Blow book

Last updated

The blow book, better known as a magic coloring book in modern variations, is a classic magic trick that has been performed for hundreds of years. It was most popular from the 16th to the 19th century, when variations of the concept were a staple of the book publishing trade. It has been referred to as the oldest example of a manufactured prop used for magic. It remains a common trick today, albeit mostly performed for children, preferably at birthday parties or other events due to the visual nature of the illusion.

Contents

Effect

The magician presents a book and riffles through it, showing a number of images in black and white. The book is then closed and a flourish is performed, normally involving audience participation, originally having an audience member blow on the outside of the book. The magician picks up the book and riffles it again, revealing that the images are now colored, or have changed completely into different images depending on the nature of the book.

History

The blow book is one of the oldest magic tricks. It has a history that is well-documented in historical sources, [1] because the trick is based on a device that was only really practical after the widespread introduction of the printing press in 1450, which created a market for inexpensive paper and binding that the trick relies upon.

The earliest known mention of the concept was by Gerolamo Cardano in 1550, who described the trick by mentioning "conjurors show different and always unlike pictures in one and the same book". [2] Another early mention is by Reginald Scot in his book The Discoverie of Witchcraft , published in 1584. This work examined witchcraft and revealed the tricks involved, ultimately concluding that witchcraft was not real. [3] [4] As part of this discussion he mentions the use of blow books, and goes on to describe how to prepare a book that the magician would then "whew you everie leafe to be painted with birds, then with beasts, then with serpents, then with angels, etc." [5] He realized that the preparation might be beyond the capabilities of many would-be magicians, and directs his readers to "buie for a small value the like booke, at the shop of W. Brome in Powles churchyard", the earliest known example of a magic prop for sale. William Broome of St. Paul's in London was active between 1577 and 1591. [6] A similar description of the blow book was published in French the same year by Jean Prévost. [7]

The blow book is mentioned in Hocus Pocus Junior , the earliest known collection of magic tricks in the English language, published in London in 1635. In this text the concept is called a "iugling booke" ("juggling book") or "booke for Waggery". It contains a complete description of how to prepare a blow book. The author suggests presenting the book by saying "this booke is not painted thus as some of you may suppose, but it is of such a property, that whosoever bloweth on it, it wil give the representation of whatsoever he is naturally addicted unto". He further mentions that in order for the trick to work, one must use a "bold and audacious countenance, for that must be the grace of all your trickes". Many of the tricks in the book feature the magician or an audience member blowing on the prop; this was a common fixture of the trade. [8] The trick continues to appear in many books on magic through time, often with references to where to buy copies; in The Whole Art of Legerdemain of 1748 it's mentioned that "the blowing Books ... may have them at my Shop on little Tower-hill". [6]

None of these very early examples of blow books are known to exist today. The earliest surviving examples are a Belgian version from the 16th century, [9] and French and Italian books from the second half of the 18th century. [6] By the 19th century prices on printed materials had dropped so much that the trick was quite well known, and it was not uncommon for magicians of the period to hand them out after their performances. [10] Quaker Oats even gave out a version in their cereal. [11] The basic concept has never gone out of print for long, and modern examples remain widespread today, along with descriptions on how to make your own. Modern versions are typically in the form of children's coloring books and remain popular, even appearing on The Wiggles. [12] [13]

The mechanical resemblance of the blow book to the early animation concept known as a flip book has been a subject of some consideration in animation circles. Whether the blow book inspired the flip book remains an unanswered question. [6] [2]

Description

The most basic version of the blow book is based on alternating pages being different widths. The book is assembled by alternating the different pages, wide, narrow, wide, narrow (etc.), and then binding them together. Images of one type, black and white for instance, are drawn on every set of facing pages with narrow on the left and wide on the right. The alternate set of images, color in this example, are drawn on the alternate sets of pages with the wide page on the left and narrow on the right. The result is a series of alternating images on sets of facing pages. [8]

