Pavel's notes on the trick are basically wrong. Gene Gordon purchased the rights from Bob Carver. Hen Fetsch was Gene Gordon's best friend, and also produced various magic items for him. After the Professor's Nightmare went through its first spate of being as popular as the Square Circle, Hen decided to do an extended version, which was called Quad-Rope-Lets. Quad-Rope-Lets was marketed through Gene Gordon. This may be where some of the confusion lies.

Just because a number of people are knocking a trick off, does not put it into the public domain. Remember "public domain" is a legal term, referring to something that is not protected by copyright, trademark or patent.

Without going into a long diatribe on protecting the rights to magic tricks, suffice it to say that within most parameters, copyright alone is not enough to protect a trick. However, magicians generally know who originated what. Sometimes excessive secrecy causes the originators to be lost in the shuffle, but many of us, such as Max Maven, Phil Willmarth and me are doing what we can to bring recognition to originators. For example, when I see a trick marketed with instructions that say, "Use the well-known 10/11 force," I will let the people who produce it know that the 10/11 force is actually the Corvelo force, and that the originator only recently passed away.

It is through crediting the inventors of things we think of as being in the public domain when they probably are not that we keep the memory of those giants upon whose shoulders we stand alive.

As I said, I have always heard that Bob Carver invented the trick, and it was only recently (less than a week ago) that I ever saw anything in current literature that would offer anything to the contrary. I am certainly not opinionating on who has the correct story, nor asserting anything as fact. The information (incorrect or otherwise) was out there, and relevant to the topic at hand. Secondhand information is as close as I can possibly get to this one.

In response to a PM from Bill Hallahan, I decided to call Phil Willmarth to find out the total, genuine whole story. This is what happened:

Gene Gordon, thinking that Paul Young had invented the routine, purchased it from Paul, as Pavel has mentioned. However, upon learning that Paul had gotten it from Bill Spooner, and Spooner had gotten it from Bob Carver, became quite upset that he had paid the wrong guy for it.

So, Gene went to Bob Carver and asked him how much he wanted for the rights to the trick. Bob told him that he didn't need to pay him anything -- because he had gotten the idea from something that Gene had published!

It was not Quad-Rope-Lets, though. And if you do a lot of kid shows, Quad-Rope-Lets is really the one to do, because it has that kicker at the end that makes believers out of the little heathens!

Very interesting, Bill!

However, I still haven't found where I can learn the original presentation - or even what "Professor's Nightmare" refers to. On the other hand, I did learn the trick finally (my treatment is on youtube) and got a very good reaction from my coworkers. At least a few of them really thought the ropes were the same length.

///ark

Can you post a link to your youtube performance?

Here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2r3jgxcS8c

Oh, rats. I didn't think anyone would actually look at the video. Trust me, I'm a lot smoother now. Any criticism is welcome, of course.

///ark

Um...you are smoother now!

I'll be back in the bay area in July should you need a hug.

If you don't want anyone to see it, why post it in the first place?

Well, since you ask ...
The secret move obviously needed to be done more on the off-beat, eg while handing out the medium rope for examination.
The false count was a bit hesitant and slow
But I liked the presentation and the restore.

Thanks for that, RJenkins. You're right - the count was pathetic. I do it much more "one-two-three" now, and in fact I think that's the move that really sells the effect.

I've changed the restore so that I pull out the long rope second instead of last. That way it isn't so obvious that the long rope is just doubled over. Another thing I've tried is to ball up all three ropes in my hands, and then to pull each rope out of the ball one by one. Either way, I'm still not happy with the restore, as to me it just emphasizes that the ropes were different lengths all along. Ideally, I would want the restore to point to the false explanation that I was using two sets of ropes.

You're completely right about the secret move. I can now do it so that even I can't tell what's happening.

Another thing I've added is to hide the dirty work with my thumb and casually show the three "equal-sized" ropes palm outward. I also don't fidget with the ropes as much.

I spent a lot of time on the presentation. I had a completely different treatment, but threw it away as too wordy. I'm a little too fond of "I just got back from a hangin'" (which might not have been clear in that video). My son thinks the line is funny-ridiculous, not funny-haha.

I spent more time on this effect than any other - 27 hours. That video was at about the 18-hour mark. It was my first attempt at doing something for youtube, and I really should replace it.

Pete, I didn't take it down because I thought it was better than the other "Professor's Nightmares" on youtube (which isn't saying much).

I was preparing the trick for the S.A.M. meeting. For a while, I was going to open by announcing that I was going to do the famous "Torn and Restored Rope," then struggling mightily to tear a rope in half, but I just couldn't pull it off. I still think the idea of a "Torn and Restored Rope" is funny, though.

Cheers for the comments!

///ark

The hanging line is funny.
So is torn and restored rope, if you can find a place for it.
Have you looked at Fiber Optics? Loads of extra fun things you can do to extend the routine.
First time I did PN for family, my (grown up) sister said to me at the end: "so are the ropes really the same or different?" I loved that.

That's a great reaction!

Before I performed it, I thought Professor's Nightmare was basically a stunt rather than an effect. I mean, how could anyone knot realize that it's just a matter of folds and loops? After I did it, I realized how good an illusion it really is.

What is Fiber Optics and where can I find it? I got Tong's DVD and Baxt's DVD, but I like the way the "secret move" is handled in my presentation, where it looks like you're just laying each rope across your hand. The more common presentation has you drawing up loops so you end up with six ends sticking up. I got mine from Penguin Magic.

///ark

Depending on "which" effects make the final cut (pun intended) my version will be in the August Genii. It starts with one long rope and two helpers. You are going to cut the rope into three pieces, each getting an equal length... something goes wrong and the two spec's have one long, one medium and you are left with "The short piece" -- Size doesn't matter? You wind up with three equal pieces and then all of a sudden back to one single long rope.

Pete - look forward to it. It does sound a bit like some of Whit H's Mongolian pop knot.

Mark - you'll find lots of discussions of Fiber Optics (Richard Sanders) here if you do a search. It's a readily available DVD, and you can see a trailer and possibly even bootleg versions on youtube. He teaches the secret move pretty much as you have it.

Mark, a suggestion about the presentation you use in the video: the move is use is a great move, but it needs cover. I use that method only after I've handed the ropes out for inspection (in the middle of a longer routine) and can cover the move while walking around gathering up the ropes. For a shorter presentation like you're doing, you might want to try one of the methods where you very fairly hold all three ropes by one end, then bring the other ends up into the same hand. That leaves you very two very unequal loops hanging down out the bottom of your fist. I then say that the three ropes are now equal, while pointing at the six ends that are sticking up, side by side, out of the top of my fist. Then I "notice" the unequal loops, and stuff the middle of the long one into the bottom of my fist, leaving six equal ends above my fist, and three equal loops below. Then you can spread your hands apart and follow that with the false count. I think you'll find that's it's much easier to make things look fair and natural that way.

Murf

A good place to look is on the "Million Dollar Mysteries" video by James Lewis.

Lewis' video shows the great move by Roger Sylwester, from an old Heirophant, that I also feature. The best part of my version (I think) is the beginning with one long rope and the WAY it is cut.

Whats the size of the ropes for unequal ropes.

What is protected? the name, the patter, the method? many tricks work on similar ideas or method. I do this trick a lot and think it would be cool to do the "real" professors nightmare. and bill it as such. I normally don't tell the lay audience the history of a trick but this could be cool.