I have just acquired a Tango dancing cane and have a couple of basic questions I hope someone can help me with. First, what is the optimum length for the gimmick? The cane came already set up, but I must really stretch to get my fingers to touch the top of the cane. Is that normal? The other problem may be related, but when I try the "cane stuck to the finger" maneuver, as soon as the cane rises off the floor, the bottom tends to swing toward me. I cannot seem to keep the cane vertical. Is there some trick to that? The DVD that came with the cane seems pretty good, but it does not say anything about the physical forces that tend to swing the cane in that direction. I know it will take a lot of practice to be able to perform a routine, but I think I might be missing something with respect to that move. Any help would be appreciated.

Your cane sounds like it is set up correctly. It is you and your none experience as you say. Just start working on the routine.

Retie a new string 3 fingers higher then the top of the cane. This is a good starting position. Tango canes are not well balanced making it harder to perform with.
Ther are currently no great canes out there. Losander makes a floating cane. You cannot dance it only float it around your body carefully.

Also use finger wraps....... Start with the S....g on one finger. then have the s....g run across your hand. then have it pivot over your ring finger, this will take up 3 or more inches. Always have a longer str..g you can do multiple moves this way. For example, start with str..g on your pointer finger, this will give you a longer strind, then as you do your moves. position your Str,,g along the backside of your hand, so it is going from your pointer finger, across your hand on the backside, then have it cross over your ring finger. Or go the other way by starting on your pointer finger, then insert your thumb under the strin., this uses your thumb as the maneauvering point. Pm me if you need a bit more detail, Just play with that bad boy a lot and it will come to you as you are goofing around. Good luck or as we say in the dancing cane biz..." break a string"

The Tango DVD is "ok". Nothing great.

Jeff McBride is a master of the cane, has a DVD " Magic on Stage, Volume 3" and e goes over the dancing cane. "Techniques on Threading and Balancing; The Basic Dance; Turning; Around the Body; The Kick Start Opener; Floating and Twirling; Routining; Over the Head Finale".

You need a great teacher to learn the proper way.

Best of luck with your magic journey!

I make canes.

Zombie is correct, the Tango cane DVD is... meh.

Jeff's "Revolution" is also good material after you've mastered the basics.
IF you can find it, Mann's "Dancing Cane 101" is one of the best I've found for the basics.

The length of the gimmick really comes down to a matter of taste and experimentation. My preference is for the length of the gimmick to be approximately 2-inches (or a fraction less than two inches) higher than the top of the cane (measured with the cane laying on a table when you're setting it up).

However, if you take a look at David Copperfield's routine on youtube at approximately 0:34 seconds into the routine at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytQByHg4lxo
you might be able to get an idea of the length he prefers for the gimmick.

I highly recommend that you look for a copy of Lewis Ganson's _The Floating and Dancing Cane_ published by Supreme. Instructional DVDs are okay, but there's so much more that can be learned from books. On page 6 of the Ganson treatise there is a photo showing the cane lying on a table that shows the length of the gimmick in relation to the cane.

The Ganson book is 34 pages and available as a pdf file from lybrary.com at
http://www.lybrary.com/the-floating-and-......023.html
at the bargain price of $7.00

READ!!! Give your DVD player a rest and READ!!! Your brain will thank you for it!

----- Amado "Sonny" Narvaez

I would like to thank everyone for the thoughtful responses. You have been very helpful. What a great forum!

You have obviously not seen my Dancing cane... it is the best available for what it's made for... a genuine, gentle slow haunting dancing cane routine..
http://www.wackomagic.com/wackomagic/Dancing_Cane.html

I prefer the T$#$#AD to be JUST able to move above the knob of the cane...
I don't like Jeff's routine.. it looks much more like he's swinging a bola around his head rather than making a cane float. It's too fast, the cane is too heavy, and therefore the TH#$#D needs to be too heavy, making the routine necessary to be done in near dark.

My dancing cane is so light, you can ALMOST use Vectra.

Sorry jay net,the best cane by FAR, COMPAIRED TO ANYTHING ,RIGHT NOW, IS
THE ONE IN THE POST ABOVE THIS ONE.

dam caps lock ,lol

First time I saw the Wacko cane was out in front of Michael's home... in broad daylight. You can't see the gimmick.

If you want to see a good performance go to you tube and search Ken Brooke. OK, I looked it up for y'all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLpiKU1aOow

Tom Stone also has some interesting ideas in his book 'MAELSTROM' that may be worth considering.

