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i heard that no one as ever performed the full version of this routine if true what would be considered the full version and does anyone here know a way they could do the full version too a live audience!

Oh dear.

Are you just going about asking how everything is done?

Listen, I've heard before that the whole thing is impossible to do.

Banachek once said any effect can be pulled of some how, (or at least something along those lines.) I believe this is true most of the time.

Now don't go looking for any exposure on this forum.

I'm not saying you are, but I feel I must make it clear up front.


-Ben

I remember Doug Henning doing the Indian Rope Trick on one of his TV Specials (in the days when TV specials featured magic performed on stage, in front of a real audience, and with no convenient video editing, retakes or camera tricks).

But performing an illusion on a big stage is very different to doing it on the street, as the original Indian Rope Trick was supposed to be done.

You'd also have social services on your back if you did it the traditional way, as I understand that the small boy's dismembered limbs, head and torso fell to the ground at the conclusion of the effect.

Pete

The book, Indra's Net, is a marvellous read. There is also a book called The Indian Rope Trick.

Yes, there have been many stage versions of the effect, but as mentioned, it is (was) supposedly done outdoors.

The trick, as famously described, has NEVER been done.

Of course, if you listen to folks describing your magic, your magic has never been done either!

Oh dear.

Are you just going about asking how everything is done?

Listen, I've heard before that the whole thing is impossible to do.

Banachek once said any effect can be pulled of some how, (or at least something along those lines.) I believe this is true most of the time.

Now don't go looking for any exposure on this forum.

I'm not saying you are, but I feel I must make it clear up front.

im sorry you feel that but please read my question closely please.

i heard that no one as ever performed the full version of this routine if true what would be considered the full version and does anyone here know a way they could do the full version too a live audience!

as i see i was asking what is considered the full version. and then asking could anyone perform it. sorry if you misunderstood this as asking a way of doing it.[/quote]

magiccmb wrote:

....

im sorry you feel that but please read my question closely please.

To be fair, it isn't a very well constructed question. Hard to read it "closely".
Maybe a question mark would be a starting point...

It isn't a particularly well constructed question.

Performing the full Indian Rope trick has been a challenge to magicians for a long time and no one has yet been able to perform it in ful.

If someone were able to do so they would be a very rich magician.

I've always known a 'potential' way that it could be done, Even with the disembered limbs at the top of the rope, but I can't road test it. The props would cost over 10 grand!

Beardy wrote:I've always known a 'potential' way that it could be done, Even with the disembered limbs at the top of the rope, but I can't road test it. The props would cost over 10 grand!

Should've charged more for your stage show.

I'm quite good at the chopping up a small boy bit but I haven't yet managed to work out how to restore him.

The "full" classic Indian rope trick (as described by Marco Polo and other early travellers) is:

In a completely open-air setting, the magician causes a rope to rise high into the air. A boy climbs the rope and, on reaching the top, disappears from view as if into another dimension. When called, the boy doesn't return, so the magician climbs up armed with a sword or knife, and also disappears. After a brief argument, dismembered parts of the boy's body appear and fall to the ground. The magician climbs back down the rope, puts the body parts into a box or basket (or collects them and covers them with a cloth), and restores the boy to life. The rope falls down from the air and the trick is over.

Many performers have done parts of this, especially raising and climbing the rope, but no-one has ever done all of it as described, even with large prizes on offer.

It's been suggested that the travellers who described this routine either confused or deliberately conflated a rope-climbing trick with a sword-basket trick.

The best source on this in terms of the legend is The Rise of the Indian Rope Trick by Peter Lamont. He looked at accounts from the very few firsthand witnesses of the illusion, and noted that their accounts changed over time, become increasingly embellished. It appears that the legendary rope trick is actually two different acts stitched together - pole balancing, where a man balances a pole, on top of which balances a child; and the Indian basket trick, where a child was placed in a basket before the performer stabs down through the middle of it with a sword. EDIT - I realise this is basically what Robbie said. Which one of us is just out of hospital?

I too have a method for doing this in the open air. I couldn't tell you if it would work though, because I'd have to test it...

Robbies description is correct, but i always thought the rope was 'flung' up and became rigid, as opposed to rising. As has been said this fascinating trick has never been recorded in its entirety. There was army footage from the 20s or 30s that supposedly showed part of the effect but was later shown to have been faked. Penn and Tellar saw a performance in India, but again it was not the complete effect - the performance was ingenious though.

The true effect as described by Robbie may be possible. I cant remember which book, but i read somewhere years ago a description of a possible solution to the effect. Obviously i cant expose it here but the methods described would make possible the entire effect outdoors, as in the original description.

jim

penn and teller did a tv special on this effect that if you can find it anywhere will go a long way to answering all of your question.

I'm sure some of the more experienced members will correct me if I'm not fully correct but I seem to remember a famous magician (P. Daniels??) has put up a "reward" for anyone performing the trick to the original spec.

The myth of the trick I feel out weighs the actual trick.

jackleg wrote:penn and teller did a tv special on this effect that if you can find it anywhere will go a long way to answering all of your question

Tis true. I remember seeing it on the Youtubes a few months ago, part of their Magic and Mystery Tour thing. They managed to convince some holidaymakers that it had "just been performed" nearby in the hope that the myth takes some sort of renewed strength...

Gimme a min and I could probably dig it up...

Can it be performed in full, as described by Robbbie-- the simple answer is NO.
It is a legend based on several 'folk' versions.

The Great Illusionists tried various versions:
Thurston used a projection of the boy, which often failed.
Servais le Roy, David Devant, Karachi,( whose grand daughter wrote to me last year), Blackstone, Doug Henning & Paul Daniels did it, in shortened form.
The nearest was probably Kalanag's. The rope rose, the boy climbed, he disappeared and reappeared in a basket nearby.

Anthony Owen,, in India discovered Issmudin, a young magician who OUTDOORS in a filed, made the rope rise and his son climbed up then descended. This with spectators all around. Anthony put a clip on one of the magic series on TV. It is on You Tube. Also 0n YT is another young Indian magican who has simply copied Issmudin's version & method and claimed his father used to do it--years before!!!!??? If you view , note the platform nearby!!

Allen Tipton