Here's something I saw (live) a long while ago that it completely fooled me. It was so long ago I can't even remember who did it, but the effect has been gnawing away at my mind. Anyone know what this is?

The magician borrows a pencil from a spectator and taps a rhythm on a book/glass/similar that has been lying around. Mysteriously the rhythm is tapped back as a (spirit) echo with no apparent contrivance from the magician, whose hands remain motionless after he has tapped. Not only will the spirit tapping echo the magician's, but in response to 'dum dada dum dum' the tapping responds 'dum dum' and such like. The magician repeats the feat tapping on a window pane, which in turn responds apparently without any part of the magician's body touching it.

Any one heard of this or could point me in the direction of it in the literature?

S

Your description reminds me of an old David Copperfield comedy bit he did while performing a trick.

If it is, all David Copperfield material is copyrighted and cannot be copied. It is also very original material. If a phrase or word sparked an idea to totally create something new from old source material, that does not make it public domain, as it is totally changed and enhanced by Copperfield's creative consultants.

Hmm...don't think I've seen Copperfield doing anything like this, but would certainly like to! Thanks, though, Bill.