Thanks for the link Pete,and your right about the gimmick ,it's so close to being invisible
and you recieve a lot of spare gimmick ,enough to last a very long time.

Heh John,
I have a tango, 3 creekmore including a original which was longer and one of wavky magic's.
For really slow and close to the audience the losander is best. For my current character on a stage
the best cane for floating is wacky's. For my original routine with is more intricate and danced the cane
rather then float it, the creekmore was best. Different tools for different needs.

To each there own,at least Wacko's looks like a real walkin stick .
No one uses a black evening cane in real life anymore,at least not in Australia .
It handles like a dream,but, the main selling point for me was that it didn't look like a magicians prop.

The thing about a formal black cane with white tips is that the average audience is still likely to call it or think of it as a wand, in which case the audience will relate to it and accept it as something they associate with a magician.

My personal philosophy is that it isn't always bad if something looks like a magician's prop. Magicians are _supposed_ to have a few esoteric pieces of apparatus that the audience accepts as having magic properties, ranging from a magic wand in legerdemain to an athanor in historical alchemy to a magic lamp or magic ring in stories and legends.

A magic wand is obviously a magician's prop, but the audience accepts it as something that "comes with the territory." Cups and balls are also pretty obviously magicians' props. Linking rings are obvious magicians' props. The giant watches that Richard Ross produced in his FISM-award winning act are "magicians' props." The balls that magicians produce between their fingers are props.

To me what purists call "magicians' props" are--at least in some cases--as acceptable as the tools that any tradesman or artist would use. Carpenters have hammers, saws, drills. Painters have brushes, palettes, smocks. Doctors have stethoscopes. Bakers have mixers, cookie cutters, and decorating tools. And magicians have canes, wands, phantom tubes, boxes that they saw women in half in, sofas that women recline on before being levitated, cups that knit balls appear and disappear under...

Yes, there are magicians who might carry the prop bit too far... but even then a comedy presentation might make the exaggeration/absurdity acceptable, as in the Clayton Rawson Thought Projector routine that imbues an eggbeater (aka Little Wonder Double-Action Oscillating Thought Projector) with magical properties.

Nobody uses silver dollars or half dollars in real life any more, but a lay audience is still going to enjoy, be amazed by and applaud the tricks that a good close-up magician does with them.

----- Amado "Sonny" Narvaez

While we're on the topic of dancing canes--Does anyone else collect them as well as perform them? I have a nice collection of dancing canes made by different manufacturers--three Abe Creekmore canes (one classic black and white; two with a wood grain finish); one Michael Mosher Wack-o-Magic Cane; one vintage 1950's two-piece plastic cane with goldenrod cap and ferrule; one David Mann dancing cane; one weird cardboard-ish dancing cane that is two telescoping pieces; a couple of Fantasio dancing/vanishing canes, and one custom-made Bat Masterson-type dancing cane.

Mike Rogers taught me some nice moves with the cane that I intend to write up sometime. Mike used to make his own canes out of balsa wood. He mentions the cane in passing in his lecture notes and in _The Complete Mike Rogers_, but he didn't tip "the real work." Many years ago I asked Mike for permission to write up his moves and he graciously wrote back that I was welcome to include any of his ideas, which I will of course credit to him if I ever get around to finishing and publishing my book.

----- Amado "Sonny" Narvaez

Anatole, the most impressive effect Mike Rogers did was his cane dancing while he removed his gloves. He did show it at an Abbott's lecture one year. I would think that would be impossible to explain in text.

The other thing is Mike Rogers believed that the Dancing Cane should be stripped like a Candy Cane to be visual. No my liking, but he was very impressive with his routine.

Mike Rogers did say it would be difficult to explain the glove moves in print, which may be why he kind of glossed over the whole routine in _The Complete Mike Rogers_ without going into any detail.

The glove bit seems a little anachronistic in today's venues. Very few current magicians do manipulations in gloves. Lance Burton on his first Tonight Show appearance wore dark-colored gloves but removed them primarily to do a dove production and did the card manipulations barehanded. Joseph Gabriel starts barehanded but then puts on the gloves to do a bird production.

Mike also told me that one reason he did the dancing cane was that (at that time) few magicians at conventions were doing it. Times have changed. Mike also commented that at one time it had become a popular routine with strippers.

----- Amado "Sonny" Narvaez

Any reviews on this. http://www.magic-inbox.com/starlite-danc......654.html magicwalsh@gmail.com