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but it has a very definite bearing on it. For instance, if an article to be used in the one-ahead
system should be on a table which the performer has to pass at a given moment, and if
the table has been moved out of his now limited line of sight, the whole act is going to
be thrown out of gear.
So it seems to be a necessary principle that not only the necessary props. for the one-ahead
system, but also those members of the audience who are on the stage itself, must be
incorporated in the system.
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Section Three SUBTLETIES
STAGE SETTING
For this reason, the stage should be set to a carefully rehearsed pattern, so that the
performer can know exactly where everything is at a given moment. Not only that, but he
must know exactly where every volunteer assistant is all the time, for the question of angles
arises just as much in blindfold magic as it does in other forms of conjuring. Too often,
the magician is apt to forget the man on the stage helping him, and consequently he gets
careless in the matter of angles. When the magician is blindfolded, into the bargain, this
question of angles becomes a problem indeed.
An assistant from the audience must be directed exactly to the spot where the performer
wants him, and there must be some firmness about this, or one day the performer is going
to find himself afflicted with one of those clever saboteurs who walk round on tiptoe peering
into boxes and turning things over. The laughter of the audience should be the clue that
something like this is happening.
The moment an assistant is discovered snooping round in this way he should be asked to
leave the stage. Watch Peter Casson, the hypnotist, deal with these funny men. Whatever
a magician s views may be about hypnotism as an entertainment, it must be admitted that
Peter Casson knows how to handle the nitwits who try to spoil his act, or the cranks who
demand to be hypnotised. Downright rudeness with such people has a crashing effect, and
gets rid of them for good. What is more, the audiences seem to think none the worse of
Casson for his tough tactics.
So the funny men should be sent back to their seats with a flea in their ear at once. A
little spirited display like this seems to be sadly lacking among conjurers, although other
types of entertainer do not hesitate to speak out when their act is being endangered by
someone s foolery.
The stage setting should be planned with the view to taking the volunteer assistant as
far from the performer as possible at crucial moments. Let us continue the allusion of
the switching of a piece of chalk. The performer, say, needs a second or two in which
to exchange a piece of chalk secretly, and the volunteer assistant is standing a little too
close to him for safety.
At this point, it must appear to be the most natural thing in the world for the performer to
ask the assistant to bring him something from elsewhere on the stage. It could be a duster
to clean the slate that is needed. If so, the duster should be on the far side of the stage, and
the performer must know just where it is. He must make the assistant turn round to go and
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Sealed Vision The X-Ray Eye Act
get that duster, and while the man is away on his brief errand, the magician gets on with the
dirty work of switching the bit of chalk.
He must not say in so many words: Would you mind turning round and getting that duster?
He should ask: Can you see a duster anywhere? When the man answers that he can see
one, the performer knows that he has turned his head, and should be able to tell from the
sound of the voice whether the man s head is still turned away from him. He should ask
the man to bring the duster, and as the man walks away, there is opportunity for the move
to be made to switch the chalk.
A plan should be drawn on paper showing the placing of everything on the stage. Coloured
ink could be used for each different effect, so that the diagram will show where everything
and everybody is during each effect.
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Section Three SUBTLETIES
PROPERTY PLOT
In stage plays, the property master has the property plot before him all the time. Every
cigarette the hero lights-and the inevitable Ronson lighter with which he lights it-is counted
and laid out on a table in the wings. The cigarette case to hold the cigarettes is there as
well, and the hero, before he makes his entrance, loads up the cigarette case with the right
number of cigarettes, sees that the lighter is working, and pockets the things. The property
master has also made sure that every other item the players will want is there and ready
to hand-money, keys, watch, the fatal mortgage, the flowers in the vase, the furniture on
the stage, everything.
So it should be with the magician. But is it? Not once in a hundred times it isn t. How many
magicians have you or I seen who have to fumble through half their pockets for a box of
matches, or who have to walk twenty yards to find the table where they hid the hat load?
It seems like hundreds.
The blindfolded magician, though, can t afford to run the risk of finding himself without any
of his props, or not knowing where they are. Dammit, he s supposed to have eyes that see
all, so it seems a pity if he can t see the duster hanging over the chair back instead of in its
usual place over the blackboard. If everything isn t in its allotted place, there s going to be
an awful lot of fumbling round the stage to find it, and a dangerous number of opportunities
for the assistant to be in the wrong place at the right moment.
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Sealed Vision The X-Ray Eye Act
FORCING
There is probably no branch of the magician s art where the force is more valuable than in
blindfold magic. But any force used must be straightforward and natural. There is no place
for the elaborate counting force here, and fancy card layouts and deals must be avoided
completely. Once the audience so much as suspects a force, the whole performance at once
loses all its mystery.
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