I've recently made a prop from a description in some old lecture notes.
Basically, a wand-like black tube has a red tip at one end and a green tip at the other end; each tip contains a matching colour silk.
The effect is a transposition; the silks magically change ends.
For the finale, a third silk (of different colour) is vanished and it then re-appears tied between the silks in the tube - ala 20th Century Silks).
Because this is a home-made prop, I don't have any patter to go with it.
Can anyone suggest a suitable presentation that might work for a young audience?
:rainbow:

Driving instructions? Red light, green light, yellow?

Color blindness test?

Sucker trick. As you pass behind back, reverse wand and show colors jumped?

Thanks Brody,
The colours (red,green) are ideal for a traffic light patter theme.
The third silk could then be yellow. At the end it would be logical to find the yellow in between the red and green.
I like your idea of a colour blindness test.
That's food for thought.
Best - Andi

I have always had success with takling about the trick while practicing it. After practicing it a couple hundred times your words kinda refine themselves, and once you try it out on an audience you can make your final adjustments. When you are finished you can be sure that no one will ever do that trick quite like you do it.

Good! Who would use the patter that comes with an effect? Pullleaze...

What is the motivation for the yellow to appear in the cane? Are you going to vanish it and make it appear there? Will the fact that the fact that the tube has silks in it be known before the reveal? How do you produce the silks, are they shook out or pulled out? How to you prove the yellow isn't tied in there from the get go? After you figure that out....

What can you do to screw the trick up intentionally? How can you torment the kids to rev them up (the behind the back is a method proven over and over, you can also insert the wand in your belt and act like you vanished it then when you turn around the kids see it)?

Once you have all that good stuff you can write your presentation. Shouldn't be a problem

MagicSanta,
Thank you for your input.
To answer your question; the effect is in two parts.
Part #1 The red and green silks can be openly displayed and then placed in each respective end of the tube - denoted by the red/green coloured tips.
At the beginning, the ends are then sealed with plastic end-caps.
After passing the tube behind my back (and momentarily out of sight) the end-caps are then removed to show that the silks have transposed; and this could be repeated.
I like your comedy tip of vanishing the wand behind my back.
Part #2 The red/green silks then remain visible at each end (end-caps removed).
A yellow silk is now introduced and vanished (via maybe a T.T. or Changebag) and finally reproduced by splitting the tube to reveal the yellow silk tied between the red/green silks. After the split, both silks are seen right through their half-tube so the illusion is that the yellow has tied itself to them - ala 20th Century Silks.
Thanks again.
Best - Andi

It almost sounds like a crystal tube. If you say it is like 20th century silks then the connecting moment is different. I'd do a basic descriptive presentation and let gags lead the effect. Drop the silk but don't notice it, do the behind the back stuff, and then you can finish up with a kid holding the tube as you pull out the silks.

Andi
Here is an ok video of the chrystal tube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18POao5nuWM&feature=related

Survey! How many of you perform the crystal tube JUST like in the video??? Come on...you can admit it.

So guy who asked that is the crystal tube, thanks Al, and of course you want to add lots of stuff to it to make it entertaining. You can push silks in with a wand and force other silks to fall out, you can shake the tube to emphasise a point or get after the kids and have them flip out completely or partially, you can blow then out and have them not be connected. It can become a great routine..

Amen (oops, this in't the Gospel Magic Forum ... I meant "Right On!")


wes holly

If you think that version of the Crystal tube was bad it was the best one I could find on youtube. I just wanted Andi to see the trick done.

No, that was just showing what it is, no reason for a routine. I just betcha some here do it just like that performance though....bless their hearts.

When working on a routine I feel there are two sources you can draw from:
Standard Shtick and Your own Shtick

Standard shtick is all the standard visual gags, techniques and suckering used in children’s entertainment. With a little thought, a look-don’t-see moment or Magician in trouble can be added to any prop.

Silly Billy’s version of the crystal tube ( http://www.sillymagic.com/columns.html ) does exactly that turning it into an engaging and interactive routine.

Your own shtick is harder to define and is based more on your own personality, skill set and what you yourself find funny.

Kimmo’s version of the tube is more about that:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tI-HuENaCAI&feature=related
Although, this is the demo version which is shorter. In real life Kimmo holds the record for the most time standing on stage, talking about a tube.

So for your prop the standard shtick is easy:

Show the tube and accidently hit yourself on the head with it about 40 times.

Introduce the hankies and if you must call them by the wrong colours (thus affirming to the children that you are either blind or as thick as piggy poo)

Slydini Knot or other hanky magic classics can be added here.

Put the hankys in the tube but have them repeatedly fall out until the children are worked up into a frenzy of frustration and disbelief.

If they won’t fall out of the prop accidently pull the red one out while tucking the green one in then vica versa and repeat for 3 hours (it’ll probably work the best if you clip it and then pull the tube away from your hand rather than pulling your hand away from the tube)

Put on the cap then claim the hankies have swapped places then say “the hard part is to make them swap back” (then stare at the adults with a fixed smile until they acknowledge your almost proper joke with a polite forced laugh)

Claim you will make them swap places and put it behind your back, do santa’s gag about sticking it in your belt. then turn it around. Repeat too much then go into your collection of turn it around gags until the children have returned to their former catatonic state of frustration/disbelief.

Actually do the trick. (then call the children idiots for ever having doubted you.)

Get a volunteer up.

Do your volunteer shtick.

Vanish the yellow hanky with a clatter of comedy wands. (I’ve checked and ‘a clatter’ is the collective noun for comedy wands. They usually move in 3s but occasionally one will break-away from the herd. )

Fail to find the hanky.

Somehow manage to open the tube, show the yellow hanky but still not see it yourself for half an hour.

Your own shtick is a bit harder and unfortunately I can’t help you with that.

What do you like and find funny about the effect?

How do you actually feel about standing on a stage tucking silks into a tube?

George

I think George has got it.

Thank you ALL for some great ideas.
I appreciate your links to YouTube, although my prop is somewhat different in appearance.
So far, it's shaping up to be a three part presentation:
a comedy vanish of the tube (wand) as suggested by MagicSanta;
the colour transposition;
and finally (with magic helper) 20th Century Silks.

Best - Andi

Sounds exciting!

Please by all that's holy, don't open with "I have here an ordinary wand".

I would have gone (considering my stage character) with 'look don't see' ... "As you can see, this end is red and this end..."

"NOOO, MISTER MAGICIAN, THAT END IS GREEN!"

"Uh ... well, it WAS red, okay, THIS end is green..."

"NOOO, NOW IT'S RED!"

"Now, LOOK, this end is clearly ... oh, it is red. Well maybe if you all say the magic words Happy Birthday Jimmy..."