Hi
I'm after some ideas for cigarettes, and it's not something I've done before!
I need to do some vanishes, so far ive got thumb tip and a jacket pull
any other ways would be great.....
also to change a cigarette into a rolled note / bill
and I don't want to use the shrinking cigarette tube if possible
thank you in advance for your help guys........

Get Tom Mullica's teaching video on cigarettes, and Keith Clark's Encyclopedia of Cigarette Magic.

Although, I don't see how changing a cigarette into a bill would ever work, being one is white and the other multicolored. Now there was an old trick to have a dollar bill appear inside of a cigarette.

Tom Mullica's "AEROBIC" (Automatic-Enrty Roll-Over Bill-In-Cigarette).

There is a nice Bill in Cigarette routine in "Magic Digest" by George B. Anderson. There are copies on Amazon right now. Great book with lots of great magic.

Fred Kaps used to have a routine called "Mystica" where a chosen card was vanished and eventually found back again rolled inside a cigarette that he started to smoke.

Oliver.

My uncle use to do a trick I have not seen in print. He would smoke a cigarette, take a glass of water and pour it in his palm. Then he would take the lit cigarette and put it in the water and a bill would be produced.

I am going to print it in my book I am working on with my childhood friend John. I will site the people above, but I have never seen it the way my uncle did it.

Is this for stage or close-up?

I suppose you switch cigarette for a rolled up bill. Any standard cigarette move will work. You could have the rolled up bill F***** P*****, and hold the cigarette between your index and middle as if you are going to smoke it. As your hand comes up to take a puff, you T**** P*** the cigarette as you switch it for the rolled up bill. Put this in your mouth as if it is the cigarette. Pause. Look at it, then realize it's a dollar bill.

There are a number of switches explained in Keith Clark's book, some of which would work.

Tom Mullica's A.E.R.O.B.I.C. is probably the most unusual method I've ever seen. Ingenious gimmick.

If water is used there is no switch. Routine is well explained on a rather old video by Philip Socrate from France

I'm sorry, when I said "switched it" I didn't mean in the magic sense, I meant that it turned into a dollar. He showed me how he did it, but I have never tried it because I don't smoke. I am going to try it before I put it in the book.

How do I get a hold of the video of Philip socrate? Is it on DVD or VHS?

I saw a guy in a bar once do a borrowed bill to a borrowed cigarette (my bill, my cigarette). Purely sleight of hand, and it looked great!

It seems though, as if this thread has turned exclusively to Bill in Cigarette ideas, but I think the OP was requesting ideas for cigarette magic in general. That being the case, definitely get Mullica's videos on the topic, as well as Keith Clark's book, which will give you about as many of the basics as you would ever need.

With nothing but sleight of hand, you can put together a quick "flurry" type routine that can be quite nice.

Study also, the work of Slydini, as he did a number of things with cigarettes.

There was also at one time, a pretty novel torn and restored cigarette that used a very simple but extremely deceptive gimmick. The restoration was very visual. I haven't seen that trick out in many years, so am not sure if it's not available. If that's the case, PM me and I'll tip enough of the method to get you started.

I would also suggest, if you can find it, would be lecture notes that Magic Christian from Vienna put out several decades ago. There is a really nice quickie bit that he does with a torn cigarette and the two-in-hand/one-in-pocket plot. I used it for years in my work. (I don't smoke anymore.)

During that time, I developed a number of cigarette tricks, including a lit cigarette from my fly, and a "caught" smoke ring that is nothing at all like Mullica's.

John Calvert's cigarettes from the air routine is worth a look too, for those more formal performances.

One strange little gimmick trick is the Zig Zag cigarette (or pencil). If you play with it a bit, you'll figure out how to have a spectator mark the "zagged" cigarette with a pen just before it restores. That's a very strong detail that really makes this simple trick a real miracle.

Just for fun (please don't copy his act), check out this routine by Roland Henning. This dude is way cool IMO. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEfu0l0kdYs

Finally, John Kennedy's Animated, Self-lighting Cigarette (in the right hands) has to be one of the coolest cigarette tricks EVER! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vijDJFQ5ZYk

Tops Treasury of Cigarette Magic has a few good items in it, worth looking into.

http://www.abbottmagic.com/Instant-Manus......oryId=-1

For a simple cig to bill effect, just glue some cig paper on the back of a bill, then roll. Borrow a cig, or have yours examined, then take back do a switch like in the above referenced videos, and then simply pull the bill out, and the cigarette visually transforms into a bill.

Gee, that sounds simple and good, I am glad I thought of it.

