Fig. 317.
We will suppose, for instance, that he is called upon to give a magical séance in a private drawing-room. The first point is to decide which part of the room is to form the “stage.” Having settled this, the seats for the spectators should be arranged at the opposite end of the room, leaving as wide a space between as can well be obtained, as many “changes,” etc., are effected during the journey from the audience to the table, and the longer this journey is, the more time is available for the necessary manipulations. At the stage end, the “table” will be the principal feature, and either behind or beside this, should be placed a screen of not less than six feet in height, and four or five wide, to serve as “behind the scenes,” and to afford the cover necessary for the various preparations. Supposing a regular screen is not available, one must be extemporized. A large clothes-horse, with a curtain thrown over it, will answer the purpose very well. If, however, the drawing-room be of the regular London fashion, i.e., consisting of a large front and a small back room, connected by folding doors, the screen may be dispensed with, and the rooms arranged as in [Fig. 317], which represents a ground plan of two such rooms, with the adjoining staircase and landing. The larger room, A, will form the auditorium, and the smaller, B, the stage; a and b representing the doors leading to the landing, and c c the folding doors between the two rooms. The folding doors (which act as curtain) being first closed, the spectators are marshalled into A, and requested to take their seats, and the door b is then closed, to remain so throughout the entertainment. The room B is arranged as follows:—The “table” d is placed in the centre, towards the back, with its servante properly arranged. This may either stand alone, or may be supplemented by a couple of side tables, e e. An ordinary table, f, should be placed outside the door, and upon this will be laid in due order the various pieces of apparatus and other articles which will be required in the course of the entertainment. A working programme should be kept on this table for the use of the performer and his assistant, with a note of the articles required for the purpose of each trick. This will enable them to have everything ready at the right moment, without delay or confusion. The door a should be kept open, so that the assistant, from his place by the table f, can instantly see and hear what is wanted.
When the performer has made his bow to his audience, there are still one or two little points that he will do well to bear in mind. They may be summarized as follows:—
1. Don’t be nervous. (The reader may possibly consider that this is a matter in which he has no choice; but nothing could be a greater mistake.) A little diffidence is excusable on the first presentation of a new programme, but never afterwards.
2. Take your time. Deliver your boniment like an actor playing his part, and not like a school-boy repeating his lesson. Further, give your audience time to see and appreciate your movements. Young performers are very apt to exhibit the second phase of a transformation without having sufficiently indicated the first to the spectators. The change of, say, an orange to an apple, falls decidedly flat if nobody noticed that the article was an orange in the first instance.
3. Don’t make any parade of dexterity, and don’t affect any unusual quickness in your movements. If you are about to vanish a coin, don’t play shuttlecock with it from hand to hand as a preliminary; but make the necessary “pass” as quietly and deliberately as you possibly can. Don’t talk about “the quickness of the hand deceiving the eye,” and still less do anything to support such an idea. The perfection of conjuring lies in the ars artem celandi—in sending away the spectators persuaded that sleight-of-hand has not been employed at all, and unable to suggest any solution of the wonders they have seen.
4. Don’t force yourself to be funny. If you are naturally humorous, so much the better; but in any case perform in your natural character.
5. Avoid personalities. We except the case of the often recurring nuisance, the gentleman who professes to know how everything is done, and whose special endeavour it is to embarrass the performer. When you can make a person of this kind look like a fool (by no means a difficult task) by all means do so.
6. Never plead guilty to a failure. Keep your wits about you, and if anything goes wrong, try to save your credit by bringing the trick to some sort of a conclusion, even though it be a comparatively weak one. If you are so unfortunate as to experience a complete and unmistakeable break-down, smile cheerfully, and ascribe the fiasco to the moon being in a wrong quarter, to a little misunderstanding between two of your “controlling spirits,” or any other burlesque reason, so long as it be sufficiently remote from the true one.