Earlier I made a post requesting help coming up with dimensions or photos for the "Book of Life" illusion. Since then I have talked with several professional builders and magicians, requesting the information. One builder has plans, but not in a condition for public sale, a couple have never actually built the illusion, and one other just flat refused to give me any help, saying "Nope, that's how I make my living". I guess I can understand this, but it still leaves me right where I started.

Have any of you dealt with any builders that you think might be willing to answer a few questions about dimensions, etc.? I have developed some plans myself, but am wanting to verify some critical dimensions with someone that does this for a living.

Thanks,

Amos McCormick

I can made a list with the top five helpful builders.

An, at the top of it I would put Martin Grams from "Martini Magic".

Regards

You might be able to get some dimensions from a builder but then again it still might not fit exactly the way you want it. After trying to approximate the dimensions the best you can and making your drawing, get some large cardboard boxes from a furnature or appliance store and lots of tape and make a prototype. Nothing like a 3D model to point out potential pitfalls and enhancements and resizing opportunities.

Yep...and don't forget you want find a jumper of the right dimensions who will stick with you. If your jumper skips you may find yourself trying to shoehorn someone who's five inches taller or fifteen pounds heavier into something you had custom built for someone smaller.

And if you go for the "one size fits all" illusion, it seems to be lacklustre right from the beginning.

Not to cause an arguement here, but I do get upset when people just call their asisstants jumpers or box jumpers. That to me sounds really degrading in my own humble opinion.

To me an assistant is much more then a jumper and certainly should not be a prop holder or another fancy table on your stage.

A good assistant should be a magical partner on stage. For without them, the magician really is nothing. They often do more work then we do and deserve to be treated as such.

Just a thought I would throw out there.

The "Book of Life" I am building is for the production of anyone of normal size, not just a "size 0" assistant. Since I have never built a "production" illusion, I was looking for some general guidance. I e-mailed a couple of fairly major illusion builders who gave me a lot of information on why they couldn't help me.

As it turned out, I e-mailed one of the top illusion designers in the world who looked over my plans and made a lot of helpful comments and suggestions. I also received several bits of wisdom from a well-known professional magician who performs this illusion at corporate gatherings. Needless to say, I am very appreciative of the guidance provided by these two folks.

I have always been of the opinion that magic is made better when we help one another. Although I am not a professional at anything related to magic, I am willing to provide whatever assistance I can to those less experienced than I.

Both of the builders talked of how they would be shortchanging their paying clients by helping me. Although I guess I can see their point if I look really hard, I am not their competition. The only illusions I build are for myself or for a couple of friends.

So much for the rant. I just wanted to let you know that some of the truly great ones haven't forgotten their roots.

Amos McCormick

Amos:
Thanks for not forgetting your roots and for offering to share your information and advice with us all. It is appreciated.

Sorry magic4uo2...no offense intended and you are quite right. Sometimes we fall into a certain parlance just because that is the way others we work with converse.

I agree wholeheartedly though...there is a big difference between an assistant and a box jumper.

It's just that so many assistants are chosen because they are thin, short, flexible and superficially pretty. They also seem to bail when it's least convenient and read a lot of magazines as opposed to books and tend to roll their eyes when the technical notes are read after rehearsal.

And a lot of them chew gum all the time.

Oh...almost forgot...I put a thread on scaling photos and video here somewhere, that might help you with dimensions.