PROBLEMS OF A MAGICIAN

Southland Times, Issue 23736, 7 February 1939, Page 7

PROBLEMS OF A MAGICIAN

TAKING MONEY OUT OF COUNTRY NICOLA CONTEMPLATES BUYING WOOL Once when fhe Great Nicola was giving an entertainment in the form of a programme of magic to an audience of Zulus in South Africa he was paid in wheat, the only form of money available to the natives. However, he was able to make an arrangement with someone to take the grain off his hands and convert it into cash, which even a magician finds necessary. In an interview with The Southland Times between acts last night Nicola said that his African experience had given him an idea to simplify the removal of his funds from New Zealand when he left this country, in spite of the banking restrictions. He proposed to buy up all the wool he could and realize on it at the next wool-buying country at which he called. In view of the size of some of the objects which he is able to pack into a small space on the stage, the disposal of bales of wool about his person should not be a difficult task.

Nicola has been practising his craft since he was four years old, and even as he talks on the magic of different countries of the world he cannot refrain from illustrating his points by producing florins from the air, from his cuffs and from odd places behind his knee. Each country, he said, has its own distinctive tricks. In India, for instance, the conjurers had no stage effects, and had of necessity to perform tricks that could be effective with an audience all round them instead of merely in front. Nicola had the advantage of his father’s training in his craft, and was thus assisted on the stage from his earliest years. He paid his first visit to Invercargill 30 years ago, and has been to all parts of the world since then. It takes seven or eight years to complete a tour, and he considers that if he made another tour after this he would be at the “carpet slipper” age at the end of it. Consequently he has regretfully made this his farewell tour. Nicola says that magic has developed a great deal since he began to practise, and modem science has made things a great deal simpler. For instance the up-to-date magician took advantage of the better materials that'were available. Where at one time it was necessary to use inch timber it was now possible to use ply wood. For metal duralium was used for the sake of its lightness instead of steel. All these things simplified the task of the magician a great deal, and considering that Nicola has several tons of equipment with him weight is a big factor. Nicola’s father was a Scot named Mac Nicol, who emigrated to America where Nicola was born. The “Mac” was dropped, and Nicola added a final “a” to his name to avoid confusion with his brother.