Reading handout
What the world’s most famous magician has to teach you
Words to know
awry
uh-RYEQuote from the article
“But the stunt went awry: Houdini, who didn’t drink beer, apparently passed out from the stench in the container and had to be rescued.”
Meaning:When something goes awry, it does not turn out the way it was planned. The plan was fine, but something went wrong along the way. In the article, Houdini’s beer-can escape went awry when the smell made him faint.
More examples
- Our science experiment went awry when the cup tipped over and spilled everywhere.
- The birthday party plans went awry when it started to pour rain.
refine
rih-FINEQuote from the article
“He collected biographies of magicians and histories of sorcery; his research helped him refine his craft and invent new tricks, such as being buried alive or making an elephant disappear.”
Meaning:To refine something is to make it better by fixing small things, little by little. You start with something good and keep improving it. In the article, Houdini read about magic so he could refine his tricks.
More examples
- I practice my free throws every day to refine my shot.
- She read her story again to refine the ending and fix the small mistakes.
bolster
BOLE-sterQuote from the article
“The “golden age” of magic in the 19th century was bolstered by mass media.”
Meaning:To bolster something is to make it stronger or give it extra support. Something that is bolstered is helped to grow or stay up. In the article, newspapers, radio and movies helped make magic shows more popular.
More examples
- A good breakfast will bolster your energy before the big game.
- The new players helped bolster our team, so we started winning more games.
Concepts behind the story
Copyright
Quote from the article
“He also copyrighted illusions as “playlets”, that he performed to just one person, and then tried to sue anyone who copied him.”
Suppose you write a funny comic and a classmate copies it and says it is theirs. That does not feel fair. Copyright is a law made for this.
Copyright gives the person who made something (a story, a song, a drawing, a play) the right to say who may copy it. If someone copies it without permission, the maker can sue them. That means asking a court to make them stop or pay.
Copyright protects the finished work, not an idea. Nobody owns the idea of a comic about a talking dog, but your exact comic belongs to you.
Imagine you draw a poster for the school fair. With copyright, other kids can’t print your poster and sell it. They have to ask you first.
So the takeaway: copyright lets the maker of something decide who can copy it.
In the article, Houdini could not patent his tricks, because a patent would reveal how they work. So he registered them as little plays, and then tried to sue copycats.
Publicity stunt
Quote from the article
“Rather than buying an advert near the back of a newspaper, Houdini would pull off a stunt to get on the front page.”
How do you get everyone talking about something? You can pay for an ad. Or you can do something so surprising that people talk about it for free. That is a publicity stunt.
A publicity stunt is a dramatic act planned to get attention from newspapers, TV and now the internet. Publicity just means attention from the public. The stunt is the exciting thing you do to get it.
It works because people share surprising stories. A reporter writes about it, and suddenly many people know your name without you paying anything.
Imagine a new pizza shop that builds the world’s tallest pizza in front of the school. Kids take photos, post them, and the local news comes. The shop never bought an ad.
So the takeaway: a publicity stunt is a surprising act planned to win attention for free.
In the article, Houdini dared police to lock him up and escaped, or hung upside down from cranes in a straitjacket, so newspapers would put him on the front page.