Pocket player
Pocket players were still called those magicians and jugglers in the 19th century who performed various amazing feats with a few and small props. They originally belonged to the traveling people and appeared at fairs , in taverns and at court festivals. Unlike today's magicians, pocket players earned their money less through their demonstrations, rather they were mainly hawkers who attracted attention with tricks and then sold their goods, often miracle elixirs. Sleights of hand are based on deceiving the viewer, which the artist causes through dexterity and distraction.
Details
The term "pocket player" comes from the bag in which these artists used to transport all necessary props.
The sleuths of India and China are famous; Pocket players were also popular early on in ancient Greece and Rome. In Italy they wandered around towns and villages as praestigiatores , pilarii (ball players ) or saccularii (pocket artists ) .
In medieval times the itinerant were minstrels in the castles often welcome representatives of cheerful art ( gaya scienza ), sometimes at the same time singer , musician , juggler and jester ( joculatores what juggler derived). In the past, they easily got the dangerous reputation of being magicians . Sleight were none of the items to have been largely without rights and outlaws .
The sleight of hand most widespread in the Middle Ages was the so-called cup game , in which several balls move back and forth under three cups. This feat, presented as a harmless gimmick, is considered by some to be the forerunner of the deceptive shell game that emerged at the end of the 19th century , although both feats are based on different structures and tricks.
literature
Newer literature
- Eva Blimlinger: The traveling, dishonorable, homeless. About the social position of jugglers, magicians and tightrope walkers . In: Felderer / Strouhal, Rare Künste. On the cultural and media history of magic , 2006.
- Wolfgang Hartung: The minstrels in the Middle Ages. Jugglers, poets, musicians , 2003.
- Wittus Witt: Taschenspieler-Tricks , 1986, ISBN 3-88034-273-3 .
Older literature
A lot of the older sleight of hand can be found in:
- Martius : lessons in natural magic . Revised by Wiegleb , continued by Rosenthal (Berl. 1786–1805, 20 vols.)
On the aids of modern sleight of hand, which have been greatly expanded by physics and chemistry, cf. The work of:
- Robert-Houdin: Contidences d'un prestidigitateur . (2nd ed., Par. 1861, 2 vols.)
- Robert-Houdin: Comment on devient sorcier . (new edition, das. 1877)
- Robert-Houdin: Magic et physique amusante . (that. 1877)
- Grandpré: Le magicien moderne . (that. 1879)
- Marian: The whole of salon magic . (Vienna 1888)
Web links
Pocket player . In: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon . 4th edition. Volume 15, Verlag des Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1885–1892, p. 527.