Hocus Pocus; or The Whole Art of Legerdemain, in Perfection. / By which the meanest capacity may perform the whole without the help of a teacher. Together with the Use of all the Instruments belonging thereto.

Chapter 66: To thrust a bodkin into your forehead without hurt.

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About This Book

A practical manual lays out the techniques and stagecraft of sleight of hand, teaching how to perform common experiments with balls, coin and money tricks, card manipulations, and cooperative confederate routines. It gives step-by-step procedures for classic effects such as the cups and balls and for operating luminous projection devices, with notes on specialized apparatus, concealment, and misdirection. Emphasis is placed on posture, gestures, scripted patter, and timing to distract observers, and on adapting simple props to produce surprising transformations. The instructions aim to enable readers of modest skill to learn and present entertaining feats.

To thrust a bodkin into your forehead without hurt.

Take a bodkin so made as the haft being hollow, the blade thereof may slip thereinto as soon as you hold the point upward, seem to thrust it into your forehead, and so with a little spunge in your hand, you may bring out blood or wine, making the beholders think the blood or wine (whereof you may say you have drunk very much) runneth out of your forehead; then after shewing some countenance of pain and grief, pull away your hand suddenly, holding the point downward, and it will fall so out, as it will seem never to have been thrust into the haft, but immediately thrust that bodkin into your lap or pocket, and pull out another plain bodkin like the same, saying that conceit.