To perform the trick, the book is held by the binding in one hand and riffled with the other; for right handed magicians this will normally mean the binding is in the left hand and the riffling is performed with the right hand. By carefully grasping the right side close to the edge, the fingers or thumb are only touching the wider pages, so when the book is riffled two pages flip each time, the wider page under the thumb, and the narrower one on top of it. This way the audience is always seeing the face side of a wide page and the back of a narrow one. To complete the trick, the book is simply riffled with the right hand inverted, or more commonly, by rotating the entire book around its transverse (horizontal) axis while the audience is directed elsewhere. This causes the upper side of the narrow pages to display along with the back of the wider ones. Images drawn on alternating pages are thus shown or hidden depending on where the thumb is placed. [12]

More complex versions of the same basic concept can be used to have multiple sets of pages with different images. In these cases the pages are wider or narrower in a pattern along the entire length of the outer edge, creating a number of "hot spots" where the book can be riffled to cause different pages to appear. Hocus Pocus creates a similar concept by using small pieces of paper pasted to the pages to create the same effect, allowing the magician to grasp the tabs while they riffle. This version allows any number of pages per flip, the Pocus version using sets of eight pages. [8]

Related Research Articles

Belief in magic exists in all societies, regardless of whether they have organized religious hierarchy including formal clergy or more informal systems. While such concepts appear more frequently in cultures based in polytheism, animism, or shamanism. Religion and magic became conceptually separated in the West where the distinction arose between supernatural events sanctioned by approved religious doctrine versus magic rooted in other religious sources. With the rise of Christianity this became characterised with the contrast between divine miracles versus folk religion, superstition, or occult speculation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cups and balls</span> Magic illusion trick

The cups and balls is a performance of magic with innumerable adaptations. Street gambling variations performed by conmen were known as Bunco Booths. A typical cups and balls routine includes many of the most fundamental effects of magic: the balls can vanish, appear, transpose, reappear and transform. Basic skills, such as misdirection, manual dexterity, sleight of hand, and audience management are also essential to most cups and balls routines. As a result, mastery of the cups and balls is considered by many as the litmus test of a magician's skill with gimmick style tricks. Magician John Mulholland wrote that Harry Houdini had expressed the opinion that no one could be considered an accomplished magician until he had mastered the cups and balls. Professor Hoffman called the cups and balls "the groundwork of all legerdemain".

Hocus-pocus is a reference to the actions of magicians, often as the stereotypical magic words spoken when bringing about some sort of change. It was once a common term for a magician, juggler, or other similar entertainers. In extended usage, the term is often used (pejoratively) to describe irrational human activities that appear to depend on magic. Examples are given below.

A trick deck is a deck of playing cards that has been altered in some way to allow magicians to perform certain card tricks where sleight of hand would be too difficult or impractical.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reginald Scot</span> English politician and author (c.1538–1599)

Reginald Scot was an Englishman and Member of Parliament, the author of The Discoverie of Witchcraft, which was published in 1584. It was written against the belief in witches, to show that witchcraft did not exist. Part of its content exposes how feats of magic were done, and the book is often deemed the first textbook on conjuring.

<i>Hocus Pocus</i> (1993 film) 1993 film by Kenny Ortega

Hocus Pocus is a 1993 American fantasy comedy film directed by Kenny Ortega from a screenplay by Mick Garris and Neil Cuthbert, and a story by David Kirschner and Garris. It follows a villainous comedic trio of witches who are inadvertently resurrected by a teenage boy in Salem, Massachusetts, on Halloween night.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Street magic</span> Genre of magic performance

Street magic falls into two genres; traditional street performance and guerrilla magic.

This timeline of magic is a history of the performing art of illusion from B.C. to the present.

<i>De praestigiis daemonum</i> 1563 book by Johann Weyer

De praestigiis daemonum, translated as On the Tricks of Demons, is a book by medical doctor Johann Weyer, also known as Wier, first published in Basel in 1563. The book argues that witchcraft does not exist and that those who claim to practice it are suffering from delusions, which should be treated as mental illnesses, rather than punished as witchcraft. It was influential in the abolishment of witchcraft trials in the Netherlands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hocus Pocus (song)</span> 1973 single by Focus

"Hocus Pocus" is a song by the Dutch rock band Focus, written by keyboardist, flutist, and vocalist Thijs van Leer and guitarist Jan Akkerman. It was recorded and released in 1971 as the opening track of their second studio album Moving Waves. An edited version was released as a single on the Imperial, Polydor and Blue Horizon labels in Europe in 1971, but failed to chart outside of the Netherlands(NL#09).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joshua Jay</span>

Joshua Jay is an American magician, author, and lecturer. He has performed in over 100 countries and was awarded top prize at the World Magic Seminar in 1998. He worked with Penn and Teller on the show Fool Us, and he holds a Guinness World Record for card tricks. Jay has performed on shows including Good Morning America and The Today Show. In January 2018, Jay was recognized by the Society of American Magicians for his contribution to the art of magic.

