Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

It follows, as a practical consequence of this first rule, that you should never perform the same trick twice on the same evening. The best trick loses half its effect on repetition, but besides this, the audience know precisely what is coming, and have all their faculties directed to find out at what point you cheated their eyes on the first occasion. It is sometimes hard to resist an encore, but a little tact will get you out of the difficulty, especially if you have studied, as every conjuror should do, the variation and combination of tricks. There are a score of different ways of vanishing a given article, and as many of reproducing it; and either one of the first may be used in conjunction with either of the second. Thus, by varying either the beginning or the end, you make the trick to some extent a new one. The power of doing this readily is very useful, and among other advantages will enable you to meet an encore by performing some other trick having some element of similarity to that which you have just completed, but terminating in a different and therefore unexpected manner. The student must cultivate from the outset the art of “talking,” and especially the power of using his eyes and his tongue independently of the movement of his hands. To do this, it will be necessary to prepare beforehand not only what he intends to do, but what he intends to say, and to rehearse frequently and carefully even the simplest trick before attempting it in public. It is surprising how many little difficulties are discovered on first attempting to carry into effect even the clearest written directions; and nothing but practice will overcome these difficulties. The novice may be encouraged by assuming, as he safely may, that the most finished of popular performers was once as awkward as himself, and were he to attempt any unfamiliar feat, would probably be as awkward still.