What are some good effects using balloons? It can be any type of balloon, rounds, 260's, 350's, etc.

There has been only a few balloon tricks published over the years.

1. Spikes thru Balloon is good.
2. Spike or Rod thru Balloons and arm is good but no longer available.
3. Abbott's Floating Balloon is Super.
4. Any of the Balloons on tray effects ending with a card in Balloon, Stevens comes to mind as the best for the money that always works. Derek Dingle has a published version in one of his books using the hands and no tray.
5. Card in Balloon on Stand.
6. The Famous Needle thru Balloon Doug Henning made famous.
7. Silk in Balloon, originally by Supreme Magic and now a good version with aluminum stand is made by Morrissey Products. There has been other methods described on video.
8. Marconic's cut and restored balloon in his book.

Magic Hands from Germany at one time made a Champagne bottle from balloon.

Someone makes a Balloon Dagger Headchest.

Michael Bairefoot has a Coin in Balloon on DVD (round balloon).

I think Kenton Knepper has a different version using an animal balloon.

Jay Sankey's "Airtight" is a very powerful "Card in Balloon", where the entire deck winds up inside the balloon, and you can give it away as a souvenier.

Tom Mullica had a great bit using a wad of chewing gum that changed to an animal balloon. It is probably in his book, "Showtime at the Tom Foolery".

There is also a Sankey routine using a balloon as a secret device to change a chewed wad of gum into a new piece still in the wrapper. It seems I recall someone else was doing something similar more recently... maybe Jim Pace?? Not sure.

David Harkey had a routine published where a balloon is transformed into a pool ball. Excellent trick. I use this all the time.

Jeff McBride lectured on a routine where a "bubble" from a partially inflated animal balloon was plucked off the balloon and then restored.

Balloons have also been used in a variety of ways where they are secret gimmicks, and not necessarily seen by the audience.

Check out Jeff Hobson's Balloon Bag.
I have used it for years on kid and adult shows with great response.
It can be found on "Jeff Hobson Live" Video and on his lecture video "Exposed"

I second that. Jeff Hobson's Balloon Bag is a great routine. I use it all the time and always gets laughs.

Dove In Balloon might be commonplace with us magicians, but it's an absolutely great effect for lay audiences. Also a comical and amazing trick using animal balloons is "Deep" by Justin Meitz. Balloon Detective by Devin Knight is also unique and a very good routine. Then bill in balloon routines are great also. Anytime you borrow someone's bill and it reappears somewhere, it seems to always play great to an audience.

Thanks for the info everyone.... it has gotten my brain working...

"Pressure" is a nice effect on DVD, with a round balloon. I put a deck of cards in a balloon.

There's a nice card in balloon version in Tarbell, which is worth a look. I perform a version of it in my show and it's performed in the hands.

I love Harkey's balloon to pool ball effect! Another one I used to do all the time was "Animated Card Through Balloon of Death" by Kevin James. It's GREAT...

I forgot the name of the trick. But Max Maven created the routine where it seems like a bubble of the 260 can be taking off.

Abbotts demos their Doves thru Glass using a balloon. I don't have personal experience with this but it looks great!

Dan.

Checkout Pavels dvd on silks , he has a couple of balloon tricks, very good.

Of course the balloon swallow and the self inflating ballon gimmick used by feilding west in his lecture and on his dvd!

Billoon by Mark Jenest.

The sam sandler color changing balloon
and color change balloon to silk then to dove

There is a new mental balloon effect that just came out called "Bloon". It's out on the Hocus-Pocus site right now. It's about setting a balloon on a table and then causing it to pop whenever you want to without touching it.

Anyone seen Bloon? I am unclear on the ACTUAL look of it. Is the balloon near the box or can it be held? I wold like to see what the set up is (not the gimmick) when this is performed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9DyqSS8kiw

From the video clip, it looks like you actually set the balloon on top of the box. Might be wrong here, but that's what it looks like.

I think so as well. I don't see ANYONE questioning this however. It's just a box of balloons that you set down and then you place a balloon down on top of it as well. There's nothing to suspect. I REALLY like this. It's too expensive for me right now though.