Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

The problem is to draw out the balls without lifting the cups.” Here he replaces the cup, apparently placing the ball beneath it, but really palming it, as already described in the case of the middle cup, and then returns to the first or furthest cup; touching the top of the goblet, he lets the palmed ball drop to his finger-tips, and immediately exhibits it, saying--“This is the way I take the balls out of the cups. The ball being no longer needed, I return it into the wand.” This he does as described at page 277, immediately afterwards, if desired, handing the wand for examination. “In like manner I draw out the second ball” (he repeats the same process with the middle goblet), “and pass that also into my wand. I need not even handle the goblets. See, I merely touch this third goblet with my wand, and the ball instantly appears on the top.” The company, of course, cannot see any ball on the end of the wand, but a ball is nevertheless taken thence by the process already described, of letting the palmed ball drop to the tips of the fingers, as they come in contact with the wand. “I pass this also into my wand. Stay, though, on second thoughts, I shall want a ball for my next experiment, so I will leave it here on the table.” [K] The reader will understand that nobody has in fact made any such observation, but the overhearing of an imaginary objection is often of great use, as enabling the performer to do some necessary act, which he could not well have done without such pretext. Thus in this instance, the performer wants a plausible excuse--first, for altering his apparent intention of immediately producing a second ball from the wand; and, secondly, for lifting the middle cup, and so regaining possession of the ball. A conjuror thus addressing an imaginary objector is said in French “parler à la cantonade,” but the phrase has no precise equivalent among English performers.