without apparatus, preparation or sleight of hand.
Excerpt from the introduction:
To be able to perform a trick at any time and anywhere is an important qualification for a magician. Indeed, the status of many an amateur performer is judged, not so much by a conjuring entertainment given after careful preparation and arrangement of divers properties, but by his ability to provide an impromptu entertainment. It is important at this juncture to emphasize the word ENTERTAINMENT. The invariable response of many an amateur performer when asked at a festive gathering to "show a few tricks" is to take a pack of cards from his pocket and run through a few time-worn card tricks. Now to present card tricks so that the majority of the audience are not bored (especially if there be any children present) is by no means an easy matter. The main object of this book, therefore, is to provide the amateur conjurer with a series of old and new impromptu effects which it is claimed will take him out of the rut of routine and sameness.
- INTRODUCTION
- WITH MATCHBOXES
- Matchbox Jugglery
- The Performing Matchbox
- The Herculean Matchbox
- The Sexangular Matchbox
- The Inverted Statue
- WITH CORKS
- Upright Flotation
- Lifting the Cork
- Erect Emplacement
- Bottling the Cork
- The Travelling Corks
- Lifting Two with Two
- The Cork Walk
- WITH STRING
- The Manacle Puzzle
- The Mysterious Handcuffs
- The Penetrating String
- Removing the Loop
- Pricking the Garter
- WITH KNIVES
- The Human Ostrich
- The Raiser Knife
- Three-Way Bridge
- Four-Way Bridge
- WITH DICE
- Dual Dice Divination
- Threefold Numeration
- Penetrative Vision
- The Topsy-turvy Spots
- The Mysterious Spot
- Catch-as-Catch-Can
- WITH A PENCIL
- Reversing the Pencil
- Gravity Defied
- Looping the Loop
- The Balanced Pencil
- WITH A RING
- Ringing the Finger
- The Twirldrop Ring
- The Released Ring
- A Matrimonial Puzzle
- CATCHES
- Introduction
- The Three Hats
- Billet Reading
- The Disappearing Chocolate
- Naming the Date
- Light and Heavy
1st edition 1924, 122 pages; PDF 66 pages.
word count: 24774 which is equivalent to 99 standard pages of text
