The Trick Brain

Introdection:
This, the second of the trilogy started by SHOWMANSHIP FOR MAGICIANS, may seem like a strange sort of magic book when one first encounters it. With a title like THE TRICK BRAIN, beginning as it does with a discussion of the basic effects in magic and thence proceeding into a detailed discussion as to how these various effects may be achieved, its purpose and aim must create puzzlement at first. But this book attempts to cover a field never scouted before. All of the sciences have their basic handbooks. And I am of the opinion that magic is more of a science than an art. The art of magic is not called magic at all. Because an art is actually skill in performance. I rather choose to think of the skill in the performance of magic as entertaining. So, with the belief that magic is a science, a science in which the accumulated knowledge may be systematized and formulated with reference to the discovery of general truths or the operation of general laws, I have undertaken to collect and compile the facts, as I could discover them, into this assembly of the fundamentals of the mechanics of magic. That it has been done never before is my chief excuse. Actually the bulk of the substance of this work arose from the inception of the idea of THE TRICK BRAIN. But THE TRICK BRAIN itself, so indicated in the text, is but a small portion of this undertaking. The bulk of the text is necessary in order to make THE TRICK BRAIN useful and workable. Undoubtedly, to many magicians, much of the subject matter will be familiar. This is necessary, as clarity requires familiar examples. But I hope, even here, that perhaps the reader may find some refreshment in the fact that the approach has been made from an entirely new angle. The old bromide that one can never get from a thing any more than he puts into it is valid here, I think. This will be of use to you, if you make a sincere attempt to understand the principles and to apply them to the purpose for which this book is intended. While it has been but a little over nine months since I wrote the introduction to SHOWMANSHIP FOR MAGICIANS, it is necessary for you to know, I feel, that much more than that length of time has gone into the making of THE TRICK BRAIN. As near as I can determine it was sometime late in 1932 or early in 1933 when I first realized that this idea could be applied to magic. Several years elapsed during which time intermittent periods were spent in accumulating material. During 1937, 1938 and 1939 copy equal to approximately one-half of this present book was written, after which work was completely stopped for some three years. Upon starting in again, all of the copy that had been written before was destroyed and a new beginning was made which culminated in this present work. The some 100,000 words making up this present text is what remains of perhaps 500,000 words actually written. A writer has the choice of making himself the slave of words and grammatical construction. Or he may take the more modern viewpoint that these are merely means to an end. At times, perhaps, this arrangement of words may seem definitely unconventional. I feel, like many other writers much more able than I, that this is a device for more effective emphasis. I tried to make effective use of it in SHOWMANSHIP FOR MAGICIANS. To a lesser extent, because the need for it here is not so apparent, you will find it in this work. If it should happen that you should like this work, I should be most happy to accept credit for putting it together. In the event, however, that it disappoints, Bob Weill of Buffalo, N. Y., should take the major blame. You see, I had long since abandoned completing this. Chiefly because of the irrepressible Weill's urgings and general disturbances of my peace, finally I determined to finish it as a means of achieving quiet and tranquillity. I like to think that this is one of the first books to attack magic methods from a scientific standpoint. As such, it is naturally a work on advanced magic. This is chiefly because it insists upon the use of the mind instead of the use of the hands. Among others, this is the chief reason I have called it THE TRICK BRAIN.
DARIEL FITZKEE
San Rafael, California
August 5, 1944

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