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The
TRICK
BRAIN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
From The Wrestling Barrel, which defied all comers to make it lie down, to The Three Shell Game and Three Card Monte, the effect in which the hapless spectator, bravely but undoubtedly foolishly, essays to pit his resources against the powers of the magician, with ignominious failure a foregone conclusion, has long been popular. Almost invariably the necessary situation arises as the result of some sort of challenge on the part of the performer, a challenge which may be openly voiced or subtly implied in a polite invitation to "pick it out".
Usually such effects are made possible through the use of transformation or transposition methods, the exchange of identifying marks or in setting up circumstances that make it impossible for the spectator to succeed.
In The Three Shell Game, in which the spectator is asked to select the half walnut shell under which has been placed the pea, success is impossible for the spectator for the reason that the performer conveys the pea from shell to shell, secretly, by means of sleight-of-hand. This is the employment of our familiar stratagem of conveying secretly within, behind or below some accessory.
Secret substitution is the method by which The Three Card Monte is made possible. In the conventional method an indifferent card is substituted in the act of throwing the desired card on the table. And in the Mexican variation the substitution is made in the act of turning the selected card over.
Mechanical variations of the Three Card Monte effect usually rely upon sliding or turning flaps which allow the identity of the cards to be changed. Other methods disguise the desired card as an indifferent one just prior to setting them out for a choice. Some versions even provide a method of secretly transferring some type of marker, tag or gummed label, to an indifferent card.
Familiar as a pocket trick is The Rattle Bars routine. Here three small bars are shown, one of which may be identified by means of a rattling noise it makes when shaken. But the magician has a secret rattling device concealed upon his person. This may be in the form of a small rattler concealed within his hand, or in a cigarette which he is smoking and which he holds in the hand picking up the desired bar, or strapped to his wrist beneath his sleeve. The performer shows which bar has the rattle by picking up a non-rattling bar and utilizing his secret rattler. Of course, when the spectator selects the one that seemed to rattle, the performer picks up the one that actually rattles and shows him he has failed. These routines have many variations. This method, of course, is based upon disguising the bars.
I am not certain, but I believe it was Dr. E.G. Ervin who devised the foo can monte effect, in which the spectator attempts to select the can into which the water has been poured. Since all of the cans contain water, and since whether or not water is poured from any of the cans is entirely within the control of the magician, it is quite evident that the spectator's success is wholly dependent upon the wishes of the performer.
One rope routine, explained in my THE ONLY SIX WAYS TO RESTORE A ROPE, in one version is a spectator failure effect. Both the performer and the spectator, each in possession of a piece of rope, make apparently the identical moves during the cutting and the restoration. But the performer is successful in his attempt while his volunteer assistant fails. Of course, both do not make the identical moves, or if they do, both are not identically equipped in knowledge or supplies. So this is accomplished through disguised circumstances. They look the same, but they are really different.
The Wrestling Barrel is equally impossible of accomplishment. Originally this was probably a device with a heavily weighted bottom similar to the toys that bob up when laid down and released. But magnetic control beneath the floor or platform could also make this effect possible. And it need not necessarily take the form of a barrel either. Any type of object of proper shape and size may be adapted to the effect, even figures representing humans.
The familiar card routine in which the spectator is asked to select a card, but not to take a specific card mentioned by the magician, after which the card selected is the one the performer told him not to take, is another example of spectator failure. This routine varies with the individual performer. But the basic method of accomplishment depends upon expert forcing, adept changing as the undesirable card is discarded, and the subsequent repeated forcings of the identical card. This may be accomplished by means of mechanical forcing methods as well.
It may be seen, therefore, that effects in this classification are usually possible through the employment of secret conveyance, as in the case of the shell game; through various forms of substitution; through methods of disguise; through secret duplicates and means for concealing the original object, as in the foo can monte trick; and through special arrangements of methods utilized in other effect classifications. Almost invariably, because of the diversity in the nature of the specific trick, these methods have to be individually shaped and fitted for the desired purpose.
There are a great many more types of failure open for exploitation than those most commonly used. At random I might suggest a contest between the magician and a spectator. The object is to see who could first set up a deck to get four aces in a poker hand. Or a test of the spectator's memory-in which of three envelopes he placed the five-dollar bill.
Bank Nite, as first conceived by Floyd Thayer, is a spectator failure trick. Here a number of spectators are given a choice of envelopes, one of which contains the money. Yet at the end the remaining envelope, the only one left for the performer contains the money. As originally suggested, the method was to use five empty envelopes, with the performer stealing the bill, concealed within the pages of a magazine upon which were placed the envelopes, behind the last envelope. He tore open the empty envelope and pretended to take the bill from it. This is a basic method already thoroughly discussed under other sections.
A spectator failure trick, too, is Bingo, which appeared in one of the earlier issues of HUGARD'S MAGIC MONTHLY. A ten-dollar bill is placed in an envelope and four other empty envelopes are added. The five envelopes are placed upon a stand and the spectators attempt to get the envelope containing the money by spelling out "b-i-n-g-o," taking the envelope upon which the last letter falls.
This trick is a variation of the familiar Spell-Down Trick. Here the magician spells the value of each card, starting with the Ace, and removes a card of the desired value upon the last letter. But when the spectator tries it, he invariably gets the wrong card. This trick has been issued in several forms, including a set of cards illustrating animals. Mathematical arrangement is the basic method.
The basic trick plot of Bank Night has been retained in many versions that vary as to method, from using changing bags and trays to faked envelopes. So it may be seen that method is actually quite secondary to trick plot as far as the external aspects of the trick are concerned. Really, in this case the effect is actually one of interpretation. Almost any of these spectator failure routines could be easily converted to transposition or transformation effects. It is merely a matter of viewpoint.
Many of the basic effects have been disguised, as well. Pick-it-out is a good example. In somewhat more elaborate form it is available in a giant card routine called Stung and Stung Again.
There are many variations with cards or numbers, of the old mathematical trick where the performer vies with the spectator at stopping at a pre-selected number. This, as you will probably remember, is a matter of the magician controlling certain key locations in the arrangement.
Other spectator failure effects include certain tricks in the puzzle category, tricks that actually belong more to the puzzle field than to magic. These include a turnover match box routine, explained some years ago by Tom Bowyer; The Topsy Turvey Bottle, a somewhat similar effect with two bottles in two covers; Tumbl-Bug; several tricks under various names but all basically the old Pricking the Garter gambling swindle and others of similar ilk.
A recent pocket trick in which a coin is placed in a small container, subsequently changing to water which spills upon the spectator, might be classified under this section.
Just to show you how other tricks may be adapted to this spectator failure idea: The Squared Circle is a quite popular production trick at present. This could be presented as a spectator failure. Suppose a rabbit were placed in one square and covered with the usual cylinder. The magician has two other similar devices. The idea is that the spectator is to select the cylinder under which the thinks the rabbit is hiding. Naturally, with a rabbit concealed within each of the three squares, the magician can seem to circumvent the hapless volunteer.
If an investment in three such devices seems to be a considerable outlay for this trick, and if three such devices entail too much bulk for transportation, reduce the size of the trick. Instead of rabbits, use lemons. And instead of three of the necessary squares, have one built to accommodate all three of the much smaller cylinders necessary.
A contest in needle threading might be attractive to some performers, particularly if he should take care to select a spectator with large clumsy hands. There is a small trick available, sold by most dealers and made by Petrie-Lewis, called Threadit. It permits the performer to thread a needle instantly.
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