MAGICIANS LIFE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 776, 24 September 1929, Page 11

MAGICIANS LIFE

FUN IN CHINA NICOLAS FIFTH WORLD TOUIt TUe Great Nicola was the first white magician ever to give a perfonnance iu Peking. Chinn. He wag also the first white man to bo made a member of the Indian Magicians* Society. Nicola arrived by the Maheno toi day from Sydney. This , his fifth j tour of the world. This astute little American has i visited almost every corner o the globe. As a child of four his latln . . who was also a magician, dressed hint its a girl, floated him in raid-air and made him disappear into all sorts of i strange places. After that he learned l how to make other people disappear and the world has been entertained 1 by his activities ever since. Nicola can give his performance in 16 different languages. He hastened to add that he does not speak that uumber of languages, but he has learned the patter iu 16 different tongues. Chinese, however, proved bis Waterloo. He could not learn it. and so. when he performed in Peking, he had to engage an interpreter. That interpreter uearlv wrecked the performance. Nicola wondered why. during the show, the Chinese audience laughed. He discovered that the interpreter, in addition to explaining the patter, was also telling i the audience how the tricks were j done. , Nicola put up a record when he ! first visited Peking. He found than Ino theatre was available so he had j one built. This was long before the i revolution. “’We built that theatre iu five days * *he said today on the Maheno. T engaged 600 Chinese carpenters. Their ordinary wage was threepence a day. I 1 paid them sixpence a day to make them work faster. The theatre [seated 2.T00 people and there wasn't a nail in it. The whole thing was made of bamboo poles and grass I mats.” ‘ The Emperor of China, thou a boy. j was in the first audience. Nicola i produced a white rabbit from a man- | darin’s coat and handed it to the j boy, much to the disgust ot the mem- | bers of the Court who were in at- ! tendance. However, tile Emperor was terribly pleased wit!': bis rabbit and sent Nicola a beautiful diamond I ring which he still wears.