Water Wizardry: A collection of tricks in which water is the chief agent

The following tricks are suitable for informal performances. These tricks are easy, but I advise the amateur conjurer to try them over privately a few times before showing them to an audience. The first trick I call

The Impossible

Three tumblers, a jug of water, and a piece of stiff paper about eight inches by four are required. Pour the water into the tumblers until each is about half full. Be very anxious-before an audience-to see that there is the same quantity of water in each glass, not that this little detail has anything to do with the actual working of the trick, but it may lead people to think that it has-until they see you do the trick.

Now, place the paper on the edges of two of the glasses, forming a kind of bridge between them. Pick up the third glass and let it rest, while the hand still holds it, on the paper bridge. Naturally, the paper will sink down under the weight. Then you move the two glasses a little nearer to each other and try again, and again the paper bends under the weight of the glass you place on it.

Fig. 1

You pretend to be in difficulties and encourage the "knowing ones" in your audience to jeer at you as you try the trick again and again. You explain that there is a way of resting the glass on the paper in such a way that the paper shall not sink down. Some brainy person will then say, "Impossible!"-or it is to be hoped that they will-because that will give you the opportunity of saying:

"Thank you. I remember it now. 'Impossible' happens to be the name of the trick; thanks for giving me the clue. It won't be such a bad trick-will it?-if I make a bridge between these two glasses with this piece of paper and then place the other glass on the bridge. . . ."

"With the water still in the glass," says one of your victims.

"Of course-with the water still in the glass."

Some members of your audience will be sure to say that it cannot be done; others will beg to be allowed to think it out. You will probably hear whispering:

"The water in the glasses has something to do with it. Why was he so jolly careful to get the same quantity of water in each glass? Now, wait a minute. . . ."

This is where you chuckle secretly. You invite anyone to come and try the experiment. Your audience will suggest putting something under the paper-a strip of cardboard or something of that kind. You work up the excitement as you say: "No cardboard is used in the trick."

Your audience will jump to the conclusion that something besides the articles they see is used, but they are wrong. The trick can be done when you know how to do it.

When everyone has "given it up" fold the paper in pleats lengthwise, open out the pleats a little, and rest the paper on the tops of two of the glasses. The paper is then in corrugated form and it will bear the weight of the third glass, half full of water, upon it. You have achieved the "impossible."

Of course you could do the trick in about half the time by merely asking: "Can you do this?" and then proceeding to do it, but by working up the trick in the way I have suggested you make it more effective.

You will now see the necessity of a little private rehearsal with the glasses and the paper that you are going to use. You have to make sure that the paper is sufficiently thick, that the pleats are folded properly (they must not be too wide) and that the glass is not too heavy. The trick is quite simple with a "pony" glass, but as the base of the glass is small the pleats of the paper must also be small; otherwise you will have difficulty in balancing the glass on the paper.

"An Old One"

If you have a small boy in your audience when you start to do your next trick you will be sure to hear him say that he has seen it before and that it is an old trick, but you need not let a little thing like that worry you. The trick is old, but I have given it a little "twist" which, I think, will leave the small boy guessing as to how it is done.

You have a glass of water. You borrow a penny, throw a handkerchief over it and ask someone to hold it over the glass; the penny is held by the edges. You instruct the person helping you to drop the penny into the glass of water when you say "Go!" They obey your instructions and the penny is heard to drop into the water. (You will understand, of course, that the handkerchief is draped round the glass, and so the penny is not seen to fall.) You pull the handkerchief away and hold the glass up to the light. The penny has vanished.

The old way of doing this trick was with an eyeglass, which was concealed in your hand. In throwing the handkerchief over the penny you brought the eyeglass up and under the handkerchief while you kept the penny concealed in your hand. The eyeglass was therefore dropped into the glass and it sank to the bottom. By using a glass of the right size it is possible to pour out the water without giving the trick away; the eyeglass adheres to the bottom of the little tumbler.

In all probability, therefore, at the conclusion of the trick the small boy in your audience will say:

"Now let's look at the tumbler."

You pass it to him at once; he thinks he has "got you," but he hasn't. The glass is empty.

