Smashed & Restored [censored]

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Smashed & Restored [censored]

Postby Guest » February 15th, 2005, 8:59 am

Can anyone point me to any routines in print, on video/DVD, or even marketed, along the "classical" line of placing a borrowed [censored] in a small bag, and apparently smashing it with a hammer or similar.

The broken pieces are then displayed, and then restored to their original state, or vanished, and the restored watch found in an "impossible" location.

For such a well-known plot, I'm surprised that I haven't found it in print anywhere!

Any variations would be of interest.

Thanks in advance!

Dave Jones

Jonathan Townsend
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Re: Smashed & Restored [censored]

Postby Jonathan Townsend » February 15th, 2005, 9:20 am

Originally posted by DaveJones:
...For such a well-known plot, I'm surprised that I haven't found it in print anywhere!...
Isn't that one of the EARLY uses for an egg bag?
Mundus vult decipi -per Caleb Carr's story Killing Time

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Re: Smashed & Restored [censored]

Postby NikMikas » February 15th, 2005, 12:35 pm

Tommy Wonder.

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Steve Bryant
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Re: Smashed & Restored [censored]

Postby Steve Bryant » February 15th, 2005, 1:03 pm

The funniest destroyed watch involving a small bag is in Martin Lewis's lecture. I don't know if it's in any of his writings or videos, so try to catch his lecture if you can. My biggest laugh in magic in the last 10 years or so.

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Re: Smashed & Restored [censored]

Postby Eric Rose » February 15th, 2005, 1:41 pm

I saw the Lewis watch trick also - outstanding. One of the funniest gags / setups I've seen in a long time.

I briefly went through the instructions in his Mardo bag as well as Martin's Miracles but didn't see the trick included. Does anyone know if its on his Egg Bag DVD?

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Re: Smashed & Restored [censored]

Postby Steve Bryant » February 15th, 2005, 4:12 pm

It is not. (That is, it's not on the Egg Bag dvd that Joe Stevens produced. Martin does a routine, but not the bit with the watch.)

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Re: Smashed & Restored [censored]

Postby Guest » February 16th, 2005, 2:21 am

Thanks everyone!

Does anyone have any more details on Martin Lewis' handling? What happens - is it available anywhere?

Many thanks

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Steve Bryant
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Re: Smashed & Restored [censored]

Postby Steve Bryant » February 16th, 2005, 5:44 am

Again, sorry, it's a great sight gag, and I can't describe it without giving it away. I suggest e-mailing Martin to ask him if it is in print or video. He teaches it in his lecture as something that can be done with his egg bag.

Guest

Re: Smashed & Restored [censored]

Postby Guest » February 16th, 2005, 8:50 am

Frank Chapman had, by all accounts, one of the really outstanding routines along these lines. His was a borrowed watch, destroyed, then found restored in a loaf of bread! Charlie Miller raved about this trick. I heard him mention it more than once, and he brought it to his reader's attention in his Magicana Column. the routine can be found in "Chap's Scrapbook", Frank Chapman's "little" magazine.

It (the magazine) was re-published in a single volume sometime in the seventies, if I remember right. It contains MANY gems in addition to the "Watch in the Loaf of Bread". Charlie Miller first contributed his impromptu "Cups and Bills" to Chapman. This has appeared elsewhere, but Chapman had it first!(Mike Skinner was quite fond of the routine and had a handling of it that has never seen print - very good.)

I think Chapman's "Fountain of Silks" is included. This is a complete act, as I recall, culminating in the appearance of dozens and dozens of silks...

Anyway, back to your [censored] - Some of the old time programs will show this as a featured effect. The borrowed watch was a [censored], though, as that was most common a century ago! Dropped into the mortar part of a mortar and pestle, the watch was then pounded (or is that "pestled"?)to smithereens! The pieces were vanished. It was found, restored, in any of a number of peculiar locations. I seem to remember, after the Loaf of Bread, a watch re-appearing tied to a ribbon around a dove's neck, in a nest of boxes, and back on the watch-fob it was originally removed from, the performers watch-fob, still tucked into his vest pocket...

There are several books that detail the programmes of famous magicians, so you get an idea of how they portrayed the effect in thier advertising, what the spectator was supposed to remember....

Remember this? You borrowed the watch, wrapped it in a handkerchief, tossed the thing to the floor where it made a horrible sound. You picked it up and revealed the watch, unscathed! Just substitute your keys under the hank. They sound like something smashing all to bits! Some guys did this and revealed the keys at the end, making it a practical joke, not a trick...

And what are "Watch Boxes" for?

Bob Read had a Gag watch that sprang apart when he checked the time, he used it in his "Penultimate Cups and Balls" routine. The guts of the watch were tied to a spring and when you released it the watch face, guts, spring, etc., all popped out of the [censored] and hung there, looking quite a mess. Must be a good way to integrate this...

Have you checked places like Hoffmann, Robert-Houdin, etc.? Or old catalogues? Or the Albo books? These can be a great resource, providing history, ideas for props no longer around but easily replaced by modern devices, routining, etc.

Best, PSC


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