Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

Having arranged his programme, and the appropriate “patter” for each group of tricks, the performer should conclude his practice by a series of three or four “dress rehearsals,” with an intelligent friend to play the part of audience, and who should be invited to criticise with the utmost freedom. At these rehearsals there should be no “make believe,” but each trick should be worked throughout with the same completeness in every particular with which it is afterwards to be exhibited in public. In the course of these final rehearsals the performer should tax his invention to see what amount of “incidents,” or byplay, he can introduce in the course of the different tricks. Thus at the commencement of his entertainment, the trick of the “Flower in the Button-hole,” or that of the “Vanishing Gloves” may be introduced--not professedly as an item of the programme, but as a little preliminary flourish. Again, if the performer has occasion for an egg or lemon in the course of a trick, it greatly enhances the effect, if instead of having the necessary article brought in by his assistant, he produces it himself from a lady’s muff, or from the whiskers of a male spectator. These little matters, though small in themselves, tend to keep alive the attention of the audience, and to create a sort of magical atmosphere, which will aid materially in disposing the spectators to receive with due respect the occult pretensions of the performer. With respect to stage arrangements, the professional, performing evening after evening, with full provision of stage appliances, will quickly learn by experience how best to arrange those appliances for the purpose of his entertainment; but the amateur, performing only occasionally, and in places not specially adapted for magical purposes, may be glad of some little practical counsel in this particular.