Hoops of Steel

Well I’m about four weeks behind in posting. The end of the school year is always a crazy time. Things are still pretty busy but I’ve been away from the blog way too long.

The next to last effect for Magic Friday this year is the ever-classic Linking Rings. Often when performing with the rings magicians claim that “The Chinese Linking Rings is the oldest known magic trick”.


In 1898 a successful Chinese conjurer, Ching Ling Foo brought his show to the United States. This may be the west’s first introduction to a multiple linking ring routine. But origin of the rings may go back to the first century in Asia Minor and Egypt. Either way the Linking Rings became a staple of the “Golden Age of Magic”. And to anyone who has seen a fine performance of the effect, it’s easy to understand why.

The apparent melting of solid metal rings through one another is visually stunning when well handled. The added element of musical sounds as the linking and unlinking occur brings another layer of texture to the effect.


Individuals who, at some time possessed a passing interest in magic have probably tinkered and dabbled with a cheap set of rings. Nonetheless, when they witness a professionally presented ring routine their amazement is just as strong as someone seeing it for the first time. Not only that but most magicians enjoy watching other magicians perform the rings with the same interest that one trial lawyer would be fascinated to see how another lawyer would handle a similar case.

The rings may be presented with elegance and refinement. Or as a raucous, almost cartoon-like comedy effect or anything in between. It all depends on the style and persona of the performer.


I have worked on routines by Tarbell, Jack Miller, and Dai Vernon. The routine that I perform is basically Vernon’s routine with a couple of Tarbell’s ideas added. Last winter I purchased a copy of Whit Haydn’s 4-ring routine. I have had the pleasure of watching Mr. Haydn perform this routine on several occasions and was always astounded by his skill, timing and interaction with the audience. Brilliant. Someday I may be able to do it justice.


All 5 performances of the rings went well for this installment of Magic Friday. It was smooth and blunder-free. There was a good hand-full of “Ooooo’s” and “Ahaaa’s” and plenty of applause but something was missing. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but something wasn’t right. After some thought I concluded the problem was a lack of "building". The most magical moments of the routine happen during the initial stages. That first link or two are beautiful. There are a couple nice moments during the “figures” portion as well. But by the time the end of the routine comes along, the most powerful magic has already taken place. The routine (as I perform it) seems a little anti-climactic to me. I will have to give this some very serious brain sweat and figure out what I need to do to make the routine best work for me. This will also require getting out in the public and working out my solutions.
Doug Henning

Card in Orange

For Magic Friday it was another wonderful effect from the good Dr. Tarbell. Card in Orange. I did this one only a few times in the old days. I suspect my performance of it was jerky and lacking in naturalness. At any rate, I have always loved the
effect. Back then I had no Classic Pass. I accomplished the “free selection” by some other means. (Probably a stab). Even tough my classic pass is less than perfect, (must continue working on that), the misdirection involved with tossing the orange around is more than enough cover. Card in Orange is such a beautiful illusion. I kept the mechanics identical to the form as it originally appears. I only changed three things.
First: The patter had to be changed. That goes without saying and should almost always be the case. Blasted hard to do sometimes, but if I don’t, it’s harder for me to be creative and make a routine my own. As frustrating as it can be, it has always been worth the effort.
Second: I wanted to allow the spectator to inspect and shuffle the cards before selecting one. Thanks to “The Vernon Chronicles” it’s not a difficult matter. This is not necessary but I figured it would sell the effect more powerfully. I may be wrong on this. After all, I’m not performing for people who know about forcing and passing. I may be over thinking this one.

Third: I wanted something a little more dramatic when it came time for the card pieces to take flight from the handkerchief. So I pulled out my old brass fireball launcher. (I forget what it’s really called). It was in bad need of oil but still in pretty good shape. Since I would be performing “semi-close-up”, I decided to paint it flesh tone. I was using a steak knife as a pointer (used later to cut open the orange) and wanted it to seem I was using it as a magic wand. That is, since I couldn’t make the special effect come from the spectator, I wanted the fireball to come from the pointer/knife/wand.

