slightest bit of extra care or solicitude-or, and this should not be necessary, anxiety-will concentrate attention upon the tube because the handling would be a variation from the norm in handling a simple cylinder.
There is an excellent example of vital dissimulation in The Vanishing Alarm Clock and its half-brother, The Vanishing Bowl of Water. The method referred to, in either case, is where the article to be vanished is attached to the tray. A form built within an opaque handkerchief or foulard simulates the presence of the clock or bowl. In the meantime, the article having apparently been picked up beneath the cloth, the tray is lowered away. But this tray is turned away from the audience, bottom toward the spectators, in order to conceal the subject itself.
At this stage, the clock or bowl, whichever may be the case, is attached to the face of the tray. This tray now is abnormally heavy. In addition it must be handled abnormally because a normal tray is not kept with its underside carefully turned toward the spectators.
Here is where dissimulation is necessary. The tray must be handled lightly, as it would be handled were no special weight attached to it. It must be handled with apparent carelessness so that the surface it presents, and the narrow movement allowed does not seem stiff and calculated. It must be handled without receiving special attention, as would be the case had the clock or bowl actually been taken from it. To the spectators, until some variation from the norm suggests otherwise, this tray is simply a no-longer-necessary accessory.
A well-known production box, sold under various titles among which is The Wonder Box, has a secret load container which rotates on a panel in the back door. This box has a door in the back, as mentioned, another in the front and one on top. All three doors are hinged on the same side of the box. The load is concealed within the box as it is shown on all sides. Then the container is rotated to bring it to the rear and the front door is swung open. Finally the back door is opened, carrying with it the container, which is now masked by the opened front door.
The business of rotating the container and routining the opening of the doors is, of course, necessary to conceal the secret load. But dissimulation is necessary on the part of the performer so that the secret rotating of the container does not seem to be some special handling in connection with the secret of the trick. Disguising the necessary movement as some movement the purpose of which is obvious and apparent to the spectators does this. For example:
The rotating container may be turned with the right thumb as the right hand is apparently placed upon the top of the box to steady it, while the front door is opened. The thumb goes behind the box with the fingers on top, as the performer stands behind it. Thus, the front door is now in front of the space where the container will be swung. In order to show the box empty clearly, naturally the top door should be opened before the back one. Not so naturally, but essential to successful concealment of the container from view from above, this top door rests immediately above the space which will be occupied.
Then the back door is opened. It is possible to close the front door first. This indirectly reveals the rear of the back door. The same thumb movement, disguised as steadying the box, will rotate the container again. This brings it to the front of the door, which is the rear side of the door, as it stands open. Under this circumstance, the container is again concealed.
Thus dissimulation is employed in handling the box. The necessary secret operating movements are disguised as some other movements.
Dissimulation is even advisable in the act of taking out the individual items of the load, if the container is occupying a localized space in the production device. This holds true not only of this box, in which case it is not so necessary, but also in connection with other production devices. It is particularly important in connection with The Jap Box, where the production comes from a secret compartment built in the side. The dissimulation here takes the direction of making it appear that the production articles come from various places in the device, instead of from the one vicinity all the time.
In The Egg Bag Trick, where the egg is concealed in the secret compartment, dissimulation is necessary during the process of showing the bag empty. It is necessary in turning the bag inside Out. It is accomplished through making the movements of turning the bag inside out-reversing it while still keeping the double side of the bag close to the body and concealed-seem natural, unpremeditated and without design. Properly handled, the double side of the bag should always be kept nearest the body. This prevents any unnatural bulges from showing. In itself, this expedient is a species of dissimulation.
But the care in reversing the bag must be concealed. It must not seem to the spectators that such excessive attention is necessary. It must seem that the performer is just turning the bag inside Out, without any restrictions, carelessly. If the spectator detects that the same side of the bag is always presented to the audience, this must not seem significant. It must seem to have occurred quite without design on the performer's part. This is true dissimulation.
Almost the same may be said of other phases of dissimulation in connection with this trick. When the presumably empty bag is struck against the hand or against a convenient piece of furniture, thus adding to the conviction of emptiness, it must not be evident to the spectator that the performer has grasped the bag at a definite, specific place. This is the actual case, of course. The performer actually grasps the egg through the cloth. He holds the egg within his fingers while he whacks the remainder of the bag. But this must not be apparent. It must not be evident that the performer has sought this specific place for a purpose. Preventing these restrictions from becoming significant is true dissimulation.
In some versions of the egg bag trick, the bag is folded into a small square. The egg is still within the secret compartment. Now the performer crushes the bag together. The bag seems to occupy less space than the total volume of the egg. But the egg is on the side of the parcel nearest the performer. It extends behind the packet, masked by the performer's fingers. The magician must dissimulate in maneuvering the parcel so that the bulk of the egg is unseen. He must dissimulate to conceal the manipulations necessary. He must dissimulate during the crushing process, so that there is no significant clue as to the presence of the egg's bulk.
If the performer places the folded bag upon his hand, patting it flat to assure its emptiness, the spectators cannot be allowed to know that the performer's fingers have been separated to allow the bulge of the egg to extend between them. The deliberate separation of the fingers must be concealed. If the spectator realizes that these fingers actually are spread apart, this fact must not be significant or important. It must not seem important to the magician. Dissimulation, here, is mandatory. The purpose in separating the fingers must seem dissimilar to what it really is.
One of the difficulties confronting the performer of card tricks is in palming cards from the pack. Another is in returning palmed cards to the pack. Invariably these moves must be disguised in some way.
