talkmagic.co.uk

Has anyone published a Spiked routine where, when you remove the third cup at the end, the nail - despite having pierced a piece of fruit dropped onto it earlier - has disappeared?

I think I have a method, but there's no point in taking it further if something similar has already been done.

Surley it would defeat the object of the first 2 smashes though? Unless you're going on a different approach?

Lawrence wrote:Surley it would defeat the object of the first 2 smashes though? Unless you're going on a different approach?

What do you mean?

I imagine Laurence was meaning something like the spec may well think "Well if the spike's gone, the other two cup smashes where pointless and easy, the spike wasn't in any!"

mrz0mbie wrote:I imagine Laurence was meaning something like the spec may well think "Well if the spike's gone, the other two cup smashes where pointless and easy, the spike wasn't in any!"

Ah, but the spike has apparently been there and dangerous all along right up until the point where you remove the cup. Too much?

Just to clarify, you clearly show a spike under one cup/bag?

After the main effect you raise the third cup/bag to show that the spike has vanished? You could do this using the table salt method.

I think it would take people away from the danger of the original trick which is the main point really. (pardon the pun!)
Alec

Tomo wrote:

mrz0mbie wrote:I imagine Laurence was meaning something like the spec may well think "Well if the spike's gone, the other two cup smashes where pointless and easy, the spike wasn't in any!"

Ah, but the spike has apparently been there and dangerous all along right up until the point where you remove the cup. Too much?

Yeah.
I can totally see where you're coming from but I think it's a case of overthinking the effect. "Magician's Blindness" as it were.

Perhaps you could do it with just one cup? (and a half a nail stuck to the back of your hand?)

I am mystified as to why anyone would want to perform it in this manner. The whole point is that there is an element of danger. Disappear the spike at the end, and you have reduced a piece of edgy, dangerous theatre into a mere trick. That seems a big step backwards.

OK, bad idea, but have you guys never heard of comic relief?

Well the easy method would be to never have anything in the cup then.

But it is against the idea of what the routine is about in the first place.

It would have played out by first dropping an apple onto the spike. It's a real, dangerous spike about 6" long. With the performer otherwise engaged, the spec would then place a paper cup over each block and mix them up in the usual fashion. The performer would then hover a palm over each and slam his hand down on the first selection, also in the usual fashion. He survives. The crowd is tense. He selects a second cup and slams his hand down again. He survives again and the crowd goes wild. But was he so stupid as to risk his hand against what was clearly a real spike? He asks the spec to remove the third cup. The nail has vanished. Result: a mystery.

I see no reason why this wouldn't work. If the spec had never heard of this effect then I can see it not being as good as the original standard version but most people have seen this effect and they think they know how it ends. They think you know where the nail is and that you will avoid it and I suppose their interest is held in the "will he mess up". I think a surprise ending would be welcomed but maybe I would replace the nail with something rather than vanish it.

Tomo wrote:OK, bad idea, but have you guys never heard of comic relief?

Yep, Lenny bleedin' Henry.

Lord Freddie wrote:

Tomo wrote:OK, bad idea, but have you guys never heard of comic relief?

Yep, Lenny bleedin' Henry.

Ooof! Crikey, not even in jest!

Blue sky thinking: if I was going to do a routine along these lines and the opening gambit was (for example) three paper cups, one of which has a spike under it, I would want to end with the opposite effect, where after supposedly randomly picking a first smash, I lift the other two cups and they *both* have spikes. I set these down on top of the space left by the safe cup, with nothing under it, and then bring out a piece of fruit, bring it down on top of these two cups and as they are demolished, the fruit is impaled on a third spike beneath it.

Or something to that effect.

Wouldn't be too hard to achieve either, just load the extra spikes using cup & ball final load moves.

I would also present it in the style of the Monty Hall problem and all it's mathematical headscratching.

-Stacy