MAN OF MYSTERY

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 July 1936, Page 10

MAN OF MYSTERY

MASKELYNE’S lI.LESIONS A magician's illusions are made to [impress his audience in front of the footlights, with sometimes an indulIgence towards a committee who come up and stand about on the stage. From behind the curiam, however, (he whole [bag of tricks is open to vulgar inspec-i (ion, confesses Jasper fJaskclyne, the; jamons maa.ieia.ii, as reported in “Pub-!

.) lie Opinion." I In a good Si) per coni, of our big) j illusions, stage-hands have to assist! Juul of sight in the wings or up in !(hc flies. Consequent ly our greatest! I .secret s are no secrets to them. j i When I first started touring, I over-j [looked this salient fact. 1 began to produce the very best tricks that l{ [hud staged al St. George's Hall, where al! mir assistants were as loyal as! j bulldogs, and many of them venerated!

Jbe memory of my grandfather as well 1 Aly new (.ricks caused a sensation in Ihe theatres I visited. But alas for human nature! Other magicians, who desperately wanted to learn the secrets [<;; (hose I ricks, marched on my trail, standing drinks to good fellows among the stage-hands who assisted me, offering a five-pound note here and some other inducement there, just for a couple of worus of explanation—to "settle a bet’’—about the way I did this or that. Mr. Maskelyne once went to a children’s party, and says: “1 ran through my repertoire, and

'as always when the audience is a sympathetic and exicted one, was inspired to perform my very best. I ended with a trick in which 1 borrowed a top hat from the host, together with a huge pair of scissors, apparently cut the hat to bits, handed round the pieces to be examined by the scream-j iiifg children, received them back !again, shook them up in an empty [cardboard box, showed the box to be! empty, turned it upside down, and then shook the borrowed ‘topper,’ perfect and undamaged from its interior. "This concluding illusion was greeted with howls of delight, from which rose the persistent voice of a young

! lady of about five years olu. ' i “ ‘You couldn’t do that, uncle! Could j you uncle?’ j "But. uncle was not going to be , i challenged in this way in his own j house and refuse the flare. I “‘l’ll show you whether I can do fit or not, my dear Cicely!’ he respondied with mock severity, and climbed : up on the stage beside me. ‘Would ( I you mind lending me your hat, Air. 1

I ? iaskelyn?’ he asked. I "i did so. He examined my 'topper'i i a moment, reflectively picked up thej scissors, and asked me if 1 minded | him trying to repeat my own trick. 1| hud no objection, though I rather ‘ doubted if he could do it. i I "Next minute the scissors had shear-) Ifd through the rim, and a large section) ['. ■.I to the floor! I ' Now. I was standing within threei ■ • i of him at the time, and, since Ij new what to look for in the trick, I[ !■ .peeled to see something which did) :m. happen. Instead, another and) Another sliver of hat was clipped r.av; really clipped away from my Irilf I

I "1 looked closer and closer, till the) It. it was cut into small strips, buteven with my experience 1 could not det eel Ihe illusion. I

"Then my host, put the strips into my cardboard box. shook them up. and turned to his audience, who waited breathless and silent. He turned till* box upside down, just as I had done —but instead of the bits having > anished. they all poured out on to the floor!

"It was comical to sec the chagrin on his face. The audience rose to its ft el, whooped, shouted with laughter, and yelled unkind advice. "Then the amateur conjurer picked up the bits, and turned to me with a cr< stfallcn air.

"‘l’m afraid I can't do it after all!’’ he said sadly. “And there was my top-hat in segments ail over the carpet at our feet!”