The "Holy-Head"
Match
In my book "CLEVER LIKE A FOX"
I described my favorite bit of close-up table
nonsense, "a spoonerism" the gag of sticking
a teaspoon to your nose. I received many nice
letters and comments about how much fun it creates.
The following is another of
my favorites of the same type. That is, it's
a piece of business that is hard to believe
how strongly it goes over with a crowd until
you try it. After one try, you'll use it all
the time.
I'm sure you all remember the
old trick of blowing out a wooden (or kitchen)
match while it is held above your head. It is
accomplished by secretly flicking the match
with your forefinger. Well, since 99% of the
world no longer uses or carries wooden matches,
I set about to do the same bit with a PAPER
match. After much trial and error, I stumbled
on to the way to make it work. No laymen and
very few magicians have ever tumbled onto the
method. In fact, several very knowledgeable
magicians have burned many books of matches
and one or two fingers trying to make it work.
I'll describe how to blow the match out first
and then give you the little routine I use with
it.
In experimenting,
I discovered the logical way to make the match
go out is to hold it firmly between your right
thumb and forefinger and by pushing your thumb
forward it causes the match to snap or turn
around, putting the flame out. Just one fault,
though, IT DOESN'T WORK! In order to make it
work, you must do the following.
Matchbook
is held in left hand. Remove a match with the
right thumb and first finger and strike it on
the match pack. After the match is burning,
move the thumb and finger up close to the flame.
(Fig. 1.) Close the other three fingers into
the palm. Straighten out the three fingers until
they are even with the forefinger. This will
cause the bottom half of the match to bend forward
at a right angle. (Fig. 2.)
Now lower
the thumb, gripping the match stem by the lower
part. Tip your hand back a little and the match
will appear to be standing straight up. Press
thumb lightly against forefinger then move thumb
sharply to the right. This will cause the match
to flip around and BECAUSE OF THE LARGER ARC
THE FLAME HAS TO TRAVEL, IT WILL GO OUT. (Fig.
3.) BE SURE to straighten the match out before
you toss it in the ashtray so that if they look
at it later (THEY WILL) they will not discover
it was bent. Practice the simple (but complicated
to explain) move until you can do it perfectly,
then you're ready for the routine.
You show
any empty glass in your left hand and a lit
match in right hand. Hold the match in front
of the glass and blow the match out, through
the glass. This is the old stunt in many simple
magic books. When you blow on the glass, your
breath passes around the glass on both sides
and puts the match out.
Explain
that you will show them a variation. Light another
match in right hand (bend match) and hold it out
at the arms length. Blow INTO glass held in left
hand and as you do, match in right hand goes out.
Then light another match, hold it up over the
top of your head. As you blow straight ahead,
the match up above will go out, this will get
a good laugh. You'll get another laugh when you
deliver the final line. "My wife has the best
explanation for this, she said, 'It's simple,
YOU HAVE A HOLE IN YOUR HEAD'."
|
