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750
Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring
·
Professor Hoffmann
680
1.
Don’t
be
nervous.
(The
reader
may
possibly
consider
that
this
is
a
matter
in
which
he
has
no
choice;
but
nothing
could
be
a
greater
mistake.)
A
little
diffidence
is
excusable
on
the
first
presentation
of
a
new
programme,
but
never
afterwards.
2.
Take
your
time.
Deliver
your
boniment
like
an
actor
playing
his
part,
and
not
like
a
school-boy
repeating
his
lesson.
Further,
give
your
audience
time
to
see
and
appreciate
your
movements.
Young
performers
are
very
apt
to
exhibit
the
second
phase
of
a
transformation
without
having
sufficiently
indicated
the
first
to
the
spectators.
The
change
of,
say,
an
orange
to
an
apple,
falls
decidedly
flat
if
nobody
noticed
that
the
article
was
an
orange
in
the
first
instance.
3.
Don’t
make
any
parade
of
dexterity,
and
don’t
affect
any
unusual
quickness
in
your
movements.
If
you
are
about
to
vanish
a
coin,
don’t
play
shuttlecock
with
it
from
hand
to
hand
as
a
preliminary;
but
make
the
necessary
“pass”
as
quietly
and
deliberately
as
you
possibly
can.
Don’t
talk
about
“the
quickness
of
the
hand
deceiving
the
eye,”
and
still
less
do
anything
to
support
such
an
idea.
The
perfection
of
conjuring
lies
in
the
ars
artem
celandi--in
sending
away
the
spectators
persuaded
that
sleight-of-hand
has
not
been
employed
at
all,
and
unable
to
suggest
any
solution
of
the
wonders
they
have
seen.
4.
Don’t
force
yourself
to
be
funny.
If
you
are
naturally
humorous,
so
much
the
better;
but
in
any
case
perform
in
your
natural
character.
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