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The one thing i would say is that im thinking about a vanishing cane, so at the end you have something physical that links the magic, to a mental effect.

If you use a production, your left with a cane, and the link becomes a little harder to get over to the audience.

Craigs thoughts here might be usefull.

Rather then a silk streamer go for a diamond cut silk. They just look fuller then the streamer. I agree however not to put a full silk in a fantasio cane as that will slow it down. While I am pretty stricktly close up and for that reason don't use much in the way of silks. But it does amaze me how many stage performers simply disregard them. They appear are so visible and create a sense of flow. When Jay Scott Berry makes mist appear out of a silk drapped across his hand it is incredibly magical a white mist flowing down along the lines of a black silk, it is just merlin...esk. But then that is what Jay is often trying to portray. Now I've gone way off topic so I'll shut up now.

If you are going to use a metal cane remember take care of it. Watch your fingers and your eyes. Some of those German made canes while wonderful will make several attempts on your life.

daleshrimpton wrote:The one thing i would say is that im thinking about a vanishing cane, so at the end you have something physical that links the magic, to a mental effect.

If you use a production, your left with a cane, and the link becomes a little harder to get over to the audience.

Craigs thoughts here might be usefull.

I can see where Ed is borrowing a bit of argument from the old Dunninger "Magician vs. Psychic" idea but I'd have to agree with Dale but I'll go a step further only because of something I've learned over the years when doing this sort of thing.

I'm certain you're familiar with how I used both, the Kevin James Blizzard in one portion of my theater show and then closed with his confetti Snow Storm. This is one example of how I bring things around in a full circle within the show as a kind of mnemonic recap on things i.e. we started here and had good feelings, we experienced all of these miraculous things and then found ourselves facing familiarity and with it, good feelings and elation.

By opening with the vanishing cane as Dale has suggested, you get the natural segue' between being a "magician" and becoming the "mentalist"; in a very brief and interactive manner, you create intrigue at the mental and visual levels (something that's rare in our world) -- you have created a good feeling and probably seen some positive reactions in the form of applause as well as the classic "gasp" magicians live for.

Now, you have come to the end of the show. You pick up that hank you started with (or so it would seem) and play with it a bit... I'd suggest a "stool time" segment in which you literally take a seat on a stool, talk about things in a very matter of fact but inspirational way... pick up the silk and do some simple tricks with it like the Ballerina Dancer, etc.(see the Mark Wilson Course) but at the end, the silk is once again a cane and you make your exist in a manner Mr. Sinatra would be proud of...

This brings about the full circle and thus plays off the anchor your established previously as you made the cane vanish and become the silk of the chosen color. You will be repaid by applause and interestingly, people being able to remember more of what you did within your program.

Thanks for your thoughts Craig, you've epitomised what I have been grasping at in my mind and given me a lot to think about.
This whole idea came about whilst watching some TV magic in which the magician performed a silk vanish and an appearing cane. The person I was watching it with complained that this type of magic is tired and been done to death. I disagreed, I've always thought the cane appearance/vanish is a thing of beauty and totally deceptive (whilst the person I was watching it with disregarded the effect he had no idea how it was done).
I started thinking about how much I'd like to add something along these lines to my stage/corporate act but as I work purely as a mentalist I hit a brick wall.
I question whether i will destroy the believability factor for the rest of my performance if I do this. The cane vanish/appearance has to be a magic trick therefore surely everything else is.
I really want to do this, the big question is how do I perform it? Lots to think about. I suppose I better get me a cane and make sure I can use it without slicing off a finger or poking out an eye.

In the Dunninger Night Club Act his primary opener was a Card Trick in which he is demonstrating the difference between a magician that does a trick that appears to be Mind Reading vs. what he does... it's right there with the psychology in the book title "How to be a Fake Kreskin"... you get people off your tail and distance yourself from the fowl world of magic think ( ) by putting it right in front of them and creating both, contrast as well as a very artistically based psychological "loop" that ties everything together. Then, just as the old salts always did, you let them know it's a matter of how they choose to view things; it's not our job to say one way or the other.

Craig Browning wrote:you get people off your tail and distance yourself from the fowl world of magic think ( ) by putting it right in front of them and creating both, contrast as well as a very artistically based psychological "loop" that ties everything together. Then, just as the old salts always did, you let them know it's a matter of how they choose to view things; it's not our job to say one way or the other.

This is very much my thinking. I fear though that we live in more cynical times and people aren't so willing to accept what maybe they would have done in Dunningers time.
A goup of half cut bankers at a corporate lunch won't be as accepting of this as an audience who have paid to see a show and unfortunately these are the sort of people I work for.
I think for the drunk banker type it would be best to either not do it at all or treat it with contempt (which I do not think it deserves) along the line of, this is magic, i don't do this cr*p, what I do is real.
In my mind though, this could be something really beautiful. In the same way that when a magician puts a mentalist effect into there act it can make people start to think that maybe some of what they are seeing is real. By putting a magic effect into a mentalist act it will be possible to add some reality to that effect. Later when people talk about how I genuinely read their mind, maybe they will also start to think that there was something genuine in the appearence of the cane....or maybe not

I wouldnt ever say " what i do is real" to an audience, because one day someone like me will be sitting in the front row, muttering bu*l*h1T" under my breath

daleshrimpton wrote:I wouldnt ever say " what i do is real" to an audience, because one day someone like me will be sitting in the front row, muttering bu*l*h1T" under my breath

God no. I would never do that. It's not what I say, it's what people go away thinking.
I don't give any answers for what I do, neither psychology or psychic.
Mind you, I couldn't care less what another magician thinks of my performance (as far as the actual effects go, style and quality of performance is a different matter). I perform for the layman and give no consideration to trying to fool magicians.

It's not what I say, it's what people go away thinking.

Ah Ha! Someone that knows the secret!

Rick Maue and I have argued over this (in a friendly way) for years in that the "Old School" traditions tell you to neither admit to trickery nor claim to be genuine... leave it to the patrons to decide for themselves. And yet, in today's world, I get attacked constantly by kids that have jumped onto a trend in just recent times... times, as you've so accurately noted Ed, are quite cynical.

You are also correct in the observation (hesitation) that what was acceptable and understood in one way during the days of Annemann and Dunninger involved totally different social paradigms than we face today; the delusion of intellect hasn't just blinded the naive but robbed them of both innocence and the wonders of imagination; that aspect of our inner-self that makes magic real. The world's loss of such a precious thing being quite saddening in my mind.