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lint Special user Concord, CA 967 Posts |
Robert-Houdin, in his Confidences of a Prestidigitator, gives the following account of Bosco's stage setting, his peculiar costume, and his manner of introducing the cups and balls:
"I entered the little theater and took my seat. According to the idea I had formed of a magician's laboratory, I expected to find myself before a curtain whose large folds, when withdrawn, would display before my dazzled eyes a brilliant stage ornamented with apparatus worthy of the celebrity announced; but my illusions on this subject soon faded away. A curtain had been considered superfluous, and the stage was open. Before me was a long three-storied sideboard, entirely covered with black serge. This lugubrious buffet was adorned with a number of wax candles, among which glistened the apparatus. At the topmost point of this strange etagere was a death's-head, much surprised, I have no doubt, at finding itself at such a festival, and it quite produced the effect of a funeral service. At the front of the stage, and near the spectators, was a table covered with a brown cloth, reaching to the ground, on which five brass cups were symmetrically arranged. Finally, above this table hung a copper ball, which strangely excited my curiosity. For the life of me I could not imagine what this was for, so I determined to wait till Bosco came to explain it. The silver sound of a small bell put an end to my reverie, and Bosco appeared upon the stage. The artiste wore a little black velvet jacket, fastened round the waist by a leathern belt of the same color. His sleeves were excessively short, and displayed a handsome arm. He had on loose black trousers, ornamented at the bottom with a ruche of lace, and a large white collar round his neck. This strange attire bore considerable resemblance to the classical costume of the Scapins in our plays. After making a majestic bow to his audience, the celebrated conjurer walked silently and with measured steps up to the famous copper ball. After convincing himself it was solidly hung, he took up his wand, which he wiped with a white handkerchief, as if to remove any foreign influence; then, with imperturbable gravity, he struck the ball thrice with it, pronouncing, amid the most solemn silence, this imperious sentence: Spiriti mihi infernali, obedite! I, like a simpleton, scarce breathed in my expectation of some miraculous result, but it was only an innocent pleasantry, a simple introduction to the performance with the cups."
"There's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip..." -English Proverb
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Pete Biro 1933 - 2018 18558 Posts |
.... and ????
STAY TOONED... @ www.pete-biro.com
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lint Special user Concord, CA 967 Posts |
Unfortunately that is it for the description in "Adventures in Magic" by Henry R. Evans. I don't have "Confidences of a Prestidigitator" which might go into more detail.
I cant imagine a 5 cup routine though. Although perhaps 2 of the cups were for other tricks?
"There's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip..." -English Proverb
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Pete Biro 1933 - 2018 18558 Posts |
2 for tips????
STAY TOONED... @ www.pete-biro.com
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ringmaster Inner circle Memphis, Down in Dixie 1974 Posts |
You can download "the Old and the New Magic" by Henry Ridgely Adams from Google Book Search.
One of the last living 10-in-one performers. I wanted to be in show business the worst way, and that was it.
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Jonathan Townsend Eternal Order Ossining, NY 27297 Posts |
Quote:
On 2009-05-16 19:45, ringmaster wrote: is the Bosco performance described in detail there?
...to all the coins I've dropped here
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ringmaster Inner circle Memphis, Down in Dixie 1974 Posts |
Quote: No,it is the same book as "Adventures in Magic" a large important FREE book. I think there is a a description of Bosco's routine on Bill Palmer's site, but I've lost that password for now.On 2009-05-16 21:19, Jonathan Townsend wrote:
One of the last living 10-in-one performers. I wanted to be in show business the worst way, and that was it.
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Tilman Regular user 182 Posts |
« Je fus, je l’avoue, un peu désappointé, car pour moi ce jeu était un de ces tours tombés dans le domaine de la place publique, et je n’aurais jamais pensé qu’en l’année de grâce 1838, on osât l’exécuter dans une représentation théâtrale. Cela était d’autant plus vraisemblable, que journellement on voyait dans les rues de Paris deux artistes en plein vent, Miette et Lesprit, qui ne craignaient pas de rivaux pour les tours de gibecière. Pourtant, je dois dire que Bosco déploya dans ce jeu une grande adresse, et qu’il reçut du public d’unanimes applaudissements. »
Robert-Houdin : Confidences d’un prestidigitateur. Une vie d’artiste. Nouvelle édition présentée et annotée par Christian Fechner. Paris (Editions Stock) 1995 (pp. 240-241). This is how the description of the cups and balls continues in my French edition of the Confidences. And there it ends (apart from some remarks about the friend with whom Robert-Houdin visits Bosco's show and about that friend's enthusiasm regarding Bosco's performance). No description of the routine. |
Tilman Regular user 182 Posts |
I find this description of Bosco's performance of the cups and balls very interesting in several respects.
