Does anyone do a thimble routine as a strolling, walk-up magic? What are the drawbacks, etc.?

Use to do one.
Leipzig had some good material.
Very few people know what they are though.

John Carney does a GREAT thimble routine... I marketed a great walk around routine via Ken Brooke, "Pete's Peeper" can be done surrounded, no sanding sidways, facing front. I may soon re-release this. stay tooned....

Bruce Cervon also does a great thimble routine at the Castle Parlour.

Carney does a great thimble routine, however, and this is just my opinion, but do you really think people know what thimble's are anymore? Back in the day, they were more common of an item. But now, I think that most people under the age of 25 have rarely if ever seen (or touched) a thimble.

That being said, some thimble magic (Joe Mogar) can look very magical. But I just don't think that thimbles have a place in today's society.

Dave

So call it something else.
like a small hat for your pet mouse or a drinking cup for you sponge rabbits or you could use the cap to chapstick.

How many ladies of today's generation know what it is to "darn" socks?

Dave (is 1216 your prison number?),
Anyway, did you know what a thimble is? If so, then why wouldn't others? Give people a break.

I do thimble quickies at every performance. People don't need to know what they are. They appreciate the manipulations and always seem impressed. So do magicians, by the way, since a whole generation has never seen thimble magic.

Best Regards,
Glenn Godsey

Pete - Yes I know what a thimble is. I am also over the age of 25.

Try an experiment the next time you are performing. When you pull out a thimble, show it to someone under the age of 25 and ask them if they (a) know what it is and (b) ever touched one.

My point in this whole thread is that, to most people, when a magician does magic with thimbles, they become "magician props" as opposed to "household item."

Call them something else, then... like fingertip savers... fingernail guards, use bottle caps, use lids form something... it doesn't matter.

I used to fold and roll a dollar bill around a finger tip, then do a routine with the bill using thimble moves.

I think people in your demographic know what dollars are...

If you do something interesting looking and amazing, who cares if it is a prop or something you found laying on the ground?

Tarbell volume 4 has everything you need to know about thimble manipulation, to make up a very good thimble act. Close-up or stage, I highly recommend Tarbell.
Andre

Flourish Dude, great ideas! I thought they were hillarious and useable. I just may borrow them.

FC

Or get some fakini (yeah, I know, you can't stack 4 easily) but I mime putting osme creamer in my coffee ccup and then it stuck on my finger and off I am on the routine...
If you use real thimbles-talk about them as thimbles-say your grandmother used to do things witha needle and thread that looked like magic to your young eyes..or that this is all you inherited from her and ...you get the idea-

Davidmagic finally gets to what I'd been wondering about throughout this thread, which is this: assume for a minute that everybody knows what thimbles are when they see them. Doesn't that almost take more explanation than if they're just your sponge rabbit's spitoons, or whatever? I mean, what are you doing walking around, maybe in a tux, etc., playing around with this now largely unknown piece of sewing equipment? What are people to make of that, in the abstract? It seems to me, at least, that such a thing really needs a little explaining, along the lines of what Davidmagic suggests above or something else, unless you just have such a freewheeling performing persona that just about any old crazy thing will fly for you, as I'm sure that some do.

A "performer" can use ANYTHING and sell it. Like, show a thimble on your finger and say, "Hey, anybody know what this is? It just appeared here and I can't get rid of it."

Blah blah blah... buy Pete's Peeper and you have a great walkaround thimble routine. (Available soon).

They could be the top off a tooth paste container... The only thimbles I do right now is the thimble rig.

But I saw a magician at a convention do a thimble routine with black gloves on and did it with cane tips and a cane.

Vanishing from the cane and ending up on his fingers.

It was great!

Check out Joe Morgar's book written by Steve Beam! Great reference and routines.

Its true that thimbles aren't ordinary household objects any more (Although you CAN still buy them at the rite aid) But I think that's okay. They have a kind of classical feel to them...much like the cups and balls (who uses metal cups, anyway?)

Man! You guys seem to think that the only hobby in the world is magic. Guess again. Quilting is getting very big, and it's done by hand. And anyone who quilts has a thimble. Granted that most people who quilt used to be old ladies with a lot of time on their hands, but younger people are taking it up in greater numbers.

Also, people who do reenactments are learning to sew by hand. So thimbles, while they may not be something everyone has in his pocket, are not exactly the modern equivalent of a buttonhook or a buggy whip.

BTW, quilting thimbles have recessed tops like cups. And you can get them in 3-packs at Wal-mart.

You don't have to call them thimbles.

I don't.i just make one appear and multiply e.t.c and then vansih without calling them anything.

But if I drop them I call them a hole lot of unmentionable things...

Real Men don't play with thimbles