Paper Balls to Hat
By Slidini

This is a pantomime routine to be performed while seated at a table. Four tissues are rolled into balls. They disappear, one at a time, from the hands of the performer and appear in a hat, which previously has been shown empty. The trick may be done close-up or as a platform feat before an audience of considerable size. The manipulation is quite simple, but the details must be memorized and carefully rehearsed to create the proper effect.

All that is needed is a hat, which may be borrowed, and four pieces of paper. I use facial tissues, these are sold under such names as Kleenex and Pond's Tissues.

The routine begins by the magician showing a hat, pointing out its emptiness and placing it open side upwards, on the table to his left. The four tissues are shown and put to the right. The performer shows his hands to be empty. Then, with his right hand, he picks up a sheet of tissue and waves it several times over the hat. He turns left at the waist so that his right side -- his head and trunk -- is toward the audience. The hands are brought up to shoulder height and the tissue is rolled into a ball between his palms.

The magician closes his left hand around the ball, and points to his left fist with his right hand. He opens the left hand to show that the ball is still there. He picks it up with his right fingertips and raises the right hand high over the hat -- the left hand drops naturally to the lap. He slowly lowers and raises the ball above the hat several times. This gets across the idea that the ball is to go in the hat, but the magician Is very careful to have the audience see that the ball does not go into the hat. The ball is always visible.

The magician returns the ball to the position between his palms and rolls it once more as if to make the ball more firm, Figure 1. Then he moves his right hand away from his left, closing the left as if it held the ball, but really palming the ball in his right hand. The left fist is raised and the hand is turned over so that the thumb points downward and the palm of the hand is away from the audience. The right hand is lowered to rest gently on the edge of the table and the ball is dropped into the lap. The left hand is brought toward the hat and, as this move is made, the right hand is brought up to the left. Both hands are held some distance over the hat. The fingers of the right hand pry open the closed fingers of the left hand so that the audience can see that there is nothing in either hand. However, the magician acts as if he were still holding the ball and he drops the imaginary ball into the hat. He removes his hands from the vicinity of the hat and bends forward and looks in. He deliberately nods his head as though he were saying: "Yea, it is there."

The spectators can see that the magician's hands are empty, and understand that he claimed to have dropped an invisible ball into the hat. Actually the magician has the ball in his lap.

The magician now rolls the second tissue into a ball in the same manner he used in making the first ball. He exhibits it in the fingers of his left hand, while the right hand casually drops to the lap and picks up the first ball.

This ball is held in the palm by the thumb. Care must be taken to keep the back of the hand toward the audience so that the ball remains hidden. When the two hands come together, the visible ball is pushed up to the fingertips, Figure 2, and the hidden ball is squeezed between the palms of the two hands. When the hands are together, the hands, as if to better exhibit the visible ball, can be turned sidewise with the little fingers toward the audience. The palmed ball will be masked completely. The hands are turned back to the position shown in Figure 2, and raised to the lips so that the magician can blow on the ball. This is merely business, but it gives an opportunity to palm the hidden ball in the right hand.

As soon as the ball is palmed the hands are separated. The right hand drops a few inches. The right hand then reaches up and touches ball number two with the fingertips. Then, as if to remind the audience that this ball is to go into the hat, the magician reaches out with his right hand and dips it into the hat. The first time this motion is made the magician drops the palmed ball into the hat. The second time he does it to emphasize the idea that the ball, which the audience can see plainly, is to go into the hat. It also gives the audience an opportunity to see that the right hand is empty. The magician must remember that the audience did not see the first ball fall to his lap, nor did they see him drop the first ball into the hat, while he was handling the second ball.

After the magician has indicated that the second ball is to go into the hat, he handles it exactly as he did the first ball. That is, he drops it on his lap secretly, and pretends to make it disappear while his hands are held over the hat.

The routine with the third and fourth balls is actually the same as that used with the second. At this point the audience, to sum up what has gone before, has seen the magician cause three balls to vanish, and has understood that the magician has implied that they have passed into the hat. Actually three are now in the hat, one is on the magician's lap.

One way to got the last ball into the hat would be to palm it and drop it in the hat during the motions of showing how the other balls passed into the hat. However, it seems to me better to do what I usually do. I go through what seems to be a bit of inconsequential comedy by-play. I pick an imaginary pellet from the air with my right hand, and put it in my left hand. The left fingers are opened slowly, I show surprise and concern that there is nothing in the hand. I look higher in the air and grab with the left hand. Meanwhile, I drop my right hand to the lap, and palm the fourth ball. Then, in the same manner as I got the previous balls into the hat, I drop in number four. I open my left hand to show it is empty. I show my right hand empty. I pick up the hat carefully to show that there is no trickery, then I tilt the hat slowly toward the audience. The four balls spill out.