It's been a great morning organising and writing the script for a performance I'm delivering in March. It's a "performed paper", to lay-people, all about my research into Performance Magic. I'm talking about lots of things in the paper, but a key focus will be Ali Bongo's book of Magic from 1981 and the magic I performed when I was a kid.
This was, and still is, my favourite book on magic. The Introduction, which also begins the performance, sums up magic beautifully;
How Magic Began
Thousands of years ago, one of the first cavemen discovered that banging two flint stones together produced sparks which would light a fire. To the other members of his tribe he would have seemed like a great magician, able to create fire, just like the lightning which came out of the sky.
Ever since, people have been trying to make things happen that are contrary to the laws of nature. This constant search for the strange and curious was the beginning of all scientific knowledge we have today. Many of the first wise men and scientists used their knowledge to make other people think that they had great and mysterious powers. Other men found that they could use the same secrets to amaze people and make them laugh. These were the first magical performers. In this book, you will learn some of those secrets, and will then be able to baffle and amuse your friends with magic.
Magicians make things happen which seem impossible to explain in scientific terms. For instance, no scientist has yet been able to rub a silver coin on his elbow and change it to a lump of gold, or cut a ribbon in half, and join it again perfectly – unless, of course, he also happens to be a magician, and has learned the secrets you will read about in this book.
But there is much more to the wonderful world of magic than just learning secrets. You can be a performer, and have fun entertaining others. You can enjoy making your own magical apparatus, and feel a great sense of satisfaction when it all works. You can also invent new tricks, collect old magic books and apparatus, and meet other magicians through special clubs and societies.
Because magic is so popular, you will find all kinds of people make it their hobby. Wherever you go, magic will bring you many friends and a lot of Pleasure. (Ali Bongo, 1981)
Great stuff!
As far as I can tell it's a Nile 68x deck from the US Playing Card Co. c.1904, but distributed in this country by Foulsham & Co as The Gypsy Bijou Deck. BUT Foulsham & Co. also had a deck out in 1910 called the Gypsy Bijou with was very different having 36 illustrated cards. The art work on my deck box is the same, however the words "Made in the USA" appear on my box, whereas the 1910 box didn't have that printed on it. So did Foulsham briefly sell the Nile 68x as the Gypsy Bijou deck around 1904, before making their own deck in 1910? The Box I have looks a lot like the original Nile 68x box, but with a Foulsham label.
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