"Everyday" objects that aren't any more

Discuss your favorite close-up tricks and methods.
brianarudolph
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Re: "Everyday" objects that aren't any more

Postby brianarudolph » April 10th, 2017, 7:59 pm

performer wrote:I do of course have one advantage over you apart of course from my vast experience.


Don't forget your other advantage too: proving that you can squeeze a gallon of gall into a pint bottle. Perhaps, one of these days many, many years from now when I'm as old and experienced as you, I'll be so lucky as to manage even 10% as much. :lol: :lol: :lol:

brianarudolph
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Re: "Everyday" objects that aren't any more

Postby brianarudolph » April 10th, 2017, 8:01 pm

performer wrote:Here is a rather tedious presentation of the trick and I couldn't watch it because I found it hard to keep awake. It is a prime example of why I do not regard magic icons as particularly iconic. I have no idea if he borrowed the coin or the cigarette since I tuned out remarkably quickly. I am sure you will all disagree with me but I always thought this chap had a lot to learn. He was merely presenting a trick. He wasn't presenting HIMSELF doing the trick.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXeQNiIdzsY


Wrong thread.

performer
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Re: "Everyday" objects that aren't any more

Postby performer » April 10th, 2017, 8:07 pm

It is not the wrong thread. You brought up the matter of the cigarette through quarter in the first place you know.

Leonard Hevia
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Re: "Everyday" objects that aren't any more

Postby Leonard Hevia » April 10th, 2017, 8:54 pm

I thought Derek did a nice job of it. The props were not borrowed, but he did give away the quarter. Well, not THAT quarter.

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Re: "Everyday" objects that aren't any more

Postby performer » April 10th, 2017, 10:05 pm

Yes. A nice job of the TRICK! But only the trick. Magic is more than tricks.
Still, if he didn't borrow the props it seems he learned that lesson at least.

Jackpot
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Re: "Everyday" objects that aren't any more

Postby Jackpot » April 10th, 2017, 10:20 pm

Leonard Hevia wrote:The props were not borrowed, but he did give away the quarter.

Peter Marucci suggested giving away one of the coins to your volunteer assistant when performing the miser's dream. Giving away that one half dollar generates a lot of good will. People will remember it for years.
Not the one who created the Potter Index.

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Re: "Everyday" objects that aren't any more

Postby Jackpot » April 10th, 2017, 10:40 pm

erdnasephile wrote:I just reread what I initially wrote. I should clarify (and I apologize for not being clear): I've not had untoward reactions to a color changing knife in a performance situation.

What I meant to say (and should have made clear) is the reaction I was referring to was what I've noticed with pocket folders (3 inches) in other situations (while not brandishing them about in threatening ways).

I'm perhaps a bad gauge for this since I grew up around guns and knives, but it has surprised me how skittish some folks are about even small knives (which I think is reflected in some current anti-edged tool legislation around where I live).


erdnasephile, For me no apology is necessary. I apologize if I wrote anything that made you think that I was questioning what you wrote. My post was not directed at you.

There are two threads currently running in the forum which have made reference to some peculiar reactions to color changing knives. I have never experienced the peculiar reactions described. I can't imagine presently the color changing knives in such a way to get such a reaction.

My friend J.P. Jackson who made and dealt in color changing knives, including the set I use, must be shaking his head and laughing at us.
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Re: "Everyday" objects that aren't any more

Postby performer » April 11th, 2017, 6:22 am

I think providing you don't actually open the knives there shouldn't be any problem. And even if you do providing you seem to be a fairly normal human being which I will concede may well be a disqualifying factor among certain magicians.

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erdnasephile
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Re: "Everyday" objects that aren't any more

Postby erdnasephile » April 11th, 2017, 9:41 pm

Jackpot wrote:erdnasephile, For me no apology is necessary. I apologize if I wrote anything that made you think that I was questioning what you wrote. My post was not directed at you.

There are two threads currently running in the forum which have made reference to some peculiar reactions to color changing knives. I have never experienced the peculiar reactions described. I can't imagine presently the color changing knives in such a way to get such a reaction.

My friend J.P. Jackson who made and dealt in color changing knives, including the set I use, must be shaking his head and laughing at us.


Hi, Jackpot: No worries--I appreciate your post.

I've never held Mr. Jackson's knives in person, but they are beautiful (but ordinary appearing) which is exactly what I like.

(For those who haven't seen them, there are some photos of the Jackson knives about 1/2 way down this page: http://magicref.tripod.com/magref/artknife.htm )

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Richard Kaufman
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Re: "Everyday" objects that aren't any more

Postby Richard Kaufman » April 11th, 2017, 9:56 pm

Joe Mogar makes great looking knives: http://www.joemogar.com/
The Stag Knives and knives in exotic woods are beautiful.
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Richard Kaufman
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Re: "Everyday" objects that aren't any more

Postby Richard Kaufman » April 11th, 2017, 9:57 pm

And thimbles ... does anyone use thimbles anymore? John Carney does a close-up thimble routine, and Mike Skinner used to do one. I think it's the Rosini routine.
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Leonard Hevia
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Re: "Everyday" objects that aren't any more

Postby Leonard Hevia » April 11th, 2017, 11:22 pm

Richard Kaufman wrote:And thimbles ... does anyone use thimbles anymore? John Carney does a close-up thimble routine, and Mike Skinner used to do one. I think it's the Rosini routine.


Yes, Skinner did the Rosini routine straight out of the Dai Vernon Book of Magic. Carney's routine is also basically the Rosini routine with a few added effects such as the magical production of the thimbles to start.

