If you wish to use the vanish of the glass of water in the way I have suggested—in conjunction with the rice bowls—it will be necessary to have an opera hat with a hinged flap in the centre. Cut a piece of stiff cardboard of the size of the crown of the hat. To the centre of this fasten, by means of strips of black linen, a small, semicircular piece of cardboard, which will thus be hinged to the other piece. Cover the whole of this "fake" with black silk and put it into the open hat. The top of the hinged flap should be about half-way down the hat when the flap is resting against one side of the hat. It is an easy matter to hide a glass under the flap, and that glass is nearly filled with rice, which is prevented from coming out by means of a little plug of paper. By holding the fingers against the flap and the thumb on the brim of the hat it is an easy matter to prevent the glass from falling out when you casually hold the hat up for inspection by the audience. Keep the hat moving, and the audience will not see the flap. Put the hat down, letting the flap swing over to the other side of the hat. Then, when you wish to produce the glass of rice all you have to do is to pull out the plug of paper, leave it in the hat, and take out the glass. Pour the rice out on to a tray and then produce the water from the bowl, and pour it backwards and forwards from one bowl to another.
If you are using the metal bowls this vanish of the glass of water helps to fill in the time occupied by the water running from the top bowl to the one underneath it.
The Vanishing Water
Pour some water into a tumbler until it is about half full. Place a short cardboard cylinder over the glass; when you lift the cylinder the glass is empty, and the cylinder is held with one end facing the audience; there is nothing inside it.
This is a very simple "vanish." The glass has a detachable lining of transparent celluloid which will hold water. The presence of the lining in the glass is not noticed. All that the conjurer has to do is to take care not to put too much water into the "glass," because if he does he may find a difficulty in lifting the lining out in the only way in which it can be lifted out. The cover is placed over the glass. In removing the cover the conjurer holds it with his thumb outside and his middle finger, which should be moistened, inside. Two fingers pull up the celluloid lining and hold it tightly against the cover, which, of course, hides it for a moment while the conjurer picks up the glass and shows that the water has vanished. While he does this he puts the cover down on his table for a moment and lets the celluloid lining sink gently down into a "well" in the table. A "well" is the conjurer's name for a hole in the top of the table. The top of the table is covered with black velvet, and the inside of the hole is lined with the same material. If there is a pattern of gold braid on the top of the table—though even this is not necessary if one is performing on a stage—the hole cannot be seen by the audience, even if they are a few feet away from the table.
Fig. 14
The action of putting the cover down in a natural way, and not gingerly, as though the conjurer was afraid of something inside it, must be practised and, of course, the cover must be raised again at the earliest possible moment and shown to be empty.
The mere vanishing of water in this way is not a complete trick in itself; it should be combined with other tricks. The milk can, explained later on in this chapter, will serve for the purpose of the reproduction of the water, and if the conjurer will provide himself with an extra celluloid lining, load it with three or four handkerchiefs and place it behind a hat or some piece of apparatus on the table, he can easily build up a little trick.
Having shown the milk can to be empty, he fills the glass, covers it, and leaves it covered for a few moments while he shows some silk handkerchiefs similar to those in the "fake." He "vanishes" these handkerchiefs magically and shows his hands empty, or, if he prefers to do so, he can have another prepared glass similar to the first and put the handkerchiefs in that, so that he has a glass containing handkerchiefs on one side of his table and a glass containing water on the other, and the milk can in the centre. He lifts the cover from the handkerchiefs and shows that they have disappeared; of course, the "vanish" is managed in the same way, the celluloid lining of the glass containing the handkerchiefs going down another "well" in the table.