talkmagic.co.uk

PM me a pic of the hat and some simple sketches as soon as you can. I'd love to see both real pics and blueprints if you can send those to me.

Thanks,
JAlexBrown

I didnt do blueprints. my blueprint was a playing card and my wallet.

Ill try to get up some pics of the hat
theyre OK but not great

Cool. Just try and get me a pic so I can try and recreate the hat myself. I've got some ideas, but I want to try our yours first.

JAlexBrown

JAlexBrown wrote:I'm not discarding that as a possibility, but a magician taking off his hat would be hard to misdirect someone totally away from. If you know of any magician so talented with misdirection that they could totally hide taking off their hat and slipping something in it, then I'd like to meet that person.

JAlexBrown

Unfortunately, Tony Slydini is no longer with us. Otherwise, you could seek him out.

Trust me - there are plenty of performers who can hide a lot more than just taking off a hat for a few seconds.

And why would he not just put it in the hat as he took it off his head when he called you?

JAlexBrown wrote:Cool. Just try and get me a pic so I can try and recreate the hat myself. I've got some ideas, but I want to try out yours first.

Hey I know! Why not have a flap on top of the hat that you can open using an IT winch system. Then when the flap is opened you can throw the wallet in and then lower the top of the cap back down again.

Tee hee.

*sigh*

hell, when i perform in front of an audience, i regularly do deck to pocket, and every time...and i mean every time...the response is the same.

"But your hand never went anywehere near your pocket! I was watching both hands the entire time!"

Now until Mr Brown's workeroo arrives, at this point in time I have to place the deck in my pocket usiung both my hands, and misdirection.

The fact is, he would have used a standard cap - hell, I have made somebody's wallet and watch appear in both of my shoes before, after pick pocketing and stealing their watch. The fact is, lif you dont expect it to mean anything, you don't neccessarily see it, and therefore, you don't process and remember it.

Once again, he would have used a basic cap, and literally put it in there as he took it off - not hard, not rocket science, and you weren't watching him as he took off his hat anyways.

fact is, he could have had it in his hand as he took off the cap, and planted it then. Your friend's would not have seen, as they weren't expecting it - ever wondered why eye-witness testiomony is so damn innacturate? It's because they don't expect it, and therefore do not notice things and/or process the details properly.

Furthermore, even if the wallet was too big for his hand you still would not have noticed it. Ever seen James Brown's pot of jam effect? I have done the final load with a can of tango (too big for me hand) and on one occasion I did it with a book - still didn't notice! And that book wasn't exactly small I can tall you that much!

Basically, you didn't expect your wallet to be missing, you didn't expect him to plant your wallet in his hat, and therefore didnt notice it.

Card to mouth - regularly I get told that my hands didn't go anywhere near my mouth! Fact is, they just didn't see, as I do it in totally natural movements.

Basic psychology, you didn't expect it, didn't notice it. Just misdirection.

No trick hats, what is the point? All you need to do is plant it as you take it off - the guy knows that you wont be expecting it - as I do when i knick a watch and wallet, and plant them in both my shoes

Wow Chris, that does sound like an impressive trick. I didn't mean to start such a riot over the topic. I suppose I can believe a lot of things, and him slipping my wallet into his hat at any point is a total possibility. However, that's not as much the point with this whole "can I make a trick hat" issue. Are you going to tell me that any illusion that CAN be done without a gimmick SHOULD and IS always done wtihout one. Is there anything wrong with simplifying and steamlining the process a bit if you can make yourself a work-around? If there is, please let me know.

JAlexBrown

if you can do it with sleight of hand, do the work to master it that way. then its impromptu! also everything is inspectable. Its much better to do things without a gimmick in my opinion, if thats the only way then fine, but still...

I agree that when you can go slight of hand, you should. But that doesn't stop people from making gimmicks for tricks that could be done using good slight of hand work, does it? I know I've at least heard claims (I don't know for sure if they're true or not, however) that anything you can do with a Raven can be done without one as well if you master the slights.

JAlexBrown

Not having a go here, but could you not have enjoyed watching this guy perform and not come on here trying to find out how it was done? It sounds impressive, and I think you have found the answer to how it was done.

If you like gimmicks, make the hat. I can think of a totally natural way of loading pretty much anything into a baseball cap by simply taking it off of your head with one hand.

Does anyone know anything about the credit card fellow I mentioned in my first post? I saw him perform once, but I cannot remember his name. All I remember was everyone sat down to watch the show (it was a stage performance). Halfway through the act, out of nowhere, he starts calling out names of spectators and asking them to stand up. A flick of the wrist and there is their credit card. My mother was one of the people who got her name called, and her credit card was in her wallet in her purse. I must say that man was quite impressive.

JAlexBrown