Upsy Downsy is a brand developed by Mattel. It concerns two races of strange beings, one that lives rightside-up, the other upside-down. These psychedelic creatures and their fantasy world were featured in a short-lived line of colorful toys and story books for young children in 1970.

The Guillotine is a magic trick where it appears that a blade of a guillotine passes through a person's neck without harming them. Variations on the theme have been performed for hundreds of years, with documented examples appearing in print in the 16th century. The most common modern variation is the finger guillotine or finger chopper, a pocked-sized version that appears to chop off the magician's finger.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Ady</span> English writer

Thomas Ady was an English physician and humanist who was the author of two sceptical books on witchcraft and witch-hunting.

<i>The Linking Ring</i> Journal

The Linking Ring is a monthly print magic magazine published by the International Brotherhood of Magicians (IBM) for its members since 1922. It is based in Bluffton, Ohio. In 2007, Samuel Patrick Smith, a magician, author and publisher based in Eustis, Florida, became executive editor of the magazine.

<i>The Discoverie of Witchcraft</i> 1584 book by Reginald Scot

The Discoverie of Witchcraft is a book published by the English gentleman Reginald Scot in 1584, intended as an exposé of early modern witchcraft. It contains a small section intended to show how the public was fooled by charlatans, which is considered the first published material on illusionary or stage magic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magic (illusion)</span> Performing art involving the use of illusion

Magic, which encompasses the subgenres of illusion, stage magic, and close-up magic, among others, is a performing art in which audiences are entertained by tricks, effects, or illusions of seemingly impossible feats, using natural means. It is to be distinguished from paranormal magic which are effects claimed to be created through supernatural means. It is one of the oldest performing arts in the world.

The book test is a classic mentalism demonstration used by mentalists to demonstrate telepathy-like effects. The name refers to its early use as a test of mental powers.

The Inexhaustible Bottle is a classic magic trick performed by stage magicians. It dates to the 17th century and has since inspired many variations; well known examples include Any Drink Called For, The Bar Act, Satan's Barman, the Assassin's Teapot and Think-a-Drink. During the temperance movement it became The Obliging Tea Kettle, and the modern Magic Tea Kettle remains a common prop available at most magic stores. A slight variation is the Magic Funnel. Today, the trick is normally performed for children, although some stand-up shows retain a variation.

<i>Hocus Pocus 2</i> 2022 film by Anne Fletcher

Hocus Pocus 2 is a 2022 American fantasy comedy film directed by Anne Fletcher, written by Jen D'Angelo and produced by Walt Disney Pictures. It is a sequel to the 1993 film Hocus Pocus and the second installment in the Hocus Pocus franchise. The film stars Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Najimy, and Doug Jones reprising their roles, with Sam Richardson, Whitney Peak, Belissa Escobedo, Tony Hale, and Hannah Waddingham joining the cast in new roles.

References

Citations

  1. ↑ Jay 2014, p. 9.
  2. 1 2 Buchan 2013, p. 61.
  3. ↑ Scot, Reginald (1584). The Discoverie of Witchcraft. Clements Library.
  4. ↑ Almond, Philip (2011). England's First Demonologist: Reginald Scot and 'The Discoverie of Witchcraft'. I.B.Tauris. Archived from the original on August 26, 2014.
  5. ↑ Scot 1584, p. 283.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Stafford & Terpak 2001, p. 253.
  7. ↑ Jay 2014, p. 10.
  8. 1 2 3 Anonymous 1635, Iugling booke.
  9. ↑ Jay 2014, p. 15.
  10. ↑ Jay 2014, p. 12.
  11. ↑ The Print Collector's Newsletter, 1995, p. 107.
  12. 1 2 Kaufman 2010, pp. 220–223.
  13. ↑ The Wiggles - Magic: Coloring Book

Bibliography

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.