3. CIGARETTE PAPER CHANGED TO AN EGG
The trick is a very old one. Some twenty years ago it was revived by a magician who made a hit with it; it became the rage and every magician had to do it. Then it was forgotten again. Recently it was rediscovered, again it made a hit, and again every magician has to do it. This follow-the-leader complex is one of the great faults of magicians. It is a pity it is not more widely recognized that the secret and the mechanics of a trick are entirely a secondary matter. It is the presentation, the personality of the man behind it, that makes a trick successful. This trick is a case in point. Gracefully presented and perfectly handled, well timed and with appropriate music, it is a beautiful thing; otherwise it is just another trick.
Effect. A cigarette paper is shown; crumpled into a ball; bounced, on a fan until it gradually swells into an egg—which is broken, proving it to be a real egg.
1st Method. The trick depends upon the substitution of the inner skin of an egg for the cigarette paper. This is generally done by having the prepared skin in the mouth and making the change in pretending to moisten the paper at the lips. There is no need to actually chew it; and again there is no absolute necessity for making the change at the mouth, which is not a particularly graceful gesture. The skin can be picked up behind the cigarette paper and the exchange made in rolling the paper into a ball. It can then be moistened by dipping it into a glass of water, and the cigarette paper can be dropped unnoticed when taking the fan.
The skin is then placed on the open fan and bounced; the air enters and it gradually assumes the shape of an egg. It is essential that this bouncing be done gracefully, in time with the music and not with stiff, awkward gestures. The real egg, which is to be substituted for the egg skin, is placed at the top of the outside left breast pocket. When the skin is fully distended, it is rolled from the fan onto the left hand, the fan is placed under the left arm and, in passing, the egg is squeezed out of the pocket into the right palm. The right hand takes the inflated skin and presses it against the side of the real egg, which is then shown and broken into a glass.
2d Method. This steal can be made perfectly with adequate practice, but the least hesitation ruins it. An easier method is to have the egg under the vest on the right-hand side. When the inflated skin is rolled off the fan, the right hand drops naturally to the bottom of the vest at the point where the egg lies hidden; the fan points to the left hand and all eyes are fixed on that hand, giving ample opportunity to take the real egg with the fingers of the right hand.
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