It's no worse than when you hold the napkin in your hand, because the napkin retains moisture. Ya it's a little cold but nothing that is unbearable. Like I'm sure Thread burns your eye a bit but again it's not unbearable and I've done of several times and my hands are okay. What's cool about the spongeballs is that if you wad them up real small inside a napkin and then prepare them they stay in that frozen compact state until you blow on them which expands them. So they can pack really really small which will make them easier to palm three or four balls in your hands.

I can't seem to get the 15 to 20 minutes out of it.... is this because it needs bit bit more Magic if you get my drift??

Hehe, awesome. I was hoping you'd get a kick out of it. Yeah, not keeping the lid of the container tightly sealed should prevent that from happening and it also helps making the removal of the items a bit easier during performance. So a bit of leakage isn't a bad thing in this case.



Actually I've found that there are a couple of factors which can effect the level of pain/discomfort one feels when performing this effect, and in the right circumstances it really can be quite unbearable and even give you frostbite. Those two factors are a combination of the amount of the gimmick applied, and the amount of time elapsed between performance and prep.

As an example, last night I applied a generous amount of the gimmick (enough to probably last ~20 mins) and performed it shortly after (within like 5 mins after prep) and let me tell you, it really was quite painful to even hold. Now typically when I perform this effect any discomfort is minimal and as you said, nothing unbearable. But last night because I had applied the gimmick generously and hardly any of it had evaporated, grabbing hold of the napkin was quite uncomfortable. Of course I ignored the pain and as a result I could see the signs of frostbite appear as blisters began to form on my hand. Shortly after performance those symptoms disappeared and my hand was perfectly fine but you really can hurt yourself if you aren't careful.



Yes, the two factors I mentioned above will determine the "viability" of the effect. Also, the properties of the storage container will contribute to how much of the gimmick remains on the items when you are ready to perform. For example, somebody mentioned using a plastic easter egg as a storage container for the items, which I think is a great idea. However, I don't think you have as long to perform it due to a higher amount of leakage that would occur in such a container. Basically what it all comes down to is evaporation. The less that occurs the more you will get out of the effect. Hopefully no one will feel that is revealing too much.

By the way, I actually did play around with a plastic easter egg and decided against it because I found it difficult to pop open without generating noticeable noise (at least that was the case with the particular one I had on hand). So I didn't bother ever trying it out in a performance.

During last night's performance I had a lot of vapor come off of the napkin and a beautiful freeze effect of the quarter, all of which made the effect very visual. However the downside was the level of discomfort I experienced. There is a happy medium though and I suppose you'll get a better feel for it over time.

But now that I think about it I've actually never waited very long after prep to perform the effect. I typically try to perform it shortly after so I'll have to play around with it some more to better see how changing around the variables affects the end result.

Has anyone made the rig unit and is it working well for you in performance?

On 2008-11-29 13:34, Phatmeat wrote:

[/quote]
I actually did play around with a plastic easter egg and decided against it because I found it difficult to pop open without generating noticeable noise (at least that was the case with the particular one I had on hand). So I didn't bother ever trying it out in a performance.

[/quote]

I drilled a small hole on one end of the Easter egg (large enough to fit the gimmick extension into). This serves two purposes; first to let pressure escape, second so that I could up the amount of substance without harming my hands. By doing this in the egg I found that I could double the amount used, giving Me a little more time. In other words, do Your normal prep, place in egg, close egg, hit it again while in the egg.

Ho[pe this helps -mojo

Also open the egg on the off beat. Everything will remain fine in Your pocket until You're ready. Open side up that is...

I drilled a small hole on one end of the Easter egg (large enough to fit the gimmick extension into). This serves two purposes; first to let pressure escape, second so that I could up the amount of substance without harming my hands. By doing this in the egg I found that I could double the amount used, giving Me a little more time. In other words, do Your normal prep, place in egg, close egg, hit it again while in the egg.

Ho[pe this helps -mojo
[/quote]

While this is something I probably wouldn't do...I have to admit, it's some really nice, clever thinking. who knows, I just may see if it works for me. Thank you for sharing...in fact, I would like to thank everybody for being so willing to share their ideas. I for one really appreicate it!

Bk

For those of you who are looking for other types of containers...I use the empty container from the Eclipse Big E pack. Im on my iPhone or I would provide you a link, but just search it on google or go to walmart or you local convenient store and they will have them. It's basically a gum container that is able to fit in your cup holder of your car but still small enough to fit into a pocket. Now it has two different openings on it that make it perfect for this effect. One opening is from the top where the whole top opens up so if your sharing gum with a group of people and it's the perfect size to hold the napkin and have it easily retrievable. The second opening is on the side so if you just want to dispense one peice of gum at a time because it's pretty small. So you put your napkin into this container and shut the big lid on the top you then open up the small one on the side and place this into your back pocket. You then can reach around and open up the bigger top opening and retrieve the napkin whenever you wish.

