Zig-zag girl with cylinders pushed through?

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Ernesto Pacifico
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Zig-zag girl with cylinders pushed through?

Postby Ernesto Pacifico » July 24th, 2012, 2:07 pm

I for the life of me can not recall the name of this trick. It's similar to zig-zag girl but has two or one cylinders pushed through the box to assure the audience no one could be inside. Any help is appreciated...

Max Maven
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Re: Zig-zag girl with cylinders pushed through?

Postby Max Maven » July 24th, 2012, 4:25 pm

I believe the original title was "Mini-Cub Zag" (although I've seen it under similar names: "Kub" or "Cube" with different word orders). I think it was first put out by Chalet Magic.

And it's a terrible trick.

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Tom Stone
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Re: Zig-zag girl with cylinders pushed through?

Postby Tom Stone » July 24th, 2012, 5:37 pm

I believe it is created by Gunter Puchinger of Germany.
It has some interesting design features, but in whole, Max' evaluation of it is spot on.

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Re: Zig-zag girl with cylinders pushed through?

Postby Richard Kaufman » July 24th, 2012, 6:37 pm

I saw Paul Daniels do it in his show in the west end in London years ago.
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Ernesto Pacifico
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Re: Zig-zag girl with cylinders pushed through?

Postby Ernesto Pacifico » July 24th, 2012, 6:47 pm

Haha, what is so bad about it? I just remember seeing it performed surrounded and am investigating brining a large scale trick like this into a smaller setting.

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Master Payne
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Re: Zig-zag girl with cylinders pushed through?

Postby Master Payne » July 24th, 2012, 7:33 pm

I will always remember the first time i saw this trick being done. I was in the mosh pit at a club where The Jim Rose Circus Sideshow was playing. A local Illusionist who Jim had hired as "Geek Relief" was doing the trick. Just after he pushed the tubes through and moved the bottom section over a girl I was standing next to turned to me and said "She's just bent over the top tube" So she more or less just aced it and figured out how it worked just by watching it.
I'm with Mr. Maven. It's a terrible trick. Scarcely deceptive and, like far too many "illusions" suffers greatly from a lack of logic and motivation. Thus it just ends up being a puzzle for people to figure out. And they do.
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Re: Zig-zag girl with cylinders pushed through?

Postby Dan Wolfe » July 25th, 2012, 8:54 am

I've spoken with a number of great magical minds who tend to agree with Mr. Maven's assessment of the Mini Kub Zag.

Fortunately, most audiences don't feel the same way.


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Q. Kumber
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Re: Zig-zag girl with cylinders pushed through?

Postby Q. Kumber » July 25th, 2012, 9:50 am

Richard, I suspect the illusion you saw Paul Daniels do was his re-working of the Geometrix illusion as sold by Owens.

Sadly most magicians who have performed Harbin's Zig-Zag illusion do not understand its real secrets, hence giving way below par presentations of it. Presented properly the ZigZag is an unfathomable masterpiece.

Dan, the reason audiences may like the mini cube zag is because they can figure it out.

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Re: Zig-zag girl with cylinders pushed through?

Postby Dan Wolfe » July 25th, 2012, 11:10 am

Q., I submit that it doesn't matter if it's the Kub Zag, Zig Zag or even Copperfield's "Flying," audiences simply want to be entertained.

The audience knows the wires are there, but if they're enjoying the ride (presentation), they won't care.

I mean, seriously...has anyone ever been *fooled* by the Snowstorm?
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Re: Zig-zag girl with cylinders pushed through?

Postby Max Maven » July 25th, 2012, 11:32 am

Dan Wolfe wrote:I mean, seriously...has anyone ever been *fooled* by the Snowstorm?


Yes.

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Re: Zig-zag girl with cylinders pushed through?

Postby Dan Wolfe » July 25th, 2012, 12:05 pm

Max Maven wrote:Yes.

I apparently stand corrected.
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Tom Stone
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Re: Zig-zag girl with cylinders pushed through?

Postby Tom Stone » July 25th, 2012, 12:25 pm

Dan Wolfe wrote:...or even Copperfield's "Flying," audiences simply want to be entertained.

