Materialising sphere effect

[Guest]

Hi Folks,

I'm hoping someone can help me to find the source for an effect that I saw on the TV a few years ago. From what I remember, the magician takes a silk handerchief - and lays it flat on the table. He then puts his hand flat over the silk and starts to move his hand in a circular action (palm parallel to the table). It then appears that a sphere-shaped object materialises under the silk (I cannot recall whether the ball is actually produced at the end of the effect).

I'd just like to find out a little more about this effect. i.e. who conceived the effect? Is it written up somewhere? What are its predecessors? etc. etc.

Many thanks in advance to anyone who can help out

Derek Jones

[Matthew Field]

The effect you describe is actually a handling for "Glorpy" otherwise known as the Gesticulating Ghost in a Hank. I can't guarantee that this is what you saw, but it sure sounds like it.

Matt Field

[Guest]

Thanks for your reply Matt. However, if you're referring to the type of haunted hank that I used to have years ago - with the L-shaped wire gimmick sewn into the corner - then I'm sure that this wasn't it. The effect was of a sphere that grows in volume under the palm and then decreases again. As I recall, the palm of just one hand was placed over the centre of the handkerchief.

Unless it was an extremely clever handling of the standard wire gimmick, I think it was something else.

Anyone? Or am I being a dumb schmuck?

Thanks again

[Randy DiMarco]

Actually this doesn't sound like Glorpy but a trick I believe is called Solid Ghost. The method is different than Glorpy and you would swear there was a ball in the hankerchief. A ball is not produced at the end.

[Guest]

Randy

Thanks! That must be it - I've just done a Google search on 'Solid Ghost' and the description at: http://www.tannenmagic.com/cart/cat11.html certainly matches the effect that I saw.

Many thanks!

Derek

[Matthew Field]

Glorpy.

Matt Field

[Bob Farmer]

The "Solid Ghost" is explained in Ganson's The Art of Close-up Magic. There are two different gimmicks that can be used -- one is a toothpick and one is a piece of plastic tubing. The latter works great and the handkerchief rises while you are away from it. Chris Pratt at the Magic Circle has a great routine where a ball is produced at the end (after the ghost is tapped with a spoon).

[Matthew Field]

DO NOT LISTEN TO ANYTHING BOB FARMER SAYS OR YOUR HEAD WILL EXPLODE!!!

Now, what Bob writes is accurate. These are Glorpy variations. You can watch the plastic tubing gimmick in use on the video of the Mullica Bash Highlights which I'm reviewing in the March Genii. It is fantastic.

But the Tannen's description DK Jones references is the Tannen's version (I'm being kind here) of Glorpy. When they say "the magician stands away from the handkerchief" they mean his hands are only at the sides of the handkerchief.

Ain't magic decriptions grand?

Matt Field

[Randy DiMarco]

The Solid Ghost is not a variation of Glorpy. The trick as DK describes it cannot be done with Glorpy. The "rolling" of the ghost can only be done with the stick gimmick of Solid Ghost which is described in the reference given by Bob Farmer.

[Bob Farmer]

Matt Field is OFF HIS MEDICATION AGAIN! DO NOT PAY ANY ATTENTION TO WHAT HE SAYS, HE'S ABSOLUTELY WRONG ABOUT YOUR HEAD EXPLODING! At most, your eyes will bug out.

Here's the real info:
"Glorpy" came after the "Solid Ghost." The best version of the "Solid Ghost" is "The Thing" in The Art of Close-Up Magic by Lewis Ganson (p. 168, reprinted by L&L). When the handkerchief rises, your hands are not touching it -- and the "thing" remains under the handkerchief (unlike Glorpy, where if you remove your hands the thing falls.)

The two-volume Ganson title is realy good and a steal at whatever price L&L sells it for.

[Dave Shepherd]

If I might put in my two cents' worth, in his lecture in Washington DC last spring, Barrie Richardson taught a clever method for a solid ghost effect which is largely what DK describes.

I won't divulge methodology, because it's available from Barrie in lecture notes, but it is NOT the Glorpy/Hyrum the Haunted Hank method. Let me just say it is related to, but a serious improvement of, the Solid Ghost trick as described earlier.

After the shape has materialized, you can tap it with a spoon or other solid object (with hands completely removed from the hank) to prove it solid, then show that it doesn't exist at all when unfurling the hanky for examination.

[Brad Jeffers]

Derek, The effect you describe (although possibly done by a different method), appears in the May 2000 issue of MAGIC magazine, under the title "Coney Island Casper" by Andrew Martin. It is basicly impromptu, although it does utilize a thumbtip. Also in the same issue, is an article by Max Maven, entitled "A Brief History of 'It'", which gives the lineage of the effect.