And did I mention you will also have fifty pieces of gum too!

JJ

How this, I started to patter about how magicians can control certain things in life. For instance fire. As soon as I say fire I light a match and put it out in my mouth and perform the self lighting matches effect on the Lit dvd. I then blow out the matches. I put the burnt matches into a napkin that I have already soaked in a bit of water and wrap the burnt matches up in it. I then bring the napkin up to my mouth and smile. I then say, but its way more cooler to freeze stuff. I then blow on the napkin and they see my cold breath. I open it up and show then the burnt matches that a slightly frozen(but not like a coin) Just thought I would see how spectators reacted to me controlling 2 elements in under 2 minites. Give it a try, I promise you they will like it!!!

Jeremy

That's brilliant!

Use the inside of a kinder egg to store!!. works a treat

So my friend and I were playing around with the method to see if we can be able to do the effect like Adam did in the original demo video. After about a $2 trip to the hardware store, we came up with a way to be able to carry the gimmick with you all day and be prepared at a minutes notice with short sleeves or no sleeves at all. The gimmick can be carried in your pocket and when you are ready just borrow the quarter, put it on any surface, and watch it freeze. If there are engineers here and if Adam and Ellusionist are ok with it, maybe we can make the gimmick.

So if you're actually freezing the thing, is this thing dangerous in some way. Chemicals or whatnot?

Seriously? The full rig may require some "practice" but the napkin presentation can be done immediately by anyone who had done magic for more than a month.

I'm curious why you included this comment. People just may not like it, and I'm certain that "practice" has nothing to do with it. If you've seen my prior comments... this magic has been happening in every IT department for years.

Every trick needs practice to some extent and some even more.
Anyone who buys a trick, reads the instructions and then simply rushes out to perform it is a fool or a BoobTube idiot! (Hmm....same thing is it not!)

I don't perform magic for people in IT departments. I perform magic for lay people. If they so happen to work in an IT department, albeit I really can't see what that has to do with this trick seeing that an IT department consists of people who work in electronic communications and or information technology so you really lost me there!

Anyway, practice has to do with.....everything.

~gaffed~

Has anyone experienced that some other brands of the gimmick do not work as well?
I happened to have two different brands on hand and it seems they contain a different *you know what*.

~gaffed~

I have to be honest, I've never gotten this to last very long. I've done some tests at home and while I haven't sealed the 'deal' to see how long it lasts, I can't ever get the quarter to freeze after about 5 mins of being wrapped up or so. I've tried a bunch of different amounts of magic on it and it still didn't work. I was very dissapointed in that and had to shelve the trick for now.

I did buy the stuff to make the gimmick, but when I first saw that on the video I honestly thought it was a practical joke (kinda like in Reparation when they showed a bunch of stuff to be used but really wasn't). I hope that solves some issues.

Overall the effect is super awesome, but I don't know if it'll ever really work for me.

I've been experimenting with this and the jury is still out as to whether or not I feel the trouble involved is worth it all. I'll admit the effect is great but there must be some better way of handling this.

If it were not for the noise/chemical reaction with the coin I could easily see a way of making a rig for doing the quarter on the table and it being borrowed and signed. But, as it seems, this is not possible.

The "foot" rig in my opinion is totally absurd but I fully understand the constraints as to why this has to be done...i.e.,...the noise.

Might give it a try someday (definitely not the foot rig) but, I seriously doubt that I'll ever really consider it as part of my magic. Set up....time constraints....I don't think so. Raised one very tiny little blister/irritation on my index finger and no big thing at all but, thanks.....but no thanks. It just isn't worth all the effort in my opinion.

~gaffed~

Here's a nice little side thing you can try.

Every now and again, after I have frozen the coin, and they have checked out the coin, somtimes they suggest turning it back to it's origional state.
First time this happened, simply switched it out for another coin in had in my pocket. However, after playing with the frozen coin, I realise you can Un-freeze the coin and it looks exactly the same as when you freeze it.
simply, hold the coin at it's side edges using your thumb and first finger. They should be covering the magority of the edges. So now, the frozen side of the coin is face up. When you want it to Un-freeze, rest your third finger under the coin and press it against the back of the coin. Give it one or two seconds and it will Un-freeze. It looks fantastic, just like wen it Freezes.

Just an idea,

best wishes,

Jamie

I saw Adam do this at the Magic Castle Sunday night. It looked great. The audible gasps when the coin "unfreezes" gave me goosebumps. The Castle is the perfect place for this effect.

KEn