The Bill Hegbli Bill in Cigarette.... has a catchy name!

Michael,

If I'm right, the video link that shows Roland Henning's cigarette routine "Smoking Frustration" is based on David Stone's routine called "Light my fire" that he discribed in his lectures notes in 2001. It appears aswell a little bit earlier in the french Robert-Houdin Friendship Club publication called "Arcane" in the N° 100 special printed in october 2000.

However, Roland added a few bits and specially changed the ending section with the multiplying cigarettes and the broken cigarette at the end.

David Stone finished his routine, with the total vanish of the borrowed cigarette and the lighter. He says that he dedicated his routine to Harry Lorayne, which gives the principle of the final phase, where everything disappears to Harry Crawford (Harry Lorayne - "The Magic Book"). In the finale notes in this french publication David Stone states that his routine was first published in the magazine "Channel One" volume 1 in december 1999.

Later David Stone brought out another cigarette routine that he named "Quit smoking" using some phases from the routine "Light my fire". Here's a french video link to it :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9maYhvZtR8


Anyway, everything is based on cigarette manipulation moves that anyone could easily find in Keith Clark's book "Encyclopedia of Cigarette Tricks", still in print, not to forget the old Ken Brooke gag that David uses in the "Light my fire" routine during the introduction by snipping the cigarette away while he puts it in his mouth.


Oliver.

Oliver,

Thanks for that info. I cannot say when Roland Henning first devised his routine, but I have seen an earlier version than the one I linked to above.

The late Charlie Buckner was the first to describe the routine to me of a magician with a cigarette and a lighter in which he never did manage to light the cigarette. I do not know who it was that he saw, but he praised it highly. He thought I would like the idea because of the cigarette act I was doing at the time. To the best of recollection, this would have been around the mid 1990's, as that was when I was spending a lot of time with Charlie.

Do you know who created the "wrong end" cigarette gag? I first saw Paul Kozak do this around 1989 or 1990 when he was working comedy clubs. I'd imagine it was created long before, though.

Shamada has the 'wrong end cigarette in mouth' bit on his 1998 Lecture Video tape. He never said it was his, but he did explain it, and he was doing it in his manipulation act for many years prior to his lecture tape. Maybe some California magician can give further info on this.

Note: Michael Baker, most every trick I have seen that I bought or liked, then researched that come from Europe, I have found to originate in the United States. I suppose Europeans actually use and work on the material that we seem to turn the page on in a book or shown in a lecture.

Michael,

Very good question and I can't answer it. David Stone thanks atthe end of his lecture notes Stéphane Jardonnet, Sébastien Clergue, Tony Miller & Channel One, Lee Asher nd Arnaud Debaisieux, but I barely think that anyone of them came out with the wrong end cigarette gag.

Maybe we should look at old cigarette routine of the past. Shimada is one,but I think more of José Frakson because he was names "The man with a thousand cigarettes".

Here's a video link of his act that made him famous : http://www.lawrensgodon.com/Jose-Frakson......?lang=en


Bill,

Yes, you're right in your note. That was aswell the reason why I was very careful in my last post by starting it with "If I'm right..."


Oliver.

Thanks for the added info, gentlemen!

@ the OP...

If you are looking for good close-up cigarette effect, you can hardly find one stronger than Cigarette Through Quarter. However... and this is a BIG HOWEVER... this trick is only as good as the switch. Of course, you'll need a well made gimmick, but the switch is everything. If the audeince even suspects it, the illusion is gone. I'm going to brag a bit and claim that I have the best one ever. If you are interested, I will scan the write-up from an old set of my lecture notes and email it to you.

Armando was another cigarette king in the old days. He was called the Human Volcano, as I remember.

After seeing Don Alan perform the Cigarette through quarter at the local magic shop inches from me, and even repeated it when I asked him to do it again, that trick was a standard for me. I always carried it with me, and performed it regularly. I came to find out, the handling Don Alan used was the creation of the expert gimmicked coin maker Presley Guitar out of Texas. Johnson Products then started making his exact design and put Presley Guitar out of business on every trick he would manufacture. I once said something to Presley at a magic convention, and he seem disheartened that Johnson Products was coping his coin work.

Yeah, my first Cig Thru Quarter gimmick was Presley Guitar's work. Later, I did buy the JP version, as they were better than any other on the market. Standard gimmick is still the best. The double sided are junk and a useless embellishment. However, I will say that I've had some success with the Belanger version, especially after the Masked Magician exposed the other. It was great to have that in my pocket just for the wise guys. (Showing my age by using the term "wise guys"... Ha!)

It's still all about the switch, though...