The Genii Forum

Jim Gerrish has been spending his time working on what he keeps claiming is his absolute LAST trick for The Magic Nook, a Portable Rabbit Hole. Yusif Tremil worked with him on it and keeps both of us thinking about magic that he then writes up for us. The Portable Hole CAN be performed with a live rabbit, but it is a lot of fun with a puppet rabbit as well. The magician shows a plaque with a circle on it with an arrow pointing the way for any lost rabbit to follow. The arrow points one way on one side of the plaque, and another way on the other side. Then it "changes its mind" and sends the visiting rabbit off in another direction (a variation of Jim's "What's Up?" trick from Hardboard & Duct Tape Magic - https://www.magicnook.com/hardboard/HDDTB1-01.htm ) But the circle in the center can be opened up to and the magician can put his arm through seeking to grab the first rabbit that wanders by ... but no luck. Then the magician shows a four fold cage that he has prepared for the rabbit, if he ever catches one. The cage folds flat and can be shown on all sides. When it is unfolded and put on a table, the Arrow Plaque is laid on the top of it, and suddenly a rabbit (live or puppet) pops up through the hole. You use the rabbit for some funny bunny business, and when finished, you tuck the rabbit back down the hole where it SHOULD drop into the cage, but instead it just disappears and everything is shown on all sides and folded flat and that's that!
https://www.magicnook.com/WizJournal/WJ-44ALL.htm#PortableRabbitHole

Are there any photos that could be posted of a working version of the actual prop ? (on the link posted above there are only Photoshop mock-ups showing what it might look like).

No. The interested magicians who have built it from our instructions did not need photos, so we don't provide them, and we further ask that those who build and perform with this prop not provide photos or video recordings to others in order to keep the secrets ...secret.

Fair enough.

The Geezer Wizards that run The Magic Nook are very close to shoving off from this life, and when that happens the entire Magic Nook Website will be gone and the only magicians who will remember it are the ones who actually made use of our magic e-Books and built the props for their own use. The Portable Rabbit Hole will go the way of many other magic props that are lost to history and that's as it should be.

I have appreciated many of the e-books you and Jim Gerrish have put out over the years. Some of us will remember your work! Your book on how to make realistic looking flower magic props ("spring flowers") is just one I could name that has been very useful. As you know , but other readers of this forum may not know , so I'll mention it now: your e-book 'Flowers That Bloom With A Spring' was mentioned in Genii , in the May 2013 issue , in an article by Neil Tobin on building the magic props for a production of the musical 'Barnum'. There's a great quote in the article from the show's director: “Why don’t all magicians have flowers like these?”