Telekinetic Timber

Discuss your favorite platform magic and illusions.
Guest

Telekinetic Timber

Postby Guest » July 8th, 2006, 9:36 pm

I really like this item, in theory. Having purchased one, I built an interesting routine, practiced it countless times and then set out to perform it for a crowd of about 60. After a lengthy set up, the block just sat there and, as those of you who have this know, there's just no resetting it live. In my opinion, the gimmick (at least the one I wound up with) is just too tempermental. In a recent discussion with a magic dealer, he advised that it can fail based on humidity. Since I don't usually travel with a barometer, this represents a significant drawback.

Anyone else had problems with this effect?

Gary Brown

Jeff Haas
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Joined: January 17th, 2008, 12:00 pm
Location: San Mateo, CA

Re: Telekinetic Timber

Postby Jeff Haas » July 8th, 2006, 11:10 pm

Why not just use an invisible thread?

Guest

Re: Telekinetic Timber

Postby Guest » July 9th, 2006, 8:43 am

Failure is not necessarily bad when you're performing PK effects. "Real" psychics don't always succeed.

If you want to increase your chances of success, you may consider having a second block, which you can switch for the first.

Guest

Re: Telekinetic Timber

Postby Guest » July 9th, 2006, 9:59 am

Gary;
About 10 years ago I got on a kick making variations of block gimmicks and slightly altering the shape of the block ends to improve the effect.

The final design of gimmick that I came up with was totally sealed at an angle in a length of pvc pipe within the block. This is totally unaffected by humidity. Temperature extremes will slightly speed up or slow down the gimmick; but not cause it to cease working. I never cut a telekinetic timer in half to see if they are using sand (or similar) as the motive power. Mine is viscous liquid and a heavy shifting weight.

By increasing the size of the block to around 2 1/2" square by 12" long and altering the shape of the ends, it is possible to lean the block against an upright and have it still tip away from the upright. This is more impressive than just tipping off of a bottle top.

Jeff, you do not want to use invisible thread as the shifting mass principle allows the performer to even be in the audience when the block tips. This is what makes it effective - not the mere tipping.
Jim

Guest

Re: Telekinetic Timber

Postby Guest » July 11th, 2006, 2:45 pm

As the creator of the Telekinetic Timber, I can assure you that humidity has nothing to do with the timing. Temperature has very little to do with it unless it's 30F one performance and 100F the next. The main issue is setting it up promptly, and learning the exact position to set it. I'm no longer the maker of the Telekinetic Timber, but it should still be made the way I designed it.

I had one customer tell me the timber didn't get a reaction from his audience. After a little questioning I found out he was performing it on a boat! (I won't say who it was.)

Guest

Re: Telekinetic Timber

Postby Guest » July 31st, 2006, 2:21 pm

I have a funny story about TT. I live in southern california and have worked as a magic demonstrator at several local area magic shops, including Hollywood Magic.

We had a mild earthquake early one morning. As I rushed into work early to clean up what was sure to be a messy shop, my co-workers and I had a surprise laugh, the TT was the only object on its shelf that did NOT fall over!

This is in no way intended to be a review of the product. Just a funny moment on an otherwise dreadful morning...

Guest

Re: Telekinetic Timber

Postby Guest » August 1st, 2006, 7:46 am

Originally posted by Bruce Sinclair:


We had a mild earthquake early one morning. As I rushed into work early to clean up what was sure to be a messy shop, my co-workers and I had a surprise laugh, the TT was the only object on its shelf that did NOT fall over!
Reminds me of an old Woody Allen routine:

I escape always into a rich fantasy life, that comes from an unhappy childhood. I come from a poor family. My father worked at Coney Island. He had a concession on the boardwalk, where you knock over milk bottles with baseballs, which I could never do for my entire childhood.

There was a tidal wave at Coney Island, when I was a child, ripped up the boardwalk and did about a million dollars worth of damage, houses and everything. The only thing left standing was those little milk bottles, y'know.

Guest

Re: Telekinetic Timber

Postby Guest » August 14th, 2006, 1:18 pm

Great post, James. I hadn't heard that before.

Guest

Re: Telekinetic Timber

Postby Guest » August 29th, 2006, 4:49 am

It took me a long, long time to get use to my timber. I even emailed the distributor. Finally I got it down now and its 100 percent unless operator error. Don't rush the set up! You have 10 or more seconds to adjust it. That was my problem, I tried to do it under 5 secs.

Hope this helps!

Candin

Guest

Re: Telekinetic Timber

Postby Guest » August 30th, 2006, 12:26 am

Originally posted by Gary Brown:
I really like this item, in theory. Having purchased one, I built an interesting routine, practiced it countless times and then set out to perform it for a crowd of about 60. After a lengthy set up, the block just sat there and, as those of you who have this know, there's just no resetting it live. In my opinion, the gimmick (at least the one I wound up with) is just too tempermental. In a recent discussion with a magic dealer, he advised that it can fail based on humidity. Since I don't usually travel with a barometer, this represents a significant drawback.

Anyone else had problems with this effect?

Gary Brown
A barometer does not measure humidity. It measures air pressure. If you don't have the real TT, you may have the source of the problem. I have two of them. Both work fine. However, you must really practice with it a lot to make sure you understand it. Also, watch out for raked stages.

Guest

Re: Telekinetic Timber

Postby Guest » August 30th, 2006, 12:53 am

An excellent routine appears in Christian Chelman's "Capricornian Tales". It's more suitable if you do bizarre magick

Guest

Re: Telekinetic Timber

Postby Guest » September 4th, 2006, 4:49 am

I agree with Bill. Lots of practice with this and when you feel you have it down, more practice.
Its worth it of course. Loss of concentration when setting up will result in it just sitting there. How do I know, it happened this weekend.
I knew when I set it there may be a problem. I covered for it and it worked the second time.


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