I competed this past weekend for Bardic Champion of my local SCA group (medieval group). I chose to perform a simple cups and balls routine as one of my three period performances for the competition. I got a lot of advice and direction from users here, especially Bill Palmer who pointed my towards the Hocus Pocus Junior book.

I ended up winning in a large part due to the cups and balls. The judges commented that they had not seen anyone do sleight of hand for a Bardic competetion in the past.

-Max

Congratulations Max.

Congrats max. regardless of how many people 'in the know' say C and B are dead, time and time again its proven to be a winner, and obviously, so are you.

What were your other two performances?

I would have enjoyed seeing that!

-Patrick

I would have liked to see your performance, too! Congratulations!

Back in the day I too won several Bardic competitions with performances of magic and eventually recieved the Order of the Laurel for my endeavours in conjuring.

So congratulations to you m'lord and know that this is just the start on a pathe to greater things.

Thank you all for the nice comments.

I had three performance pieces, two of which I had to write full research papers on as part of the competition.
I played a 12th century German song called Winder Wie Ist on acoustic six string guitar. I sang an English song called The Three Ravens. I performed a short cups and balls routine. I documented the cups and balls and the Winder Wie Ist song. The funny thing is I was most nervous during the guitar piece and I play guitar semi-professionally.

Master Payne, would you be willing to tell me more about what types of magic performance you were able to document to SCA period? I would like to start working on a few more effects that I can use for competitions in the future.

-Max (Maximus Mysterious)

Proof, classics well done will always serve you well.

Well done.

I've just joined our local Kingdom so I too would be interested for our own "Arts and Science" program.

I lift my cup (and tankard) and offer up a fair huzzah!

Dave V, I bought an e-book that had a great collection of drawings and prints showing the magician/juggler at a table with cups, balls, and wand. If you are going to document the cups and balls for A&S let me know I will find the title of the book for you.

-Max

That would be great, thanks!

Documentation? We don't need no stinking documentation!! After all, this is the SCA we're talking about.

Back in AS XV when I first started "playing" my resources were extremely limited. I didn't even have a copy of Scott's "Discoverie of Witchcraft" back then. So I set about taking modern tricks and adapting them to make them look mediaeval in both presentation and appearance. As you know the SCA is a pretty insular group so any tricks shelf life is pretty short. I could only perform a feat three or four times before everyone in the Kingdom had seen it. So it was necessary to continually develop new material. From this I eventually developed my standard routines that have become the core to my Mediaeval\Renaissance acts. The tricks I now regularly perform are

Cut and Restored Rope
What's Next
The Die Box (converted into a reliquary)
Sword Through Neck
Half Dyed Silk
Chinese Sticks
Professor's Nightmare
Linking Rings
Hopping Half
Egg Bag (three different versions)
Jumping Knot of Pakistan
Card Stab
Linking Rings

Of this repertoire the only document able effects are Cut and Restored Rope and perhaps the Linking Rings, the modern version of the trick in no way replicating the sole period description we have of it. All of the other tricks can be implied as being "period" While tricks with eggs are document able in "period" the earliest egg bag I can find reference to in in the Eighteenth century and of course it works completely differently from any of the three routines I perform. Likewise they performed coin, rope and card tricks in the renaissance but not the Card Stab,the professors nightmare nor the hopping half. Sword through neck isn't document able either but Scott describes tricks with gaffed and rigged knives. What's Next and the Die box are in no way accurate nor can I find any effect that they would be replicating. but my presentations have a period look and feel to them so they blend in.
I am willing to abandon historical accuracy for entertainment as long as it has a period feel to it. thus all of my props have been custom built or adapted to make them look mediaeval.
However if you wish to create a whole document able period act there are a small sampling of books out there. Reprints of several period magic books are availble and Gibciere the digest from The Conjuring Arts Society has published translations of several period books of magic ove the years. Vol 2 #2 Vol 4 #2 and Vol 5 #2 would be of particular interest to you.

Master Payne,

I'll never perform at a Ren Faire. You rock though! Great information.

Master Payne, thanks so much for sharing your expertise. I have seen some of your Ren Faire work online and find it inspiring ass this is precisely where I hope to take my magic eventually.