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Re: "Everyday" objects that aren't any more

Postby performer » April 12th, 2017, 4:23 am

I am a big fan of thimble magic. And yes. I do the Rosini routine all the time. Incidentally there is a great section on thimbles in the Al Leech Legacy book. And there is an incredibly illusive vanish of multiple thimbles by Al Koran in the not easily available book Mastered Amazement by Koran and Lamonte. It is virtually self working too providing you know the standard Devant thumb palm move with thimbles.

I once had a horrific experience with a rhyming patter thimble routine in a Northern England working man's club and I am still too traumatised to relate the tale. I will concede it was my own fault for doing something so stupid. I refused to do the routine for decades because of it. However fairly recently I resurrected the routine to great success and it garners great amusement. I only do it in gentler venues nowadays.

I don't give a stuff though about the alleged disuse of thimbles and people not knowing what they are. I have found it doesn't make the blindest bit of difference to the effect. A few words of patter can take care of a multiple of problems.

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Bill Marquardt
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Re: "Everyday" objects that aren't any more

Postby Bill Marquardt » April 12th, 2017, 11:51 am

Of all the items a magician might use as a prop, I believe the coin purse is probably the most obsolete (anachronous?). I have seen wallets with a coin pocket, but not lately.

The closest thing to a coin purse I have ever seen anyone carry was one of those soft plastic, oval-shaped things with a slit on one side that opened up when the thing was squeezed. They gave those things away as an advertising token at banks and other places. I haven't seen one of these, either, in many years.

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Re: "Everyday" objects that aren't any more

Postby lybrary » April 12th, 2017, 2:16 pm

performer wrote:And there is an incredibly illusive vanish of multiple thimbles by Al Koran in the not easily available book Mastered Amazement by Koran and Lamonte. It is virtually self working too providing you know the standard Devant thumb palm move with thimbles.

Very easily available here http://www.lybrary.com/mastered-amazement-p-78945.html
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Re: "Everyday" objects that aren't any more

Postby performer » April 12th, 2017, 3:14 pm

lybrary wrote:
performer wrote:And there is an incredibly illusive vanish of multiple thimbles by Al Koran in the not easily available book Mastered Amazement by Koran and Lamonte. It is virtually self working too providing you know the standard Devant thumb palm move with thimbles.

Very easily available here http://www.lybrary.com/mastered-amazement-p-78945.html


Yep. Number 27 must be the move I had in mind. I think the book is worth buying for that move alone. And unusually for thimble magic it is very easy to do. I usually present it by doing some other stuff with thimbles and then hand them over to a spectator saying, "it is easier than it looks. Try it yourself!" and of course they vanish immediately. When I first did it I was astonished at the reaction.

There is a lot of other material in the book that is worth doing too.

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erdnasephile
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Re: "Everyday" objects that aren't any more

Postby erdnasephile » April 12th, 2017, 4:07 pm

Bill Marquardt wrote:Of all the items a magician might use as a prop, I believe the coin purse is probably the most obsolete (anachronous?). I have seen wallets with a coin pocket, but not lately.

The closest thing to a coin purse I have ever seen anyone carry was one of those soft plastic, oval-shaped things with a slit on one side that opened up when the thing was squeezed. They gave those things away as an advertising token at banks and other places. I haven't seen one of these, either, in many years.


Are coin purses more common in Europe?

(I think John Bannon published some routines using these: https://www.marcopoloni.com/TACCO-itali ... -purse.htm Lance Pierce also has an outstanding routine using one as well.)

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Bill Marquardt
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Re: "Everyday" objects that aren't any more

Postby Bill Marquardt » April 12th, 2017, 5:15 pm

erdnasephile wrote:Are coin purses more common in Europe?

(I think John Bannon published some routines using these: https://www.marcopoloni.com/TACCO-itali ... -purse.htm Lance Pierce also has an outstanding routine using one as well.)


I would not doubt that someone somewhere uses a form of coin purse, but the old type with the metal frame that is commonly used (frame only) for producing things from an "invisible" corn purse has got to be almost non-existent in the real world. I could be wrong, but I have never seen one in use. As a magical oddity, I see no problem. "I found this old coin purse in my grandma's attic." :)

MagicbyAlfred
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Re: "Everyday" objects that aren't any more

Postby MagicbyAlfred » April 12th, 2017, 5:44 pm

Bill Marquardt Wrote: "I would not doubt that someone somewhere uses a form of coin purse, but the old type with the metal frame that is commonly used (frame only) for producing things from an "invisible" corn purse has got to be almost non-existent in the real world."

The frame-only prop is certainly one of the furthest things imaginable from an "everyday object." Notwithstanding, I use it all the time, displaying it between my thumb and first finger, asking, "Have you ever seen one of these?" This alone brings smiles. I refer to it as a "magician's purse," explaining that "I never leave home without it," and that "you can carry almost anything in one of these." I use it for production of the coins for Matrix, Coins Across and/or Coins Through Table. While it is not an everyday object, and is clearly a "magician's prop," that is far from a dissuading factor. It's very nature belies that anything could be secreted in it, and people laugh heartily and are astonished at the production of four coins from it, especially into their hands. They see the production as a great trick in itself. As you display it, it is so easy to have the coins in f -n-e- p-l- and execute the R-m-e- S-b-l-y. Both hands appear absolutely empty just prior to the very surprising production. The excellent entertainment value is far out of proportion to such a simple little gimmick. Seriously, I love it, and would not leave home without it.


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