I had seen Mel Meller's perform this routine on his Modern Marvels Vol 1 DVD. This is the first time I had seen Mel perform, I had heard about him here at Magic Café. He is one of my favorite magicians, I just love his character.

His routine is wonderful, his interaction with the child is great. He basically does as the trick says a do as I do routine where the child does not get it right. He handles this in such a way where the child is never put down. If you watch the DVD demo, you can clearly see that the child is having a great time and is laughing the whole time. Some of his bits of business do go over the childs head, but they are purely intended for the adults in the audience.

After seeing this routine I immediately wanted to perform this. Mel explains how to make this effect. He is from London, where I believe plumes are easier to find. I had a difficult time here in the states finding plumes.

I came into contact with Ray Witko here at The Magic Café. After hearing about the routine from me, Ray contacted Mel Meller's about making the props for this effect, and Mel agreed. The plumes can be found and purchased here: http://www.tabmantables.com/floralfantasy.html

I received my Do As I Do Plumes from Ray and they are beautiful and very professional looking. They will last a long time which is important because the child handles a set throughout the routine. The Gimmick works great an is easy to do. I made a few attempts to put these together myself with other items, but nothing I came up with was really usable, Ray's are by far better than anything I came up with.

I Definately suggest Mel's DVD, he has some wonderful ideas and suggestions. This is one of those tricks where the magician's interaction with the helper makes this trick.

As with almost all Do As I Do routines the ending is somewhat anticlimatic. Mel's routine does not have an actual ending, but the way he handles it seems to work for him. If you prefer to have an ending, Ray has come up with a solution. He also offers a color changing plume as well.

This is my first review of any kind of effect. I truly love this effect and plan to use it in all of my kid shows. I do not benefit from this review in any way. I just wanted to share this wonderful routine and props with my fellow magicians here.
John

Thanks for the heads up on this one John.

I loved Mel's performance of this on his DVD as well.

Cliff

Thanks Cliff,

Mel is now one of my favorites. I just love is whole character, the way he interacts with his helpers and the audience. I only have the one DVD by him and am looking forward to picking up his others.

I learned so much from just watching him. The Plume trick for instance, in the wrong hands could be dull and boreing. But the way he handles everything makes this routine amazing.

John

Since I first made these up I've been having a lot of fun with them. The color change plume I added seems to have enhanced the effect quite a bit. Thanks John for bringing this to my attention.
Ray

Does your plume change color or the kid's?

Your plume changes color unless you want to place the plume in the spectator's tube for him.
Ray

This is a great routine. Ray, are the plumes pretty hard wearing? i.e. built to last?

$65 for some feathers and a two pieces of plastic tubing seems exorbitant.

When you consider the time it takes to make the plumes and the materials involved I think $65 is not only very fair, but cheap. Just my opinion

I have them and they are well worth $65. These are professional props and very very nice.

Mike

I got these for £32.00 (Pounds Sterling) from Paul Howard in the UK.
Much better than anything I made myself. Hard wearing and packs small
http://www.professional-magic.co.uk/flower_magic.html

32 Pounds is Approx. 52 Dollars (At time of writing)

I have not seen your plume effect being offered for $30 as of yet, I have been waiting all this time. When will it be available so everyone can perform this trick? I know you made this comment because you know how easy it is to buy the perfect feathers, dye them and assemble each one buy hand.

India can't even sell their chicken feathers for that price.

I never said anything about $30, although that figure does seem reasonable for some feathers and two pieces of plastic tubing. The prop we're discussing doesn't come with a routine remember. In fact it's not even an original effect, it's a remake of an old effect which isn't being produced anymore.

How did your Chavez course pay off, oh-learned one? I'm thinking probably not that great, since you actually think "Past Member of the SAM" is a credit worth mentioning. Have you actually achieved anything? And no, Order of Merlin doesn't count. You automatically get that by paying your annual dues every year for a certain amount of time. I could sign up my puppy as a member and pay his dues every year and he'd get the Order of Merlin too.

Ouch!

Futureal- have you seen these props? Used them? Own them?

Mike, just incase you didn't know, Futureal loves to jump in a thread and criticize things he/she never seen before. It is a habit to him/her. It even took me some time to get used to him/her. I remember times he/she criticized my act without seeing it.

Since that is your budget Futureal, I will surely contact you when I notice some beat up 100 year old worn out feathers for sell at that price. Don't worry, I am glad to help. "Magicians helping Magicians", even if you are not a magician. Feel better now?

I thought so. That's why I asked the questions. Probably best just to ignore the poor soul.

Ignore the Futureal persona Mike (both of you)...he's a tool hiding behind a fake name on the internet. He enjoys trying to stir up trouble b/c he has nothing more constructive to do with his time.

Done. Thanks Christopher! I do own these and the quality is worth every penny.