talkmagic.co.uk

This isn't a request for support - but instead a tips thread.

Doing magic on the cheap. There's NO shame in it at all.

Your local hardware store (I.E. Focus/DoItAll/HomeBase) and hobby/modelling shop (e.g. Games Workshop) are as good as most magic shops - if you use some initiative.

Below is a list of ways to get hold of magical gimmicks/props/other things required far cheaper than magic shops and on the internet, and more importantly easier to get hold of than on the internet (especially people with no access to a credit card!). I've come accross these through internet research. However, some things listed can be dangerous, and it's not my fault if you choose to use them and blind yourself or do yourself any other sort of damage! Off we go:

- Hair Spray/Bug Spray/'Testor's Dullcote 1260/Auto Starting Spray (google the last two) make for great roughing fluid.

- Car polish - rub on and polish cards with it for great smooth cards (use with above for idea rough/smooth principle.

- Toilet sealing wax. Seriously. You can get a huge tub of it from any DIY store. It's incredibly cheap, and will last you a hell of a long time. Alternatively - ski wax - it is available in different thicknesses. As good as the supplied magicians wax - and MUCH cheaper.

- Carpet cut offs - will work as a close up mat/pad. Soft and thin are your only criteria. Choose your colour! (But black is good - for me at least!). Go and speak to your local carpet shop. They'll no doubt have loads of carpet cut offs that they throw away - they'll give it to you VERY cheaply, or maybe even free. Beg and cry until they do.

- Zinc Stearate - what fanning powder is. Your local chemist/pharmacy should have some. Chuck a deck of cards in a bag with a small amout (I mean a small amount - half a spoon maybe) and shake. Play with them, and you'll have a wonderful fanning deck.

- Simply using an eraser (the old style pink ones or blue, rougher ones are best) on a playing card with a bit of sandpaper will remove the ink. Do-it-yourself blank cards. It does take a bit of time though. But cheaper than buying them, especially if you only need a few.

- You can purchase a 5 pack of sponges for about 99p at any supermarker of chemist. Make your own sponge balls - it's cheap, and quite easy.

- This one is almost laughable... But wipe cards that clump onto a slice of bread. The bread absorbs some of the oil and other rubbish that the cards pick up over time, making them much easier to practice with.

If people find these useful, I'll add some more as I find them. I don't at all claim for these ideas to all be my own - I've found inspiration from many sources for these ideas.

- Josh.

Josh,

I think I have to disagree. A friend of mine, now sadly deceased, used a radio mike. Between every act he removed the battery and checked it on a meter. He was getting paid £1000 per night but niggling over a battery that cost 4 quid. To me, I don't nitpick over pennies.

To R & S you should use Letraset 103 mat, not a cheap alternative. I am still using a Nudist deck over 15yrs old, I use it nearly every day, and I've only re-sprayed it twice.

Have you tried using Zinc Stearate ?? It is vertually no use at all. You can buy new pack at £1 each !!

Blank cards !! A deck costs less than the minimum hourly wage !! I can't see me rubbing off all the ink on a deck in the time I could buy a deck of blank cards.

Wiping sticky cards on a loaf of bread !! I can buy a brand new pack of cards for the price of a loaf of bread !!

I'm sorry, but I query some of your ideas !!

When getting paid £1000 a night, that's a little understandable. I'm poor. I really have very little money to spare at the moment.

When a new deck of Bikes costs £1.75 a go.

I have actually had discussions with people who have used the alternative rough and smooth techniques, and have reported that it worked extraordinarily well.

Zinc stearate is exactly what fanning powder is, unless I got the wrong name...

For the blank cards. I don't actually make my own blank cards that way, but instead use the idea to remove certain parts of the card (for example just to remove one or two pips from a card. Rubbing out an entire card is a little fruitless - I'll agree there.

As for the bread - as I as said (hehe, that rhymes) - it is a little farfetched. But it does work. Where on earth do you get a half decent deck for 27p (how much I pay for my deck). And I only use a couple of slices. For someone who can't afford many new decks, but uses cards alot - the tip is useful.

