Page 1 of 2

magic butterfly trick, name???

PostPosted: Dec 26th, '08, 10:21
by Johnny-M


hi! does anyone know this one? and if so where i can buy it ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rA5QNog ... -fresh+div

thanx!


PostPosted: Dec 26th, '08, 11:46
by Jordan C
http://www.worldmagicshop.co.uk/dancing ... -1273.html

It's also known as Houdini's Paper Butterfly and is in his book on Paper Magic


Magic Butterfly Trick

PostPosted: Dec 26th, '08, 11:56
by Allen Tipton
:D It is basically The Japanese Butterfly Trick' originated in Japan & performed in the UK first in the 19th. Century.

One of the first explanatiions was given in Priofessor Hoffman's Modern Magic page 397, then in Edwin Sachs' Sleight Of Hand, page 74.

Jean Hugard published a great version in Hugard's Magic Monthly, Volume 1 page 9 combining it with Snowstorm in China.

Will Dexter thought so highly of it he put out a great & very full version in (of all books!) Feature Magic For Mentalists, pages 145 to 151.

Edwin of the Supreme Magic Co. put out a small m/s entitled, Chinese Flying Butterflies.

I first learnt it from Paper Magic by Will Blyth; a book published in 1920,long before i was born. he called it Moths of Japan; pages 69/71

Davenports sell it at £17 with 2000 butterflies and a box of 5,000 refills comes at £9.
These so you can add the Snowstorm effect at the end.

It is pictured in Milbourne Christopher's Panorama of Magic, page 126 (& its subsequent reprint under another title).

What you do not see in the You Tube pics is the Paper Fan. :wink:

There are other sources. I only reason I have all these references is, because a Japanese magician friend who writes the History of Japanese Magic asked me, some 2 years ago, to research the effect as performed in the UK.

Allen Tipton


PostPosted: Dec 26th, '08, 12:27
by Duplicity
Good Lord Mr. Tipton - if only i could download yours and Max Maven's knowledge into some kind of computer (i would like to call it a brainframe) and then the world of mentalism and magic would be all mine.

Truely worthy of your TM award sir. :D


PostPosted: Dec 26th, '08, 12:37
by Jordan C
You don't see the fan no, but I pointed to that as the rest of the butterfly effect would in principle be the same ;)

As ever though I bow down to the Lifetime Achiever :)


Paper Butterflies

PostPosted: Dec 26th, '08, 13:01
by Allen Tipton
Dear Duplicity. I am really just a very ordinary person and an ordinary magician BUT right from boyhood I have always read books; one of my great passions.
There are some 600+ Magic Books alone here. And I must have given away at least 200.

Adding to Butterflies:

There is also an illustration of a Japanese lady performing the trick in Hopkins Magic (1898) page 140 in the paperback version.

My Japanese friend & I believe the trick may have been first perfomed in the Western World by Dr.Lynn

I first saw Haakon Edeling, the Danish magician perform it in one of the shows Harry Stanley organised at I think The Scala Theatre in London.
He finished it off with the butterflies fluttering around a bouquet (feather flowers!) on which they eventually settled.

In Robert Albo's, 'Oriental Magic of The Bambergs' there is a box containing a clockwork mechanism. The Butterflies gradually settled into the box.

Edwin put out a bouquet (more feathers) on which the Butterflies settled then a shower of Butterflies flew up from it. Can you have a shower of butterflies'? Perhaps should be a Flight or Metamorphosis of Butterflies!
I think he credited the idea to Ali Bongo.

Allen Tipton


PostPosted: Dec 26th, '08, 13:23
by phoenixv
This looks like a stage effect. Can it be done close-up as well?


PostPosted: Dec 26th, '08, 14:50
by Johnny-M
wow.. thank u very much!
I´ll try to find a video with the fan in picture to see what it would look like.

cheerz
E.


Flying Butterflies

PostPosted: Dec 26th, '08, 14:54
by Allen Tipton
:D Possibly with a skilled performer perhaps with one 'butterfly'
IT and substituting something else; a folded card menu perhaps, in place of the fan. l've often wanted to try a battery fan, which I have used close up with a small spinning top.

Allen Tipton


PostPosted: Dec 30th, '08, 19:07
by JonWhite
Courtesy of a thread on this over at the green place a while ago, here's a (small but great) clip of Ryusei Kamiguchi performing the effect:

http://homepage.mac.com/happy_prince/iMovieTheater.html


PostPosted: Dec 31st, '08, 01:51
by Mr_Grue
Can't for the life of me remember where I saw it, but I suspect Allen might know. There's a lovely sounding effect where someone takes a small piece of paper, scrunches it into an egg, then into a caterpillar, then a cocoon. The cocoon is broken and out of it emerges a live moth.


Butterfly Trick

PostPosted: Dec 31st, '08, 11:22
by Allen Tipton
:( Sorry Mr. _Grue. I haven't come across ALL that sequence. Ricky Jay took a piece of tissue paper, folded it and it turned into a live butterfly at the end of one of his videos-- probably on those dvds now!.
I think it was 'Learned Pigs & Fireproof Women'!

Also I vaguely remember, before RJ, Doug Henning performing it on one of his TV Specials.

And somewhere in one of the magic books there is an effect where flies are semi frozen then apparently 'brought back to life'!!!

The things us magicians get up to. :roll:
Me? I'll stick to the Stamp Album & 6 Card Repeat. :)

Allen Tipton


PostPosted: Dec 31st, '08, 12:16
by Jordan C
Posting this link in here because we spoke about fans for the butterfly trick, how about having a snowstorm instead!!

http://www.magic-voitko.com/shop/stage- ... ng-fan.php


PostPosted: Dec 31st, '08, 13:49
by Palfince
Mr_Grue wrote:Can't for the life of me remember where I saw it, but I suspect Allen might know. There's a lovely sounding effect where someone takes a small piece of paper, scrunches it into an egg, then into a caterpillar, then a cocoon. The cocoon is broken and out of it emerges a live moth.


I think that can be found in The Art of Astonishment Volume 1.

EDIT: It sounds a lot like a trick called "Creation" by Patrick Martin and can be found on page 247 of The Art of Astonishment Volume 1. I was reading it yesterday and it seems like a pretty good trick.


Re: Butterfly Trick

PostPosted: Dec 31st, '08, 14:01
by daleshrimpton
Allen Tipton wrote::( Sorry Mr. _Grue. I haven't come across ALL that sequence. Ricky Jay took a piece of tissue paper, folded it and it turned into a live butterfly at the end of one of his videos-- probably on those dvds now!.
I think it was 'Learned Pigs & Fireproof Women'!

Also I vaguely remember, before RJ, Doug Henning performing it on one of his TV Specials.

And somewhere in one of the magic books there is an effect where flies are semi frozen then apparently 'brought back to life'!!!

The things us magicians get up to. :roll:
Me? I'll stick to the Stamp Album & 6 Card Repeat. :)

Allen Tipton

Im sure that the henning version is either Steinmyer, or Charles reynolds.

Interestingly enough, the method for holding the butterfly, comes from the way they are transported from the wild for collections.
bewteen sheets of tissue paper.