MORE MYSTERY AND MAGIC

Evening Star, Issue 23179, 31 January 1939, Page 11

MORE MYSTERY AND MAGIC

NICOLA CHANGES HIS PROGRAMME For 10 days Nicola the Great has been mystifying Dunedin audiences m a manner never previously known with, an astounding programme -of illusions and deceptions. Even after so long a season the spell of this master magician is as great as ever, and last night, when he presented some new and oven, more startling feats of trickery than any hitherto shown, the “ house full sign was up early. The programme given was not entirely new, the best of the earlier feats having been retained, but few persons are likely to express any regrets at seeing for the second time illusions which are beyond compare. As for the new features, what can One say -apart from the fact that there seems to be no limit to what this man can do? There is. for instance, the ‘ Wizard’s Dream,’ in which, strangely enough,-Nicola takes an inactive part (or apparently so), as he sits dreaming in a corner of the stage. Theretis something a trifle eerie about this trick, enhanced by Nicola’s earlier references to the spirit world. An empty glass cabinet is placed in full view of tho audience, but presently there develop, one after another, three ghostly lights, which in turn become human beings, if, indeed, one may term a fairy and Mephistopheles human. Business fol- , lows, and leads up to the ‘ Indian Rope Trick,’ the last word in the unbelievable. A perfectly innocent-looking rope, its end free of wires, hooks, or any similar devices, slowly ascends towards the flies from the centre of the stage, and ‘having accomplished this, remains “ standing ” in a position defying all known laws of gravity. It might be possible to propound an explanation for that much of the trick, but of what follows—well, there must be an explanation, and doubtless a. simple one, but it was not obvious to last night’s spellbound audience. For the third person to emerge from the glass cabinet, a boy. started to climb the rope, quite easily, quite casually. Up and up he went, and was truly monarch of all he surveyed. Then, with a wicked leer, Mephistopheles gave a shout, waved his hand, and—the boy vanished like the suuffcd-out flame'of a candle while the rope fell back to tho stage. And Nicola slept on! Befbro the whole act was completed, even Mephistopheles had performed the vanishing deed. . . It is often said that a man cannot' see through a woman, but little things like that are no trouble to Nicola. All he required was a thrce-compartmeut cabinet, into which he placed a young woman. Haying satisfied everyone that she was most certainly in the cabinet, Nicola proceeded to 1 cut her into sections, neatly severing her head from the trunk, which was in turn severed from the legs. The severing act completed by huge blades, Nicola flung open the compartments: there was the girl’s head, there were the girl’s legs, but she had no middle. Only an empty space connected her legs and head (if an empty space may be said to connect anything), and that this was so was proved conclusively when a boy called from the audience pushed his hands through the place where her body certainly should have been. Of course, it was only a question of closing the compartments and opening them again, al-

most an instantaneous action, and the girl stepped forth in one piece, and not at all perturbed that for a time slm had seemed to be in three pieces. All very bewildering. , Nicola gave those who have been taken down by the thimble and pea trick an opportunity of seeing how it was done—if a close enough watch was kept. He used huge pjaying cards which were in full view of the audience on music stands; there were only three cards—two jacks and a queen—and all the audience had to do was tell Nicola which card his hands rested on. Very simple, really, because one saw Nicola quite calmly remove one card to another place, and so on. But. as oven with Nicola’s illusions, seeing was not believing, and for several baffling minutes be proved that it certainly is' not safe to “ bet on another man’s game.'* for no one card was tvhere it should have been.

The second half of the .programme opened with a presentation by Mi* Charles Vance, described as Nicdla’s “ protege in intimate magic.” Mr Vance, in 15 minutes of very clever deception, gave a delightfully noncha. 'lant performance, and, .proved the dc. scription applied was fully justified, A 1 de-Clerq. “the Hollywood hill* billy.” this week discoursed at length' upon the courting proclivities of an older generation and of the modern generation, . his hilarious comparison* being well received. Miss Lucille Rob. erts forsook her “ know-all. see-all. tell, all ” role, adopting that of a lightning calculator, and the manner in which she added and juggled figures was baffling and provided an unusually clever turn.

As in the previous week. Nicola received valuable aid from his stuff, his principal assistants being Miss - Miriam. Nicola and “ Dobst-i," the awkward clown, played by AW Berg.