talkmagic.co.uk

ok, this is isn't the first thread i've started with the word fire in the title, worryingly enough.
just been experimenting with setting a fan of cards on fire, deoderant will make them burn for a few seconds and leave them relativly unscathed, but it is a matter of: make fan, spray, light, hold for about 2 seconds, done!
is there any other substance that i could use in a similar way? anything where i could make a fan and light it with no steps in between, (perhaps i could do that with deoderant, i'll try later).
anyone have any experience with doing card tricks on fire?

Thats an interesting Concept,

I rememeber seeing a Blaine special a while back where at the end of an ACR routine he took the specs card and tore it in two and it burst into flames ... i do like the idea of fire, I'm sure it has some nice applications in the right setting.

Rob

I suppose you could nitrate your playing cards, that way they would become 'Flash' cards. I won't put up instructions here, but I am sure you could find some, were you to search hard enough.

Of course, as with all fire effects you have to be very careful, and with this quantity of what would effectively be nitrocellulose you might get rather warm (also it is probably illegal to make it as it counts as an explosive so discount everything I have just said, don't do this.)

Various gels and greases will hold a flame for a short and varying time but as Nick suggests, be very carefull when playing with fire.

Actually, this brings up a related subject of where you would aim to perform these effects once you've perfected them?

Most places you would require a special licence to perform with fire!

well i was only planning on having things on fire for a very short period of time. i already do quite a bit of stuff with flash paper (and other flash products) in a club and no one has a problem with that, no doubt it'll be fine.

Ask Jerry Cestkowski personally by emailing him. He's done flourish videos with cards on fire. He should know...

Larry

Flash paper is generally fine because of it's quickness in burning. Setting fire to something, particularly when using any form of accelerant is a totally different matter, remembering that at the present time a public place has to have a fire certificate which will set conditions for use of those premises.

You cannot set fire to something in a club, shop etc. without prior notice of what you are going to do. This would be a contravention of the Health & Safety at Work Act and the Fire Precautions Act and without the right control it would most probably invalidate any insurance. The venue could find itself on the receiving end of a prohibition notice and a fine.

Many people think that 'no doubt it will be fine' but occasionally it's not. You don't want to be the person on the occasion when it's not. When the fire legislation changes on 1 April next year then it will get a lot tougher.

if you want specifics on the Fire Precautions Act then PM me.

i enjoy the occasional fire spinning session so i am aware of various fire laws. but trust me, with "that" club, i wouldn't have a problem with it!

This is an enteresting page that seems to have poped up at the perfect moment. I have recently been turned to an idea of creating some kind of trick deck that is made up of playing cards that act as flash paper. They appear as basic cards, but will just a lighter, you can suddenly burn a card in one nice flash.

Of course I have little idea of how to really create such a deck.

Actually, that reminds me of an effect I saw a few years ago by a table-hopping magician at a bar mitzvah...he had a card selected then set light to the deck and the whole thing went up in flame except the selection.

Now I think about it, he did quite a lot with flash paper...cut and restored rope with a flash too.

Kati

sounds interesting.
i've always thought that if flash-paper were a bit more opaque there would be some interesting effects. was thinking about printing a card on some paper then sticking it to a different card so that by putting a match to a card it would flash then be a different one, would be an interesting colour change at least.

i need to get a video of my "fag end to flame" bit, or the gimmicked cigs we made that make quite a spark when you're about a third of the way down them (perfectly safe, mind)

ive seen on the superhandz website D'evo manipulate with his cards on fire, well i think it was him, maybe Jerry, who knows lol. but anyways, the flames seemed to cover the whole suface of the deck, infact it look as if the whole deck was duncked into a bucket of petrol or something lol. i highly doubt this idea would be one everyone will be rushing to try out, maybe someone willing to try it out first for all of us? just joking, dont do this, unless......... lol

i'd be willing to try this, i have some kelvar gloves. interesting idea, if i could find some kind of fuel that would burn for a while and stick to the cards. and just hit a few cuts and fans etc... might be kinda nice

What you need is a flame gel - a small amount will burn for a few minutes.