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I use size 19. Were available at Blackpool & presumably magic dealers online although I imagine they'd sell them at a slightly higher price.

I bought You Ring by Ed Ellis at Blackpool after seeing his lecture. Worth it for the 'Say Vanish' routine but the ring off rubber band is a great finisher for the Crazy Man's Handcuffs too.

You could try adding a snapped & restored band to the routine too as a throwaway effect, these are pretty widely available I think on most band related dvds/books.

Russ

russpie wrote:I use size 19. Were available at Blackpool & presumably magic dealers online although I imagine they'd sell them at a slightly higher price.

I bought You Ring by Ed Ellis at Blackpool after seeing his lecture. Worth it for the 'Say Vanish' routine but the ring off rubber band is a great finisher for the Crazy Man's Handcuffs too.

You could try adding a snapped & restored band to the routine too as a throwaway effect, these are pretty widely available I think on most band related dvds/books.

Russ

I bought 4 DVDs off Ed Ellis in Blackpool. I really like his stuff, but thankfully I saw hihim before his lecture, because I thought it was badly designed (his lecture) and not really putting his magic in a nice light.

But yeah, that's why I wanna get rubber bands!#

Jerome the French wrote:Hey Matthius!
Thanks for that!
I was talking to Mathieu Bich a friend of mine, who told me that there is no real difference in the "feel" of the bands, but he told me the amount of latex vary amongst rubber bands. He told me the best were japanese ones, as they have more latex than others, therefore more robust.
American ones are 2nd...
I have been using Royal mail bands so far for rubber band magic, but their stretchiness is limited, however, when you pull 'em out, everybody recognise them!!! Which is great as people laugh when I say "they are magic bands, very expensive"...
I think I'll go down to Rymans this weekend and get a bag of random ones. If it doesn't work, then I might invest in some American bands.

Good call on the royal mail ones, something people recognise is always a plus! I was doing some band magic in the pub last night for some rather lovely bar girls and one of them swore the bands must be altered in some way, even when she examined them. So RM ones seem like a good idea because they are commonplace, might have to grab some for myself!

As for the durability of them being different, I didn't actually know there was a difference in the latex, so I guess there is a slight difference. Still, bands will break anyway, my cheapo bag of mixed ones had about two hundred bands so I've no worries about durability. Quantity over quality hehe

Matthius88 wrote:Just dont get the round type of band, get the flat ones, the rounded ones will twist and give you a pinch.

Not sure what you mean by 'giving you a pinch', do you mean when wearing them on your wrist ? The reason Im asking is I use the round type alot and have no problems with them. I dont wear them on my wrist though.

The Alliance #19 bands (brites) have their advantages and their disadvantages when performing the CMH and its variations. They are very stretchy when compared to some other brands. They have good visibility, so if performing for a few people they will be easily seen - in these circumstances they are recomended. The disadvantage comes into play when you are performing one on one and very close-up. In this sort of situation I prefer to use thinner round bands.

For those who think this odd I'll explain . The Crazy Mans Handcuffs relies heavily on an optical illusion to work. This is the same optical illusion as used in the famous Linking Rings (when done properly anyway) - the audience cant tell when the rings are really linked or unlinked. This allows you to have a good separation between the ACTUAL link/unlink and the PERCIEVED link/unlink, which in turn makes it look more magical.

When using #19 bands one on one and very close-up the spectator CAN see the true state of the bands after the move. This is normally countered by keeping the bands in some sort of motion - usually by what we would call 'proving' moves. By having to do this we are not using the illusion to its full potential. Nabil Murday mentions in the Link dvd that when using #19 bands, if the spectators are closer than a few feet away, then you simply must keep the bands in motion.

For these reasons when performing one on one, I prefer thinner round bands. This allows me to slow down (especially just prior to the percieved penatration) and really milk the illusionary aspects of the effect.

jim

Ps. When I say 'round' bands, they are actually more square than round. When stretched however, they are more or less round (as opposed to Alliances rectangular shape).

Yeah Jim I mean when they are on your wrist. Maybe its just me then, but they tend to twist up and pinch my hair or skin. I don't have hairy arms or anything.

I find that certain colours work better for crazy man's cuffs. Im using some all white bands at the moment that work really well for it, its really hard to tell the true position of them by eye, even for me. The angle you hold them at is relatively important as well, but thats just a knack. If you angle them in the right lighting, adds to the effect.

