- CHAPTER I
— REAL SECRETS OF MAGIC
- —Taking up where we left off
- —New gods for old
- —Exposing the exposure
- —Skill or duffer
- —Giving the bird to the bird cage
- —Aren't we all duffers?
- —Ignoring the important
- —True skill
- —The real secrets of magic
- —False whiskers and attention
- —True or false.
- CHAPTER II
— THE IMPORTANCE OF INTERPRETATION
- —More of the same
- —Exposure is impossible
- —Can you read a magician's mind?
- —The performer paints his own picture
- —Interpretation to confound
- —Conviction
- —By these signs ye shall know them
- —Acting-Diebox deception.
- CHAPTER III
— CONVICTION AND NATURALNESS
- —The important ingredients
- —If you believe it, it's so
- —Convince yourself
- —Spectator instinct
- —Naturalness
- —How to convince without argument
- —Disguise and attention
- —Attention control comes forward
- —Reasons
- —The importance of convincing yourself.
- CHAPTER IV
—WHAT ACTUALLY DECEIVES THE SPECTATOR
- —Money to burn
- —Marked and borrowed, but found in an impossible place
- —Behind the scenes
- —The plant-Pilferage
- —Disappearing rubber
- —No machinery necessary
- —All through psychology
- —The spectator's viewpoint
- —Disguise and attention
- —Money cheerfully refunded.
- CHAPTER V
—THE PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPEDIENTS
- —Through the rnicroscope
- —Simulation
- —Dissimulation
- —Interpretation
- —Maneuver
- —Pretense
- —Ruse
- —Anticipation
- —Disguise
- —Diversion
- —Monotony
- —Premature consummation
- —Confusion
- —Suggestion
- —Disguise plus disguise plus attention control
- —And more of the same.
- CHAPTER VI
—REACHING THE SPECTATOR'S MIND
- —The attack on the spectator's understanding
- —External appearances and interpretation
- —Suggestion and implication
- —Danger in the direct statement
- —You can't force the spectator' s conclusions
- —Inducement and persuasion
- —Confusion with a bank note
- —Deduction versus induction.
- CHAPTER VII
—PROCESSES WITHIN THE SPECTATOR'S MIND
- —The spectator must be deceived
- —The spectator's perceptions
- —The mind, only, perceives
- —The spectator's consciousness
- —Magicians must attack the spectator's understanding
- —Mind stimuli and idea association
- —The spectator's mind is not a pushover
- —He is consciously intelligent
- —Details do the trick.
- CHAPTER VIII
—THE IMPORTANCE OF THE NORM
- —How the spectator views the performer's appearance
- —The important norm
- —Discord brings damaging attention
- —Characteristic naturalness
- —Bewilderment not deception
- —Disguise
- —Dice and rabbits
- —Palming a card
- —Diversion
- —The importance of naruralness.
- CHAPTER IX
—THE NORM IN SPEECH
- —Speech in deception
- —The norm in speech patterns
- —Variations "telegraph"
- —What as well as how
- —Subject matter norm
- —Undue emphasis
- —The strength of implication
- —An example with bonds
- —With tubes
- —The norm in attitude
- —What magic really is
- —Imitation magic-Speech in attention diversion
- —The scorched thumb
- —Any solution destroys deception
- —Things important to the magician.
- CHAPTER X
—THE NORM IN PROPERTIES
- —Properties in deception
- —Familiar things accepted more quickly
- —Handling for deception
- —A lesson from Kellar
- —Pulling the lesson apart
- —Applying the Kellar lesson
- —Tricky appearance destroys deception
- —A general idea satisfies the spectator
- —Strengthening deception by appearance of properties.
- CHAPTER XI
—DISGUISE AND ATTENTION CONTROL
- —The magician has but two courses
- —Disguise and attention control
- —With a changing bag
- —How important does it seem to the magician?
- —Substituting a stronger interest
- —Disguise in many forms
- —Physical and psychological disguise
- —Frames, stocks, bottles and miscellany
- —The effectiveness of mixing the true with the false
- —A magician's tool does not deceive
- —Disguising the tool.
