Magic Tricks

[Clik32 10]

Ok, so at lunch time today, me and a couple of friends went to the pub to celebrate leaving college! We went in, sat down and in the corner I noticed a middle aged+ man, sat down with this five pound note hovering in thin air! So, us been the curious 18 year olds we are, HAD to go and investigate.

 

I promise you all now, I wiped my hand all the way round it in any way I could, there were no strings at all. It was just there, hovering, hanging there. He wouldn't tell us how you did it, so I passed him something different to hover - a beer mat, which he did again, this then made me sure there were no strings because he did it straight away, no messing about. I just watched in amazement as he did it with a tenner then!!

 

The bloke behind the bar told me it was something to do with heat and friction - but how?? I looked a right flippin fool, rubbing my hands together with this piece of paper and then trying to 'lift' it into thin air!! Someone help, I've been trying it ALL night. I know it's stupid but I want to learn how to do it!

Chloé

[robh 10]

There was a thread. I've got some, they are incredibly thin, the skill is to misdirect you into believing you have checked thoroughly for one and not found it. Typically one end of the thread would be attached to the operator's body. More sophisticated versions will involve a stooge doing the operation - he can get away with it because the "magician" is holding your attention. He should have quite good control of the thread and be able to move it out of your way while you are checking for it. People are usually very cooperative, moving their hands slowly and carefully so there is time for the operator to take evasive action - a frenzied attack on the surrounding air-space would stand a better chance.

 

Like all "magic" it relies partly on an innate human subconscious need to believe in the impossible (why has virtually every society generated a religion and even the irreligious usually have blind faith in something else - faries, aliens, their lucky rabbit's foot, astrology, ghosts, luck on the horses, that stories in The Sun are the unblemished truth) and partly on the skill of the operator.

 

The thread is so light that even if you touched it you'd probably not feel it, it might break and the note flutter to the ground but your credulity remains because you didn't feel the thread so there isn't a strong connection between your action and the note falling, a good magician will be able to maintain the illusion.

 

There was (is) a popular street trader's scam in popular tourist areas, the last time I saw it was in Covent Garden. They have a dancing paper puppet apparently completely independent of the operator and with no sign of any threads. The thread is being tweaked either by an apparently uninvolved bystander or a small electric motor in a rucsac or "discarded" cardboard box.

 

They sell the kit for a few pounds and what you get is a sheet of paper to cut out the puppet shape from, some thread and the instructions. Just one or two sales every 10 minutes and they can be on £50 quid an hour - cash. (But of course they'll enter it on their tax return...!)

 

 

"Alice laughed: "There's no use trying," she said; "one can't believe impossible things."

"I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."

Alice in Wonderland.

[Clik32 10]

You know anywhere "nearby" where I can get this thread from?

Chloé

[halevan 11]

Join the magic circle!!!

[robh 10]

Originally posted by Chloe

You know anywhere "nearby" where I can get this thread from?

Chloé

There must be a magic shop in Sheffield - I know where there used to be one but it disappeared (joke).

 

Mail order: This is what you need - seems very expensive but maybe you get a lot. Same place will sell you an (expensive) video of how to do the tricks.

 

http://www.magicbox.uk.com/product.php?prodId=00688&catId=919

 

Can we look forward to seeing you on Fargate earning 50 quid an hour then?

[Clik32 10]

Lol, nah! My mates thought I was having them on when I said he could get some thread that 'invisible.' We were all so took up with him doing it!

Chloé

[Neo 10]

You've got to love magic illusions..

The fact is that what the eyes see and the ears hear, the mind believes.

[JoeJBB 10]

Magic shop in sheffield - Magick Enterprises. It's on broad street (where they used to have that red building with all the windows smashed that's been pulled down now). When you go in, you have to ask to go through to the magic section. You're looking for ITR. It's closed on Thursdays and Sundays, and on Saturdays it has loads of people from the Sheffield Magic Circle in.

 

I'm pretty dissapointed that you got told how to do this, but please practice after you buy it. Don't just read the intstructions in ten minutes and then try it in front of people. The reason that guy was so good was because he had practiced for months.

 

For example, David Blaine's tricks are really simple workings. But the reason people find him so amazing is that he has worked on them and the presentation of them (although you wouldn't thinks so, lol) for years.

 

Joe.

[DaBouncer 13]

Originally posted by JoeJBB

Magic shop in sheffield - Magick Enterprises. It's on broad street (where they used to have that red building with all the windows smashed that's been pulled down now). When you go in, you have to ask to go through to the magic section. You're looking for ITR. It's closed on Thursdays and Sundays, and on Saturdays it has loads of people from the Sheffield Magic Circle in.

 

I'm pretty dissapointed that you got told how to do this, but please practice after you buy it. Don't just read the intstructions in ten minutes and then try it in front of people. The reason that guy was so good was because he had practiced for months.

 

For example, David Blaine's tricks are really simple workings. But the reason people find him so amazing is that he has worked on them and the presentation of them (although you wouldn't thinks so, lol) for years.

 

Joe.

Are YOU in the industry Joe?

[robh 10]

Originally posted by JoeJBB

I'm pretty dissapointed that you got told how to do this, but please practice after you buy it. Don't just read the intstructions in ten minutes and then try it in front of people.

Are you? Why? A search string like magic currency levitation - or now we know what the stuff's called, ITR magic finds the answer on Google. I know the magic circle likes to keep the tricks secret but that doesn't mean that Joe Public is bound by their rules - do you adhere to the rules of clubs of which you aren't a member?

 

Just because I know how a trick is done doesn't mean I can't admire a skilled operator - and the best will sometimes have an alternative way of achieving an effect and catch me out.

 

I get annoyed by street traders who use a simple bit of trickery to con people out of their money, don't you?

At what point does magic cross the boundary and become dishonesty or fraud? Many magicians know how Uri Geller bends spoons and they can do it too but he still claims he's not using trickery but "mental powers" - which he is unable to replicate under scientific test conditions. Magic or fraud?