7. PRODUCTION OF SILKS FROM THE HANDKERCHIEF BALL
This is the prettiest and most effective method of producing silks. One would be justified in saying that it is the prettiest effect in the whole range of sleight-of-hand magic; yet it is almost entirely neglected, or done so badly that the effect is spoiled. This may be from failure to get a clear understanding of the essential parts of the manipulations necessary. If the reader will try the moves with the articles in his hands, the following explanation should make the matter quite clear.
Materials. The hollow balls, which should be large enough to contain four fifteen-inch silks, can be obtained at any magic store. They are painted flesh color and have a hole for the insertion of the silks. An ordinary rubber ball will serve the purpose; but the metal balls have a slightly larger capacity, owing to the thinness of their material. In either case the surface should be slightly roughened to aid in palming them.
Preparation. Load the ball by taking a silk by one corner and pushing the opposite diagonal corner inside the ball first, then the rest of the silk; when the last corner is arrived at, take the second silk by one corner, place this corner against that of the first, and fold one over the other in such a way that when the second silk is pulled out it will cause the corner of the first to protrude a little from the hole in the ball. Push in the rest of the second silk in the same way, engaging its last corner with a corner of the third silk, and follow the same procedure with it and the last silk.
Method. Thus prepared, the ball is manipulated in the following manner; but it must always be borne in mind that it is not a case of manipulating a billiard ball, as the audience should not have the slightest suspicion that you have anything in your hands. In making the necessary moves the hands should be shown empty only in the perfectly natural stroking of the silks as they are produced and without calling marked attention to them. This is a most important point. Many manipulators would seem to wish the spectators to know that they have a ball in their hands in order to accentuate their cleverness in concealing it. Such a course destroys the illusion, which is that the silks materialize from the air.
Palm the ball in the right hand with the hole outwards. The change over palm can be made, if desired; but if the ball has been stolen from the vest or elsewhere imperceptibly, this is not necessary. Fix your gaze on a point in the air a little to your left (you have your right side to the front), about as high as you can reach with your left hand; then suddenly reach out with that hand and pretend to catch a silk handkerchief by one corner between the tips of the thumb and forefinger.
Hold the hand as if a real silk were hanging down from it and look it up and down as if admiring the beauty of its color. With the right hand stroke this imaginary silk from top to bottom twice. At the third stroke nip the protruding end of the last silk loaded into the ball and move the right hand down with exactly the same motion as before. The result is that this silk is dragged out of the ball (Fig. 24), but the effect to the spectators is that a silk already in the left hand has suddenly become visible to them. The left hand must be kept perfectly still, and if the move is made properly there will be no suspicion that the silk comes from the right hand.
The ball has now to be transferred invisibly to the left hand. To do this, move the last three fingers of the left hand in front of the silk and release the thumb so that the silk hangs behind these three fingers, its top corner being gripped between the first and second fingers and protruding in front of the hand (Fig. 25). Now stroke the visible silk, from the tips of the left thumb and fingers to its lowest corner, twice. As the right hand comes over the left hand to do this a third time, bend the left fingers in front of those of the right hand and turn the hand inwards so that for a moment the palm of the left hand is brought behind the palm of the right hand. In that moment the ball is transferred to the left palm; the left hand turns over completely, bringing its back to the front; the silk falls to the position shown in Fig. 26; and the right hand again strokes it from top to bottom, turning naturally at the end of the stroke to show its palm (Fig. 27).
The left hand now has its back turned squarely to the spectators and both sides of both hands have been brought into view with perfectly natural actions. To return the ball to the right hand, bring it up to stroke the silk a third time and at the moment that it covers the left hand bend the left fingers in and turn the hand over inwards; the silk slips over the fingers into the position shown in Fig. 25, the palms meet, the ball is taken into the right palm, the left hand turns its palm to the front, and the right hand continues its stroking of the silk. The position now is once more that shown in Fig. 25.
Continue the production of the remaining silks in the same way, keeping them in the left hand and stroking them just as you did the single silk. From first to last the only movement made by the left hand is the turn from front to back and from back to front, the up-and-down movements being made by the right hand only. By using half silks—that is, silks cut in half diagonally—five or more can be loaded into the hollow ball, but the first silk should be one of full size.
When the supply of silks in the first ball is exhausted, it can be dropped and a second ball palmed in placing the silks on the back of a chair, one silk being retained for beginning the production from the second ball.
By using the silks produced by this method as cover, the operator can proceed to the production of a large number at once, by means of the methods already explained, or employ them for a set trick.
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