Tom Stone Shares a Video With You

[Richard Kaufman]

This video by Tom Stone also appears in the digital version of the April issue of Genii. It demonstrates something that is explained in his column "Lodestones." If it fools you, subscribe and learn!

[Jonathan Pendragon]

As I mentioned in the Columns forum, Brilliant!

[Matthew Field]

This is spectacular! Also, check out Tom's Max Milton Direct Steal on the Warg website. It has my highest recommendation.

Matt Field

[CraigMitchell]

I haven't read the column yet ( and maybe this is intended solely for buskers ) but I'll play the contrarian so long - we have a man wearing a handbag throughout the performance ... it looks 'odd' ...

[Tom Stone]

I haven't read the column yet ( and maybe this is intended solely for buskers ) but I'll play the contrarian so long - we have a man wearing a handbag throughout the performance ... it looks 'odd' ...

The column is about alternative solutions for people who, for various reasons, can't use the pockets of a mens' business suit. A kind of "walk in someone else's shoes" excersise. It isn't meant to look fitting on me, but to illustrate the ideas in the column.

[Richard Kaufman]

And it doesn't have to be a "handbag." Tom bought a cheap one just to see if his idea would work. I've seen plenty of over-the-shoulder bags made for men that would also work.

[Leo Garet]

The bag itself doesn't look incongruous to me. Admittedly it has to fit the performing circumstances, but it looks, size-wise, like any number of bags I've seen carried by both men and women.

[Pete McCabe]

The bag looks normal in everyday life. But Tom is demonstrating a cups and balls, which is not really an everyday-life trick. In any kind of formal show it would look weird for anyone, man or woman, to wear a handbag, unless it was part of a costume.

I bet the same techniques could be used to create an amazing production you could use very effectively hanging out with friends, or standing in line for the movies. I wonder what would be required to have it deliver liquid.

[Richard Kaufman]

Jeez, Pete, it does not look weird for anyone to be wearing a shoulder bag, even someone in a suit.

[Ted M]

It's amazing magicians were ever able to move on from the flowing robes and conical hats.

[observer]

Shoulder bags for men went out of fashion several decades ago.

It's like doing a demo wearing a leisure suit, people are going to say it looks weird. Because it does.

[Tom Stone]

Shoulder bags for men went out of fashion several decades ago.

It's like doing a demo wearing a leisure suit, people are going to say it looks weird. Because it does.

I don't know if the column is badly written...
The video demo isn't performance material, but an illustration of an experimental idea in a theoretical article. Those "people" you mention does not exist so they can't say anything.

[Jim Riser]

I go to a number of various trade shows around the country. At these shows, I always wear/carry my "messenger bag" to handle literature, my tablet, samples, etc. Most other folks at the shows also have a similar bag for the same reasons. Many of the people questioning the bag would be amazed at the variety of such bags offered at the various trade shows. There are hundreds of vendors displaying and selling such bags at each show. Take a stroll through the luggage department at Macy's to get a small sampling of what is available. The only problem that I have with the bag that Tom is wearing i that it seems a little small. Messenger bags are still in style and would not be questioned by a modern audience.
Jim

[Marco Pusterla]

Tom has always very interesting ideas to share and this solution to a problem (performer without pockets/need pockets for set) is both practical and clever.

But this is not a solution that is suitable to every performer, in every circumstance, for every effect. If the performer doesn't have (for his/her style) a costume which allows access to pockets, then there still are plenty of tricks in literature that don't require pockets: one doesn't have to perform cups and balls if he's not equipped to do the trick.

Often, when performing, the shoulder bag could be put on the floor, between the feet of the performer: in some situations, it may (and will) look out of place hanging off a shoulder. However, in the article, Tom presents other ideas that are more elegant than the shoulder bag.

The big issue I have with the shoulder bag (especially in Tom's performance) is that is not elegant: the performer looks like an amateur that hasn't studied how to use the space around him to provide elegant magic. But I assume if one considers the elegance of a Criss Angel or of a Dynamo, then a shoulder bag can have its place. But at this point, why not a builder's tool bag?

I don't think I will ever use the idea, as it doesn't fit my style and my performing situations, but I'm grateful to Tom for having identified a problem and proposed a solution for it. Thank you!

[observer]

Shoulder bags for men went out of fashion several decades ago.

It's like doing a demo wearing a leisure suit, people are going to say it looks weird. Because it does.

...
The video demo isn't performance material, but an illustration of an experimental idea in a theoretical article. Those "people" you mention does not exist so they can't say anything.

I watched. Apparently several other people who exist watched it too. So there!

The fashion objections were mostly a bit of silliness though, at least on my part. Although deciding on apparel is part of a performer's job - somehow I don't think Max Maven would be quite as effective if he started wearing one of those top hats made out of playing cards.

[Roger M.]

mmmmm, we're here in the Genii Forum ... a behind the scenes forum for magicians, and Tom shares a proof of concept video with his fellow magicians which results in a style critique of the shoulder bag?

As Jim Riser points out, anybody who's been to a trade show knows what 5000 guys walking with shoulder/messenger bags looks like!

[Tom Moore]

The video on it's own doesn't stand up very well because it looks odd due to the lack of context. The video in conjunction with the column and explanations behind how and why he's done this are absolutely priceless and worthy of a lot more praise and study than they're currently getting.