I am currently working on improving my rope routine and my cups and balls, and I eventually plan to add several silk tricks I did years ago but need to relearn. I also hope to add some very basic juggling, but that is a long way off right now. Working on a two year plan to put the entire act together.

Your list above reinfoces a pair of principles from which I am working: Period feel is more important than period documentation for this type of work (though accuracy is great when possible), and a reasonably small number of well-routined, well-rehearsed tricks is plenty.

Master Payne, thank you for great repsonse! I have watched you perform a few times at Camlann Feasts and always enjoyed it.

I think that these days the SCA has become a little more formal. Documentation now is often expected and must be written in MLA or Chicago style and must contain at least one primary resource. I have however seen some things like an original song that was written in a period manner, which makes me think I could also go the route that you have gone.

I have the Hocus Pocus Junior, and Discovery of Witchcraft already and I will try to find the Gibciere as it sounds like another good resource.

-Max

You can obtain the back issues of Gibeciere here http://conjuringarts.org/category/gibeciere/

Books you might find of interest are

A Candle in the Dark by Thomas Ady 1655 Reprinted in 1994 by Steven’s Magic

Hocus Pocus by H. Dean 1763 Reprinted 1983 by Walter B. Graham

Hocus Pocus Jr. 1673 Reprinted 1997 Steve Burton Magic

The Art of Jugling by S. Rid 1612 Reprinted by The Miracle Factory

Alexis Firmaco by Thomas L’Escot 1593 Reprinted by The Conjuring Arts Society

Sports and Pastimes by John Clark 1676 Reprinted 1999 Steve Burton Magic

Legerdemain excerpt from the 1797 Encyclopedia Brittanica 1986 Meyerboks

Clever and Pleasant Inventionss by J. Prevost 1584 Reprinted 1998 Hermetic Press

Rouges Vagabonds and Sturdy Beggars Arthur F Kinney 1990 University of Massachusetts Press

The Book of Fair 1700 – 1825 by Keith West 1989 The Bartholomew Press

The Old Showman and the Old London Fairs by Thomas Frost 1875 reprinted 1997 Cornell University Press

The History of Street Entertainment The Buskers by David Greenwald & David Cohen 1981 David & Charles

The Oldest Deception by Kurt Volkman 1956 Carl W. Jones

An Illustrated History of White Magic by Faunch Guillemin 2002 AR Strobineller Breiz

Magic on the Early English Stage by Phillip Butterworth 2005 Cambridge Press

Fools and Jesters of the English Court by John Southworth 1998 Sutton Publishing

The English Medieval Minstrel by John Southworth 1989 Camelot Press

Fools are Everywhere by Beatrice K. Otto 1996 Universityof Chicago Press

How to Rap a Wag Upon the Knuckles, The Mediaeval Magic of Master Payne 2013 Lulu Press

Some of these will be easier to find than others. As you can see there was a time in the late 80's and early 90's where reprinting period texts on magic was popular. Thise days however are past. But many of those titles are still available.

So I see you're a local An Tirian. Where was this contest held. It wasn't the Madrone Arts and Sciences Competition was it? I think I won that once a long, long time ago. I really had to work at convincing them you let me enter As they were unsure of how to judge a magic act. I can't even remember if I won anything or not. But I think I did.

I haven't played in so long I doubt my name ever comes up anymore. I really should go to an event one of these days for old time sake. Especially to see if people tell me I can't wear that red belt or circlet I'd show up wearing.

Master Payne, it was for the Barony Of Aquaterra (snohomish county). The event was held at the Mason campground up past Granite Falls. I got a pendant, a scroll, and the Bardic Champion cloak to wear until the next year.

Also, thank you very much for that great list of resources, I would love to add some of these to my collection as I intend to develop the skills of the jongleur (except for acrobatics, I am too old and fat for that).

For Dave V: The book that has many great drawing of the magician with the cups, balls, and wand is "Volkmann, Kurt. The Oldest Deception. Carl W. Jones, Minneapolis, Minn., USA in 1956"


-Max (Maximus Mysterious)