Selwyn House School - Yearbook (Montreal, Quebec Canada)

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FOR THE SCHOOL YE.-XR 19-ll Y 19-ll The Qrt nf Magi: Ever since earliest times the human mind has been intrigued and deceived by other people who profess to call upon occult powers to accomplish their ends. One of the first examples of this is the Druid priesthood, which evoked pagan gods, and filled their fol- lowers with awe when they accomplished apparently impossible feats. liiven today, in Africa, there are men called witch-doctors who play upon the ignorance of the others of their race to acquire wealth and power. All people have an inherent fear and suspicion of things unknown, and even in civilized races people pretend to do real magic. Foremost among these are spiritualists, but now almost all of this class have been exposed, and I do not believe that the average person takes spiritualism at all seriously. Curiously enough, conjurers have mostly been the ones to expose the mediums, as they do not consider it fair for people to impose upon the gullibility of the public without telling them that they are subjects of a deception. However, some persons still persist in believing in spiritualism, though such belief in magic is supposed to have died out a few hundred years ago, when witches were no longer credited with supernatural or evil powers. The conjurers of today are quite different from spiritualists and that class, as they openly admit that they deceive the people, but they defy the public to explain how they do it. The modern magician is essentially an entertainer, even though some shroud their work in mystery. Magicians also have to keep up with the times, as today it would look rather peculiar to see a conjurer use a snuff box in his tricks. Fvery new invention that can be adapted to deception is used by con-iurers, and so we have tricks with cigarettes and tricks involving photography, which no one would have understood a century ago. Nowadays the old conhiuring table, draped to the floor and concealing an assistant, is abolished, small spidery-looking ones taking their place which perform the same me- chanical functions, but are very much more modern. In other words, the tricks which would, in all probability, have puzzled our great-grandfathers are childishly simple to us, and if a magician of a century ago could see our modern conhiurers he would be more mystified than the present-day audience. But there are some ageless tricks which will always con- tinue to be performed, mainly because the equipment can never be dated, these tricks are usually executed solely by sleight of hand, such as the Cut Rope Restored . There are three different styles that are used in magic shows, first the mysterious, second the natural, and third the humorous. ln the mysterious style the conjurer almost always wears full dress, and his opening is spectacular, but usually no word is uttered until the first trick is completed. This creates an impression that the conjurer is a superior being, which is maintained throughout the performance. It is funny to see the slight con- tempt the audience has for the conjurer slowly vanish and a look of wonder, and possibly awe, replace it. This type of performance is only useful upon the stage, and very rarely upon the platform, and it requires an exceptionally good actor to carry off the show suc- cessfully, still leaving an impression of superiority. It is even harder to perform the silent first trick, as the audience is almost sure to Spot how the deception is performed unless it is executed fast and with great dexterity. However this type of show impresses the l27l

