After I read all good comments about Professor's Nightmare I 'd like to learn and perform it. But I also notice there is Magician's Nightmare out now. Is someone can help to have a compare of these two? Are they both can be examinable afterwords and from the effect point of view which is stonger? I will base on your review to buy the one. Thanks

I think there is another thread on "Three Ropes and a Baby" you should see. Might as well go all the way. The download demo looked pretty good.

Oh, that's great! Thanks for the info and seems much interesting thing in the rope world. KingStardog, could you compare the two nightmare?

I really don't see what the big deal is with Magician's Nightmare. I actually think it is WEAKER than the original Professors Nightmare. I don't have the effect, but apparently it has magicians excited because you can cleanly show three equal ropes at the end via the use of a gimmick. But, the last phase is eliminated! The ropes don't change back.
To me, it seems like a waste. If you can already do the original routine then this should have no use for you. If you want to learn a rope trick, buy the original professor's nightmare. If you want to learn a superb rope routine that extends Professor's Nightmare(with lots of practice) then buy Three Ropes and a Baby by Richard Sanders. It uses three ropes, no gimmicks, and your skill. Have fun.

The whole POINT of the Professor's Nightmare is that it is done without gimmicks!
To add a gimmick to produce a different (?) trick seems self-defeating.
And pointless.
So you can cleanly show the ropes as being equal; well, you can do that with the Professor's Nightmare -- and then they turn back into different lengths.
This strikes me as an unnecessary gimmick, made up so that there would be something more to sell to the magic community.
Or, in the words of the late Al Flosso:
"They improved it worse."

cheers,
Peter Marucci

Thanks all for your good comments and suggestions. Now I know not only the tricks, but also the deep thought from magicians of their view how a good trick should be.

I will go for Professor's Nightmare for sure. For the"Three Ropes and a Baby," it will be my next target, viedo looks cool, but a little bit long, and my level is not there yet.

Magician's Nightmare is a good visual effect, however it must be your opener due to the set up. For laypeople, I think a normal Prof. Nightmare set of ropes is perfect.
You might also like to experiement with Tim Wenk's INSOMNIA routine. I always liked this and used to perform it often.

Oh, RC4MAG. Now you add new staff for me. What's effect of INSOMNIA and what's the reason you like it so much?

Does anyone know if Timothy Wenk has a website? I'd be interested in checking it out.

Thanks -

Mark

Tim's magic company is ( was?) called Metempirical Magic. Tim also originated the Peanut Butter and Jelly transposition trick which is popular in kidshows. Also the trick Mislead , which is the pencil through bill effect advertised "as seen on David Copperfield special".
Regarding the Insomnia and why I like it so much. I like the display used where you put the small piece behind the ear, the medium around your neck and stretch the long piece between your hands. Thus showing unmistakably that you have three unequal pieces of rope. The patter is along the lines that you attempt to show the optical illusion of holding the ropes in a manner that makes them look equal...then you actual display three seperate equal lengths of rope. You do this several times, going from equal lengths to unequal lengths. In the end you throw out the three equal pieces into the audience.

I agree with the quote below. You can find the Professor's Nightmare described in books. I believe it is in the Magic for Dummies book, too. I counsel you to invest in good quality magician's rope from a magic shop; it makes a real difference.

The product described, 3 Ropes and a Baby, is excellent. It is a well-photographed book, and supplies top quality rope precut to Professor's Nightmare requirements. It then starts off teaching you the PN, and then it expands the routine. You learn how to make one long rope out of two, create an endless loop, do cuts and restorations, and it all works quite well. approx. $15

Other products - Full Circle, is a video, with a PN set of ropes and a large ring. It also teaches you the PN, and how to perform other effects similiar to 3 Ropes/Baby. It adds a large ring that you link and unlink from the rope when it is tied in a loop. I did not like this quite as much as 3 Ropes, but not bad. approx. $25

Daryl's Rope Routine - good video teaching Daryl's routine, and it goes the other way, showing you a lot of tricks and then ending with the PN, so you use the same PN set as in the other two products. No rope supplied, but very good. I put this between 3 Ropes and the Full Circle. approx. $25

Tabary - this is different as you have one long rope, then split it into two, do some effects and then turn it into one again. Slightly (sleightly) harder but not overly so. I love this routine and it is my tops. Approx $15

Mongolian Pop Knot by Haydn. This involves a rope and a series of knots that come and go. approx $15

Jumping Knot of Pakistan - by Daryl. Good, you have a white rope with a red knot, you move the knot all over the rope, and when you untie it you see the red portion is actually a section of the white rope dyed red. Comes with rope. Approx $25

In Over Your Head by Bedwell. approx $20. Work of genius. I've been looking for something like this for a long time. I had the elements worked out and the book brought it all together. Imagine the "Balls Over the Head" gag/trick done with ropes. Comedy.

