talkmagic.co.uk

So anyone who reads a lot of my posts will know that I like to give things away in my magic and it's led me to researching how I can make my own gaff cards and coins (legal advice still pending) and indeed in trying out such things I've chanced upon new ideas and methods and such. It's really quite fun.

Additionally if you read through a lot of old (and some modern) books they'll give you info on making your own gimmicks of various types, indeed the Mark Wilson book contains a chapter on home made stage magic props.

But there's a weird trend going on in magic right now which I first spotted looking for trailers to lampoon. Magic made from junk. Literally from junk. I first spotted it in routines using blister packs of chewing gum, and tictac boxes. Then there was one which made a coin or card appear in one of those breath strip boxes.

It's like whereas once magicians would lovingly craft wooden props and clever gimmicks, engineering them to perfection, now it seems they're keeping all their old fag packets and bits of wrappers to see if they have any secret compartments or interesting flaps (akin to the chocolate box Derren Brown mentions in his Confessions of a Conjurer book, the difference being he never tried to sell a "Magic Chocolate Box 2.0" DVD).

-Stacy

Junk is readily available and recognisable. People know how a tick-tack box works because it a familiar object.

I have one of those brass containers then cleverly hides coins but I never use it. To me it screams of clever engineering.
Ladies and gentlemen here is an ordinary brass container, just like the type you all have in your pockets or handbags !

Discombobulator wrote:Junk is readily available and recognisable. People know how a tick-tack box works because it a familiar object.

I have one of those brass containers then cleverly hides coins but I never use it. To me it screams of clever engineering.
Ladies and gentlemen here is an ordinary brass container, just like the type you all have in your pockets or handbags !

Precisely. Flashy, expensive-looking props are good for a stage performer, because the spectacle is part of the show (and, if we are honest, audiences are under no illusions about how innocent such props are). The performer in those instances also has the advantage of distance physically, which I think partly translates into a psychological distance. The audience mentally "steps back" a pace. I don't mean that you can do whatever you like without question, or that they will never be suspicious of props, but they can't interrupt you, can't get a closer look, can't inspect the props. I think they buy into the show a little more because of this; they relax because they have to. You can't be out for a few drinks with friends and produce a large wooden drawer box painted with a dragon and expect the same sort of reaction.

On the other hand, a lot of these tricks using "junk" fall down because they just don't make sense. The one with the blister packed gum in particular seemed to have no significance.

At the right occasion a carefully crafted wooden box is exactly what is needed.
And, as if by magic, Tomo has just produced a lovely 'old' box for tarot cards.