Three out of the five performances were terrific. During the 4th performance I was not paying attention. When I handed the torn corner to the spectator she said “But this was not the card I picked”. I just bulldozed my way through the routine anyway and of course as a result the card that was found in the orange was NOT the selected one. For the most part everyone thought this was part of the routine. This is understandable since I do so many effects that have a “sucker” finish. (I NEVER let a spectator feel like a “sucker” I always put the joke on myself). That group didn’t seem to mind my error and expressed enthusiastic bewilderment and appreciation anyway. (?).




During the final performance I had trouble getting the fireball thrower to work. After the 2nd non-blast I just used both hands and fired the thing. Of course the audience knew I was in possession of some kind of device but it was also clear that it had nothing to do with the working of the illusion.
There are three lessons here for me today.
1. Pay attention!
2. Do a bare-handed fireball production. (Less to fumble about with).
3. Figure out if allowing the spectator to handle the cards before the effect is worth the extra step. I will have to do some research to determine the answer to this.
Mishaps aside, (and important lessons learned) everybody enjoyed “Card in Orange”. Especially the performer.

Mentalosity

For weeks, no, months I have been working on Vernon’s “3 Ball Transposition”. The more I work on this effect the more I have to keep postponing it from “Magic Friday”. The progress continues but it’s going to be a while yet before I am satisfied with my ability in the handling and presentation.


I looked over the effects on my “working on” list and everything was either not yet performable or just didn’t appeal to me for one reason or another. I noticed there was only one mental/psychic effect highlighted in blue in my repertoire spreadsheet. (Blue = successfully performed and ready at will, Green = work in progress, Red = would like to add to repertoire). I thought it would be worthwhile to add another mental effect. But what? There’s only one place to turn in times like this. Tarbell. About 26 years ago my Dad gave me all seven books in the Tarbell course as a present. Did I mention I've got the world's greatest Dad? These books are an absolute goldmine.



In Tarbell #5 I found a brilliant center tear bit credited to none other than Dai Vernon. The word genius is carelessly thrown around these days but in my humble view, Dai Vernon meets all criteria needed for that category of intellect.

Anyway, as much as I loved the routine, I wanted something bigger. Something that involved multiple participants. I certainly didn’t want to tear up and burn 3 pieces of paper one at a time. As I was rolling things over in my mind I thought of a nice “Epic Board” performance I saw a while back. I like the “one ahead” effect but didn’t want to mess around with a board. So after a bit of thought I worked up a handling using envelopes instead of a board. The next day it was off to Office Depot for envelopes, glue sticks, notepads etc.


The result was an Epic Prediction type effect. Instead of writing the predictions on an Epic Board, I wrote them one at a time on a pad and placed each of them in a numbered envelope. The three prediction envelopes in turn went into a larger manila envelope. Instead of using a selected card as one of the predictions I used that Vernon center tear business from Tarbell #5. An added bonus to this handling is that a spectator can remove and open the prediction envelopes. Something that cannot be done with an "Epic Board".



The audiences were all blown away by the 10 to 15 minute routine. I call this effect "Epic Three Envelope Prediction". Although I've never heard of anyone doing an "Epic" type routine in this way, I'm sure I'm not the first to think of it. The most enjoyable part of performing this routine was "writing" the name of the departed spirit on a piece of paper while reading the flames of the center tear. When the performance was over some said it was the best thing I’ve performed for them so far. A very successful day!

However, a couple of people didn’t realize what had happened. Once they were hit on the head by a neighbor and told the predictions were written on the display (by a 4th student) AFTER the predictions were sealed in the envelope, they too were mightily impressed. There was a valuable lesson here for me. That night when I got home the mailman had kindly delivered this month’s MUM. (The magazine of The Society of American Magicians).

In it, columnist Charles Reynolds expounds on several crucial elements every successful magician knows. One of these elements is the importance of never letting the audience lose track of the effect…

“We cannot expect an audience to react to a magical effect
If it is not clear in their minds what the effect is, or if the
action leading up to that effect (the “moment of magic”)
is confusing and unclear.”

Wow! This was precisely the information I needed to be reminded of! The older I get the more convinced I am that there are no coincidences. There are instead growth opportunities all around us. The hard part is remaining aware and open to them when they present themselves.