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different thing. One of my favorite tricks to
do when smoking was common was to
cause a lit cigarette to vanish. A
presentation of this was recommended in
Bert Alerton's booklet, The Close-Up
Magician. He recommended causing a
cigarette to disappear and not reproduce
it as was common in his time. I adopted
that practice. He had pointed out that the
audience will be concerned about the hot tip
of the cigarette doing something to you. In
actuality, the cigarette is snubbed out as it is
caused to disappear. However, the effect
on the audience is quite strong. People talk
about it days after it is performed.
Essentially we are taking a basic effect and
making it a bigger effect. This happens when
the object manipulated is larger than
normal, more dangerous than normal or
something more than normal.
Another approach to raise the level of
impossibility is to make a basic effect
more impossible by making it better instead
of bigger. For example, making a coin
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disappear is essentially impossible.
However, the method used often
determines the Level of Impossibility of
such an effect. One can do a French Drop
in which a coin is apparently passed from
one hand to the other. The coin is
retained in one hand while the audience is
given the idea the coin is in the other
hand. While it can be done well in the
hands of a very skilled performer, it can
be made more impossible with other
techniques. A device called a pull can be
used. There are many such devices some
of which have a magnet on one end of the
pull. In this method a coin is seen lying on
the performer's hand. The other hand is
brought over the coin and when the hands
separate, there is no coin in either hand.
This is the same effect. However, it is
more impossible than the French Drop.
Another method can up this Level of
Impossibility. It is called Fickle Nickel.
Here a nickel is shown resting on the
performer's hand. The hand is simply
and slowly closed over the nickel. When
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