2. COLOR CHANGES
As these are very numerous, it will be possible only to describe some typical methods which will enable the student to work out others for himself. The instantaneous change in the color of a billiard ball is one of the prettiest effects possible.
Using Two Solid Balls
1st Method. Stand with your right side to the front, both hands on the left side of the body and held vertically, the left hand with its palm to the front. In the exact spot for the regular palm in this hand you hold, for example, a red ball with the tip of the right middle finger. This right hand has its back outwards and in its palm a ball of a different color, white for example. At this point the spectators see the red ball, the inside of the left hand, and the back of the right hand. It is necessary now to prove that you are using one ball only, the red. To do this, swing round to the right, rolling the red ball to the tips of the fingers as you turn; transfer the white ball to the left palm and roll the red ball against the right palm, supporting it with the tip of the left middle finger. You have thus shown both sides of the hands and the white ball. Repeat the operation the reverse way in turning again to the left.
To make the color change, instead of rolling the red ball to the tips of the fingers and transferring the white ball from palm to palm, retain both balls in their respective palms as you make the turn to the right and bring the tips of the left middle fingers onto the white ball to hold it against the right palm. By then repeating the first movement with the red ball instead of the white, transferring it from palm to palm, you can show that you have the white ball only in your hands.
2d Method. Stand with your right side to the front and show a white ball, for example, between the thumb and forefinger of the left hand, the palm of the hand to the front, the fingers pointing toward the front. In the right hand you have a ball in the regular palm. Bring this hand over the left hand so that its side rests just above the white ball. Move the right hand downwards, rolling the white ball from the tips of the left thumb and fingers into its palm and leaving the red ball in its place in the left hand.
The effect should be that the mere action of passing the right hand over the ball has changed its color, and care must he taken that the balls do not “talk” in the action. After the color change has been made, the change over palm can be executed to prove that one ball only has been used.
Using a Shell
With one ball and a shell. Stand with your right side to the front and show a red ball in the left hand, encircled by the thumb and forefinger. This is really a white ball covered with a red shell; but if care is taken to cover the junction of the shell and the ball with the thumb and forefinger and the shell is held squarely to the front, no one will have any suspicion of the real state of affairs. Show the right hand empty and pass it in front of the left hand several times as a feint. At the third passage, palm off the shell in the right hand and show the white ball. In making the palm the right hand must pass over the left at exactly the same tempo as it did in making the feints; there must be no stoppage or hesitation. Show the white ball on all sides; then, in making a turn to the right, take it in the right hand, making the change over palm with the shell to the left palm; then show the right hand and the ball freely.
With two solid balls and a shell, changing the color of one. (1) Stand with the right side to the front and show two balls—white, for example—in your left hand; in reality you have a white shell between the thumb and first finger and a white ball between the first and second fingers. Steal a red ball from the bottom of the vest, or from a holder, palming it in the regular palm. Bring the right hand over to the left hand under pretense of adjusting the upper ball— the solid one—and, in so doing, slip the red ball from the right palm behind and into the white shell. Be careful to keep the shell squarely to the front.
Show the right hand empty with a casual gesture and pass it downwards in front of the two balls. This is the feint. Repeat the action and, this time, palm off the shell from the lower ball, thus effecting the color change. Take the upper (white) ball with the right hand, at the same time slipping the shell over it; knock the two balls together, apparently proving that you have two solid balls only.
(2) This is one of the prettiest color changes of a billiard ball possible. Hold a white ball and a white shell with a red ball inserted behind it, exactly as in the preceding color change. Place the right hand a little below the left and directly underneath it.
Move the left hand down a little, release the red ball from behind the white shell, and instantly insert the white ball in the white shell by the aid of the left middle finger. A few trials before a mirror will show that a perfect illusion is created of the white ball changing to red as it drops into the right hand. Finally knock the two balls together to prove that they are solid and show the hands are empty otherwise.
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