Let's hear what your favorite "Classic" trick is. By classic I mean over, lets say, 10 years old.

Mine goes back really far...I love the center tear.

Marc

Card to Wallet ( created by Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin I believe-he called it card to pocket book ).

Chris

Nice one Chris.

I don't know who invented the center tear. I was going to say Corinda in his 13 Steps to Mentalism but he talks as if it had been around for years before him. Anyone know if the center tear is attributable to anyone?

Marc

Cups & Balls: Here's a combination of just about every component of Magic and Theatre. Wonderful routines/handlings can be achieved at all skill levels of your development in the Magical Art(s) and there's always more to learn.

Julie

Silk To Egg Sucker Routine !

I second cups and balls. So much variety.
Don't believe magicians that say audiences are bored with it.
They love it!!
James

Love the Chop Cup.....

I don’t know if the Center Tear is a trick or a technique to accomplish a trick. The trick being “reading a persons mind” but I guess that is really splitting hairs here.

For the mentalist - reading someone’s mind is the classic trick (center tear, peek, impression device, force).

For cards I think that “signed card to impossible location” would be the only real crowd pleasing classic (card to wallet being the real classic here with card to fruit, etc., following).

Close-up (no coins or cards) sponge balls or bunnies for pure audience appeal. Color changing knives might be up there too.

Close-up using cards for me is again the signed card to wallet (there is arguably no better card trick. It is clear and easy to follow).

Close-up coins would probably be coins thru table (maybe Matrix).

Stand-up small venues would include the Misers Dream or coins to glass, Cups and Balls, Cut and Restored rope, and maybe the egg bag.

For me? If I had to choose just one trick/routine that I would consider a “must have” true classic of magic, it would be the “Borrowed, Signed, and, Destroyed Bill-to-Lemon”


Just as an aside, last night I attended a company holiday party that featured a “Cabaret” show. The master of ceremonies was an older gentleman (in his 70’s) who did a turn as a magician. He did a stand-up act, including the “Cut and Restored Rope” (opener), the Egg-bag (the funniest I have seen in years), Coins to Glass, and Signed (borrowed) Bill to Lemon. That pretty much was his act. All would be considered classics! He got great reactions from the audience.

If you're talking close-up, I would have to say it's a tie between ambitious card and cups and balls. Two classic plots that are easy to follow and yet they allow so much room for one's own variations.

I love when Harry posts, I get so much out of it.

Card To Wallet is a classic. I gets wonderful reactions. The longer you wait to reveal it, the reaction lessens. When I do it, I show them their card being shuffled intot he deck, cnap my fingers and say "did you see it go? It's now in my walllet". I then reveal it. They are shocked.

BUT.....signed card to impossible location like the Kennedy Mystery Box gets gasps. If there is a stronger clos-up magic effect with cards, I'd love to know what it is.

Chris

I always get a strong reaction from "Cigarette Up The Nose."

LOL!!! Great one Gary!!

I get strong “reactions” when I do a blockhead stunt too! Of course I’m doing the nail or screw driver or electric drill up the nose. It might be considered a “classic” sideshow or gross-out stunt but otherwise I don’t think of it as a classic of magic.

The cigarette up the nose as part of a cigarette manipulation act can bring a nice laugh but again, in this age of no smoking finding a cigarette to borrow is becoming more and more difficult. You want to borrow one so that the spectators/audience knows that it is not gimmicked (and why would you use a gimmicked cigarette anyway as it is totally unnecessary for this throwaway bit?) and you can use the best (if old) jokes. When borrowing the cigarette you say “Thanks, you’re one of a dying breed”. When giving it back at the end you pretend to wipe the end off and stick it in the package and say “there that ought to help you quit!” Yes they are old but do get strong laughs!

Anyone for Invisible Deck?

The center tear is a tool. It's like a TT. Neither one of them is a "trick." The center tear was basically revealed to mentalists by Annemann. There is quite a bit of discussion about it in the historical forum.

Ten years of existence does not a classic make. There are basically NO classics that are only 10 years old. "Classic" means that it has been around for long enough that it has become a fundamental basic in the repertoire of magicians.

Classics would be things like
Cups and balls
Egg bag
Linking Rings

None of these are tools. They are fully conceived routines. And the real masters present these in a way that tells you why these are "classics."

Please don't highjack the term "classic" the way David Blained highjacked "street magic."

Calling a cow a horse doesn't make it one.

Asking what is the "best" classic trick is very much like asking what the "best" DL is. It depends entirely upon the performer and his/her presentation.

Cups & Balls
Multiplying Billiard Balls
Egg Bag
Linking Rings
Multiplying Thimbles
Ring & String
Cut & Restored Rope
Professors Nightmare
Sponge Balls
Torn & Restored Newspaper
Three Shell Game
Three Card Monti
Bill In Lemon
Ambitious Card
Ashes On The Palm
Sand Frame
Magic Coloring Book
Color Changing Shoelaces
Needle Thru Balloon
Break Away Wand
Rocky Raccoon
Misers Dream

Is There really a best,that depends



johnny

I do not know what your defenition of a classic is but I will throw in a few.

the vanishing public lavatory!
the appearing traffic jam
the colour changing christmas calander
and last but not least the vanishing lord lucan!!! (sorry couldn't resist)

but more seriously
cups and balls
ambitious card
the rising card
sponge balls
this is maybee not a classic but roy walton's cascade
marc

I'm with johnnymystic on this. Is there a "best", or simply a favorite? The list is formidible, ever-growing with time, and enduring, although I must say, there is something aesthetically perfect about a sphere. My vote goes for any of those named or not that involve a sphere.

~michael

The Magic Circle (London, England) Guide to Examinations booklet lists a number of tricks which are suitable (but not the only) routines which can be performed during an entrance exam. Many of the above feature in that list. My own answer to the question would be Ambitious Card.

Cheers

Chris

For stage, Metamorphosis, without a doubt! No matter how many times I've seen it, I'm always impressed. I would also add the linking rings to that list.

As for close-up, cups and balls.

The Linking Rings. I adore this trick.
Matt