Columnist: Billy McComb
Impromptu Hat Coils
I suppose I must have been around eleven when I first saw the phenomena I am about to relate. Edgar Benyon performed a massive production from a bowler hat which one could see and borrow in those days. Back-stage, a minion staggered in with a huge armful of toilet rolls. Various solutions for this peculiar addition to the Benyon magicana did suggest themselves, but I w...
Columnist: Billy McComb
Necessity Is The Mother
This item is actually two, but, as they both have to do with the same trick, I have lumped them together. A favorite of mine during my long early career as a “semi-pro” in Northern Ireland was the Rising Cards. My Jumbo mechanical deck, made by Willmann, I got on a swop from Edgar Benyon who, with Hubert Lambert, was responsible for my training in magic. The deck...
Columnist: Billy McComb
The Egg in the Magazine
I showed this effect for the first time in a lecture in Pittsburgh in 1955. There’s a lot to recommend it because without a shadow of doubt, the Egg in the Newspaper means more than a little to the lay audience. They recognise a broken egg is a messy thing and hard to contain so, if you pour one into a newsprint receptacle, they imagine it must be very hard to hide ...
Columnist: Billy McComb
The Five Rings of William
After a season of working the Rings “as written,” I decided that the same effect could be obtained with five rings as with eight or nine or any greater number. Bob Harbin disagrees with me. Even so!
For those of you who are still interested, the rings required are two singles, two linked and a key with a diagonal opening. This is, I believe, the set advocated by J...
Columnist: Billy McComb
This is one of those potty ideas we all get. Then we spend ages trying to get the darned thing to work. In this case, I’m happy to say, the laugh it gets makes it worthwhile.
This is what I wanted to do. I wanted to work a yo-yo up and down in the accepted style. Then I thought when it reached the nadir it would be funny if you could have the cord go stiff and then raise the yo-yo up in th...
