It is my intention to teach a silk routine that I discovered when I was 17 years old, while watching (?) a football game at my school in Prescott. I called the routine "The King's Silk Routine," and as far as I know, it's an original combination of two classic sleight-of-hand tricks with silk handkerchiefs, or ropes. Here is the first basic magic trick you will need to know in order to perform "The King's Silk Routine."
The Effect: The magician ties a knot in a silk handkerchief. Magically, the knot disintegrates before your very eyes!
The Method: (1.) Hold a silk handkerchief in your left hand, palm facing you. An 18" silk works well for this. Clip the silk between your first and second fingers, between the two joints nearest the tips of the fingers (see illustration to the right).
(2.) Study the illustration to the left. The arrows show that you will bring the bottom end of the silk up behind your left hand, between your second and third fingers and between your thumb and hand. Grip the silk with your left thumb. Done right, it should now look like the illustration to the right.
(3.) Reach through the loop in the handkerchief with your right hand, clipping the top end of the silk between the first and second fingers of your right hand. Your right fingers will be gripping the silk behind
your left fingers. Notice, also, that the right thumb does not go through the loop.
(4.) This is a little tricky, so pay attention. At the start of this move, the lower end of the silk is gripped by your left thumb, and the upper end by your left 1st and 2nd fingers, as well as your right 1st and 2nd fingers. Now, grip the part of the silk that's between your left 2nd and third fingers. Grip it at the very tips of your fingers. At the same time release the pressure of your left first and second fingers. Then, still holding that end with your right fingers, pull that end through the loop (follow the arrow in the illustration to the right).
(5.) After you've done step four, this is what you should see. Your left second and third fingers will be holding the silk at the tips, until your right hand has pulled the knot tight. You have made a slip knot, but who will be the wiser? Pull the knot tight, being careful to hide the little loop your left fingers have made, by pulling it most of the way into the knot (but not all the way!) If you use a rope for this routine, you will need to leave your left middle finger inside that loop until the knot is tight enough that you can take your finger out and pull the loop into the knot without the knot coming apart. Ease the loop into the knot with your left 3rd and 4th fingers as you pull on the rope with your right hand.
(6.) Display the silk between your hands. the position of the hands at this point doesn't matter, except that if you use a rope instead of a silk, you should turn the rope so that the side of the knot that looks like an ordinary square knot is facing the audience instead of you. In this illustration, one end of the silk is laid across your left palm, which is facing up, while the other end is in your right hand, which is facing down. It will only be important to hold it this way if you're doing the King's Silk Routine. Now all you have to do is have someone blow on the knot (or however you want to do it). At the same time, tug lightly on the ends of the silk, and as you do so, the knot will appear to disintegrate right before your very eyes! When I perform this trick I hold one end of the silk in my left hand while I run my right hand down the silk. My right hand passes halfway over the knot, then I grasp the silk right below the knot with my little finger, and remove the knot with a gentle tug. The move looks like I simply brushed my hand downward along the silk, and the knot vanished mysteriously as I passed it with my hand. It should be one casual move.
