Several years ago I found a rope trick in a old magic book that was called "The Impossible Knot" Basically the idea was that a knot could not be tied into a rope without letting go of one hand(which of course is exactly what you do so quickly that no one notices) the book showed how you loop the rope...slide it off one hand etc......As the law goes...if you don't use you lose...and I have. I know the basics of hou you loop it around one hand etc....but can't remember from there....I was wondering if anyone has ever heard of this trick and in what book I might find it.....very simple trick(in spite of the fact that I've forgotten it} but a good trick nonetheless.

Thanks,

magicmiketurner

You'll find it on The Wiz Kid "Rope Magic" DVD in the section called "Complete Rope Routine.". They usually hand out four or five short lengths of rope to members of the audience and invite them to learn to tie the "Impossible Knot." You'll find the DVD listed on The Wiz Kid Site: http://www.wizkidzinc.com/DVDs/rope01/wizkidsROPE01.htm If you buy it, you'll see that The Magic Nook processes the payment for The Wiz Kids, but as a non-profit organization, they receive 100% of the proceeds.

Thanks Professor.

I believe it can also be found in the Mysterio Encyclopedia of Magic & Conjuring. There is a name attached to that particular knot, but I cannot remember it and will have to look it up in that book.

I learned that one when I was a kid, and I still do it for kids. There is a whole variety of rope tricks that is taught at juggling conventions. Most jugglers play with rope magic because of it's simplicity.

That is the Hunter Knot, and it can be found in most books on rope magic, including Karl Fulves "Self-Working Rope Magic."

You can also find descriptions of all the various moves online. There is a move where you tie the knot by holding the rope in your right hand, while the spectator holds the other end in his left hand, showing him "exactly" how to loop the rope.

There is a move where the spectator is all looped up, ready to "make the knot," and if you then take both ends away from him, without doing anything at all, the knot will form. You can have the spectator take the ropes away from you in the same manner and the knot will form, without any "movement."

I learned this in George Anderson's "Magic Digest", there's a full routine which I think describes the bit that Whit is referring to where you take the rope from the spectator. Also another bit where you tie the rope to your thumbs to "prove" you don't let go.

Thanks for the reminder of the name Pop.

Here's a YouTube video that teaches the trick.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pywSVBKktCU

Vidar

Thanks Vidar....I remember all the moves except the final one ! Learned the trick years ago but hadn't done in awhile and I've been going nuts trying to remember the last move Thanks....I feel better !

magicmiketurner

Magic Mike: Locate a copy of a Silk King Studio's booklet on the Tying a knot without leaving go of the ends. Many variations and a good piece of magic. I have used it for years to good reaction.

casibb3

It is a great time-killer. When you are hired for three hours of walkaround and get to the show to find there are only twenty people there, this is a godsend. You cut up pieces of rope for five or six people, show them how to tie the knot, and then go help them as they attempt to keep up. "That's it! Let me check...(you take the rope ends off their hands and the knot is formed) Perfect! Keep practicing!" Turning to someone else, "Here, you hold this end in your left, I'll hold this end in my right. Now watch closely! I go around your wrist this way..."

You keep going around from one to another "assisting" and ocasionally declaring to someone, "You've got it! That's it! Give your rope to someone else!"

You can easily kill an hour with this. Especially when you have the ones who you have told "You've got it!" try to assist their fellows, and they learn they don't really remember how they did it, though they do remember doing it...it must be possible...

The opening story is "As unbelievable as it may sound to the well-informed, it is actually possible to tie a knot such as this one without letting go of either end. It is a special folding of the rope that allows this, a technique created thousands of years ago by the incredible horsemen of the Mongolian steppes...I will teach it to you if you would like. It has won me many a drink in a bar."

The real fun of it is to convince each person that they finally got it, congratulate them, and immediately take the rope and give it to someone else. When they get it back, they think they have forgotten it. Like the two cork trick. Keep it as much as though it were the two cork trick as possible. Since this one is a complete swindle, and one that convinces them the impossible is actually possible, I think it gets pretty close to charlatanry. It is huge fun.

Teaching the cork trick--where corks are held between the thumbs and fingers and interlace, yet still can pull apart--goes very well with this, as does Crazy Man's Handcuffs. These three "teaching" tricks will easily kill all the time you need and involve everyone in the group. Start by teaching the cork trick, and when several people "get it" move on to the ropes. It makes it seem quite believeable. Then finish with the Crazy Man's Handcuffs whose impossibility will now seem much more within the realm of believability.

"Fast and Loose" (Endless Chain) works great with any of these presentations as well.

I'm ducking..
it is possible to tie a knot in a rope without ever letting go.

Yet, as those who know the method, it is generally done as a stunt, not magic. Fulve's Self Working Table Magic, routines this with two variations that are somewhat magical.

As pointed out above, the Magic Digest does present a series of gambits along the line that Whit mentioned.

After performing the rope through neck penetration (with two ropes) I do a one hand knot at the end in the offbeat, before I throw the ropes away

I do a gag where I show the audience that the knot won't stay on the rope, if made slowly. I then make the knot slowly and then give the rope a sharp tug. The knot flies off of the rope! It gets quite a reaction.

I collected a number of strategies, variations and bits of business
into the eBook - Hunter Knot Revisited.

Includes the first full description of- The One Handed Mid Air Knot
and a couple of bits of finesse that make the simple trick even more deceptive

http://www.magiccoach.com

The knot (G.W. hunter's Puzzle Knot) is the very first thing taught in the Dover edition of "Abbott's Encyclopedia of Rope Magic".

Andre

Pop,

That is the way I ended my rope routine only I had rubber bands hold the ends in plain view. right before that I had them take the ends from my knotting moves.

I used to get people at the bar have a contest who could do it fastest. It was a hoot.

Bryan

This is why I love the Magic Café. I learned that knot out of Penn and Teller's Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends about 20 years ago. I remember doing it as a stupid stunt a couple of times and forgetting about it. Then this thread comes along and I grab a scrap of rope and bring it along to my daughter's karate class.

I spent half an hour trying not to bust up laughing at two of the blackbelts who kept trying to tie the knot. I'd show them slowly, insisting that the one part I can't teach is how to flip the rope off the wrists just right. It seems to come easy to me, I don't know what it is exactly that I'm doing differently, but there is a certain touch to it... So, most of the time my daughter was in her class I was laughing up my sleeve and having fun.

Took the same rope with me when I took the kids to school today. Now there are about a dozen sixth graders who want to play with my rope when I'm around.

I'm going to find a way to work this into an actual performance set. For now it is an amusing gag. I think this is capable of being so much more.

-Patrick

I would think not laughing at two blackbelts would be good decision-making...