Backstage Vanishing Elephant

[Guest]

I do not do many dealer's tricks in my kids show. I have a room full of hundred's of dealers tricks which I rarely use!! I recently came across the Backstage Vanishing Elephant, and put it in my show. It gets a wonderful reaction. I have not read the instructions, yet, as I find my tricks always work better if I build them from the ground up. This trick packs flat, and plays enormous. It is very showy. I present it theatrically, and the audieces find it both funny and mystifying. I believe it could be one of those hidden little gems. Mind you, in the wrong hands, I could see it being a disaster!! It opens itself up to many great performance possibilities. Does anyone else use this? JR

[Guest]

I use it in my birthday shows. It fits wonderfully with my circus theme. The props are really colorful and the trick always seems to catch the kids off-guard.

Mark Pettey
ROBBiE the RiNGMASTER'S
CiRCUS of MAGiC!
Naples, FL

[Guest]

That is great to hear, Trumpetman!! I was actually given the prop by someone who knows me and understands my style, but I was very unsure of the effect it would have until I started performing it. The nice thing is that the kids are now going home from the party and not only saying that Jolly Roger made himself invisible, but also that he made an elephant dissapear! It doesn't get better than that!! JR

[Allen Tipton]

The originator was that great English craftsman Jack Hughes.
I was first called 'The Lady Vanishes'and a Jumbo Queen was inserted between 2 thin boards held in grooves on a tray which was draped round three sides.
The audience was shown the effect from backstage and saw the Queen drop through as thin slit in the tray to land in 2 hanging tapes.
The Lady was retrieved then the audience was shown the effect from the front. The drape was torn off and no Queen was in the tapes. She had vanished!
Details are in Derek Lever's Jack Hughes Triolgy, Book 2 pages 102 /103

The plot of course was suggested by Dante's Backstage With A Magician.

Allen Tipton UK

[Spellbinder]

Following his success in revamping Grant's Cow and Milk trick so that a little toy cow makes an appearance at the end (followed by a bale of hay and a cardboard barn), Jim Gerrish has been doing a version of the Backstage Elephant Vanish that uses a toy plastic elephant rather than a thin plaque.

The Cow and Milk trick are in Jim's Hardboard and Duct Tape Magic Show Tricks on my site: http://www.magicnook.com/hardboard/HDDTB2-04.htm

but the Elephant Vanish has yet to make an appearance. Perhaps I can persuade him to part with it for our Christmas issue of The Wizards' Journal.