HAT LOADING
By Richard Robinson

With empty hands, the magician picks up a top hat, shows it empty, reaches inside and pulls out a large silk handkerchief. Again showing the empty interior of the hat, he drapes the silk over his arm, reaches into the hat and pulls out a large quantity of silk handkerchiefs.

The production of objects from an empty hat is a classic premise that is often seen as symbolic of the activities of the magician, particularly when a rabbit is conjured up from the hat's interior. All sorts of objects have been found in the empty hat: canon balls and bowling balls, ringing alarm clocks, paper lanterns, balloons and seemingly endless coils of paper ribbon. While most magicians are certainly aware of the hat production premise, the actual mechanics of hat loading are rarely documented.

Bruce Hurling's Hat Loading Method

Bruce Hurling's 'A Hat Loading Device' originally appeared in 'The Magic Wand,' London, March, 1915. Hurling described his method as follows:

A particularly neat method of hat-loading which is believed to be original. The load is placed in the inner breast pocket of the coat, and to the former is attached a length of strong black thread. This ends in a fairly large loop which is hooked over the bottom button of the vest. The performer advances with the empty hat held by the brim, fingers inside and thumb out.

The disengaged hand introduces a palmed flag or handkerchief. The same hand now proceeds to produce this, but previously, the thumb of the hand which holds the hat (close to the body) has disengaged the loop of thread from the vest button.

From the thumb of (we will presume) the left hand, the loop is transferred to that of the right, and as the flag is raised the load is pulled out from the pocket, where, for an instant, it dangles behind the silk.

To lower into the hat is, under cover of the flag, a simple matter. The load is deceptive in the extreme, and well worth the small amount of practice required for its successful accomplishment.

Advanced Hat Loading

Starting with Hurling's method, I've added a setup that allows the hands to be seen empty and the hat on the table before the sequence begins.

Props

A top hat. A large silk handkerchief. A quantity of smaller silks. A black silk. A small bull dog clip sold by stationers to clip papers together. A length of black fishing line.

Setup

Run the fishing line through both holes in the handles of the bull dog clip, then tie the ends of the line together to form a loop of line approximately 10 inches / 25 cm long. The length of the line will eventually need to be adjusted once the load position and handling is understood.

Open out the black silk on a flat surface and place the smaller silks in a pile on the center of the black silk. Bring up the four corners of the black silk to form a bundle, then use the bull dog clip to hold the bundle closed.

Roll the large silk handkerchief into a tight ball and place it on the outside of the hat under the brim. Done properly the edge of the hat brim and slight curve of the brim will trap the balled silk, temporarily holding it in place. This is an old dodge which also works with a multiplying billiard ball, hank ball or any similar object.

The hat is placed on a table, the balled silk on the upstage side of the hat.

While a pocket can be made inside the coat on the left side to hold the bundled silk load, it is really easier to work the trick coming out of a black out or to start and simply place the bundle under the coat so it can be lightly held in place by the pressure of the upper arm.

The far end of the fishing line loop goes around the thumb of the left hand.

Handling

Refinements

Once the number of silks to be produced is determined, the black silk can be cut down until it just holds the load. This allows the bundled load to be as small as possible and thus the size of the covering silk can be reduced.

The large silk must be opaque to conceal the load. The thumb should be kept back a bit so that the load does not swing into the silk. The size of the large silk is determined by the length of the loop line between the thumb and load bundle. The shorter the line, the higher the load will hang behind the silk, allowing a smaller silk to be used.

Performance Notes

Bruce Hurling's simple seeming method has much to recommend it for an easy load steal and production. While the top hat and derby have gone out of style and magicians have yet to notice the advent of the baseball cap as street wear, any familiar and suitably sized container can be used.

A smaller hat or container will work if the production items are highly compressible, for instance if spring flowers are used. This allows both the covering silk and the volume needed to contain the load to be significantly smaller.