Hey everyone,
Can anyone tell me about Bob Read's "transpo tumbler?

Yes. It's a trick Bob Read did with a large drinking tumbler. He wrapped it in newspaper, and after some byplay, caused it to penetrate the top of a table. The work is very clean. It's not your old "saltshaker under the napkin trick," but something much more brilliant.

He does this standing up.

Thanks for the reply, Bill.

In the video that I have seen, which was from the old Videonics series, the tumbler leaves the newspaper (somewhat similar to the salt shaker vanish but not completely) and winds up under a hat that is also in play. Nothing penetrates the table, at least not in the version I am familiar with.

To the audience, he called the trick "Durn-its".

Thanks for the reply, Michael.

The version he did at the Downtown Magic Club in Kent in 2002, which is on disc 1 of the Bob Read 4 disc set has the penetration through the table.

I hope to see those DVDs one day.

Transpo Tumbler is a very good effect and if you find study the routine you are bound to come up with ideas to make it your own. But study Bob's effect first if you want to do perform it. It's such a good effect in My opinion anyway.

Back in the day, before viideos, Bob Read sold two different pamphlets. One was "Bob Read's $100 Glass Through Table" and the other one was "Transpo Tumbler". The former was a one-cup routine which ended with the glass through the table. As Bill said, this was done standing. It's hard to beat as a one-cup routine.

"Transpo Tumbler" had the glass vanish from its newspaper shell and appear under the hat. This was almost certainly the starting point for John Carney's beautiful routine.

Actually, I miscalled this one. The DVD said that Transpo Tumbler was on the disc. It actually is -- right after the glass through the table. So you get a two-fer.

The 4 DVD set - "The Bob Read Collection" from International Magic is a great set of DVDs and well worth the $100+. It's not that you're going to go out and be the next Bob Read, but you get to see how a pro works over and over. The performance clips are great, the lecture material is unbelievable. The video Richard Kaufman made of Bob explaining the Bottle Production is worth the price of the set. On that DVD is also included a PDF version of the Bob Read issue of Genii.

There's some great bonus material on that set too including Bob's magical tour of London, showing sites and giving history of magic in London from many years ago. If I remember correctly, I thought I saw Bill Palmer in the walking tour.

A lot of dealer's carry this and it's worth buying at any price because you're just going to get so much usable material. I much prefer books over DVDs, but this DVD set is one of my top ones and really treasure the work on these.

And by the way, the reason I bought these was for Transpo Tumbler, but I got so much more.

Yes, I was on the tour. Richard got the date wrong in the original notes, though. It wasn't in August of 2005. It was on July 25. That's a hard date for me to forget, because it's my birthday. Andrew Galloway was on that tour, as well, and so was Volker Huber.