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tow-headed freak, who tells you that the "front and back hand pamm"
that he does is a wonderful feat and requires months to learn. It does
not and when I tell you that these things are feats which any ordinary
boy can learn, and, moreover do them better than most of the so-called
magicians, both in and out "the woods," and that by knowing them
you never will be able to get one more dollar for your performance, it
will not he difficult to see that time thus invested is vain.
Do you think that one of these abortive arrangements--self-styled
magicians--could entertain an audience with his "front and back hand
pamm" for two hours or a part thereof? In the first place, these things
cannot be seen on a big stage by people in the gallery or far back in
the theater, and if some could see them, they would leave the theater
in disgust. And, again, you must know that when a magician not only
holds but entertains, amuses and instructs his audience for two hours
or more each evening during a week with no other vehicles but his
personality, wit, vitality, energy and magic as a subterfuge, he is at
once an artist and one worthy to be called a magician. Such an one
was the late Herrman, and such an one is the present Kellar. If your
ambition is vaudeville, stay on your milk route.
Be a magician if you begin, or give it a wide berth entirely. The most
important points that have been neglected by other writers on this
subject I shall touch, and if faithfully adhered to will bring better
results than would studying the "front and back pamm." Learn
arithmetic well. This is necessary if you want to do a mind-reading
act; and cube root and rapid calculations and also it will not be bad to
know when you are counting up the hundreds of dollars each night
that you draw (on paper) into the "opree house" and the manager tells
you it was a fine show, sorry for poor business, etc., and you would do
much better if you would return when the creamery boys are paid off,
as "they are sporty and don't care nothin' for thirty-five cents."
Learn how to write correctly. This is useful in writing for dates,
signing checks or making out telegrams to mother for money to bring
Professor Butterine and party home. Then when you are old and need
a little dust to help buy some sausage for winter, you can write a
treatise on conjuring or a story of your life, and some good kind
publisher will look with compassion on your efforts and reward you
with some few $$$$ of the kind that magicians do not catch in the air.
Learn to spell properly. You will have to write your own press notices
sometimes, and those flowery adjectives describing the "learned
professor" will leave a bad taste in the mouths of the editors if spelled
incorrectly. In setting type, which you have to do occasionally in order
to get your bills printed, spelling is not unhandy.
Now, in all seriousness, learn grammar. Do not, as you value your
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take my word for it, he did not. Next to magicians, the managers are
second in wisdom. They can scent a magician equally as far and well
as a magician can per-cent the manager. And all will tell you that they
made money on Professor Cinch, the great magician, by not having to
open the doors on the night he was billed, and the revival meeting and
the Ladies' Guild got all the people except those who were in Sed
Crapeel's store, "swapping yarns and drinking hard cider b'gosh."
Revere the managers and be kind to the Salvation Army. You may
want to use their band in front of the "town hall to-night." Almost as
important as securing dates for your show is a magician's wand. A
magician without a wand is as inappropriate as a massage rubber with
a full evening-dress in a turkish bath.
A wand in the hands of one who can talk and use some comic sayings
is potent beyond al traditional fame of its powers. The smart ones
witnessing a magical conjuring performance will say to one another:
"Oh, that stick is only for show. Has nothing to do with the work the
performer is doing." They are mistaken. It has all to do with the tricks.
It is used, true enough, to pretend that one must have this wand in
order to cause things to appear and disappear; but the real object of the
wand is to mislead the people who are there to be misled. While you
are explaining, by gesticulation with the wand in your right hand how
this and this is done, you are getting a baby elephant out of your back
pocket with your left hand. All these things will be explained a little
later on in the work--just why the wand is used and the many great
tricks which can be accomplished with its aid. The amount of money
one wishes to spend for one is wholly a matter of taste. The writer
generally uses a broken umbrella-stick or a lead-pencil or anything
which is hand at the time, as these things get lost very quickly and
they would cost a great deal to buy all the time, if care was not
exercised in the first place in buying them. One dollar buys a good
wand and one sure to last. In the chapter which will follow this I shall
try to write more on this subject and shall to the best of my capabilities
explain the great and diverse uses a wand may be put to by a
prestidigitateur. For the delectation of the old and the a amazement of
the young, do not forget that a wand must be had and wielded
mysteriously and often, and when doing tricks with cards, with coins,
with apparatus, a wand is indispensable. A wand will make the one
who handles it, properly, a wander(er).
Always do tricks with live articles, such as geese, rabbits, guinea-pigs,
chickens and pigeons. All audiences like to see this kind of tricks,
because they are surprising and, when well done, intensely mystifying.
This live stock is also valuable if your business is bad and continues
so, for a fire can be made near any water-tank on the railroad and a
goose can be cooked and supped on. You will be surprised to find how
long a cooked goose will last when business is bad. This is one
instance where it is profitable to "cook your own goose" But more on
this subject anon.