GENERAL PRINCIPLES.
by Robert-Houdin
1. CONJURING makes too heavy a demand upon the faculties of
the spectators to admit of being unduly prolonged. It is a
well-known fact that attention too long sustained often degenerates
into weariness. Comte, an authority of the highest weight upon the
subject of public exhibitions, was of this opinion, as is sufficiently
proved by the invariable title of his own entertainment - "Two
hours of magic;" two hours being the precise duration of his
performance.
2. The most elementary rule of a conjuring entertainment is to
arrange the programme after the manner of the feats exhibited in
bygone days on the stage of Nicolet - de plus fort en plus fort - i.e.,
always to make each trick more surprising than the last.
3. Nothing is so catching as good spirits; the conjuror therefore
should do his utmost to meet the public with a hearty, genial
manner, taking care, however, to keep rigidly within the bounds of
propriety and good taste.
4. Some artists commit, when performing, a fault which cannot be
too carefully avoided; they lay aside their animated and genial
expression the moment the trick is over, as if they were mere
smiling machines, set in motion and stopped at the touch of a
spring.
5. However skillful the performer may be, and however complete
his preparations for a given trick, it is still possible that some
unforeseen accident may cause a failure. The only way to get out of
such a difficulty is to finish the trick in some other manner. But to
be able to do this, the performer must have strictly complied with
this important rule: never announce beforehand the nature of the
effect which you intend to produce.
6. However awkward the position in which you may be placed by a
breakdown, never for one moment dream of admitting yourself
beaten; on the contrary, make up for the failure by coolness,
animation, and "dash." Invent expedients, display redoubled
dexterity, and the spectators, misled by your self-possession, will
probably imagine that the trick was intended to end as it has done.
7. Do not, under any circumstances whatever, ask the indulgence of
the public. The spectators may fairly say that they have paid their
money to find you skillful, up to your work, in good health and
spirits; that they expect, in these particulars, their fair weight and
measure, and that you have no right to put them off with
complaints.
8. Although all one says during the course of a performance is - not
to mince the matter - a tissue of falsehoods, the performer must
sufficiently enter into the part he plays, to himself believe in the
reality of his fictitious statements. This belief on his own part will
infallibly carry a like conviction to the minds of the spectators.
9. Nothing should be neglected which may assist in misleading the
minds of the spectators: ergo, when you perform any trick,
endeavor to induce the audience to attribute the effect produced to
any cause rather than the real one; thus, a feat of dexterity should be
presented as resting on some mechanical or scientific principle; and
again, a trick really depending on a scientific principle should be
offered as a result of sleight-of-hand.
10. Many conjurors make a practice, in the course of their
performances, of indicating such and such expedients of the art, and
of boasting that they themselves do not employ the method in
question. "You observe," they will remark, "that I don't make the
pass-that I don't change the card," &c.; and yet, a moment later, they
use in some other trick the expedient they have just revealed. It
follows, as a natural result, that the spectator, being thus made
acquainted with artifices of which he would otherwise have known
nothing, is put on his guard, and is no longer open to deception.
11. It is not unusual to see conjurors affect a pretended clumsiness
which they call a "feint." These hoaxes played on the public are in
very bad taste. What should we think of an actor who pretended to
forget his part, or of a singer who for a moment affected to sing out
of tune in order to gain greater applause afterwards? I do not here
refer to the "feints" employed in conjuring to imitate some act which
is designed to mislead the mind or the attention of the spectator.
The feint, in this latter case, being executed with extreme dexterity,
has no existence for the spectator, but passes in his mind for a
genuine act. An artifice of this kind is one of the most effective aids
in the performance of a conjuring trick. We shall recur at proper
time and place to this subject.
12. Some conjurors use an excessive amount of gesture in order to
cover their manipulations. This is wrong. Genuine conjuring
demands perfect simplicity of execution. The more simple and
natural the movements of the performer, the less likely is the
spectator to detect the trick. It is true that in this case a very much
higher degree of dexterity is required than in the former.
13. I cannot suppose that any conjuror would for one moment
dream of employing confederates among the audience. This sort of
joint hoax has now gone quite out of fashion. A trick performed on
this principle is out of the pale of conjuring altogether; it is at best
what schoolboys would describe as a "good sell."
14. As a matter of course, a conjuror should speak with perfect
grammatical correctness. He should, moreover, avoid coarse "chaff,"
personal observations, and practical jokes, and should in like
manner eschew pedantic and affected language, Latin quotations,
and especially puns. The only wit for which the public gives a
conjuror any credit, is the wit of his dexterity. In the words of one of
our chroniclers, referring to an artist who was extremely chary of his
speech, but very skillful as a performer :--
"How many people would be glad
To have the wit his fingers had !"
"Combien de gens voudraient parfois
Avoir tout l'esprit de ses doigts."
15. It will be hardly necessary, I imagine, to dilate upon the
absurdity of wearing the long robe of a magician. Let us leave tinsel
and high-crowned hats to mountebanks; the ordinary dress of a
gentleman is the only costume appropriate to a high-class conjuror.
The most probable result of assuming the conventional garb of a
wizard will be to make the wearer an object of derision.
Les Secrets de la Prestidigitation et de la Magie by Robert-Houdin, 1868.
From the English translation by Professor Hoffmann (London, George Routledge
And Sons, 1878)