Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

When he steps upon the stage he should, for the time being, persuade himself that his fictitious power is a reality, and that the wand he holds is not only the emblem, but the actual implement of his power. Every time he pronounces the mystic “Pass!” or touches an object with his wand to effect some pretended transformation, he should force himself to forget the commonplace expedients by which the result is really attained, and to believe that the effect is produced by a genuine magical process. When he goes through the motion of passing a coin from the right hand to the left, he should have imagination enough to persuade himself, for the moment, that the coin has really been transferred as it appears to be. If a performer has sufficient imaginative faculty to do this--if he can so enter into the spirit of his part, as himself to believe in the marvels he professes, he will achieve an almost unlimited mastery over the imaginations of his audience. As we have already intimated, each individual illusion should have its appropriate words and gestures--in technical language, its “patter,” or “boniment”--carefully arranged and rehearsed, so as to produce the maximum of effect. These are, in truth, the very life of the trick. How much depends on mise en scène is forcibly illustrated by the account which we quoted in the last chapter from the life of Robert-Houdin, of his exhibition in Algeria of the “Light and Heavy Chest.” We will borrow from the same high authority another illustration, purposely selecting one of the simplest of card tricks, the well-known feat of picking out a chosen card from the pack, placed in a person’s pocket. The trick has already been described in outline, but we will recapitulate its effect in a few words.