The Billet Article - Librarians Page

This article is taken from The Billet Issue - 422 - Apr 2007, Authored by Peter Wright

Librarians Page

A bit of cloak and dagger about my column this month. I got an e-mail from a BMC member who said he wanted to anonymously donate some books and tapes to the library. As a result I made my way in the dead of night to the member’s house to pick them up. I can tell you it was well worth while. Not only have we been donated some excellent books on magic but quite a few books on comedy as well. I can tell you that you should never be short of a joke now we have such a wealth of corny jokes.

Firstly, the magic books. There is a copy of Magic Circle Magic. This book is a compilation of tricks submitted by many magicians. Here’s an example of a simple trick submitted by Tommy Cooper

At My Command

This may not be the best item in this book, but it will be the shortest. Moreover, I can promise you that you can perform it after only a few hours' practice, and that it calls for no duplicate cards, no rough and smooth, no confederates, and no difficult memorising. Here are the simple instructions, step by step: Take the Queen of Hearts from a pack of cards (your own, or borrowed). Hold it between the first and second fingers of the right hand. Raise the right hand slightly above your head. Patter as follows: "This card is now going to be placed completely under my command. It will do anything I tell it to do. I will now demonstrate this." At this stage, fling the card boldly into the air, and order it to come down again. It will do so every time.*

*This trick never fails.
Unless you throw it too hard, when it may stick to the ceiling if you've got marmalade on your fingers.

Well what did you expect? Not all the tricks are as simple; there is some very clever magic in this book covering all aspects of the art. We also have a copy of a book called Later Magic by a certain Professor Hoffman. This is a reprint of a book originally published in 1904 and it has 737 pages packed with tricks. There are some other biographies of great magicians and second copies of book we already have, but they are still very acceptable. If you find yourself short of comedy material or funny stories and can tell you that we now have enough ‘corn’ in the library to keep a flock of chickens going until Christmas. We have joke books, Irish stories, The Two Ronnies scripts, after dinner stories and entertainment, a joke encyclopaedia, 1000 ‘What’ jokes, the list goes on and on. You name it and we now just about have it.

There are also some VHS videos and audio cassettes. We have an hour long card lecture by David Jones, some David Copperfield material. One tape of him in Germany and one with his first five shows recorded. Audio cassettes include an interview with Bob Eaton in 1998 and a recording of Bob Read at the BMC in 1980. All in all a lot of stuff for me to sort out but a great addition to the library. A big thank you to the members who donated it all.

The Prestige [2006]

I have just seen this excellent film which has just been released on DVD. It is the story of two magicians and a spectacular trick. Set in the late 19th Century, when magic was a real crowd puller at the music halls the story unfolds in a rather disjointed fashion but nevertheless sorts itself out at the end. Basically it starts with what appears to be a tragic accident during the performance of a trick. One of the magicians is then arrested for the murder of the other. At this point the film tracks back so that we can see what lead up to this tragic event. The arguments, ploys and jealousy that lead the two magicians to try and get each others secrets. There are plenty of twists and turns in the plot and once you get ‘into’ the film you are really hooked. If you would like to borrow the DVD come and see me.

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