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Those who are familiar with my work know that I'm all for simplicity in presentation. This was once again brought to mind when watching a video tape made of 'The Best of Magic'. Let's start at the beginning. During the war, when it was almost impossible to get new tricks, and especially on the high seas, I often had to improvise and make do with whatever I could lay my hands on. In order to bring some change into my programme, I devised a routine, or rather a sequence of events, which I used for years.
On my table was a stand to which was attached a clock. In front I had three glasses. Two coloured silks were tied together and put in one glass. The clock, which had been showing 12.0 o'clock all evening, was now advanced by 2 minutes. A string of beads had the string cut and beads and string placed in glass No2. Ten playing cards were shown. Five cards fanned with the faces to me. The other five cards were inserted, one at a time, with the faces to the audience so that we had a fan showing front and back alternately. The clock, in the meantime, had been advanced another 4 minutes. Besides the three glasses there was also a small slate. On this slate I wrote what had happened. Silks, Beads, Cards, and as I was writing on a slate I added Slate. The clock was put back to 12 o'clock. We had gone back in time. The silks were untied. The beads were still on the string. The cards were facing all one way and, of course, the slate was blank. You will recognise the various effects. False knot, Karmo beads, mirror glass and flap slate. The clock was a simple piece of cardboard with hands cut from tin.
What made me think about this routine, which I discarded some 30 years ago, was seeing Uri Geller doing something similar on 'The Best of Magic'. A cabinet with four compartments and front and back doors. On top of the cabinet a clock. (a real one this time). Ice cubes were melted and the water poured into a glass which was put in one compartment. Two silks were knotted together and went into another glass which was also put in the cabinet. Corn was popped and put in compartment No3. A parcel, which had been lying on a table during the performance, was put into compartment No 4 by a spectator. The doors were closed and the clock, previously put at 2.0 o'clock as per spectator's wishes when the routine started, and had since then moved 5 minutes, was returned to the original time. Back in Time. The water had returned to being cubes of ice. The silks were untied and the popcorn was just plain corn. The parcel, put in by the spectator, was opened and shown to contain a clock with the time set at 2.0 o'clock. Now, what was the difference?
You will notice that with my simple mind I had selected simple tricks which couldn't go wrong. Uri, on the other hand, used elaborate equipment to do the effect. To the viewer, and watching the video, everything looked perfect and a seemingly impossible sequence of events had taken place. To the studio audience it looked entirely different. They saw Uri Geller put the clock back and then, suddenly, the curtains closed. When they opened again some ten minutes later, Uri showed that everything had gone back to its original state. To this studio audience, it didn't make any sense. Because of the break in routine, they had lost sight of the sequence. What had gone wrong? Uri's elaborate equipment had failed him at the crucial moment. Behind closed curtains everything had to be reset. A member of the audience didn't understand the sequence of effects until he saw it again on a cleverly edited tape of the show.
What I'm trying to say is that tricks can go wrong at the best of times, so why take a chance if you don't have to. Keep everything simple and even then you can get unstuck. Take for instance 'Chink Cans'. I have worked this for as long as I can remember. If you don't know the routine, here it is. A can, something of the size like a 1Soz soup can, is filled with a quantity of rice. Another can is placed on top, shaken, and when removed, the bottom can is now over-flowing with rice, i.e. the contents have doubled. The can with rice is now leveled off, covered with a piece of news- paper and closed with an elastic band. Passes are made or, as in my case colours taken from the clothing of the children and, lo and behold, the can is now filled with many beautifully coloured handkerchiefs. Simple - can be reset while packing. It's no trouble. When doing this trick at my next venue that afternoon I put the two containers together and found that it didn't work. They didn't fit. In my hurry, I had loaded the silks in the wrong container. There was only one thing to do. Take out the silks, transfer the rice from the other container into this one, and load the silks into the now empty container. The hankies did finally make an appearance but not as smooth as usual. More like a bunched up mess. It won't happen again but as I said before, even simple tricks can go wrong. So why risk your neck with some elaborate equipment if you can get away without it.
