2. THE BILL IN THE CIGARETTE
Effect. A cigarette is obtained from a spectator; the magician lights and smokes it. He borrows a bill, the number of which is recorded by the owner. The bill is placed in an envelope, which is burned. The cigarette is torn open and a bill is found in it. This is handed to the spectator and he identifies it by the serial number.
Preparation. Insert a folded and rolled dollar bill in a cigarette and put the cigarette in your left coat pocket under a new packet of cigarettes. Place matches in your right coat pocket. On the table have an ash tray and an envelope, prepared with a slit and corner of a bill as explained above.
Method. Begin by asking permission to smoke—the experiment you are about to show being hard on your nerves, so you say. Take out your own packet of cigarettes, with the prepared cigarette under it, in your left hand. Make a motion of opening the packet; then stop and, under pretense of not wanting to use anything of your own, borrow a cigarette. Receive it in your right hand, apparently transfer it to your left hand but really take the cigarette packet, retain the borrowed cigarette under it, and show the prepared cigarette in your left hand.
Place this in your mouth, put the packet and the borrowed cigarette in your right coat pocket, and bring out the matches. Light the cigarette and replace the matches in the coat pocket. Borrow a dollar bill, first having the owner record the number. Fold the bill in the usual way. Take the envelope; pull it open to show the inside, the right fingers hiding the slit and the left fingers the bill fragment. Place the folded bill in the envelope, one end going through the slit. Moisten the flap and pull the fragment into view. Pull the bill out with the right fingers and hold the envelope in the left hand, flap side toward the audience, the fragment of bill showing. Bring out the matches with the right hand and leave the borrowed bill in the pocket. Light the lower corner of the envelope and, when the flame is about to reach the bill fragment, close the flap and drop the burning envelope on the ash tray.
In the meantime you have allowed the cigarette to go out; lean over and relight it at the flame of the envelope. Explain to the owner that, having been folded into a tight wad, the bill will not be damaged and, when the envelope is reduced to ashes, pretend to search for the bill. You are taken aback at not finding any trace of it; the experiment has failed for the first time, you say.
Apologize and say that you will make good.
Thrust your right hand into your pocket; then suddenly recall the fact that you lighted the cigarette at the flame of the envelope, and note that the cigarette is not drawing well. In the meantime you have unfolded the borrowed bill in the pocket until it is only folded in half. Now tear the cigarette, extract the bill in it, unfold it, and show it. Say to the owner, “You gave me this bill, didn’t you?” as if you were about to return it. He naturally replies, “Yes.”
Thank him, fold the bill in half, and thrust it into your pocket. A moment later, however, as if you had done this merely to get a laugh, bring out his bill, hand it to him, and have the number identified.
The method is an easy and effective one and, smoothly done, the switches will not be suspected. However, by using duplicate bills with prepared numbers, the pocket switch will not be necessary; but the borrowed bill must be switched for your own before the number is recorded. To do this, have your bill (the duplicate of the one in the cigarette) finger palmed in the right hand. Borrow a bill and fold it; then, as if as an afterthought, hand it back (making the switch) for the owner to take a note of the number.
The latest, best, and most direct method requires no switch of the bill or the cigarette.
Ask for a cigarette and have the obliging spectator place it between your lips and strike a match for you, as you call particular attention to the fact that you do not touch the cigarette yourself.
Borrow a bill (first having the owner record the serial number), fold it into a small packet, and roll it tightly. Insert it in the slit envelope in the usual way, getting it into the left hand via the slit and clipping it between the second and third fingers. Hold the envelope by the lower corner between the left thumb and fingers; strike a match and hold it behind the envelope so that the shadow of a little roll of flash paper, gummed in position beforehand, shows clearly.
While talking, accidentally bring the match to the envelope and set fire to it. Continue talking and do not look at the envelope until it is well alight; then suddenly realize your plight and drop the burning envelope on the ash tray. “Well, there goes the bill,” you say as the flash paper flares up. Offer profuse apologies, and if you can make the spectators think you really have met with an accident so much the better. Take the cigarette from your mouth; hold it in the left hand between the thumb and second and third fingers, so that it covers the bill; and in your gestures let it be seen that your hands are otherwise empty. Seize the outer end of the cigarette between the right thumb and fingers, slide the bill against the back of the cigarette, and break the latter in half by bending the right hand end toward the body; nip the top of the bill with some of the tobacco from each half of the broken cigarette, and pull it out at the very tips of the right thumb and forefinger. Hold it up in full view; crumple the pieces of the cigarette in the left hand and toss them away. Open the bill slowly and carefully, so that everyone can see that there is no possibility of a substitution; then return it to the owner and have the number identified.
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