Robert-Houdin does not seem to find the trick suitable for a 'theatrical presentation' (meaning a presentation in a theatre). It's in the 'domain of the public place'. And, apparently, it takes daring to perform it in a theatre ("...on osat..."). It's difficult not to read into this a general disdain for the feat. But then there is the excellent chapter IV of Robert-Houdin's 'The Secrets of Conjuring & Magic' (1868, 1878 in the English Routledge edition), which devotes 27 pages to the cups and balls. The French edition of the 'Secrets' was published ten years after the 'Confidences' (1858). Did Robert-Houdin change his opinion regarding the trick? In his introduction to chapter IV of the 'Secrets', he calls the trick 'still one of the most interesting'. Then, there is a nice oddity: In the French edition of the Confidences cited above, there is a photograph of Robert-Houdin performing the cups and balls. According to Fechner's annotations, these photographs were taken as models for the illustrations in the 'Secrets'. Curiously, the photograph that shows him performing the cups has served as a model to an illustration (on page 348 of the Routledge edition) which depicts ... Bosco. The drawing functions as a header to a sub-chapter explaining Bosco's mode of working the cups. I found it interesting that for all the disdain he expresses for Bosco's performance, Robert-Houdin would have a photograph taken in which he strikes a 'Bosco pose' and would devote part of the 'Secrets' to Bosco's routine with the cups. That sub-chapter first describes Bosco's presentation for the cups (full of 'gravity'), which the author now does not seem to criticise. It then details Bosco's palm and provides an excellent drawing of the correct hand position. It describes the opening position of the props on the table and states that three cups are ordinary, while one of the other cups is gimmicked to carry away balls placed under it. The last cup has a special bottom to release three balls. The chapter is concluded by a description of the first three passes of Bosco's routine. The first two passes only use the unprepared cups. 1) Three balls pass under the middle cup using the one-ahead principle. 2) One ball, introduced into the rightmost of the three cups, passes into the middle cup, then from the middle cup into the left-hand cup. At the end of this phase, without the spectators' knowledge, there is one ball under each of the three cups used so far and the three balls that seem to have been the only balls in play are visible on the table. 3) The three visible balls are openly placed in the gibeciere. The gibeciere has a double lining and is now turned inside out to be shown empty. The 'production cup' is lifted to show the three balls have arrived. They are placed under the needle cup, from where they disappear. They reappear under the three ordinary cups (one under each cup) and are all openly taken into the right hand, seemingly passed to the left hand but really dropped in the gibeciere. They disappear as they are thrown into the air. They reappear from the gibeciere. In writing this down, I have actually for the first time tried to visualize what this sequence would have looked like to an audience (and I have read this passage of the 'Secrets' many times). What an amazing multiple effect extravaganza, this third phase... |
Tilman Regular user 182 Posts |
I should add that this is not the last phase of Bosco's routine, but the last phase described by Robert-Houdin, who states that the other phases are too similar to well-known phases to warrant a separate explanation.
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ringmaster Inner circle Memphis, Down in Dixie 1974 Posts |
Then there are five cups on the table?
One of the last living 10-in-one performers. I wanted to be in show business the worst way, and that was it.
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Tilman Regular user 182 Posts |
Yes, there are five cups visible on the table, of which only three are used in the first two phases. Then comes phase 3, which (openly) uses five cups. I would guess that at least one of the two extra cups can't be used anymore after phase 3 (but then, you can use a sealed can for a chop cup routine...). Robert-Houdin says nothing about how the routine continues (apart from saying that it's the usual stuff you find in cups and balls routines).
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Tilman Regular user 182 Posts |
BTW, I was wondering whether the 'Secrets' are the first source describing the pinky p**m. Anybody?
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