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SELWYN HOUSE SCHOOL XXI.-XG.-XZINI-Q Q Erezhp Bop if f i NCF upon a time there lived a very, very greedy boy. So fat, in fact, that his a ll buttons kept coming ol'l'. Well, one day he was walking in the woods, and he saw ldgl a lot of pixies and gnomes going into a tree trunk. So he thought, whyr shouldn't I go in too, and in he went lyou see the door was quite widel. Inside a fairy he party was going on, so he sat down at the table and helped himself to the goodiesg there were all kinds ofjellies and lemon and jam tarts and chocolate eclairs and all kinds of good things. You see, fairy food does not hurt, so he ate all he wanted. And all the time he was growing fatter, and fatter, and fatter, and kept saying Don't push so much to the pixies beside him. .-Xt last he got up from the table, and you should have seen how fat he was, he was as fat as a balloon. The pixies would not let him play in the games because they said, He is too fat . So he decided to go home. When he got to the door he found he could not get out. So he asked the pixies to help him, and they came and pushed, and pushed, and pushed, and at last they managed to get him outside. But when he got out he Hew up, up, up, into the air and was never seen again. And that's the end of the greedy boy. R. W., Form .-X. 015112 Jfall nf Ethan I .w1':'ni Ihr 1111111 of Godfor 11m11y ,real-,rg I foihvifoz' flilll, 111112' ffzhozznfri 1101 i11 1-rzi11, Hr taught 1116 of fhe God he form !ll112,'ft'IZI'.f, .1'11d,hflr1i my hopehztx life tvilh hope zzgain I mu' the IllIl.i'ft'7',.f wo1z11'a1'-wo1'ki11g poicw' I11 1'zzi.fi11g .N'h1111a111'.r fimd fo Ziff 011121 111o1'f'. Hr vlzolzgm' th: .i'01'7'0iL'l.7lkQ' 'Z6,'i12l0'Zi'l.V 11'111'ke.v1 hom' To 0718 ofjo-v, 11111'f'ofi:m' hfforr. fljiffx Ill-X' hear! ieifh Jhllllllt' to fhinh lhrzf I. No hh'.v.r1'd hy fifing wilh zz 1111111 ,i'0fi71c', Cozzhi .rink .vo foie' thai fo 1zf1'ir111I' fd fit' .fmi sim! 111v1'v gohi and 1'ai111f11l lo hr 111i11r. I luzfw how lllllfll the .S1r1'ia11 v1lpmi11 had,- I did 7101 think my 111a,tff1' t',t'I' would know, B111 now, 111'v JOIlftf0l'c'l'c'7' wif! ht .flllf .15 1, fl leper, from III-Y h1'f'rh1'f'11 go .-X. C., Form 6. l26l

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SELWYN HOUSE SCHOOL MAGAZINE audience much more than do the other two, and for this reason, if the conjurer is capable of doing it, and has a suitable stage, it is preferable. The natural style of conjuring is more adapted to the parlor and platform types of magic shows, and is very widely used, as there is little memorizing of patter, and the magician can say whatever comes into his head about the trick. The effect on the audience is at first less than the mysterious show, as they think that they are merely seeing someone do a trick, and when the end proves to be startling and unexpected they sit up and take NOTICE. ln this type of show cheerfulness is essential, and if a performer is consistently cheerful the audience will respond to his attitude by being cheerful themselves, and since the audience wants mainly to be entertained this cheerfulness is very advantageous. Occasionally in the audience, during the natural kind of show there is one person who knows how it's done , and persists in calling out his knowledge. The only way to prevent this, and save the success of the show is to make the offender seem ridiculous. The aud- ience, knowing he is doing this, will immediately laugh at the culprit, and will more admire the performer for his cleverness. Magicians who use the humorous style of presenting a show have to use a definite outline to follow, which brings in the jokes to the best advantage, and permits the inventing of new ones in the talk. This also creates a good impression on the audience, who only think of the tricks as mediums for bringing in the jokes, and so entertainment, and there- fore to give the tricks their proper importance a half-natural half-humorous style seems as good as any to me. But of course, if the magician is unable to make jokes he should not bring in ones thought out beforehand, as these, coming from the wrong person, seem rather forced, or unnatural. The impression created upon the audience at the outset is also of great importance, and thus the first trick should be a good one. If it is not, and the audience start to think of the magician as a person, not a personality, the show is damaged, and, the performer sensing this, the entertainment proceeds in a rather strained way until a reaffr good trick is accomplished. The second most important item is the last trick, which should represent the utmost in the magician's repertoire, and it should be extremely spectacular, a production effect usually, and the audience should depart thinking mainly on this trick. So that, from the importance of the first and last tricks, we gather that the object of a con-iurer in a show is to create a good impression, and the object of the spectator to be entertained. The magic wand is another item of importance in a magic show, though its use is often regarded by the beginner as an affectation. This is not true, for the psychological effect obtained by touching an object with the wand and saying Presto in a deep voice, actually helps to make the audience believe that the miracle was accomplished at that very instant, though they really know that it must have been effected earlier. Usually any small suspicions that the audience have are overshadowed when the magic wand is used, and this is one reason why the wand is indispensable. The practical value of the wand, too, is often overlooked. It is most useful, as the magician can return to his table to pick it up or lay it down, thus acquiring an excuse to l3Sl