Fitzkee - The TRICK BRAIN - Chapter TWENTY-FIVE

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The
TRICK
BRAIN

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

All tricks of extra-sensory perception, as witnessed in the magician's repertory, are spectator delusions. No performer sees with his fingertips. A card is not identified by weight, or by feeling the spots, or by smelling it, or by tasting it. Neither can the average magician detect a card by listening to it in any way.

Some effects represent the magician as counting the cards in a rapid riffle. As magicians do it, this is never a feat of skill, although to the spectators the impression is given that it is. In this case, counting through an acute, trained sense of hearing is a skill. And this trick then belongs in a different classification. Old time theater managers did possess such a skill. They could count tickets by riffling them rapidly.

Probably the most highly publicized trick in this category is that known as Seeing With the Fingertips. A portion of the body is attributed a sense, which that body part does not possess. This would be equivalent to tasting with the eyes, smelling with the ears, seeing with the lips. In this same category would be a trick in which some insensate object would seem to be possessed of a sense of feeling.

But this classification does not necessarily mean only a strange sense being attributed to some portion of the body. It also means giving the impression that an acknowledged sense is developed to a superlative degree. Such an impression is given when the magician apparently feels the weight of a card in order to count the spots. Or to discover how many cards are in a given pile. The performer who seems to see through a solid opaque object is demonstrating an effect in this classification. Or one who hears the inaudible.

Invariably the performer is employing a method of detection other than that claimed. In Seeing With the Fingertips the performer is seeing all right. But he is seeing with the eyes, not with the fingertips. He is seeing with the eyes simply because the blindfold which seems to preclude normal vision does not prevent him seeing sufficiently to perform his demonstration. In this case the combination of cotton pads, adhesive tape and cotton bandage, conclusive as it seems, still permits vision. The performer is looking down the sides of his nose.

All types of blindfold of this character, whether the pads and tapes are used or whether gobs of mud or dough are crammed into his eye sockets, interfere with sight. But it is not prevented. Somehow, through some trick or stratagem, the magician manages to gain sufficient opening to retain some powers of vision.

In The Blindfold Drive many types of blindfold have been evolved to give the appearance of absolute cancellation of normal vision. But it is simply an appearance. Blindfolds have been evolved which consist of a fiat pad being held across the eyes with an elastic strap, after which a black hood is pulled down over the head. But by violent action of the eyebrows the flat pad is caused to creep upwards until it no longer completely obstructs vision. And the bag used is not opaque at all.

Other blindfolds are constructed so that when folded a certain way a fairly transparent slit is opened in front of the eyes. Some blindfolds have curtains built inside of them that lift when they are put on.

Many of the methods of secret identification, discussed under that section, supply the methods by means of which the performer may seem to have a highly developed sense of feel. Particularly those based on the principle of secret marking, whether the mark is in the form of a visible indication or, like the short card, which is a mark that can be heard or felt, or like the embossed mark which may be felt, are of great value in this classification. Likewise used are the methods of secretly glimpsing an identity, such as secretly flashing the card or seeing a card or a figure by means of the many mirror applications.

If you once get possession of the necessary information, you may try to convince the audience that you receive it in any fantastic manner you may conceive. As for example: A message is written or a picture is drawn, or any sort of record is made upon a piece of paper.

Then it is carefully placed between two plates of half-inch steel, after which the plates may be welded together. Of course, if you try this, you'd better make certain that the heat communicated to the plates won't consume the paper. Wrap it in a sheet of asbestos.

Now the magician brings his super-eyesight into play. He barns all over the stage. He concentrates. He grunts and groans mightily. Much effort is expended until he seems upon the border of complete collapse. But wait! The super-eyesight is beginning to work. He can just discern something. More power is turned on. The magician staggers and clutches the table to keep from falling in an exhausted heap. But, even in the face of complete mental breakdown, he persists bravely. Will he fail and with health impaired forever? Or will he succeed? Ah, slowly and laboriously the harassed master's vision begins to penetrate the solid steel, as even the really miraculous radar cannot do. Slowly, with great difficulty, but unmistakably he accurately describes the precious secret inscribed so guardedly.

Of course, what the spectators don't know is that the clipboard that was used for a desk made a nice carbon copy of the sealed record. Or made in any of the many other ways. Or even that the performer glimpsed the message with a reducing mirror he held in his hands, the spectators' attention having been taken at that exact moment by the black lines of grime showing through the performer's fingernails.

Of course, the identity of a selected card could be felt by means of the dragging end of a loose garter, even while the performer stood on his head, if the card were forced. Or he could smell it with a clothespin on his nose. Or hear it with his ears stuffed full of cotton. Or even see it at a distance of nine thousand miles. So forcing becomes a basic principle.

Now let's see what we have. Effects in this classification may be accomplished through defective impediment to the sense involved or eliminated. A sense thus apparently eliminated my still be used while the performer attributes a similar sense to another portion of the body which does not possess that particular sense at all. Any of the identification methods which are practicable for use with the particular objects involved may be used, while the performer gives the credit to any sense he may choose, regardless of how fantastic. If the performer utilizes some type of force, therefore knowing what is necessary in advance, all of the five senses may be eliminated during the trick.

There is still one more possible method. This is supplied by the use of some type of secret guide, as in the case of the performer finding any card called for while the pack is in his pocket. The index, which files a duplicate pack in a known arrangement, is a guide to each particular card. Even an arranged deck, as is sometimes used with this trick, is a guide.

And a short-wave radio set, instructing a blindfolded performer each step of the way, would also act as a guide, even though the performer might claim to be making his way by means of a highly developed sense of smell.

Tricks in this effect classification fall mainly into this division because of the particular interpretation the performer gives to the trick. Many tricks, not normally in this category, may be interpreted in such a manner that the spectator is given the impression that extrasensory powers are involved. Such an interpretation may be given a trick of simple identification. A collection of objects belonging to various spectators is brought to the magician. He identifies the owners through assumed super sense of smell, or hearing, or taste. Of course, the method used is based on ordinary identification principles, whether it is secret marks, a prearranged system, signaling by a confederate or other. <-|!*!|C|I|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|10|11|12|13|14|15|16|17|18|19|20|21|22|23|24|25|26|27|28|29|30|31|32|33|34|35|->
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