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THE BALLOON TARGET The
Balloon Target’ is one of my very early creations and in good hands it
will form a very brilliant card trick. The magician brings forward a pack
of cards and ask his audience to select any three cards. This done, he
invites each of them to tear up the selected cards or to burn them to
ashes. Next the magician takes the torn pieces or the ashes and puts them
with in the barrel of the magic pistol. Next the magician introduces a peculiar apparatus which I have named the balloon target. There are three metal rings soldered to one round pieces of tin or brass. The tin plate bears the picture of bull’s eye and looks like a target. Inside the three rings, the magician places three ordinary inflated balloons, which the audience may freely examine anytime during the performance. Next the magician takes his pistol and fires at the balloon target. Needless to say, the apparatus is suspended from the wings with doubled tapes which are tied at the other ends (to the tin plate) with two little rings as shown in the sketch. Through one of these doubled tapes passes a strong thread to the assistant behind the wings. With
the report of the pistol, the three balloons burst and in their places are
seen the three selected cards, each appearing to attach itself to the
respective rings in the apparatus. The audience will be highly amused to
see this. Now about the secret. In fact it is a nice combination of the old card star trick and the now famous card in the balloon trick and the now famous card in the balloon trick. The apparatus is of special construction. On turning it around, it will be seen that behind each ring in which a balloon is fixed there is a movable arm, working on spring hinges and having one ‘clip’ to carry a card and a ‘pin’ to burst the balloon. The cards having been duly inserted in all of these, they are folded backward the Two of Diamonds is behind the Five of Clubs and the Five of Clubs is behind the Five of Hearts in the sketch, i.e. each card holding down the one preceding it. The last card so folded down the Five of Hearts in sketch is kept in position through the folds of the doubled tape as above. In the sketch (Back) the clip holding the cards together and the release string are not shown but the mechanically minded magician will have no difficulty in supplying them. At a signal from the performer, or the pistol shot, the assistant pulls the thread and releases the cards which at once spring up and burst the three balloons. The rest is very easy. The balloons were unprepared and the cards were forced the duplicates of the forced cards appearing in the target. If the performer is reluctant to spoil his three cards by tearing or burning them, he may vanish them in some popular method also, say in a card box etc. Very recently I have improved the trick further. I perform it with giant cards. In the back of all the duplicate cards that appear in the target I paste the same material as I have at the back screen, which preferably is any cloth with spotted design. And in the balloon target I have one broad ring in the center with three metal rings soldered outside. To be more explicit, the center of the target is perforated with a very big hole and on it the cards fold back. The audience sees the same material as the back screen and a perfect illusion of seeing through the target is created. When the trick is ended, the magician can pass his arm through the center of the target. This is an excellent trick for the professional magician and I hope my readers will be happy in having Sorcar’s Balloon Target to their repertories. |
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