Good old band magic, Im totally hooked at the moment. Is this a case of simple things please simple minds?

As I said I dont wear them on my wrists, so that'll be why I dont get pinched

I agree, white bands work really well, the ones Im using at the moment are white. My wife got me a pack of mixed coloured bands from somewhere, the white and yellow ones are really good for CMH (not together obviously) and have a stretchyness similar to the Alliance ones. There are some nice red ones in the pack as well which (when used with a white or yellow) work nicely for the linking bands - I think its a Dan Harlan effect but could be wrong

If you mean what I think you mean about the angle and lighting, then your bands may be a tad too thick for close-up - which is exactly what I was getting at in my above post. When using the popular #19 bands for a crowd you do not have to worry about lighting or angles - this should transfer to your close-up performances aswell. This is why I use thinner bands for close-up, angles and lighting dont become an issue (to an extent of course). One of the strong points of the effect is that it is almost ANGLE PROOF

jim

They're not that thick, the lighting just helps with the "melting through" effect. White = best colour for that though.

Do you do the jumping band trick? I've been debating whether it is better to use a small band for that, or use a bigger one and loop it around my fingers twice. Seems easier with a bigger band but to a spectator it looks a little more suspect.

Matthius88 wrote:Do you do the jumping band trick? I've been debating whether it is better to use a small band for that, or use a bigger one and loop it around my fingers twice. Seems easier with a bigger band but to a spectator it looks a little more suspect.

A smaller one is best (well sort of medium size if that makes sense). If you dont already know this, the effect can also be used as a transposition with 2 bands at the same time - one on the 1st and 2nd finger and another (of contrasting colour) on the 3rd and pinkie fingers. Its also possible, with a little practice, to do the 'get ready' with one hand using the thumb

jim

Yeah it goes through all that in Mark Wilsons, there's a lot of ways to vary the jumping bands, its good fun to play around with. I generally like to do the first two using my other hand to set it up, then I can do the whole "Look, Im not even going to touch the bands" line (lie) to cap it off.

Matthius88 wrote:Yeah it goes through all that in Mark Wilson.

I thought that but wasnt 100% sure. My copy has been at my brother in laws for the past few months, along with Bobos and Expert Card Technique

jim

Yeah its the only band trick in there, but he goes into a lot of variations of it, like having one over the ends of your fingers to supposedly make it impossible for the band to jump. Thats why its a favorite of mine, you can do it as a stand alone trick or keep escalating it, then cap it off with crazy man's or ring to band, both of which I got from Lee Smith's notes and both are great finishers for a band routine.

Best to have a really stretchy band for Ring to Band though, some of the smaller ones I've got just aren't long enough to do what needs to be done.

I am officially obsessed. Stop encouraging me jim!

BUMP! now I feel powerful!

Anyway, sorry to bump this thread, but I just decided it would be better than starting afresh. I just wanted to know, what DVD's/books do you recommend for impromptu, and preferably visual rubber band magic. The reason I am asking is that I just performed jumping rubber band from Mark Wilson's, and got a great reaction, and at the same time realised I loved performing magic with rubber bands. I wasn't going to perform anything, but I was put on the spot, so I pulled out a band and showed then jumping rubber band. They still wanted to see more, so I did reverse jumping rubber band to finish off. So, I want to learn more. I understand crazy man's handcuffs is good, and I also want a few other things to learn. Linking rubber bands sounds perfect, is it on/in the same DVD/book as CMH?
Thanks

the Banding around demo exactly demonstrates what I like about rubber band magic, and not too bad priced either, but I'm a bit new to all this magic stuff, only been doing it for about a year, so what do you think, too advanced?

The only rubber band piece I do is from one of Jay Sankay's DVDs - the impromptu magic DVD IIRC. It's a great and very simple rubber band through pencil illusion - but looks totally convincing. It's one of those effects that even after you know the secret you still can't quite work out why it works.

Codge

Spoony, from what I've learned so far (also only been doing magic for just under two years now) band magic tends to be fairly easy to pick up. I've not had any trouble learning any band effects so far.

Interested to find that band through pencil effect by Sankey. What is the rest of the stuff on that DVD like, worth the purchase?