Skinners Spider Grip Vanish

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Brian W
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Joined: March 13th, 2008, 7:46 am

Skinners Spider Grip Vanish

Postby Brian W » July 15th, 2002, 2:34 pm

Howdy,

I was recentley looking through The Phoenix issue number 52 and came across the "Free" French Drop contributed by Walter Gibson. This sleight seems the same as Skinners Spider Grip move, at least in theory.

In the Phoenix it states that "Walter Gibson dug this one out of a dusty grave. Whose it is we don't know but in its place it's a honey."

Am I missing something or are these two sleights one in the same.
:confused:

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Richard Kaufman
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Re: Skinners Spider Grip Vanish

Postby Richard Kaufman » July 15th, 2002, 8:52 pm

Brian, you are correct: they are the same. The Gibson sleight was originally published in The Sphinx in 1919 or thereabouts. I was unaware that he had republished it in The Phoenix.
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Brian W
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Re: Skinners Spider Grip Vanish

Postby Brian W » July 16th, 2002, 2:07 pm

Richard, Thanks for the reply! How come I've never seen it credited to Gibson? Did Mike Skinner come up with it on his own not knowing about the Gibson sleight? It seems in this day and age that crediting stirs the pot with magicians. I wonder how concerned people were with crediting the proper source in past eras? Just wondering.....

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Richard Kaufman
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Re: Skinners Spider Grip Vanish

Postby Richard Kaufman » July 16th, 2002, 4:42 pm

Mike was not the only person doing The Spider Grip Vanish. For years the question was did Ed Marlo or Ross Bertram come up with it first. It wasn't until John Moehring pointed out the Gibson credit to me that ANY of us knew about it. The Gibson credit obviously predates Marlo and Bertram.
I don't know if Mike learned it from reading the Sphinx. Mike generally just did his magic and didn't go to great lengths to claim credit for sleights, so he simply may have just been doing it and not saying much about it. Or, he could have come up with it on his own, however the Gibson handling is IDENTICAL.
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Brian W
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Re: Skinners Spider Grip Vanish

Postby Brian W » July 16th, 2002, 9:04 pm

Richard, Thanks for the input on this subject. It's nice to know that sleights that are almost a hundred years old still are in use. Thats why the classics will never die.


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