Magic – The Davenport Collection

Syko the mental mystery game

This is really a magic trick although it is called a game. The approach is rather like the typical ‘Guess Your Age’ cards approach, but this is much more complicated. If you know the secret, you can tell a person which one of the 52 items they have selected from the MAIN GROUP card. All they need to tell you is which of the other nine cards include their selected item. The rest is up to you and arithmatic. Complete with instructions. The instructions explain the secret, but don’t tell you how to make a performance of it entertaining!

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Colour Tap

The magician shows four small coloured squares of cardborad and puts them on the table, inside four small envelopes. A colour is mentally selected and the magician starts tapping on the envelopes and, when the spectator calls STOP, the magician stops tapping and shows that the card inside the final tapped envelope is the correct selected colour. Complete with instructions which have BCM/TRICKS London, W.C.1 on them.

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Fantastique clock

Any hour from 1 to 12 is secretly chosen by a spectator. On turning over the clock one sees a jumbled mess of letters. These are tapped by the magician one at a time. When the spectator asks the magician to stop counting, he puts a matchstick through the appropriate hole and on turning the clock over it is seen that the magician has stopped on the hour chosen by the spectator. Complete with instructions.

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Colour divination trick

A spectator is handed an oblong block which has a different colour on each side. The spectator places the block in the box, remembering the colour which is on top, and making sure that the magician has not seen the colour. The magician takes the box and, with suitable mystic passes, correctly divines the colour on top.

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Coloured label divination

A spectator is given the six coloured labels and asked to hide five and give one back to the performer behind his back, so he cannot see the colour. Turning around, the performer is correctly able to divine the colour of the selected label. The audience can examine the labels carefully and yet they will be unable to discover the secret.

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Demon Marble Mystery

The performer shows three different coloured marbles and asks for one to be chosen, without him seeing which one. This is given to him behind his back and he immediately calls out the colour of the marble. This can be repeated. A Davenport adverisement for the trick is also illustrated here. Whoever wrote the advertisement has a way with words. The final sentence is: ‘If you had eyes in your fingertips you could hardly better this brilliant and suble idea.’

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“Predicta” – a “Vampire” trick

Supplied by Max Andrews under the Vampire name, this trick provides a very flexible approach to foretelling the answer to a whole range of questions, such as a date of birth, a card or a colour. Complete with instructions. The item can be dated to WW2 because of a good gag that is included: predicting the date the War will end. The words ‘M.A. Magic Co. London’ on the envelope label refer to Max Andrews, a British dealer.

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IMP-ression by Gerald Kosky

The words on the envelope explain the routine: ‘a spectator simply thinks of a word, yet the performer is able to reveal it in novel and mysterious fashion.’ However, this is somewhat misleading because the spectator actually has to say the chosen word before the performer can reveal it ‘in a novel and mysterious fashion’. Price $1.00 from Thayers’ Studio of Magic. Complete with instructions. Copyright 1944 Larsen-Thayers.

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Archie Byford’s Living and Dead Test

Using six people in the audience, the names of five living and one dead person are written on separate slips of paper. Each piece of paper is crumpled up. When your helper smooths our the pieces of paper and reads out the written names, the performer is able to reveal the name of the dead person. The plot of this trick can spook certain people in the audience and, for many audiences, its use cannot be recommended. Complete with instructions. The trick consists of a paper pad and instructions. A Davenport advertisement is also illustrated.

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Archie Byford’s “PSYCHOMA”

Five folded cards are handed out, each with a different design inside. One is chosen and the performer is able to draw the selected design. Complete with instructions.

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