Dissimulation is one of the most effective disguises. When a card is taken from the pack by palming it off, the action must not seem to be that to the spectator. It must seem to be something else. Disguising the action as taking the pack in the hand, in order to free the opposite hand for some other purpose, is one form of dissimulation in this connection. Perhaps the magician merely wishes to gesture to a nearby chair in asking an assisting spectator to take a seat. Perhaps he is reaching for an envelope. It might be that he is gesturing toward a pocket into which he wishes the spectator to place the deck. Or he might be picking up some property such as a handkerchief, a card box, a houlette, a tumbler or anything else connected with the trick.
At any rate, good dissimulation requires that the movement of palming off the card be made to appear to be something else, for some other purpose.
Palming a card back onto the pack requires dissimulation as well. An excuse must he found for bringing the hand to the pack. Actually, good dissimulation begins with which hand is brought to the other. If the performer is taking something from the pack, it is better to give the action a reverse appearance to the spectator. If the performer is taking something from the deck, it should appear as if the deck were being taken from the hand which is secretly doing the palming.
The same may be said of adding palmed cards to the pack secretly. The dissimulation is stronger if the spectator sees the pack brought to the hand. He is less likely to associate the movement with one of adding something to the deck. The normal way of adding cards to a pack is to bring the cards to the pack-moving the cards, not the pack. Here, dissimulation suggests substituting moving the deck and not the hand.
As in the former case, a convincing natural and plausible excuse must be found for bringing the hands together, or for transferring the deck. Straightening the cards in the deck would, of course, be a natural excuse to bring the hands together. But stronger dissimulation is accomplished if a better excuse can be found.
In the case of any object palmed in the hand secretly, whether it is; ball, egg, coin, card or what not, it is necessary that the performer dissimulate with this hand. It must seem empty, even though, in fact, it is not. The band must be handled as an empty one. It must not receive the performer's solicitous attention in any degree. There must be no apparent muscular or mental tension in connection with the hand.
This hand contains something. It is desired that it appear to contain nothing. Dissimulation insures the attainment of that objective because it stresses disguising the hand to appear dissimilar to what it really is.
Buckley's version of The Thirty Card Trick has the usual first packet of fifteen cards counted out. Three cards are selected from this packet by the audience, and marked. These are returned to the packet and brought to the top. After the packet is false shuffled, the selected cards still being on top of the fifteen, the packet is counted once more by the spectator. This brings the selected cards to the bottom of the pile.
The performer now puts the fifteen cards in an envelope. But only twelve cards go into the envelope. The three bottom cards are slid behind the envelope. This is accomplished by dissimulation. Three cards are being separated from the others. But this act of separation is made to appear merely as the placing of the cards in the envelope. The envelope is held with the address side toward the spectators, with the flap up. In the act of placing the cards in the envelope, the rear side of the envelope is sliced between the desired three and the others, as the cards are held slightly fanned. In an action that exactly duplicates placing these cards in the envelope, the desired three slip behind it.
The flap is then sealed.
The envelope containing the twelve cards is left in the left hand, masking and covering the three selected ones. The second envelope is shown and is placed in the left hand, behind the sealed envelope and in front of the three selected cards. This whole series of moves, preparatory to stealing the vital three cards, is, of course, a maneuver. But dissimulation on the part of the performer is necessary here. It must appear that the second envelope is placed in the left, behind the sealed one, quite by chance and without any particular design. It must seem so naturally and convincingly.
Continuing with the Buckley routine: Immediately after the second envelope is returned and placed in the hand, another spectator is asked to count out another pile of fifteen cards. During this action, the performer seems to remember the sealed envelope. He hands it to the first assistant.
When the second pile has been counted, the performer takes the empty envelope, carrying the selected cards behind it, and places it upon the second pile. This adds the selected three to the pile just counted. The spectator is asked to cut the cards and to place them in the second envelope.
Dissimulation comes into the picture when the empty envelope is picked up. It is not picked up as what it is-an envelope with three cards concealed behind it. It is picked up and handled as a simple envelope. The action of adding the three selected cards to the second pile is not done under that guise at all, of course. The adding of the cards is disguised as giving the envelope to the assistant. Notice that it isn't done as laying the envelope on the pile of cards. It is done as giving the envelope to the assistant.
There is a nice distinction in the different objectives, even though the action is precisely the same in both cases. Putting the envelope on the pile of cards deliberately would be purposeless, except for some secret accomplishment for the magician. Giving the envelope to the spectator has an apparent purpose to the spectator, a purpose apart from any secret maneuvering in connection with the trick. The actual act of turning the envelope over to the spectator may take many forms. It may be handed to him. It may be pointed out to him. Or it may be placed in a location convenient for him.
The accomplishment of the secret loading is best served in this case by disguising the secret addition of the cards in the act of making the envelope more convenient for the spectator. Thus is the dissimulation accomplished.
Dissimulation is probably the most often utilized expedient in the entire category of deceptive stratagems. When the Dr. Q Rapping Hand is being operated, it is necessary to resort to it to cover the visible flexings of the muscles as the secret screw is pushed. It is necessary in connection with The Dr. Q Spirit Slates. It covers the releasing of the locked flaps. It is necessary to supply an excuse for a peek at the slates in order to insure that the flap is properly in place, so that it may be properly locked in place after the message is in position to be seen. It is even necessary to cover the slight noise made by the action of the flap.
There is hardly a trick in magic that does not somewhere during its performance require something to be disguised as dissimilar to what it truly is. It disguises a condition, as in the secretly empty or secretly occupied hand. It disguises a manipulation, a movement or an operation, such as with the card houlette or the production box. It covers special preparation, special requirements, special restrictions. It overcomes difficult obstacles. It changes the spectator's sense of significant situations and suspicious handicaps. It disguises the secret presence or absence of something. It disguises purposes, reasons and clues that might be suspicious.
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