Herrmann's Wizard Manual: A Practical Treatise on Coin Tricks & Card Tricks:

by Alexander Herrmann

Overview

We recommend the following rules to the student:

First. - Never tell your audience beforehand what you are going to do. If you do so, you at once give their vigilance the direction which it is most necessary to avoid, and increase tenfold the chances of detection.

Second. - The same trick must not be performed twice during the same evening, or before the same audience. The reason for this is apparent from the first rule, above. There are generally two ways of bringing about the same or a similar result, and in the event of your feeling constrained to respond to an encore, you must perform it in a different manner.

Third. - Vary your tricks, for this reason: If you are continually doing those depending upon the dexterity of the fingers, your audience will become accustomed to their movements; therefore, perform in succession tricks of sleigh t-of -hand, tricks with apparatus, and tricks in "white magic" so as to confuse the too inquisitive spectator, and yet retain his attention.
Fourth. - Endeavor to divert the attention of the audience as much as possible from your movements, and lead them to believe that you perform the trick by a different method to that actually employed.

Fifth. - Accustom yourself to use the eyes and the hands independently of each other; remember that the audience are observing your actions, and their attention is frequently taken from your hands, with which you wish to make a certain manipulation, to follow the directions of a glance thrown over your shoulder or elsewhere.

Sixth. - Never act the buffoon, nor pass ungentlemanly personalities; by such you only make yourself ridiculous, and gain the ill-will of some present.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781663546753
Publisher:	Barnes & Noble Press
Publication date:	08/09/2020
Pages:	70
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.17(d)

About the Author

Alexander Herrmann (February 10, 1844 – December 17, 1896) was a French magician, better known as Herrmann the Great. He was married to Adelaide Herrmann, another magician known as the Queen of Magic. Throughout the 1870s and 1880s, Alexander and his wife Adelaide Herrmann performed together in elaborate stage shows. The great American impresario Michael B. Leavitt handled Herrmann's American and Mexican contracts. Leavitt always paid all transportation costs as well as advertising, salaries, and other expenses. "Whenever I open a new theatre, " Leavitt once said, "I want to insure of large crowds, I will have Herrmann the Great play the date." He was always a drawing card wherever he played, receiving fifty percent of the gross receipt and earning $75,000 a year (about $3 million in today's figures).