You Can Do It, Too!

INFLATION
Peter Pit
Here is a baffling "Cut and Restored" routine that is particularly effective when performed with "real" Dollar Bills. You can use play money, stage money, blank checks, or any form of printed paper about the size of regular currency.

EFFECT: The magician openly displays two Dollar Bills and places them back to back. He then cuts through the center of both bills with a pair of scissors — unmistakably cutting the two bills into four "halves." Without any suspicious moves, the magician instantly restores both bills to their original condition right before the eyes of the astonished spectators!

SECRET AND PREPARATION:

(A) Place two new or nearly new Dollar Bills face down on a table with the "green" side up. (B) Apply a thin layer of rubber cement, about a half-inch wide, down the center of the back (the "green" side) of each bill. When this is dry, add asecond coat of cement and allow it to dry also. (C) Next, sprinkle a little talcum powder on the "cement covered" area on each bill. Spread the powder over the entire surface of the cement with your finger, or better yet, a soft brush. You will notice that now the "treated" areas of both bills will not stick to each other because of the powdered surface. Put the bills in your wallet or on your table and you are ready to perform this very clever close-up mystery.

METHOD:
1. Begin by removing the two prepared bills from your wallet and casually showing both sides of the bills. Place them back to back as shown. (We will call the bill nearest you "Bill A," and the one nearest the spectators "Bill B."
2. Square up both bills. Be sure that the cemented areas are touching each other.
3. Hold both bills with the thumb and fingers of your left hand as shown. With your right hand holding the scissors, carefully cut through the center of both bills. Make sure that you cut within the areas covered by the cement strips. Done openly and deliberately, there will be no question in the audience's mind that both bills have actually been cut in half — which they have.
4. Place the scissors aside. Grasp the halves on the right sides of the cut in your right hand (one-half of Bill A and one-half of Bill B) and the left side's two halves (the other two halves of Bill A and Bill B) in your left hand.
5. With the thumb and fingers of both hands, separate the "halves" of the bills and . . .
6. . . .shake them open. Because of the rubber cement, the halves in each hand will stick together at the cut edges giving the illusion that the four "half" bills have "fused" together-TO FORM TWO COMPLETE BILLS!

COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS:

Done well, this "quickie" is a real eyepopper. First practice with stage money or with newspaper cut to the size of Dollar Bills. In this way you will find out just how much rubber cement and talcum powder to apply. Then, if you wish, you can try it with "real" bills. These should be new and crisp and fit together neatly for Steps 2 and 3. Don't worry about losing money when using real bills, as the halves can be mended with transparent tape, just as with any torn bills.

HAVE FUN WITH IT !

Reproduced with permission from Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic
Copyright © 1975, 1981, 1988 by Mark Wilson, Mark Wilson Course in Magic
published by Running Press, Philadelphia and London.