Like I said in the beginning - I have little money. And these tips are all reported to work. None are perfect alternatives to a proper solution - but when you don't have much money - they'll do.

Thanks for your comments in your posts.

- WC.

There are some nice tips there.

I've used a clear matt varnish spray as a roughing spray, which also works well.

You say, all the tips are 'reported' to work.

So you haven't tried many then?

I have to say, I find a lot of it totally pointless. A very odd post indeed.

I would suggest that if money is low, you don't waste hairspray and bread

Fair play to you WC for giving these suggestions, I like what your trying to do.

But I personally won't be buying any alternatives as I have reservations about going into a DIY store to buy things like chemicals for my cards. I have visions of me burning my eyebrows of. Or having the skin of my fingertips fall of while trying to perform a trick.

Like Tenko said a deck of cards are fairly cheap they cost £1.50 for a single deck and cheaper in bulk.

If your that worried about cost would it not be better to look after the cards? Store in a cool dry place, wash hands before use, card guard etc.

seige wrote:I would suggest that if money is low, you don't waste hairspray and bread

ha ha thats a good point, if money is that tight don't wasting your bread by rubbing it against your cards.

oh please give the guy a break...usually out of creative thinking like this comes something new, plus i always like the idea of keeping magic REAL, so sponges from a hardware shop would be pretty cool. It is not always about money, if i was preparing a trick for that evening, it would be impossible for me to get to a magic shop in time, but to get an eraser would be easy......some good ideas...well done.

I was expecting mixed reactions.

Everyone who has critisized has given reasons for doing so - which I appreciate. In many cases you are right.

However, some people have been positive, and I thank you for that - I'm glad it's been at least of some benefit.

I think that it's great that you're thinking in this way. Alot of the ideas I probably wouldn't use but if only one of them proves useful then for me it's a great post. Keep up the good work! Don't worry about the sanctimonius put downs that you will inevitably get on a forum like this and remember that there is a demand for this kind of tip, Steve Fearson has actually sold a money saving method for IT! Well done and go ahead and post as many tips as you want.

James

Heat up beeswax with vaseline and you have magicians wax!

This one isn't really a money saver, but might fit the situation king_of_keighley describes. It's possible to use some brands of earplug wax as magician's wax. Sadly, Boots own brand didn't seem to be that good when I tried (I'd got the earplugs anyway, they weren't bought specially), but maybe it just needed a lot more manipulation first. It wouldn't work for card on ceiling, that's for sure!

Tony Binarelli prefers to use earplug wax over 'proper' magicians' wax!

And, of course, big supermarkets and late-night pharmacies are more common than magic shops.

I have a reprint of an old book on sponge balls and that suggests making them yourself, in pretty much the way suggested. Personally, I wouldn't, because I'd be eternally niggling over the imperfect symmetry. It might be a very useful tip, if you were due to do a show and your set of sponges got lost or damaged en route.

I'm really not sure that using bug spray on cards is a good idea. The stuff is poisonous, even if it does work as roughing fluid.

However, I have actually been sent Testor's Dullcote, when I ordered roughing spray in the past. I made a point of not trying to find out how much cheaper it would have been to buy this from a craft shop!

I have made my own sponges for ages (I do work with manufactured ones as well) but I do it with the intent of fitting my patter.....

"The first time I saw a magician live I watched him perform a sponge/foam ball routine.....I couldn't wait to get home and try and create miracles myself. Only thing I didn't realize at the time was that mom didn't keep balls like that in our kitchen drawers. Soooooo....I stole her new kitchen sponges and a pair of sizzors. I got in serious trouble when mom found out, so I have kept them to perform with ever since...call it a guilty conscience"

This suits the homemade balls, puts a "when I was young..." type of story line to them, and gives people a reason to excuse the fact that the balls are not perfectly symetrical....after all you made them as a kid!