Fitzkee - The TRICK BRAIN - Chapter THIRTY-TWO

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The
TRICK
BRAIN

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

There is still one more way that THE TRICK BRAIN can be of value to you.

Russ Walsh's Cane to Silk, as it is sold now, is a transformation effect. It is a change of a cane to a silk. But by eliminating the silk and by arranging some method of disposing of the collapsed cane it can be used as a vanish. Combined with a duplicate cane, with suitable methods of disposing of the collapsed cane and acquiring the duplicate, this could be converted to a trick of transposition. And using it with an acceptable obstacle such as a plate of glass, with little trouble it could be converted to a penetration.

I have mentioned De Muth's Milk Miracle several times. It has been pointed out that while it is fundamentally a penetration, as interpreted by the inventor, it may also be presented as a transposition by eliminating the obstacle. In this case the mirror glass is handled as in the original version. But instead of setting the milk bottle on top of a plate that is resting upon the mirror glass, the bottle is either held in the hands or deposited upon another table. When the effect is performed in this manner, it is a transposition. But without the use of the mirror glass, it may be presented as the vanish of a quantity of milk.

So it may be seen, as is the case with so many tricks, the ultimate effect is essentially one of interpretation. And many tricks that are limited in their application to the accomplishment of one effect only may be converted to other types. Sometimes slight change in the present apparatus is needed. In many cases something additional must be added.

Undoubtedly your shelves are filled with tricks of all types which are now unusable. This may be, perhaps, because the effect has become too common. It may be because the trick is not sufficiently deceptive in its present form. This may also occur where the complete trick is unsatisfactory, although certain portions may be usable in another form or combined with something else. Another cause may be because of insufficient punch or interest.

Well, THE TRICK BRAIN can help you reclaim these.

Take the case of The Passe Passe Bottles. This is a compound transposition. Perhaps you have done it to death. The result is that two perfectly good nesting bottle shells and two perfectly good cylinders are gathering dust while you buy new gadgets to substitute for them.

Let's see what THE TRICK BRAIN can do with them.

We start with a shell bottle. Now we go through the lists of basic methods and find out the effects that list shells among the methods. Since a shell bottle may also be a secret hiding place, we list those also.

We write down this list. It will look something like this:

Appearance or production

Disappearance or vanish

Of course, we may use this as the production of a bottle. As a matter of fact we may combine one of the bottles with the two tubes. Since the shell is a secret compartment, it may be crammed full of production objects. The two tubes will supply devices from which all of the objects may be produced. We have a potential method suggested to us by the organ pipes, a two-tube version. In fact, you may produce two bottles, since they nest, in addition to all of the other junk.

Or taken alone, one of the bottles may supply the secret compartment from which a load is stolen.

And from the opposite viewpoint, a vanished article may be secreted therein. Also, the opposite of the organ pipes will supply the nucleus of a vanish of several items plus the bottle.

The trick in its original form is a transposition. It may be used without the glasses. Or oranges or something else of suitable size may be substituted for the glasses. Retaining the tubes, but discarding the bottle shells, two more shells of something else, such as a stack of checkers, may be used with the glasses.

The Here, There and Where trick, as discussed in another chapter, may be adapted to what you have. Or some similar complex transposition, based on the same general idea but substituting for some of the objects, may be evolved.

The matter of a transformation effect need not be difficult. Basically, you already have a transformation from a glass to a bottle in one-half of the trick. If you want, substitute something else for the glass.

Or better still, use the inside of the bottle as a secret compartment to hide some expandable object which when produced will completely hide the bottle. Using a large bouquet of spring flowers could do this. When these are released they spread out and cover the bottle completely, the neck of the bottle becoming the handle of the bouquet.

For a penetration, merely discard the tumbler feature and place a glass plate between the two cylinders, one standing on top of the other. The bottle is dropped into the top of the upper cylinder and, upon lifting the lower one, is found to have passed clear through the glass. If you desire, while the duplicate bottle is being revealed, the original bottle may be allowed to slide into a servante of suitable construction—even into a squared circle device which has been used previously.

The hollow bottle, merely acting as a secondary accessory, perhaps as a candleholder or having been used as a water bottle previously, supplies a secret hiding place for hiding the duplicate for a restoration. Or it may hide a clockworks mechanism for some type of animation effect.

This does not exhaust the possibilities of the shell bottle at all. By listing the effects which utilize all interpretations of the hollow bottle. By selecting the effects at random through the system as outlined for THE TRICK BRAIN. By combining such effects. By using random selections of other objects. Through all of these, it is possible to convert the bottle trick and its apparatus to innumerable uses.

This is true, also, of almost any trick you have. Analyze the individual pieces. Find all classifications and uses to which they may be put. List the effects in which these uses may be adapted to the basic methods. Then make random selections of new effects, new objects with which they may be combined, or develop new trick plots wherein part of the present apparatus may be utilized. Try to see your apparatus in as many basic method applications as possible.

Usually your first step in this direction may be accomplished by a thorough analysis of the original trick. Then the method used in the original trick is reduced to the language of the basic methods as they appear in THE TRICK BRAIN.

As, for example, obviously one vital part of the De Muth Milk Miracle is a mirror glass. The mirror glass classifies as a device that has two compartments, either of which may become secret. Such a device is used in productions, vanishes, transpositions, transformations, penetrations, restorations, sympathetic reactions, spectator failures, identifications, thought reading, thought transmission and prediction.

If it isn't a trick in itself but merely a utility device, analyze that in the same way. Find out what the device really is basically, just as we did with the mirror glass. Then list the effects utilizing this basic method. Select one or a combination of these effects. Select one or more objects of suitable size and character to use with the device. Before you are finished you will have found an original trick plot and a new use for the old device.

Thus, THE TRICK BRAIN broadens the use of old devices and supplies substitute and original trick plots for the tricks you now own. <-|!*!|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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