The Telltale Heart

With the current flood of movies, TV shows and video games featuring vampires, werewolves and other monsters, horror writer Edgar Allan Poe remains the most frightening of all, even though he has bee dead for more than a century.

Poe, who lived from 1809 to 1849 and was credited with writing the first true detective story, manages to chill a room full of people, even though his characters rarely spill blood, or even kill anyone.

However, one yarn that does both is The Telltale Heart; in it, the "hero" kills his landlord and buries his body under the floorboards. When the police call to check out the disappearance, the "hero" slowly breaks down under his own guilt and thinks that he hears the heart of the deceased pounding. Finally, he breaks down and confesses his crime to the two policemen, who never suspected him in the first place.

Compare the crude slashings of today's so-called horror films with just a few words from Poe: "Presently I heard a slight groan, and I knew it was the groan of mortal terror."

Here are two business cards that are similar to the ones Poe carried - writing on the front and nothing on the back. (The magus shows two cards, one in each hand and, with clearly empty hands, fully shows both sides of each card.)

(The magus puts the cards, together, one on top of another and puts the bottom edge on the table. When he lifts the two cards, there is seen a red, pulsing heart!)

Working:
This is based on a very old idea, used by the late Milbourne Christopher. A Poe card is held in each hand, writing side put and roughly parallel to the floor, with fingers underneath and thumbs on top. The red heart (more on this later) is hidden behind the left card, resting on the fingers of the left hand.

When the cards are both turned over, and the hands, to show the backs of the cards to be blank, the fingers of both hands slide up the cards until the fingers are almost off the face of the card. The right hand does this to match the left, while the left does it to hide the heart: As the fingers slide up they take the heart with them, concealing it behind the fingers.

The writing sides of the cards can be shown again and, as the hands and cards are turned over, the fingers are extended behind the cards again. The right simply matches the left, while the left actually slides the heart behind the card and holds it there.

The right-hand card is now slid under the left card, between it and the heart. The right hand releases the cards and turns over (palm down) so that the right hand fingers can grasp the front of the cards and the thumb can reach over and hold the heart.

The left hand now turns over the match the right and grasps the cards in a similar fashion. With both hands holding the cards, they are placed bottom edge on the table.

As the cards are lifted, the right hand releases the heart, letting it fall to the table.

Second Thoughts:
The heart can be just about any type of glass or plastic heart, available just about everywhere around Valentine's Day and at many places year-round.

I use a small, battery-operated red plastic heart that I can set alight and pulsating as I drop it to the table; it was part of a key chain that I picked up around Valentine's Day.

Enjoy this - and spook your audience!