The little "twist" I have mentioned consists in using an eyeglass with a hole in it. The hole enables you to attach the eyeglass by a short piece of cotton to one corner of the handkerchief. The trick is doubly effective when done in this way because at the beginning you can show that you have only the penny in your hand. Arrange the handkerchief in your pocket before commencing the trick; you will find it convenient to have it either in your right trousers pocket or the left-hand inside pocket of your coat; then you will be able to get at it easily. The prepared corner, with the eyeglass resting on it, should be at the top. When you take the handkerchief by the prepared corner from your pocket the eyeglass will hang down behind the handkerchief and be hidden there. Then take the handkerchief by the prepared corner in your left hand and apparently place the penny under the handkerchief, but of course you conceal the penny in your hand and bring up the eyeglass. Someone grasps the eyeglass by the edge (through the handkerchief) and lets it fall into the tumbler. You then take the handkerchief by the prepared corner and pull it upwards quickly and then away from the glass. Put the handkerchief into your pocket as you pour the water out of the glass to show that the penny has vanished. The small boy may ask to see the handkerchief again, and so you have taken the precaution to have another handkerchief, bunched up in your pocket, in readiness. And this is the handkerchief that you produce for inspection-if someone insists on seeing "the handkerchief" but not otherwise.

A Quaint Mixture

A soda-water tumbler, a jug containing from a quarter to half a pint of water, and a cup of coffee with a little milk in it are needed for this experiment.

The trick is to pour both the coffee and the water into the big tumbler and then separate them again. Possibly somebody will attempt this feat by first placing a small tumbler in the large one, pouring the coffee into the small tumbler and the water around it. But can it be said that you pour both the coffee and the water into the tumbler when you really pour the coffee into another glass placed inside the tumbler? No, that solution does not work.

Here is the way in which you carry out your intentions.

Pour the coffee into the big tumbler and place on it a disc of thin cardboard; the disc should reach nearly to the edge of the tumbler. Then pour the water very slowly, a few drops at a time, on to the top of the cardboard, which breaks the fall of the water. The water runs off to the edge, and as the coffee is heavier than the water the latter remains on the top. The cardboard disc floats upwards with the water, and so the first half of the trick is accomplished.

The separation of the liquids can be brought about in two or three ways. For example, you can offer to drink the coffee without drinking the water, and you achieve this apparent miracle by merely putting in a straw and sucking up the coffee; in that way you have separated the two liquids.

With the help of a scent spray you can pump the water into the jug again, taking great care, of course, not to disturb the surface of the coffee. You can also take out nearly all the water with a small sponge and the remainder with a piece of blotting paper.

The Shower Bath

This is not really the title of the next trick, but it is sometimes suitable for it when the trick is performed by a man who has never had a rehearsal. It is quite a good trick to play on to somebody at a Christmas party. Just tell your audience that instead of doing the next trick yourself you will show somebody else how to do it. Then pour out a glass of water, put a small plate on the top of it and, pressing the plate with the left hand on to the glass and holding the glass with the right hand, turn the lot over. Thus you have a glass of water inverted on a plate.

The trick is to drink the water, but in order to get the glass to your mouth you must use only one hand.

To do it-lift the plate with the glass upon it and place it on your head. Balance it there for a second. Then, pressing the glass against the plate with the right hand, bend down to the table until you can put the glass on the table and leave the plate on the top of it. Then all you have to do is to lift the plate and drink the water.

There is another way of doing this trick, and if the first does not result in a shower bath for the man who is trying it for the first time the second way is almost sure to have that effect.

After the glass of water is inverted on the plate, bend down until the top of the head touches the bottom of the glass. Then, pressing the plate against the glass slowly raise the head and stand erect. Stand quite still, remove the plate, and then remove the glass and drink the contents-if you like.

Fig. 2

There is a kind of first cousin to this trick. Take two claret glasses. Half fill one of them with water and place the empty glass on the top of it. The trick is to pour the water into the empty glass and drink it, but you must use only one hand and you are not to touch the top glass with it.

Pick up the two glasses together by taking the bottom one by the stem (it is just as well to practise this with your own glasses and to stand over a bed during the rehearsal) and then pull off the top one with your mouth and hold it firmly between the teeth. Then you can pour the water into it. Still holding the other glass in your hand place the glass with the water on the top of it, and then, holding the two together, you can drink the water.