- CHAPTER XII
—SIMULATION
- —Harping on an old obsession
- —The true spectator response
- —We can only baffle
- —Seeing versus thinking
- —Simulation
- —The necessary support to simulation
- —Bowls, egg bags, cigarettes, cards, ropes, turbans, billets, rings, eggs
- —Ultimately all is acting.
- CHAPTER XIII
—DISSINIULATION
- —Dissimulation
- —Acting again
- —Special decks
- —Preparing for dissimulation
- —More rising cards
- —Bottles, clocks, production boxes, egg bags
- —Dissimulation with cards
- —Distinctions
- —Many disguises.
- CHAPTER XIV
—MANEUVER
- —Maneuver for deception
- —An example with bottle
- —A routined series of movements
- —Maneuver with cards
- —Maneuver as used by Al Baker
- —The distinction.
- CHAPTER XV
—RUSE
- —The ruse in deception
- —Purposes disguised
- —With billiard balls
- —With tied thumbs
- —Ruse with card sleights-In a divination effect
- —Illusions, cards, silks.
- CHAPTER XVI
—SUGGESTION AND INDUCEMENT
- —Disguise in many forms
- —Suggestion and inducement
- —Disguised force
- —The hypnotic process
- —In mind reading
- —Breaking a pencil
- —Oranges, bills, bells, beads, pegs, balls.
- CHAPTER XVII
—ATTENTION CONTROL
- —Attention control
- —Misdirection
- —Many forms of control
- —Anticipation
- —Premature consummation
- —Monotony
- —Confusion
- —Diversion
- —Specific direction
- —Anticipation with cards
- —Varied examples
- —Tricks and illusions with attention control.
- CHAPTER XVIII
—ANTICIPATION
- —Spectator attention
- —The manner of controlling attention
- —To accomplish interest
- —Suspense
- —Animation
- —Detail on attention control
- —Anticipating the attention
- —Cups. balls, cards, running up decks
- —Fire and water.
- CHAPTER XIX
—RELAXATION, MONOTONY, CONFUSION
- —Premature consummation and Kellar's use of it
- —Stephen Shepard and his bird cage
- —Stripped of all illusions
- —With six silk handkerchiefs
- —The performer must set the pattern for the spectator
- —Thought force is concrete
- —The language of the mind-Monotony
- —Examples by Leslie Guest
- —Confusion
- —Balls, finales, rings, pellets. coins
- —Confusion a la Blackstone
- —Keep it quiet.
- CHAPTER XX
—DIVERSION AND DISTRACTION
- —Diversion for deception
- —With a handkerchief and a wine glass
- —Details
- —The power of suggestion
- —Specific detail
- —The most subtle stratagem
- —Its mechanics
- —Bowls, bat loads, cards, eggs, chickens
- —Leslie Guest again
- —With a rabbit
- —Distraction
- —Beware repetition
- —Clocks, girls, trunks.
- CHAPTER XXI
—SAMPLES OF ATTENTION CONTROL
- —Attention control stratagems in action
- —Stephen Shepard and a tall glass
- —Madison with a pack of cards
- —An idea from seeing Tommy Martin
- —Cards to the pocket
- —Levitation
- —Switching the judge.
- CHAPTER XXII
—REAL DECEPTION
- —Real skill in magic
- —Pulling levers-Banish the goofs
- —Psychology is the first requirement
- —Pulling the tricks apart
- —Planning the procedure
- —Misdirection covers weak spots
- —Misdirection aids interpretation
- —Multitudes of examples
- —Good deception is fundamentally good acting.
- CHAPTER XXIII
—THE MOST IMPORTANT SKILL
- —Strong support
- —Robert-Houdin
- —Why never to reveal in advance
- —H. J. Burlingame
- —Nevil Maskelyne
- —Why never to repeat
- —Underestimated intelligence
- —Repetition
- —The card sharper
- —Deception for keeps
- —Scarne's greatest skill
- —Learn from the real masters
- —The real secrets of magic.
