ENTERTAINING TRICKS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 287, 3 December 1932, Page 2 (Supplement)

ENTERTAINING TRICKS.

HOW TO MYSTIFY YOUR FRIENDS. (Sent In by Jessie Meikle, New Lynn, age 16.) Headers will love to mystify their friends with these tricks, which, are easy to perform without practice. Choose Your Card. A simple trick that will puzzle an audience completely may be performed by preparing a pack of cards by placing all the odd cards together, the 1, 3, 5, etc., of each suit, calling the Jack and King as odd, and all the even cards together, and placing the two halves of the pack on - top of one another. It is perfectly safe to show the cards to the audience, for it is most unlikely that anyone will see how they are divided. Having done this, ask anyone to chooee a card, and note which half of the pack it is chosen from, the odd or the even half. Be turn the card yourself, making clear you are not looking at it, but return it to the half from which it was not originally chosen. Then deal all the cards, face upwards, in rapid succession, announcing that you will stop at the chosen card. Naturally you can do this, as it is either the only odd card in the even pack, or vice versa. The Disappearing Card. Another trick that is very simple, yet puzzles most people, is the following: Six cards are laid on the floor, and the performer announces very solemnly that be or she will make any one of the cards selected by the company disappear. A card is chosen. Then the performer turns up his or her sleeves and slowly picks up the card. All the cards are held in the hands for a few minutes, and then slowly put back on the floor, when the indicated card is found to have disappeared. The explanation is rarely guessed by any who do not know the trick. In picking up the selected card the performer runs his or her thumb, which has been casually moistened with the tongue, down the side of it, and the next card adheres to it. The cards when picked up should be carefully aligned and given a firm squeeze before being laid down again, so that the two cards stick firmly together. Four Robbers. The four knaves triek is performed in this way: The performer runs through the pack and picks out the four knaves, all the time keeping up a running story about four knaves who are going to rob a house. The story is purely to distract the audience and to hide the workings of the trick. The four knaves are held out fanwise in the left hand, and the fact fully impressed upon the audience that there are four knaves. The fan is closed and placed on top of the pack, face downwards. The performer then takes the top card of the pack, which is also the top card of the four, and places it without showing it to the audience, about a quarter-way down, telling a suitable story about this knave robbing the upper part of the house. The next is similarly placed about halfway down, and the third three-quarter-way down, and the last left on top of the pack. The performer then gives the cards a shaip double knock, which the watchers are informed is done to frighten the knaves, so that they have all hurried to the top of the pack to join the knave there. As this is said, the four top cards are turned over, and lour knaves are revealed. The explanation is that behind the back card of the i of Jacks there are three other cards Properly squared up with the Jack, tliev do not show, and when the fan is closed and placed on top of the pack, it is these three cards which are placed one after another lit the pack, leaving four Jacks in position. The Crawling Sixpence. Stand an ordinary glass tumbler inverted upon two pennies and place a sixpence on the cloth between the two

coins upon which the glass rests. Now ask anyone to get the imprisoned sixpence out of the glass without touching the glass. After various attempts have 'been made, you have only to scratch with the nail of your forefinger the cloth just outside the rim of the glass opposite the sixpence, and the coin will slowly work its way out from under the glass. In this, as in certain other tricks, you will obtain much amusement by letting your friends "have a try" and not disclosing the solution of the triek until everybody else has failed. Make a Christmas Tree. Prepare several sheets of paper, 4in or sin wide, by pasting them together by their edges. When dry, . jll up the joined sheets on a round ruler. Withdraw the ruler and insert your scissors in end of the paper cylinder thus formed, and cut dowu wards for about 3in. Do this twice more, and then bend over the cut portions. Now insert your forefinger in the top and pull gently upwards, and a fine "Christmas tree" is the result. A Match Box Trick. Take an ordinary match box, open it and remove the matches. Now take the empty inner tray, and on the back of it glue or gum a row of matches, completely covering the back of the tray. Allow it to dry, and you have the where- j withal for a neat little illusion. Place the tray back in the outer case, close it, and then, making a little flourish, open it and show it empty. Close it again, move it up and down and to and fro, and in doing so turn it round and then open it again and show it to be full. Once more make the movements and again show it. empty. Every time you open it one way it is full, and every time you open it the other way it is empty, because the matches glued to the bottom of the tray give the appearance of a full box. A Mystifying Performance. You will completely deceive your friends with this clever ti'ick,' in which cards are also introduced. Place a small piece of soap on one of your thumbs, take a dinner plate and pass it round for examination. When you again take the plate, press the piece of soap on the centre of the back. Pass a pack of cards round, requesting that one should be selected. Take the pack and eec that the selected card is placed and kept on top. Tell your audience that, to prevent you or anyone else tampering with the cards, you will place the plate upon them. This you do, pressing down the plate so that'the top card will adhere to the eoap, Now take up the plate (the card is now stuck on its back) and place the pack of cards upon it—of course, keeping the back of the plate towards yourself. Taking the plate, you go towards the audience and, as if by accident, let the cards slip off on to the floor. Apologising for the accident, you stoop down, still keeping the front of the plate towards the audience. Now quickly, and without a moment's pause, twirl the plate rapidly on its edge (as in the game of twilight) among the scattered, cards. When the plate stops, the chosen card is found to be pn the back of it.