A Steady Hand

You can use one of the glasses for this trick. Half fill it with water and then, tilting the glass, try to balance it on the edge of the foot. With care and a little practice you can accomplish this feat by sheer skill, but you simplify it considerably if you take the precaution to slip a match under the table-cloth before you begin. If you are doing the trick at a dinner table it is just possible that some evil-disposed person may notice the little bump in the tablecloth caused by the match, and so you prepare for that charge by tying a piece of cotton to the match. The end of the cotton hangs down below the table-cloth close to your hand, and directly you have done the trick you quietly pull the match away, and then you can challenge Mr. Know-all to do the trick himself.

In the Soup

The soup in this case is represented with water, and you can use the same glass; it should be about half full of water. Lay a piece of nice shiny cardboard on the top of it-a piece about eight inches square is large enough-and on the cardboard and exactly over the glass stand a cork. On the top of the cork balance a tangerine orange. Now, if you give a sharp knock to the cardboard with your right hand the cardboard should go skimming away, taking the cork "off the premises" with it, and the tangerine should drop into the water.

This feat appears to be very difficult, but it is not; the weight of the tangerine helps you. When you can do the trick every time with one glass you can try it with two glasses-using a larger piece of cardboard, of course-and then three glasses, and, finally, four. It is not so easy then.

This feat is often performed on the stage, but eggs-or, rather, imitation eggs-are used in place of the tangerines, and the trick in that form is difficult because the eggs are light. Don't follow up your stroke when you are hitting the cardboard away. Just give it a sharp knock and bring the hand to a standstill with a jerk. Look around you before you do the trick; otherwise, you may hurt somebody with the flying piece of cardboard. To avoid any accident of this kind get a friend to stand a little to the side of your table so that he may catch the cardboard.

When the trick is performed on the stage a tea-tray is generally used, and the raised edge of the tray adds considerably to the difficulty of the trick.

On the Edge

Hold a card by the sides between the fingers and thumb of the right hand, the face of the card being towards the audience. Now, can you balance a glass half full of water on the top of the card?

Fig. 3

I know of four ways of doing this trick, but we need not take any notice of the first because you are not likely to trouble to learn it; it consists in actually doing what you profess to do-balance the glass. It can be done, but you need a very steady hand and long practice.

The second way is by the aid of a specially prepared card. This is made of two cards, fastened together.

Fold a card lengthways in half. Stick one-half to the back of another card and then fold back the half which is not stuck so that the back of the prepared card may appear to be the back of an ordinary card.

Now, if you hold up this card by the sides you can easily fold the loose half back a little when you are putting the glass on the edge of the card, and thus you get a firm standing place for the glass. If you wish to be able to throw this card down on the table without giving away the secret (because there will naturally be a little curve in the part which you folded back) you must make a little spring hinge by means of a strip of india-rubber down the card. A card prepared in this way can be bought at a conjuring shop. The trick is quite a good one when done in this way, but, of course, it has this drawback. If you are performing at a friend's house and you are using borrowed cards it is more than probable that the backs of the borrowed cards will not match the back of the trick card. Well, you can do the trick without the use of a specially prepared card, and this brings us to the third method.

Take any card and fold it in halves lengthways. Then fold it back again and put it on the top of the pack. Of course, if you are performing with a borrowed pack of cards you will have to seize your opportunity to do this when the attention of the audience is directed to another trick, or you can do it before your performance begins.

Now, pick up the two top cards together and hold them in the right hand in the way described, with the face of the lower card towards the audience. You will understand, of course, that to the audience these two cards must appear to be one card. When you take the glass with your left hand and try to balance it on the top of the card the back of the left hand is towards the audience and the hand nearly covers the whole of the card. This gives you the chance of bending back the top card to make a firm resting-place for the glass. The bending is done with the right first finger. To assist you in keeping the cards nicely squared up while you are bending back the top one place the right little finger under the lower edge of the cards and the left middle finger and thumb at the sides, the left thumb being just above the right thumb. Of course, the left hand is held in this position for only a few moments while you are balancing the glass.

After you have done the trick in this way casually return the two cards to the pack and shuffle the cards, thus getting the bent card out of sight.

The fourth method is, to my mind, the best of the lot, because you use only one card. Hold it in the way described and bend it slightly, the convex side being towards the audience. Now, in the act of balancing the glass on the edge with your left hand just stick your right first finger straight up behind the card and rest the glass partly on the edge of the card and partly on the tip of your finger which, of course, is hidden by the card. It will be necessary to hold the card up fairly high so that no one can get a glimpse over the top of it. The trick is over so quickly that no one notices that the first finger is concealed behind the card.