THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO THE MAGICIANS OF THE PAST AND PRESENT WITH THE HOPE THAT IT WILL LEAD OTHERS TO FOLLOW IN THE ILLUSTRIOUS FOOTSTEPS OF MY FRIENDS, HOUDINI, THURSTON, KELLAR, HERMANN, HARDEEN, CARDINI, AND THAT GREAT MASTER OF LEGERDEMAIN, ROBERT HOUDIN, TO WHOM ALL OF US OWE OUR START. - JEAN HUGARD
Jean Hugard
INTRODUCTION
by Julian J. Proskauer
In this book is compiled the knowledge obtained during more than forty-five years’ experience in magic. In it, Mr. Hugard has assembled magic of the past, present and future. For thirty-five years, Mr. Hugard was one of vaudeville’s famous performers of magic. His name has been in lights in the biggest cities in every country. He knows magic as at performer and as an author. He is the world’s most prolific writer on magical subjects, but this is the first book he has ever written for other than those in the inner circle of magic. In it, are workable effects that will bring pleasure and entertainment to your audience and much happiness to you.
I have been interested in magic for more than thirty years and have known all the great magicians—and the not so great—over this period. Professionals and amateurs alike find in magic a release for their natural talents as well as a means of livelihood or hobby which brings happiness and pleasure to others. All magicians, famous professionals as well as novices, are bound by a code of “never tell how a trick is done.” Let me ask you in the name of all of them to be sure to keep this in mind.
Readers of this book must be interested in entertaining others—there can be no entertainment when the secrets of magic are revealed. This is a textbook by one of magic’s great masters. You owe it to Mr. Hugard as well as to yourself and to the myriads of magic enthusiasts everywhere to refuse to explain how you do any trick.
Mr. Hugard has been more than careful in his explanations of how to do magic, but it will be easy to see before you read too far that no one magician can be perfect in all branches of magic. Houdini, and his brother, Hardeen, specialized in escapes, Thurston worked with large illusions, Cardini works with cigarettes using cards to add color to his performance, John Mulholland in the style of a lecturer, uses his magic, Nate Leipzig does a full vaudeville act with cards only, Jack Gwynne became famous because of his “fishbowl” illusion, Fred Keating is the “vanishing bird cage” magician in the eyes of many—and so on down the line we find magicians specializing in those branches of magic which experience has taught them is their forte. You must do the same.
Find the branch of magic you like—then devote all your time to developing it. Read this book carefully with that idea in mind. Select effects you think you can do, then, after you have finished the entire book, go back and reread those effects you first liked. Experiment with them in front of a mirror, rehearse patter and then try out the finished effects before a few known friends. That will tell you which ones should be developed further, and which should be dropped from your act.
Be very careful that the effects selected lend themselves to your particular personality. One person does well with cigarettes, another can’t use them. Another specializes in card magic, whereas another may believe that billiard ball manipulation is more fitted to his physique and speech.
But the “tricks” are not the all-important item in being a good magician, a likable entertainer. This is shown by the fact that all of us realize that “magic” is based on the principle of giving the appearance that miracles are visibly taking place, when actually nothing beyond explicable procedure has deceived the eyes, and, therefore, the minds of the on-lookers. To achieve such results successfully, it is essential that one study and obtain some knowledge of applied psychology, on a minor scale, of course.
According to the dictionary, psychology is a science of mind, its nature and functions. When a magician keeps this definition in minds, he will always remember that the brain recognizes as fact that which the eye is ready to believe.
For example, in a card trick where a pack of cards is placed against a subject’s head, and the magician immediately thereafter announces the name of a previously selected card, reason if permitted to function, would convince anyone that the deck has nothing to do with the magician’s ability to tell the name of the card. Suggestion that such a procedure was under way, leads the subject to believe “mind reading” is taking place.
All magicians worthy of the name count on the “patter” or description of what is being done to suggest to the eyes and ears of the audience just what he wishes their minds to believe. It is obvious, therefore, that the application of psychology to magic resolves itself into the use of suggestion on the part of the magician.
