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plink Special user 661 Posts |
What makes a silk production magical? Is there a sequence that works best? Beside pulling out silks what can the magician do to add mystery and/or fun?
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Bill Hegbli Eternal Order Fort Wayne, Indiana 22797 Posts |
Showing your hands empty, and then having a silk unfurl down from the hand.
Showing a candle burning, pinching out the flame and a silk gracefully materializes. Showing a tube empty and producing more the tube could possibly hold. |
Dick Oslund Inner circle 8357 Posts |
Bill has suggested some very visually appealing tricks that are "mysterious", as well as "pretty".
I'll add to Bill's comment from another "angle". (You also asked about adding fun.) The late Harold Rice sold BEAUTIFUL pictorial silks. Dragons, butterflies, clowns, rabbit in hat, etc. in several sizes. When I was about 16, I "caught" the late ROY SHRIMPLIN'S school show. He produced those beautiful silks, and had humorous lines, as he displayed them. When he held up the butterfly, for example, he said, "B-29". It was 1947. The B-29 was a well known military airplane. (World War II was just over.) The high school students laughed. For each of those beautiful "pictorials", he had a funny line. Those silks, in 36" size, cost about $3.50, then!!! I bought several to produce. I used a Merv Taylor "TAMBOR" (tambourine). As I produced the clown silk, for example, I held it up, and said, "My graduation picture!" (Nice laugh) The follow up line was, "I was much better looking, THEN!" (Bigger laugh) In Victorian era, magicians would produce colorful silks from a box, tube, hat, or "something". The silks were produced slowly, and "dramatically". That sort of production would not "play", today. In 1945, I saw Harry Blackstone (pere) produce about 50 big silks from a tambourine in his opening "Enchanted Flower Garden". Mr. B. produced those silks FAST! --The production couldn't have taken 2 minutes! The action, the color, the tempo, "made" the trick! In the '70s, I saw a former International President of the "I Bother Magicians Association" (I.B.M). I write up the "story" in my book. This dignified magician, spent at least 10 minutes pulling 36" Rice "picture silks" from a huge square circle. As each silk was produced, he held it up, to display it. Then, he turned, walked "dramatically" up stage, and "hung" the silk in a huge "fish net" suspended from the backdrop. Turning, he retraced his steps to the square circle which was about 10 feet away, and produced another big silk. He was the closing act on the convention show. The audience was "adding up" the cost of the silks! When the square circle was finally empty, so was the theater! He had gotten a "fleeing ovation"! By contrast, the late Ade Duval, in the glory days of VAUDEVILLE, rapidly produced a "bushel" of silks from "A" phantom tube! The act was called "A Rhapsody in Silk". In "two a day" vaudeville, Ade and his wife could spend an hour +, reloading for the second show. In later days, vaudeville theaters, were presenting four and five shows per day. Duval and his wife were kept BUSY! In a London theater, the dressing rooms were beneath the stage. A window, open for ventilation, opened on the stage door alley. Ade and his dear wife, were busy, reloading the silks for the third time that day. Two people left the theater by the side door in the alley. They were discussing the show. One said to his friend, "I liked the juggler"! His friend said, "I liked the bloke with the rags!" The late Karrell Fox, made up some comical picture silks. A circus "fat lady", a gorilla, an acrobat, etc. The pictures had no heads. He had some kids on stage. As he produced the silks, he had the kids hold them so that THEIR heads "completed" the picture! FUNNY! Later, with Karrell's "OK" the late Bob Jepson's widow made up more of the "headless" silks. Producing silks from a tube, box, can, pan, or "red velvet bag on a stick", is not inherently entertaining. The performer's PRESENTATION is what makes the difference. "It aint WHAT ya do, it's HOW ya do it!!!!!
SNEAKY, UNDERHANDED, DEVIOUS,& SURREPTITIOUS ITINERANT MOUNTEBANK
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Bill Hegbli Eternal Order Fort Wayne, Indiana 22797 Posts |
Right Dick, for his question on What can make the mystery and fun, is all in the performers personality and presentation. If you look at as stated, with the attitude of "just pulling out silks, that is what will transmit to the audience. You have to look within yourself, and decide what you want the audiences to feel. Then give that to them. Sometimes you can do that will music as well. Still, if you are not 'with the music', it will be lost in translation.
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jimgerrish Inner circle East Orange, NJ 3209 Posts |
In 2009, Wiz Kid Qua-Fiki solved one problem for making a production of silks from a small box - He added magic words (spelled backwards on the prop) and got the children in the audience involved in figuring out the words and wondering just how big the silks were going to get. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIZNLHtEP5g
The box is described in The Wizards' Journal #18 - "Qua-Fiki's Sneaky Production Box." In the video, he performs it kneeling because there wasn't enough space in our "studio" for him to demonstrate it standing up! As he worked on improving the production of silks over the years, he added the production of another Wiz Kid from beneath the 6 foot silk, making it seem as if the Kid just climbed out of the box (which was put on the floor at that point). The new Kid helped display the 6 footer, and was then there to grab the other side of the THE END silk for display. Then, from behind the THE END silk, Qua-Fiki would end by producing a bunny which got all the attention for petting as his Wiz Kid assistant began packing everything away. By 2011, Qua-Fiki was working on a similar production of silks to end his new "Go Fish" Library show, and came up with "Fish or Cut Bait" with a new way to produce and display a fifteen foot streamer as a rainbow, shown in the photo below: http://magicnook.com/WizJ20/06-IMG_7100.JPG It is described in The Wizards' Journal #20 under that name. My "Finger Flinging Silk Routine" as described in The Wizards' Journal #26 shows another way of adding interest to a pure sleight of hand production of silks- incorporating color changing silks and a "fountain" of silks, as well as a transformation of the silks to flowers as an ending.