The audience knows the wires are there, but if they're enjoying the ride (presentation), they won't care.

Considering that 75% of the routine is spent on disproving the idea of wires, I think you might have a too simplified view on what makes it a good piece.

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Re: Zig-zag girl with cylinders pushed through?

Postby El Harvey Oswald » July 25th, 2012, 1:06 pm

*obligatory Harbin's-original-presentation-is-only-legitimate-way-to-do-Zig-Zag comment + obligatory vague reference to primacy of audience being "entertained"*

(The MiniKUbeZag or whatever it's called blows.)

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Re: Zig-zag girl with cylinders pushed through?

Postby R.E.Byrnes » July 25th, 2012, 4:12 pm

Or do you mean the one with three tubes that's somewhat more akin to the Zig Zag? Weren't there a bunch of illusions with see-through pentagonal and octagonal tubes in the 70s, and beyond.

Speaking of heinous renderings of the Zig Zag, there's this, with a huge strip of the red-painted middle box showing on the inner side:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_NyqishBvmvg/R ... 07-049.jpg

And people really go out of their way to avoid calling this the crappy performance it is, seemingly because it's a well-liked performer (the magician):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOkJIG36f-c

One person justified this performance to me by noting that it's "really hard" to ask something of such a huge celebrity -- like that she do the illusion right or omit it -- which might say a lot about the aspirations and artistic courage of many in magic.

Doug Henning's take on the Zig Zag was hardly faithful to either the Harbin routine or cubist paint job; but I found it utterly baffling in The Magic Show, and was mesmerized by a then hard-to-find photo of the same performance seeming to show the right angles of the middle section touching only at vertex tangent points with the top and bottom sections. Even with the one hand clearly reaching and the head often being a bit askew , that sold the impossibility. (Britney Spears' head being barely visible is just too much.) By contrast, the MiniCube thing inspires little more than "where else could she be?".

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Re: Zig-zag girl with cylinders pushed through?

Postby Jim Riser » July 25th, 2012, 7:06 pm

Mini Kub Zag ...
I friend gave me one of these a few years ago. I took out the tubes and sold the thing at a carport sale. The happy new owner wanted it for an exercise play tower for his cat. That may well be the best use for this item ever devised.
Jim

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Re: Zig-zag girl with cylinders pushed through?

Postby tristanmagic » July 26th, 2012, 10:05 am

There are different versions of this trick!

I believe Kuda Bux was the first to put Tubes in an Illusion which he called "Seeing Through the Girls" back in the 40's

The Zig zag was of course invented in the mid 60's by Robert Harbin.

The first to combined the zig zag & Geometrick illusion was Gunther Puchinger.
In 1974 he created the Kubus illusion which was his version of Geometrick using a tall kabinet & 4 tubes that were inserted in criss-cross fashion.
Later (in 1987) he cut down the box in size & the Mini-Kub-Zag was born.

After this many variations where created like the Mini 3 cube (also called mini cube zig zag), Jam, Konundrum Kube,...

Paul Daniels performed the geometrick on TV and in his live shows:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADb5JlI0ywg

But in more recent years he also performed an illusion called 'Mini 3 Cube':
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvttlB4wu5U

Me too, I never liked this illusion until I heard Raphael talk about it during one of his lecture's.
He used the Mini Kub Zag during a 2 week gig and everyday he changed some things in his presentation looking for the flaws of this illusion and how to solve them.
In this process he found what works and what doesn't.
Like he says, most magician think that it is an easy illusion to perform but it is one of the most difficult illusions especially how to find a good presentation and how to perform it correctly & Deceptively.

Most Magicians don't know how to present it and make the modus operandi very obvious to an audience.
and like Raphael points out a lot are build wrong, especially the rip-offs - a black box, with black tubes and with a white roof is not very deceptive.

on a side note: I am a bit surprised why he hasn't been featured in Genii magazine as he has he is one of the most creative performers out there and he has some great idea's... Ok, I admid I am a big fan of his work but I am sure that I am not alone ;-)

Tristan


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