Other than 'Dancing Butterflies' and 'Snowstorm', or use of Parasols, what other oriental style or themed magic can you all think of? Regardless of skill level, I'm compiling a list of such effects for stage.

Thanks!

You should see Jade act, I don't know the name of some of her effects...

Yes JADE was a Guest of Honor here at the Café. Great lady of magic! I've only read a few lines describing her act but have never seen it. Maybe someone will outline her act for those of us who haven't seen it.

Bowl of rice...

First things that came to my mind are the rice bowls, linking rings, or maybe multplying oriental fans. Hope that helps.

Levent was nice enough to tell us that the Alan Wakeling book is being released this coming August I think. It's being released on paperback for a quarter of it's original cost before being out of print for a thousand years. The book has Wakeling's Fan Manipulation act.

I have her act and many other good stuff in vhs tapes, but I haven't a dazzle...
With oriental magic, I have the Spanish Andrew performing some oriental magic to, but I don't remember, the effects he did...

You don't have a dazzle? What are you talking about? Is that Portuguese for VCR tape player? Don't make me go fishing Eduardo, cause I'll do it.... Hehehehe

Could I persuade you to watch her act again and tell us what she does? Take notes.

With fan manipulation, but not with oriental style, you should see the work of Laurent Beretta http://www.laurentberetta.com he put some videos with his work in the website...

A dazzle is a kind of cable to capture from the tape player to the PC to Youtube LOL
Hum I will ask a friend to help me capturing, but I will be not fast, because I have many things to do this week

Try some of these:

Zombie Ball with a large oriental fan instead of a foulard

Multiplying Balls with oriental music

Jumbo Square Circle producing fans and large paper lanterns

Chinese Linking Rings

Samauri Card Sword

Silk routine to oriental music

Mutilated parasol, Kuma tubes, thumb tie (with rice paper). egg on fan, Cut and restored Turban, Rice, orange and checkers, Chinese paper tear, Sand Canisters, Salt Pour, Sand Painting, smoke from mouth, water spurting. Squirting fountain act.

Good resource is Tarbell and Ask Alexander for all the old Spinix ideas. A lot of the old masters used Oriental trappings to set the stage for a routine. Jack Chanin's Silk act has oriental themed.

Richard

Hmmm, there's a book compiling a lot of oriental stunts : "oriental conjuring and magic", by Will Ayling, from an index by S.H.Sharpe, the Supreme magic Co. Ltd., 1981...

Tons of tricks and oriental magic inside...

Hope this helps,

By this logic, everything can be made "oriental" by adding oriental music to it...
How about Peanut Butter and Jelly with oriental music? Or Trick Bottles with Oriental Music? Or, wait for it, Hippity-Hop rabbits with oriental music?

- Alex Yan

Alex,

Where do silks come from? Considering their origin, why wouldn't it lend to an oriental theme? Combine this with an oriental style square circle or temple screen and you have a beautiful piece of themed magic.

I also combine the use of silks and oriental fans in my multiplying balls routine. In fact, don't you think they actually look like oriental meditation balls? It's these little details that help to build a consistent theme. The music is just one piece of the puzzle.

Kent

No, then you use the chinese version made by Abbott's Magic. This has Chinaman exchanging places and a sucker type ending. Check with Abbott's.

Actually, ANYTHING made by abbott's could fit into a hokey oriental theme!

Kent

The book Magic of Hoyam by Mayoh is all oriental effects with directions/plans to make it yourself. It's long out-of-print in both hard and soft covers, but not too difficult to find.

I believe the first thing we should do is to identify the oriental theme you want to create for your show. Next come the oriental stage character and then the time era you want the character to be in.

Let's say we use a 'Ninja' as a character - historically there are ninjas in Japan, China, Korea, etc.

What items do they use? Parasols, metal fans, swords, sticks, poles, ropes, fire and smokes, sash, masks, etc. Do those items look familiar to those in magic?

What character would they be in before they play the role of a ninja? Maybe a carpenter, or a artist, etc. What costume are they dressed in? What items are they using in that character?

With the tips and info gathered from the questions above - you can developed quite an original and different act altogether.

Hope this helps.

You should read The Glorious Deception, Jim Steinmeyer's book on Chung Ling Soo. William Robinson built a beautiful Chinese act using American magic. The only Chinese magic that he regularly performed was the Chinese Rings. The act was so good that people around the world preferred it to traditional Chinese magic, even in China.

So, as suggested above, think about your character and the look that you want. What props fit this concept? Do magic with those.

There are a number of off-the-shelf magic items that are excellent, as suggested above. Better still is to build your own props.

Yours,

Paul