Jim Gerrish
magicnook@yahoo.com https://www.magicnook.com Home of The Wizards' Journals: https://magicnook.com/wizardsTOC.htm |
Dick Oslund Inner circle 8357 Posts |
Bill and I have known each other for a long time! We do have occasional minor friendly differences of opinion (here comes the "but"!) BUT, overall we agree.
We definitely agree 200% that performing magic so that the performance is entertaining, depends on "P+P+P" (the Performer's Personality, and Presentation!) --It's not WHAT you do! It's HOW you do it! What's the performer's MOTIVATION? WHY is he doing it? Does he NEED the silk(s) to show the spectator(s) "something" that's amazing or amusing? Or, is he just pulling the silks out of the box, 'cuz he happens to own the box, and, the silks? The former IBM President, I mentioned in my post, above, was a "nice guy". He owned all those silks. He came to the convention WITHOUT a "box"! He borrowed the "box". He "demonstrated" how many silks that the "empty box" could "hide"! He "marched" in a very dignified manner, upstage to the "box" and, stuffed the silk into one of the "openings" in the net, then he marched back to the box (about ten feet away! BAD BLOCKING!!!) He must have had two dozen 36" picture silks! The whole "demonstration" was BORING. I think that he wore out a pair of shoes, every time he did the trick! When ROY SHRIMPLIN produced those beautiful pictorial silks, and had a funny line with each, I, at first, thought that he was wrong when he did gags. with them. THEN, I realized that, he KNEW how to make that production ENTERTAINING! Years later, when I was working, the "next to closing" trick for the elementary audiences was Frank Ducrot's "20th Century Silks". It had color, comedy, and a big surprise at the end. (SURPRISES are ENTERTAINING!!!) I didn't tie two silks together, and, then tell 'em that I would make the rainbow silk disappear, and reappear, tied between the two tied silks! (There's no SURPRISE!) The premise was that I offered to teach a little boy how to do the "wonderful vanishing knot trick"! He tucked the tied silks in his pocket. Then I would explain that "it sometimes takes 15 minutes for the knot to disappear. So, while we're waiting, I'll make this pretty rainbow scarf DISAPPEAR!" (I used Burling Hull's "Elusive Silk" method to vanish the silk. (NO STUPID CHANGE BAG!) --"Elusive" is a very strong, bare handed disappearance! I don't care about fooling magicians! (but, I have fooled many of them with the Elusive!) Then, I searched for the vanished silk. I checked my pocket! No silk. Ah! "Maybe it's in the other pocket!" I reach in the other pocket and find an 8' long string of 12" silks! (Laugh!) "Hmmm,sometimes when I vanish the scarf, it goes into this little silver box!" (DEMON WONDER BOX) I opened the box. No silk. I closed the little box, snapped my fingers, reopened the box, and produced a 12" red silk. (not "the rainbow") I repeated this three times. It got funnier! Finally, I asked the boy to open the box and try to find the scarf. No luck! I opened the box and a 12' long "string" of 12' silks was produced. It filled the stage. Still, no rainbow! (but lots of LAUGHS) I would ask the boy, "Did the knot disappear yet? Let's look!" I jerked the two tied silks from his pocket, and there was the rainbow! BIG 30 second laugh! AND, we both styled to BIG APPLAUSE! I'm not tipping all the gags and bits of business for this! (They're all in my book!) I could do a "cut" version of the routine (about 3 minutes) or the full routine (6 minutes)if I needed the time. What I'm "selling" here, is the premise and effect that entertains! Oh! I explain MY handling of the Elusive routine, that makes it EASY to do, in the book, too. I use the "standard" 20 C. silks. The other silks are just ordinary silks. The small boy is "ordinary and unprepared". I bought my Demon Wonder Box in 1954. ($5.00 - Doc Karland Frischkorn estate sale) For years they were unavailable. In '92, Duane Laflin and I were working a regional "weekend convention" in Indiana. Duane had never seen a DWB! He was fascinated with the little box that was 3" tall x 2" square, with THIN metal "walls". He located a producer in India, and, I believe he still sells them today. The "India made" prop is not quite as "nice" as my Sherms made, but it works. (I don't KNOW if the India made box has the extra load gimmick for the 15' string of silks.) Yup! it's P+P+P !!! After all that typing, it's time for coffee.
SNEAKY, UNDERHANDED, DEVIOUS,& SURREPTITIOUS ITINERANT MOUNTEBANK
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plink Special user 661 Posts |
Thank you! A wealth of good ideas! I'll need to go back and reread Dick's book. And thank you all!!!
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Dick Oslund Inner circle 8357 Posts |
I know a "couple" of guys who have read it a "couple" of times!
SNEAKY, UNDERHANDED, DEVIOUS,& SURREPTITIOUS ITINERANT MOUNTEBANK
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