Too Clever For My Own Good -

 

The Mak Magic Version of the Magic Tea Kettle

There is an aged old trick known as The Inexhaustible Bottle. There were also versions with Tea Kettles, Punch Bowls and more. The idea was that any drink called for would come forth from the object. It was a wonderful mystery, presented by Robert Houdin, Robert Heller, David Devant, Charles Hoffman and many others.

Then a version came along called simply, 'The Magic Tea Kettle'. I believe it was put out by MakMagic. In this rendition, several different colored liquids were poured out of the kettle and then it was opened to reveal a bunch of dry colored scarves. Honestly, a bit of a let down compared to the original, but with the selling point of 'no skill required' you get what you paid for.

As fate would have it, I got one of these things when I was a kid magician. And I"m not 100% sure it was mine, it may have been my little brothers who for the briefest of time was also into magic. At any rate, regardless of who owned it, not that great a trick.

Fast forward many years to the publication of The Conjuring Anthology by Jim Steinmeyer, and he has a version of the Magic Tea Kettle in the book. He first came up with a routine called Hospitality, which was sold as a separate manuscript. But this newer tea kettle had a very different method and you could pour real drinks, not colored water, from the kettle. I loved the idea and made one up. The trick was called The Accommodating Kettle, on pages 326-332.

As I recall, you could pour, milk, orange juice, cherry drink, lemonade and maybe more. But it began by opening the lid of the tea kettle and pouring in a bottle of soda. So to have this dark liquid go in and then all these different drinks come out, that was pretty impressive. AND you could pass out all the drinks to be verified they are what they are. The routine was based upon a pseudo psychological premise, and was really well constructed.

It all sounds good, right. Well, then I get this 'flash of brilliance' and I decide to add a kicker to the trick (which I will share in a moment). So I'm at a show, I'm doing THIS trick, I'm pouring out drinks, handing out the cups and letting people try them. In this case, because it was an audience of a lot of kids, I thought it best to give the cups to the adults, just to be safe. And each one verified the contents. THEN came the kicker, I poured the orange juice back into the spout and opened the lid...........I then poured out several live swimming goldfish. What a lovely ending I thought.....

UNTIL, I noticed one of the adults. Her eyes were wide as saucers, she was turning a bit green, and any second she would begin to projectile vomit! SHE thought she just drank, 'fish water', lol. I quickly explained, she was safe, everyone was safe, the fish NEVER came in contact with their drink. It took a moment to calm them down, and then they all had a very hearty laugh over it. But it was then that I realized, I was being too clever for my own good. The fish ending was scraped after that. But it made a fun story to share, and I hope you got a good laugh out of it.

A Bit of Houdini Music

 

Take a listen. Sound familiar? This is the music used throughout the 1953 Tony Curtis HOUDINI movie. Though in the movie, it was only the orchestrated version, no lyrics. Here in this clip of Judy Garland singing the song, "Meet Me Tonight In Dreamland", you almost expect Tony Curtis as Houdini to talk into the scene!

And here is an even older rendition of the song. One in which the REAL Houdini would have been familiar. 1909 or 1910.

By the way, my friend John Cox has a wonderful series of articles on the Houdini 1953 movie, where he takes the movie apart scene by scene. To check that out, please visit https://www.wildabouthoudini.com/p/deconstructing-houdini-53.html

Robert Houdin's OTHER Theatre Still Exists!

 

Sandervalya, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Imagine my surprise while reading an article about Robert Houdin's performance in Algeria, that the theatre that he did his most famous performances in, was still standing today. Those most famous performances were on Oct 28 and 29, 1856. They were the legendary performances that Houdin would claim 'stopped a War'. 

Robert-Houdin

The theatre at the time was called, Bab-Azoun Theatre. Today that very same theatre still stands and is known as Théâtre National Algérien Mahieddine Bachtarzi or, The Alegerian National Theatre. It was also formerly the Algiers Opera House.

As the story goes, Robert Houdin was contacted by the French Government to help suppress some uprisings and conflicts with the local tribal marabouts. The idea was to show that 'french magic was greater than the magic of the marabouts.' 

The show took place at the Bab-Azoun Theatre with about 60 chieftains taking up the first few rows and I'm assuming quite a few other locals as well. The show featured much of the standard Robert Houdin fare. The big moments were when he presented his Light and Heavy Chest (see below), followed by a rendition of the Bullet Catching feat. 

There is some controversy concerning this event, which Jim Steinmeyer explains in his new blog column: https://jimsteinmeyer.com/2022/04/13/what-we-hide-problems-in-algeria-part-one/  This information is also covered in the book, The Secret History of Magic by Peter Lamont and Jim Steinmeyer. They tear apart the accounts of the Algeria event to discover what was true, what was false, how much was exaggeration. Suffice to say, it's clear now that a great deal of the event as recorded in Houdin's Memoirs, was untrue or at least exaggeration. 

But one thing is clear, the shows DID HAPPEN. And the theatre where these shows, which took Robert-Houdini out of retirement, is still standing today. Mr. Steinmeyer mentions on his blog that the theater would be a good place to hold a magic convention. Wow, can you imagine?!! How incredible that would be.  

An interesting side note, on the theatre Facebook Page, there are images of a kid-show magician doing a magic show on the stage. I wonder if this young man was aware of the historical event that took place on thiat very stage 166 years ago???

The Actual Light and Heavy Chest in the Klosterman Collection