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magic4jc Regular user Texas, USA 148 Posts |
Can anyone offer a review on "Yigal Mesika's Signed Bill In Lemon"?
I am looking for a decent SIGNED bill in lemon effect. I need it to be affordable. Are there other suggestions? Thanks, Mike
mikecorry.com
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alannasser Loyal user 213 Posts |
Mike,
I had this for a while. Thought it was awful. The loading tube is way too wide (diameter), leaving a crater-size hole in the lemon. The bill won't go into the lemon deep enough unless a good portion of the lemon is cut away inside, which is a neon sign for specs. What could Mesika have been thinking? Try this routine, which has worked wonders for me forever: Tell them you are going to do a translocation: you'll have 2 objects switch places without coming anywhere near each other. Have bill signed, roll it up and drape silk over it. Have spec grab bill through the hank and slowly lower the hank, with "bill" inside, to table top - have spec release hank as soon os lower part of hank touches top of table. That leaves the hank somewhat fluffed on the table, "so that there's room for something under there other than the bill". You've thumb palmed the bill and are moving to your table -mine is a Lefler with shelves inside/behind- as you instruct the spec as above. Reach under/behind your table and load the lemon as you bring out the velvet bag and pass it for examination. While they are examining the bag you reach behind your table and bring out the lemon, loaded. This is the first they have heard of or seen a lemon. Ask them to hold the bag with its top open and just drop the lemon in and ask spec to lay the bag on the nearest surface. "Would you be amazed if the bill and the lemon change places? After all, they've never been near each other." You wisk away the silk. Nothing there. Magician in trouble. "Oh well, who cares about the lemon not being under the hank, it's Jim's money that really matters - watch: it'll be in the bag (as promised)." Reach into the bag, look embarrassed, and remove the lemon. Toss the bag to a spec and ask her to remove the signed bill. No bill. "It looks like I was wrong. But wait a minute: I said the bill would be in the bag, didn't I? But the lemon was in the bag. So maybe the bill did travel to the bag after all" as you whip out your knife and begin to cut open the lemon. You will at this point *always* hear *someone* mutter "No ****in' way!" A note on loading the lemon: first time to the table just stick the bill in to the hilt as you remove the bag and give it for examination. Second time back, when you bring out the lemon to be sure the bill is all the way in, have 5 toothpicks wrapped together with a band of Scotch tape around them, and use this to give the bill a further shove into the lemon, to be sure that when you open the lemon the bill is properly protruding from one of the halves. Each of these load moves is executed in a second or two. It's all very smooth. -- Since you always casually reach behind your table through your entire act, to get this or that, and you go for the hank (no moves when you get the hank), the bag and the lemon while something else is happening and their attention is elsewhere, your getting stuff from your table is for all practical purposes invisible. I've been doing this for decades, and it's never, ever failed to get the incredible reaction that any magi gets with this effect. I stupidly bought The Final Answer thinking it'd be an improvement, and sold it soon after I got it. TFA makes too much of a project of the fact that you are using lemons. In my opinion -and that's all it is- there's a big plus to not bringing the lemon into the picture until you are half way through the routine, and treating it casually, tossing it absent-mindedly from hand to hand, and then right into the bag. All you need for this is the lemon, a two-ply silk with a rolled up bill (or whatever - I actually have a rolled up dollar bill in there) in the center, the velvet bag (or whatever) and, if you like, the toothpick bundle. And of course the knife. -- I do Final Flashback and Wellington's See-Through Guillotine, among other big-reaction effects, in my stage show, but bill in lemon is usually the one they talk about most. Feel free not to like my version. Just thought you might be interested in an option. Best, Alan |
Caliban Special user 727 Posts |
The Mesika gimmick is okay, but it's made to hold the lemon under your jacket so that the bill can be loaded as the bag with the lemon is pulled out in one motion. I used it for one season and found that, unless I used a VERY small lemon or lime, the bag with the lemon was likely to fall off the gimmick and drop out from underneath my jacket when I walked across the stage (or across the room - luckily I found this out during rehearsal). So I eliminated the under the coat bit because it wasn't secure enough and loaded the lemon in a bag using the gimmick instead. After two shows I realised that, as the lemon was not being held under a coat, there was no reason to use the gimmick at all - it was easier just to stick the bill into a lemon with a hole in it.
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Ustaad Inner circle Iindia - States 6157 Posts |
Quote:
On 2008-01-15 05:12, Caliban wrote: Very valid & practical point! It takes just about 2 seconds to load the bill directly by hand in a prepared lemon.
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