CRAZY TIME
IOI
determining weekdays of dates from 1753 to 2140, but it made use of a slide rule rather than window cards.)
TAP TRICKS
Crazy Time In Chapter Four a watch trick was explained in which the spectator thinks of an hour on the face, and the magician divines the hour by a process of tapping numbers until the spectator calls out "Stop." A more elaborate version of this trick, designed for presentation to a large audience, was placed on the magic market about fifteen years ago under the name of "Crazy Time." It is the invention of magician Tom Hamilton. Fig. 52 shows the front and back of the clock. The working is as follows: The magician asks someone in the audience to select an hour in his mind and write it on a slip of paper without letting anyone see what he has written. A second spectator is asked to call aloud any number from 13 to 26 inclusive. The magician turns the board around so the back, bearing scrambled letters of the alphabet, faces the audience. With his wand he starts tapping the letters, apparently at random. The first spectator (who selected the hour) counts to himself with each tap, beginning with the number immediately above the hour he has written down. For example, if he has written "4," he counts "5" to himself on the first tap, then "6" on the second, and so on. When the count reaches the number called aloud by the second spectator, he says "Stop." The magician inserts his wand into the hole adjacent to the letter just tapped, and turns the board around. The wand is seen piercing the clock dial at the hour mentally selected by the first spectator. Method: The magician subtracts 12 from the number called by the second spectator. Let us assume the number is 18. After 12 is subtracted, the remainder is 6. He makes the first five taps at random, but the sixth tap is made on the letter A. The succeeding taps are made on letters which spell the word "Ambidextrous," though of course the audience does not know