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I was boring my Dad with talk of my favourite magicians and what amazing feats. they had achieved when he mentioned doing a trick when he was younger where a key would seemingly roll or gently move across your palm. I quickly intervened telling him it was a Haunted Key and you can buy them at most magic dealers now.

He said he'd never been to a magic shop and learnt the effect, completely gimmickless from a book of random odd pieces of info he took out from a libary nearly 30 years ago. Of course, he can't do it now and has no idea what the book was called!

Anyone have any ideas where I could read up on this?

Any old key that is roughly the same shape and size as a "haunted key" will perform the effect quite well. It takes a touch more practice but that's all.

I belive wane dodson kids magic book mentions this method but in general the keys you buy are gimicked to achive the , lets call it a sleight because it is, much easier, either way you go the best advice I can give from years of experience is don't turn the key....... think about the sleight and let your body do the rest.

The haunted key that you can purchase isn't really gimmicked. I purchased several old keys from ebay and from the 10 or so that I got only 1 was suitable. Even then, I still discarded it in favour of my 'purpose built' haunted key. I guess it's just a matter of trial and error.

Paul Zennon in his book 'Street Magic' shows how to do the haunted key but his key in the photos looks like an old church key (definitely not purpose built).

*Edited so as not to expose anything.

raymond carlyle has his "mental key"..which is by far the best ever key effect in my opinion..

and its not the normal haunted key method either...

and no, i havent got a link...

strep way to go with the exposure, why did you think we refered to it as gimicked and a sleight used.
this part of the forum is open to anyone, especialy the secret seekers, even in the restricted section we don't exposed comercial tricks or content of books /media, please be carefull in future...... said with love and without malious intent.

Isn't the whole concept a bit poor anyway?

A key you've placed on your open palm turns over? That's all. It turns over. Oh my god! Someone take my elbow, I think I might need a new nappy!

If the key was on the edge of a table then yeah, fine. But in the palm? Like anyone is going to believe it's got nothing to do with your motor movements.

I'd be embarrassed to include this in a set. Especially since Bore Zennon did it on Countdown.

You obviously haven't seen it done properly then

Someone demo'd it to me tonight, and even when every single part of the trick was pointed out (what was moving what), I still didn't see any motor movement

Good trick, when performed well

oh the inocence of youth, pretty and talented you are but this is one of the most requested trick for kids shows and kid based walk arounds, I do the urigeller tell it to move version he does with a compass, and works well for magic demos and spookie evenings.
I take it youv'e never done it on a playing card or over a book...... (just typing it reminds me its going into the inuendo thread), as a reveal for a living and dead test.... I could go on but won't needless to say my handling of this utility classic raises it above a cheep trick included in most kids magic sets.

Haunted key can be a very strong effect when done correctly and at the right time.

Very few laypeople know about motor movements and muscle control and forget about people, this more often than not amazes adults.

if you have some keys of similar design and bend the heads at right angles, then you can swap it out and put it into a specs hand and have them concentrate on the key.... feel it move..... and it bends in there hand.
they get a suvaneer and your card, tried and tested and gets bookings.

themagicwand wrote:Any old key that is roughly the same shape and size as a "haunted key" will perform the effect quite well. It takes a touch more practice but that's all.

I remember hitting the swap meets and antique stores with Leo Kotska long ago, checking out skeleton keys... it was a hoot!

I don't think there were any "properly made" keys available to any of us until the mid-90s when some crazed pitchman saw it as a great way to make a fast buck off the rubes...

How ironic - or should it be just co-incidence?
I say a really old key at a boot fair last week that i was tempted by to utilise in various haunted ways .............. but dont actually know how to to it yet so didnt ....
How strange this then popped up

Wonder if it is still there ?

Fairie x

I first learned this from a library book many years ago - I think it was by Harry Baron. I originally used an ordinary mortice key.

I always present it as a demonstration of PK - mind over matter. I showed it to an 8 year old recently. He thought I had an IT.

There's an alternative handling by Dr Jaks where the key is balanced on the fingertip - it's in "Body Magic" and "The Busch Factor". I can't do it reliably - maybe my fingers are too thin?

Barry

magicdiscoman wrote:strep way to go with the exposure, why did you think we refered to it as gimicked and a sleight used.

Oops, you're quite right, that was far too close. I've edited my post to make it 'seeker' safe. Thanks for the help disco.

I've always had great responses from showing the haunted key to adults. I do it very very slowly, I've never timed myself but I'd say it takes me easily 30 seconds or more, during which time I don't say a word. I will sometimes grimace a little as though it's slightly painful and my hand tends to shake a little from the adrenaline but nobody has ever questioned that.

I also find having my fingers raised slightly helps with the misdirection.