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The Incredible Dancing Paper Napkin: Scott Francis/David Allen

The Effect This trick is absolutely diabolical. Have you ever wanted to make a paper napkin dance...without putting a little boogie in it? Well here is your chance to perform it on the spot anywhere, anytime.

Either impress your friends at a fast food restaurant with the dancing paper napkin or perform it on stage in front of a large audience...you choose.

With a little showmanship, finesse and a small investment of about 2 1/2 cents per performance you can be a pro with the Dancing Paper Napkin.

This is so cool, not to mention fun to play with. When you invest in this DVD and find out the method you will kick yourself and say "I wish I would have thought of that." We are glad we did.

Have fun and remember the more you practice the better you will be...period.

Easy To Do!
No...Strings
No...Mirrors
No...Wires
No...Kidding!

Cost £17.99 http://www.worldmagicshop.co.uk/index.php



Difficulty
(1=easy to do, 2=No sleights, but not so easy, 3=Some sleights used,
4=Advanced sleights used, 5=Suitable for experienced magicians only)

As with animating any ‘inanimate’ object there are two key factors: practise and personality. Technically it’s easy peasy, but to get it looking as good as on this dvd then you’re gonna have to put in the hours in front of the mirror and brush up on your acting skills. It's a big, fat 1

Review The quality of the dvd itself is ok… it’s not HD, but it does the job adequately and runs for approx 28 mins. It’s well shot, filmed against black and you can clearly see everything you need to see.

The easy to navigate menu is nicely split up into intro, performance, construction, handling, tips sections so you can find the bits you want quickly. It’s enthusiastically and entertainingly presented and all the instructions are very clearly shown and presented.

Making the gimmick is the work of a few minutes and pretty inexpensive(pennies), which is handy as you ditch everything at the end of the performance by scrunching up the napkin and binning it. I would also recommend that when making the gimmick you use the ‘brand’ suggested - I tried to do it on the cheap using what I had in the drawer and it was markedly inferior.

The effect itself is easy to set up and looks completely impromptu (apart from the fact you’ve just spent 20 secs ‘hypnotizing’ a paper napkin). It looks very good too and isn’t just the old hypnotized hankie routine. This napkin can move to the music, sway left and right, nod it’s cute little head and bend right over. You can also switch hands quickly which lends an extra layer of ‘believability’ to the performance.

It’s pretty angle proof too due to the method of construction and materials used - you could easily have a spec interact with it (I was going to say ‘you could easily let someone stroke it..’, but we all know where that phrase would end up).


Overall The question with anything like this is “could you see yourself pretending to hypnotize and then talk and play with a paper napkin?” For myself, I like a bit of whimsy and love the reaction you get from kids when you do this apparently off the cuff.

I tried it out in a restaurant with my girlfriend and she started laughing so hard a chip came back down her nose… ok, maybe that’s a bad example as you don’t want to be responsible for anyone choking to death.

Perform this…. But just remember to learn the Heimlich Maneouvre first.

8.5/10 It does exactly what it says on the tin!!

I've had this for some time and I rate it highly. The dvd is easy to follow and is filled with amusing scenes to help answer any questions you might have about preparation, repeat performances etc.

It does exactly what it promises and it's guaranteed to amuse and impress kids from 8 to 80 years old. Not a trick as such but the surprise element puzzles people nonetheless.

Performance skill level is '1' - no magic skill as such - it's pure presentation. You don't even need much patter (the dvd performances are done to background music) just expressive reactions.