talkmagic.co.uk

recently i met a magician who i shared some tricks with when i showed him some tricks with a TT he said that they are dumb> should i remove tricks using TTs from my routine

DEFINATELY NOT!

A well worked out routine using a TT can produce some of the strongest magic from a lay persons perspective. Just watch Darwin's encyclopedia of TT magic and you'll realise just how versatile a TT can be when used properly.

Many of the greats in magic, Copperfield to name just one have used TT's with astounding effect.

You may need to brush up on your technique for using a TT but I certainly recommend that you stick with it.

A real thumbs up from me (groan)

Murtagh55 wrote:should i remove tricks using TTs from my routine

Absolutely not! If the effects you produce from there are getting good reactions and you enjoy using them then why should you? Just because a magician thinks TTs are dumb doesn't make them any less effective. It's his personal opinion. What counts is the reactions you're getting from using them.

It's all about the audience!

And Dat - I KNEW someone would post a reply at exactly the same time I did!

Uncanny...

Cardza wrote:

And Dat - I KNEW someone would post a reply at exactly the same time I did!

I was thinking the very same thing when I was writing - must be a mentalist trick that the forum plays on us from time to time. I'm usually the one who gets the second post - must be where the saying 'pipped to the post' comes from

Back to the topic, I recommend that Murtagh looks at all of the TT posts through the search function as I know that there is a wealth of very good reference information here that will help you a lot.

A TT is one of the foundations of magic.

Murtagh55 wrote:recently i met a magician who i shared some tricks with

Just out of interest, was the magician very experienced or a relative beginner? He is clearly wrong in saying that TT tricks are dumb and I wondered if this is bacause he has not tried one out for himself.

Thanks guys you gave me my confidence back.i will coninue in the meantime can anyone recommend a good fire magic product

NO !

TTs are very useful, though, I don't use anyone myself....

Good convo here.

I have never felt comfortable with using TTs. I think they are fine if you can use them well with a unique technique. If you just use the hankerchief into closed fist then it dissapears idea, then i dont like it because that is always put in kids magic boxes and i think most people know how that is done. However i know of people that perform these tricks as pro's yet fool everybody because of how and how well they perform it.

If you are clever and think up some fantastic routine then they work but I'm not sure about them. Depends on how you use them.

Old fashioned?? Yes, ok they are an old prop but isnt the production of a rabbit routine old??? Magicians and non magicians are always producing rabbits and doves etc??! Thats ages old isnt it??

Magic Tom wrote:

If you just use the hankerchief into closed fist then it dissapears idea, then i dont like it because that is always put in kids magic boxes and i think most people know how that is done.

I know what you mean (I think) and would agree that the vanishing hankie is perhaps the most performed trick with a TT but I do think that you're wrong in saying that most people know how it's done. You can use the same principle (in fact you do) to make many objects disappear but leave the spec thinking that every vanish was perfromed differently. It's all down to presentation and technique with a TT.

Personally, I've never known of a magic set that has included a TT and I think that it's one of the most wrongly under rated items by magicians, and one of the most unknown magic accessories outside of the magic fraternity.

Whilst I wouldn't necessarily do this, if posed with the 'how did you do that question' try answering that you have a magic thumb that you hide the hankie, water, silk etc inside of and I'm sure that 99% of people not in the know would say "yeah - right, c'mon, tell me how".

Ok.
To be honest i dont know loads about TTs. But i knew about the vanishing hanky and how its done.

I agree its all about the technique "I think they are fine if you can use them well with a unique technique"
"However i know of people that perform these tricks as pro's yet fool everybody because of how and how well they perform it. "

"Personally, I've never known of a magic set that has included a TT " - Maybe not the top quality ones but i have seen them around in small magic sets. However i must say i've never seen a kid perform with one. So maybe you are right in that it is the most unknown magic assecories. (cant spell that! lol)

However thanks for your post. I appreciate different ideas, veiws etc.

Thanks
Tom

When you said a TT being in a kids magic set, throughout all of my Marvins Magic, Magic Circle and more Paul Daniels sets that I can count, I have never found a TT in one of them.

It moght not be the same now, but they never used to have them anyway

Really. I'm sure i have seen them.

I must be doing 1 of two things.

1) Imagining
2) finding / seeing very odd magic sets

Sorry. Its gotta be me. I have definatly seen them somewhere - not professionally. Where i dont know now?????

Ok!

Thanks. If i see any again i will tell yuo where i saw it! lol

Tom

Murtagh55 writes: "should i remove tricks using TTs from my routine?"

Whatever for? Because some other magician says it's "dumb"?

After more than 50 years in the business, the tip is still the one thing (and often the only thing) that I carry with me.

You can do a half-hour show with a tip and never have to do the vanishing cigarette or vanishing silk!

Ignore such silly "advice"!

MagicTom wrote:Good convo here.

I have never felt comfortable with using TTs. I think they are fine if you can use them well with a unique technique. If you just use the hankerchief into closed fist then it dissapears idea, then i dont like it because that is always put in kids magic boxes and i think most people know how that is done. However i know of people that perform these tricks as pro's yet fool everybody because of how and how well they perform it.

If you are clever and think up some fantastic routine then they work but I'm not sure about them. Depends on how you use them.

Old fashioned?? Yes, ok they are an old prop but isnt the production of a rabbit routine old??? Magicians and non magicians are always producing rabbits and doves etc??! Thats ages old isnt it??

I think I'll start here...

Firstly, shame on you... anyone who wants to use the lame excuse that too many people know about the TT and use that as their "out" when it really boils down to a lack of skill and CONFIDENCE.

If you KNOW your gimmick, you won't have problems with it. If you work WITH your gimmick, it will more than serve you.

Many years ago when I was at the Castle a great deal of the time I heard Vernon lecture people time and again about the TT and how easy it is to use and how "you can have a chrome plated one on and no one will notice if you handle it right."

Guess what? Several of us used chrome and brite florescent oranged painted TTs in order to learn how to properly use them. One guy I know used to stack them... literally nesting four or more TTs one on top of the other, giving himself a six inch long thumb and NO ONE NOTICED!

If you are getting caught using a TT it is because you are not using it properly, you haven't forced yuorself to become comfortable with it, and/or you simply stink when it comes to presenting the trick you're trying to pull off. IN that most of you will not admit to the last reason, we'll assume it has to the fact that you've not studied everything you can get your hands on when it comes to said device and actually learned how to use it. Rather, you know a couple of tricks that use a TT and that's about it. You've not APPLIED YOURSELF to learn how to become "one" with the TT and more important, how to ignore the fact that you have it on and make it unimportant.

The TT has been used in one form or another for a couple thousand years and it will most certainly be around for a bit longer. The only thing out of date about it is the lazy minded "magician" that won't apply his/her self in learning how to use this universal and amazingly powerful device.

MagicTom wrote:Really. I'm sure i have seen them.

I must be doing 1 of two things.

1) Imagining
2) finding / seeing very odd magic sets

Sorry. Its gotta be me. I have definatly seen them somewhere - not professionally. Where i dont know now?????

Ok!

Thanks. If i see any again i will tell yuo where i saw it! lol

Tom

I have seen them selling them for cheap in a shop down the main street in my town, but that was when I was younger