Anyone have any advice on this effect? I have been cotemplating purchasing this effect for a while now and would like to get as much information as possible before I buy it. Can you perform it surrounded? Does anyonee reccomend it? Any other information would be helpful. Thanks!

As the Astro Ball Cabinet has been on the magic market for over 50 years, I have never purchased the effect. The main reaon is that it is a short one effect box trick. Carrying a box to a show, and demonstrating tht a ball mysteriously travels from the floor of the cabinet to a glass is a wonderful tric/effect, my questions is, why, then what, where do you go from here.

I see this type of trick more of a converstion piece that one has in their home. When entertaining friends at your gathering. A number of story patter themes can be created to draw the spectators into the mystery, and set the stage for the effect.

I guess I am saying it lacks some kind of finish, as the effect itself is the whole trick and the finish.

You can build one very easy.

There is also a manuscript called Cephalgia, which means headache in medical terms.
I think it was an old Jinx manuscript, but not certain.

Basically the trick is used as a mini spirit cabinet.
You use the same box with a knotting hank and milk glass.
It's all about ghosts.

Randi

http://geniimagazine.com/magicpedia/Sefalaljia

Wow. This is all great information. Thank you very much to everyone for all of your help. It is a really cool effect, but I do agree with wmhegbli when it comes to the finish of the effect. The ball goes from the bottom of the box to in the glass and then the effect is over. I perform Dean's Box and may just add this effect to the begginning of the Dean's Box routine I already do. Dean's Box is a nice size to do this effect.

I'd go for the Dean't Box,
which logically does a lot of Sprit tests
and certainly can also to a glas and ball segment.

Walt

I have found this effect to be really powerful in a sceance type of performance.

The ball going into the glass is amazing.

It's fully examinable, and blows people minds.

I've used the Jinx routine before with huge success.

My box was just a box I bought at Hobby Lobby.

You can also find a routine for it in that Seance book.
Which is just a bound collection of Seance magazines.

Randi

Thanks again for the ideas everyone and for keeping this thread alive. I do currently own Dean's Box and have been performing it for about 5 years. It is the perfect size to try out the Astro Ball idea and method. I am going to play around withthe concept this weekend and I will let you all know how I end up liking it. I present Dean's Box in a way almost like a physics lesson in school and how the box and its properties defies all the laws of physics. Performing the Astro Ball effect just prior to the regular Dean's Box routine will help enhance the effect for sure. Any other ideas you all can think of for Dean's Box? Thanks!!!

Dean's box is what I consider to be the most flexible routine I own.
I have many different presentation fitting the various venues I'm working in, everything from a straight up rope effect, or a full spirit routine to a complete educational lesson for school aged spectators.
I've even taken it to the street and it kills there...

Use a woman's ornate ring to appear in a champagne glass-such as Bess Houdini would do on the anniversary of her wedding date. Then you can weave a story around the props, instead of a rubber ball.

Thanks everyone for the great ideas. I like the ring idea wkitwizard. I could really see that working well. Thanks!!!

And and Invisible deck.

Another good idea. A good invisible deck routine could absolutely work with a Dean's Box presentation. I love the ideas guys! Thanks!

This also goes really well with a flea circus, although I agree with wmhegbli
that it is a lot to port around for not so much "return." Tabman (Cafe handle) makes Sefalaija boxes (I think that's the correct spelling to Google) which indeed do the knotted hank, the ghost milk glass (his are really cool Starbucks bottles), a rope trick, and a self-lighting cigar (smelly and un-PC, but ghosts are from our unhealthy past). I have a well-crafted P and L Astro Ball Cabinet, with finished wood and bl*** **t, which I have been meaning to use with the flea circus (basketball for fleas), but just never get around to taking with me.

Hmmm.. It is Sefalaljia...
Sefal-alal-jia?

I always though it was cephalgia.
Which is a medical term that means head ache.

Now I wonder what Sefalaljia means?

Randi

Sefalaljia is a close-up one man spirit cabinet routine developed by Stewart James and published in the Jinx issue #69 (December 2, 1939) and later printed in Annemann's Practical Mental Magic.

The Sefalaljia principle or move has become the name for the method of putting a borrowed ring on rope effect (one of the original effects in the routine).

James says sefalaljia is the way you pronounce the medical term Cephalalgia for a big headache. The "C" was changed to "S" and the "G" to "J" (Stewart James initials).
Thanks Magicpedia!

Tabman makes a killer version of the cabinet with all the props inluded

If you will scroll through several pages of http://Sefalaljia.com you can find a PDF of this issue available for a free download.

My prototype for the 1939 routine is now safely housed in the Stewart James Museum in Toronto but theres lots of pictures on the website.

Happy Turkey Day everyone.

I am one of the lucky ones to own Tabman's beautiful rendition of this mysterious piece, which is, quite literally a show in a box. If you are able to find one, buy it. The passion Tabman's put into this effect is evident in every aspect of its construction.