Hey, is anyone familiar with this suspension. I see it in Hank Lee's catalog. It's basically a Flying Carpet type suspension, uses suitcases and sets up at the start of the routine and packs up at the end.

It's more expensive than a flying carpet, but seems more practical and modern.

Anyone have comments?

I suspect that the hotel and airline stickers have more than a little to do with the whole effect.

Gotta try this at home - Think zebra or tiger

Actually, I'm wondering about the practical aspects of the trick. Is it easier to set up as claimed? Is it more or less deceiving (or the same)?

As of today (4/6/02) there is a photo of the "Float Me Alone" prop shown on the Magic Auction and Beyond web site, here:

Float-A-Lone

The angle of the photo sort of flattens out the perspective, but from the looks of things it would be about as convincing as a standard Flying Carpet, which is to say not very convincing at all, unless your presentation is strong enough to misdirect attention away from that single upright support just to the rear of the floating part ("why isn't it pulled all the way back ?" must occur to the audience )

On another "Flying Carpet" thread I have already expressed my strong belief that the ONLY way to do the Flying Carpet is with two support screens as originally designed by Jack Gwynne.
That second support (pulled all the way out to the side) is a vital piece of misdirection.

The "Float Me Alone" prop may be able to get by with only one support because the fact that you set it up and tear it down in front of the audience may be enough to "disprove" the presence of any gimmickry. I would have to see it done live to form an opinion. The prop looks nice from the photo. Makes me curious to know how convincing it is in actual performance.

My personal opinion of "Float me a Loan" is that it is garbage!

I did a show with a magician once who performed the effect and he has had nothing but trouble with it. You could actually hear the audience whispering "What is he doing?" because it took him so long to set up "the secret something" when he pulled it out of the suitcase.

The effect looks very cheesy anyway.

Again, just my opinion but I highly suggest puting your money into something that will play much bigger in your show.

Your brother in the art,

Aedryan

Thanks guys.

I saw the picture of the prop. I never liked the flying carpet, and was hoping the props and routining of Float Me Alone would diminish some of the drawback to the Flying carpet effect. I'm not so sure it does.