Page 370 - The Complete Rigger’s Apprentice

Yes, I am revealing “how it’s done” here, but
no, you must not; by some accident of fate you are
about to have Great Secrets revealed to you, but I
urge you to use them to generate wonder, not deflate
it with explanation. As one magician put it, “We
do not keep the secrets from you for our sake. We
keep them for your sake.” If someone really wants
to know “how it’s done,” they’ll bug you about it for
weeks until you give in. But then they’ll have earned
it, and will be receptive to your admonition “never
to share this with another soul.”
All of the accompanying string tricks can be
performed anytime, anywhere, with no preparation.
People expect magic tricks to involve gimmicks, so
when you just up and make a miracle, they’re doubly Figure 11-1. Throwing Hitches. With your right
delighted. The Professor’s Nightmare is the only one hand grasp one end of a line, standing part emerging
of the bunch that requires serious study, but that’s between thumb and forefinger. Grasp the standing
only to be expected for a routine that many pro- part about 3 feet away with your left hand, index fin-
fessional magicians call “the world’s greatest string ger extended. Move your hands apart so the line is just
trick.” Take your time with it; all by itself, it’s worth slack, and turn your right hand palm up (A). By flip-
the price of this book. But only if you do it right. ping your right hand over and moving it slightly to the
left, you will form a loop that travels along the stand-
ing part (B). Properly aimed, it will land and form a
THE SETUP hitch on your extended index finger. Keep throwing
hitches until the standing part becomes too short.
You take a piece of line, oh, about 8 feet long. It’s
1 ⁄8- to ⁄4-inch three-strand or braided line, not too detail that once the end is passed through, that knot
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stiff, a supple, clean tool for magic. is there to stay until it is pulled out. You take this sec-
You start talking about the mysteries and pro- ond knot apart and make a third one (Figure11-2)
fundities of knots, about their vast profusion and Those watching will swear it was made just like the
universal presence, luring your listeners into a world others. But this time, after you’ve drawn it up, you
where knots are so self-evidently magical that you cover it with your hand, apply a little gumption, a
need employ no deceptions to do magic. dash of mojo, open your hand, and it’s gone. No, we
As you speak, you casually throw hitches 2 to don’t even understand the simplest knots.
3 feet through the air, catching them on your out- Then you lay the line over your hand, and note
stretched index finger, hitch after hitch (Figure that the same knot which disappears mysteriously
11-1). The effect is mesmerizing, surprising. can (flourish of motion) be made to reappear in an
And then you work into the Grand Theme: We instant in the middle of a string. You remove that
don’t understand knots; we use them every day, knot, then with another flourish produce a Slip-
trust our lives and property to them, know them by knot (Figure 11-3). These things can come out of
reflex, but we do not understand them, no, not even nowhere. With equal facility you produce a Fig-
the absurdly simple, elemental Overhand Knot. You ure-Eight Knot (Figure 11-4), and then a Bowline
tie one, draw it up. It just gets tighter and can’t be made out of a Slipknot (see Figure 3-24, in the
undone unless you loosen it and pull an end out. You “Seven Bowlines” section of Chapter 3). That’s right,
make another, very slowly, explaining in self-evident the quintessentially utilitarian must-be-counted-

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