All of the magic in May 15, 1942 edition is “Chinese” themed or as Chinese themed magic was in the mid-twentieth century. This was the time of slapping some pseudo characters on a prop and calling it a mystery of the east. Magic dealer, U. F. Grant was infamous for his spray painted characters on his props.
Cardee Foolee is a Gibson effect supposedly written by Feng Huang. A “Chinese Laundry Ticket” is cut into pieces by the performer. A restoration is attempted by failed with one of the pieces being held by a helper. To make up for the failure, a card is selected but attempts to find it also fail. However the ticket piece saves the performance and the name of the card is printed on the paper. One “Magician in Trouble” effect is really hard to pull off but two? Not a chance.
Filtration is the vanish of water using the commercial item, the Foo Can and it reappearing using another item, the Double Funnel. If you happen to own the items, then experimenting with them may be in order.
Twister is a variation of Ching Ling Foo’s torn and restored paper.
Hee Foo Yuu’s Confetti of Cathay is Gibson’s confetti and glasses routine. Using three cups, one is filled with confetti that vanishes and reappears in another.
Phoenix Jr Reports on the Chicago SAM Annual Show while the Backroom chats about NYC club politics, the changes made to Clayton Rawson’s No Coffin for the Corpse when it was made into the movie, The Man Who Wouldn’t Die and closes with some tips on the Hat Tear.