There are scores and scores of wonderful magical effects explained in this book, but the ability to perform them successfully rests entirely upon the magician’s skill to deceive the audience with words and “misdirection”—as well as a well grounded knowledge of the effect.
Misdirection is fixing the attention of the audience on one thought, while something entirely different is taking place somewhere else. Misdirection is, therefore, essential to the performance of a “miracle.” The successful professional magician operates along lines of verbal and visual deception with his patter and moves designed to draw the attention of the audience away from some essential act on his part.
One thing for magicians always to keep in mind, particularly amateurs, is that any magical effect can go “wrong.” By covering up the failure of the trick with an impromptu phrase or two gives time to check and correct the error so that the mistake is covered up and to the minds of the audience the effect has been successfully performed. It is, therefore, essential that a magician never tell in advance what is to happen.
A rule of all good magicians is to refrain from repeating the same trick before the same audience the same night. If anyone pleads: “O.K., do that again,” the wise magician pretends not to hear the request, but immediately starts performing another and totally different effect based on another principle. This diverts the mind of the inquirer from delving too deeply into what last transpired.
It is extremely essential that a magician size up every person in his audience. Experience has taught magicians that the man or woman whose eyes are too close together will not make a good assistant. The character of this type of person might be such that he or she would think it funny to be “wise,” and thus spoil the trick. If you need an assistant in an effect, pick some jovial looking person. If you want someone to do exactly as told, pick a man or woman with a fairly well-rounded chin. Avoid at all costs, the person who is too eager to help, unless you know that it is someone who will not try to “steal” the center of the stage.
Another good point to remember is that hands are “tell-tales.” Never select as a helper an individual with chubby fingers. With all the best intentions in the world he may be clumsy and spoil your act by dropping something. Select someone with graceful fingers, a pretty girl or woman if possible. Femininity adds a touch of interest to your performance.
Be confident in your power to deceive the audience, but never be so arrogant and aggressive that your attitude will annoy those whom you are endeavoring to entertain.
In every audience, there is someone who “knows how it is done.” Select such an individual as your assistant when you are about to do some effect that you know particularly well, one that can’t go wrong, one with a surprise finish.
If you handle this person carefully, you will turn a prospective enemy into a friend and you will find his cooperation later will be of great help for the balance of the entertainment.
Outstanding performers use a “sales” angle to their patter. The simplest trick well “sold” makes you a miracle man. “Selling” a trick consists primarily of using a persuasive attitude for certain effects, a fast line of patter of almost meaningless words for others, and other effects require that every word be calculated to hold interest. The magician must believe that he is a salesman talking to a buyer. With that thought in mind, he cannot go wrong.
For those who do magic with apparatus, I must also give a word of advice. Never do an effect as soon as you get it. Practice it before mirrors, rehearse the patter (many effects on sale at the magic stores come with patter) and be letter-perfect in speech and action before showing any effect.
Max Holden, a magician of many years’ vaudeville and stage experience, tells every novice to study the necessary moves first, to learn the patter next, and then to time the words with the moves.
Educational nights which the Assemblies of the Society of American Magicians hold at various meetings stress this point also. There are Assemblies, or branches of the Society, in almost every large city. Serious magicians owe it to themselves to affiliate with magical societies. Besides the Society of American Magicians, there are others such as the Pacific Coast Magicians Alliance and the International Brotherhood of Magicians. Magicians should read publications devoted exclusively to magic. Among the best known are The Sphinx, published in New York, The Genii, Pasadena, California, and The Linking Ring, Kenton, Ohio. Published in England are The Magic Wand, The Magician Monthly, and Goldston’s Magic Quarterly. Some dealers publish house organs which have a trade journal slant. Of these, The Tops is an example.
Of course, the majority of these remarks are addressed to beginners in magic because those with years of experience realize their importance.
The magical fraternity of this generation and of the generations for years to come owe a debt of gratitude to Jean Hugard for Modern Magic Manual.
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