Issue 22 - September 08
Samuel
Cox Hooker And
His
Rising Cards
Chris Wasshuber
Available from: www.lybrary.com
Price: US$39 (pdf eBook) or $54 (hard copy soft bound edition)
Secrecy and obscurity are, of course, integral to the greater world of
magic. Hearsay builds upon myth and, before you know it, an Indian
Rope Trick has been incarnated. But whilst the Indian
Rope Trick – an evaporation, then bloody dismemberment, followed by
resurrection - is a cultural atavism and ritualistic
recitation on life and death itself, what happened in British-born scientist Dr
Samuel Hooker’s library behind his townhouse in Brooklyn nearly a century ago,
may be far less visceral but no less profound. The public may coo over how David
Copperfield flew, or how Derren Brown does pretty much anything but real
magicians are slaughtered by Dr Hooker’s rising playing cards – a trick most
of us think we can do using threads and counterweights.
Chris Wasshuber, of e-book specialists Lybrary.com, has attempted to
solve the mystery of how Hooker, during the course of his “Impossibilities” demonstration, was able to make any card called
for rise from a shuffled and examined deck, out of a deck-sized, clear-walled
houlette, and with no person being near the thin table-top where the deck
resided. It is quite a lengthy e-book but be aware that nearly one hundred of
the pages are made up of notes and letters from other contributors over the last
century – including first-hand sources – and as such is really an extended
appendix. It is a good thing that some of these contemporary sources are
included however, as Wasshuber’s first oversight is not to give his own
description of the effect as seen by the audience, which I would have thought
was vital for any new readers, not least to transmit the enormity of the
impossibility of what Hooker achieved. In any case, Wasshuber proffers up two
theories of how the spectacle might have been achieved but candidly concedes his
first theory is almost certainly not how it was done.
The secret is still known to a few. Indeed, John Gaughan, (featured in
the last issue of Magicseen), and Jim
Steinmeyer have in recent years rebuilt and re-staged Hooker’s apparatus and
demonstrations, to the delight of a select few, lucky enough to see these
handful of performances in Los Angeles in 1993 and 2007. Unfortunately,
Wasshuber was not one of them. Instead
he relies on the descriptions and notes of others, most notably of Gene Matsuura
and Carlo Morpugo, both of whom attended the Gaughan/Steinmeyer re-enactments in
’93 and ’07 respectively. It is these gentlemen’s notes and reflections in
the extended appendix that are most useful and valuable but I acknowledge that
they both gave their permission to Wasshuber to be included and he is to be
credited for making these observations available.
Maybe, just maybe, Wasshuber has alighted on the correct solution but it
seems unlikely. On page 31, in his expositional section on boundary conditions,
he states, “No stooges are used,”
yet on page 51, during the description of his main theory, he writes, “Perhaps
for this part a stooge is involved.” He chooses to ignore the words of the
in-the-know John Mulholland who wrote, “…it
has always been the common belief that his magic depended upon esoteric
scientific methods. This is not true. All this magic was the result of improving
tremendously the techniques of magic, putting them to uses never before
conceived,” and insists that it was Hooker’s “know-how
of materials, processes and recent technological advances”
that brought about this wonder. Together with the fact that he himself has not
seen any performances, makes me a little cynical.
Although
the author has researched the effect and has culled together an impressive
quantity of notes and supporting material, his own prose lacks a little spirit
and warmth. Because the Hooker Card Rise was a true magical event, and an event
that so few of us has directly experienced or will experience, it really needs
some love and care in immersing the reader into that thrilling milieu. If you
are already interested in Hooker, then the theories and supporting articles will
probably be of interest. If not, this publication provides little to warm to and
engage with, and misses out on being the rounded book on Hooker’s “Impossibilities”
that it could have been. DL
What’s Hot: The appendix
What’s Not: A sterile,
dry read; under-informed secret-busting
Star Rating: **
To find a specific review, just click on the relevant letter for the product name
0-9 | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z
RETURN to the magicseen homepage