Gabe Fajuri - Mysterios Encyclopedia of Magic and Conjuring

Text 2008 Gabe Fajuri
Cover illustration 2008 Jeff Foster
Interior illustrations 2008 Tony Dunn
Name and character of Mr. Mysterio 2008 Quirk Productions, Inc.
This compilation 2008 Quirk Productions, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Number:
2008932811

eISBN: 978-1-59474-704-5

A Quirk Packaging Book
Cover designed by Doogie Horner
Interior designed by Stislow Design+Illustration
Cover illustration by Jeff Foster
Interior illustrations by Tony Dunn
Project management by Eloise Flood
Copyedited by Liana Krissoff

Quirk Books
215 Church Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106
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v3.1

FOR MY MOTHER

A REMARKABLE DISCOVERY LED TO THE COMPILATION, PRODUCTION, EDITING, AND COMPLETION OF THIS EXTRAORDINARY BOOK.

A T HIS UNTIMELY DEATH IN 1936, Mr. Mysterio stood at the pinnacle of his profession. The preeminent theatrical wonder worker of his generation, Mysterios career had taken him to every corner of the globe. Appearances before the public were punctuated with prestigious command performances before royalty, heads of state, emperors, and celebrities of the era. Mr. Mysterio was both the publics favorite prestidigitator and mystery maker to the stars.

In January 1936, Mysterio began, in fits and starts, to outline and roughly draft a large book of trade secrets, a tome of tricks and methods he planned to publish upon his retirement from the stage. Though the vast majority of Mysterios work on the project was in sketch and note form (having been jotted down in between performances, on trains and in dressing rooms), brief fragments and passages of his prose, in plain English, have survived the years. It was in late 2007 that I discovered, in a musty corner of a Chicago warehouse, the great magicians wardrobe trunk. Along with a host of notebooks and theatrical papers, the vestiges of that manuscript were revealed in the trunks bottom-most drawer.

Never one to spare an audience a healthy dose of bombast, in a suitably grandiose and whorled script, the first page of Mysterios notes bore the following title:

Mr. Mysterios Stupendous, Incredible, Gigantic, Unparalleled, and Not-to-Be-Equaled Encyclopedia of Magic and Conjuring Secrets / Embracing the whole calendar of sleights, tips, tactics, tricks, dodges, and swindles essential to the education of a professional prestidigitator.

Clearly, the conjurer had set forth an ambitious project for himself. But, sadly, it was not to be. Mysterio, as we all know, died later that year in a tragic accident during one of his performances. His grand encyclopedia was left to molderuntil now. For as I studied the yellowed pages, it occurred to me that it would be not only a fitting tribute to Mr. Mysterio, but also a great gift to the aspiring magicians of today if I were to complete the project Mysterio began.

The distillation, clarification, and refinement of Mysterios scribbling, notes, and ideas has yielded, years later, two things: a choice selection of secrets, sleights, and tricks, and a shorter title for the book: Mysterios Encyclopedia of Magic and Conjuring.

In many cases, I employed Mysterios notes, patter suggestions, and choreographic suggestions to fully describe the miracles that follow. Data drawn from his diaries (also found in the wardrobe trunk) were used to supplement information gleaned from his notebooks. However, in the years since Mysterios passing, modern materials and ideas have filtered into the ever-changing marketplace of magical ideas. With a nod to the master mystifiers original intent, the flavor of his manuscript has, I hope, been retained while taking into account more recent developments in conjuring technology.

That said, rather than concluding these introductory remarks on a more contemporary note, I will step out of the limelight and set in my place the rightful star of this literary magic show: Mr. Mysterio. What follows is a passage drawn directly from the leger-de-mainiacs book-in-progress. Though written over half a century ago, the advice offered is as relevant and vibrant today as it was then.

Had I been alerted to four basic rules upon my entrance into the world of magic I now inhabit, my meteoric rise to stardom would have been much smoother. These rules are iron-clad, and can either be learned by reading and study, from the pages of this illustrious volume, or in a manner much more difficult: through trial and error. Take my advice, dear readers, and commit the following precepts to memory. If you aspire to tread the boards, to spend your life before the footlights, then heed this, my hard-won advice.

First and foremost, pay court to your audience. Woo it. Make your spectators your accomplices. Though the people before whom you perform may have no knowledge of your methods, and no inkling as to how you do that, they still wield powerultimate power, in fact. With no audience, you have no show; you have nothing. And a magician who treats his audience as a panel of experts who exist merely to be confounded by the latest puzzle is a magician who will never advance his career beyond the level of dilettante.

Nearly as important as wooing ones audience is choosing the appropriate method whereby your magic is presented. As Albert Einstein once opined, The most beautiful experience one can have is the mysterious. Deliver your magic graciously, with humor, thoughtfulness, and elegance. Welcome your audience not only with your words, but with your attitude. If the tricks in your repertoire seem remarkable and surprising to you, so will they appear to others.

Furthermore, rehearse and polish your magic. When presented properly, conjuring, like any other entertainment, can approach art. But the only way to perform artistically is to methodically and repeatedly practice both the technical aspects and the presentational nuances of each effect in your program. Sleight-of-hand should be made silky-smooth by repeated drilling. To labor over a movement or motion for hundreds of hours is not enough. The secret actions of each trick must become second nature. In performance, there is no leeway, no room for half-measures or fumbling. Your goal is to conceal the methods of your magic. Exposure of even the smallest secret is tantamount to utter failure. No effect should be presented before its time, before it has been carefully scripted, rehearsed, and rehearsed again. Boiled down to a single word, this rule can be described, simply, as practice.