Dover book - Abbott's Encyclopedia of Rope Tricks - the Bobo of ropes? approx $10

Ropesational by Sands. There are 2 or 3 versions of this out, Sands was great. books approx $10 ea. The Sands book taught me the best, easiest and best looking Cut and Restore with scissors.

I have a whole different set of resources for Ring and String, which is different enough from ropes to be in a different category.

How long to work on this? Well, myself, I got 3 Ropes, and practiced 20 minutes a day for 3 weeks and I felt I "had" it. The nice part is you can learn small sections at a time and build on it. Each trick or effect taught leads into the next, but you can drop or add as you want. Very good.

Reg

[quote]On 2002-08-02 22:27, cardguy wrote:

To me, it seems like a waste. If you can already do the original routine then this should have no use for you. If you want to learn a rope trick, buy the original professor's nightmare. If you want to learn a superb rope routine that extends Professor's Nightmare(with lots of practice) then buy Three Ropes and a Baby by Richard Sanders. It uses three ropes, no gimmicks, and your skill. Have fun. [unquote]

Regarding Insomnia, I have to disagree in using it for any audience except magicians. The point is you take 3 ropes the same length and make them all not the same length. The strong bit is that magicians will recognize it as a PN set and get the "gag" and wonder how you did the trick backwards. Laymen don't get the joke and are not sure why you are creating different lengths, for them the reverse is stronger (take unequal lengths and make the same). IMHO of course.

I suggest for the new rope user get a product like 3 Ropes, as it is clear, well done, supplies the proper quality rope, teaches the basics and then the advanced. For instance it shows you how to turn the 3 ropes the same length, then how to display them all separately. This is a much harder move and takes a lot of practice, and in fact Daryl on is video shows a cleaner handling (the Columbini Count). But you don't HAVE to do it, and you can perform whatever tricks you are competent with, then add on as you practice.

Reg, The booklet with Insomnia has you ask the spectator to cut the rope into equal lengths, you then proceed to make them unequal.
Like you, I also did not like this, I changed things around slightly. I eliminated having the spectator cut the rope and I start with the three unequal ropes and place the short piece behinhd my ear, the medium one around my neck, and stretch the rope between my hands.
I then proceed with the routine to show the "illusion" of the short piece and the long piece as looking like they are the same size due to the way I am holding the ropes.
Of course the ropes are shown to be 3 now equal ropes. Continuing with the routine I now show the three unequal pieces, saying, " But we all know that we really have a short piece, medium....etc.."
I think this is really a strong routine for layman, especially the ending and the toss out of the 3 equal ropes to the audience.

A few other versions of PN that are worth a look are Chuck Stanfields 'Con-Fusing Rope Routine'. (I think it's from Magic Inc).

In addition to equalising and unequalising and re-equalising the ropes, you tie their ends together into three equal-sized loops, toss them into the air and they come down as one large loop; untie one knot to show three equal length ropes tied together, slide off BOTH knots to show one single long piece of rope.

Another idea I like a lot is the sucker version that Buck Clayton gives in his 'Entertaining Children' lecture notes. In showing the kids how a magician tries to fool you into thinking that three different length ropes are all the same size, he creates a bigger surprise when they actually do change size (after a lot of the usual sucker business)!

Jon Charles has lots of good ideas and theme suggestions in a booklet called 'The world's most abused rope trick'
Whatever sequence of moves you decide on, the trick is to come up with a story that gives a logic (however illogical) to what you're doing. 'Look, I do this, then I do this and wow - look at this!' is a bit feeble, really!

Our favourite routine for the PN, which we've honed after many years is a duo performance of a three bears and the big bad wolf story that we got from Frances Marshall's 'Happy Birthday Business' book (I think the idea is Warren Wexlers) Kath provides the wolf puppet I just do the basic moves (I'd love to add lots of other cool moves but they don't fit the story!) We've added (and subtracted) until it's sure-fire. It's the simplest moves with the strongest presentation - if there's a formula for getting it right, that's probably it!

Cheers,

Bill

I just got Paul Green's DVD "In the Trenches." There is a nice working of Professor's Nightmare and a great way of adding it to the end of a cut and restored rope routine where you cut three equal lengths and end up with three uneaqual lengths --a great idea

Stephen

If anyone knows, is there a video demo of Three Ropes?

Gianni

Peter Marcucci is right
Professors nightmare is a logic defying, repeatable, in your face, ungimmicked, pure magic effect that every serious magician should know. Magicians nightmare is a gimmicked up, boring imitation that has NO CLASS. I learned PN from an old magician that liked me, and the tradition of handing it down by word of mouth just makes it that much more special.
My biased opinion
Al

The Professors Nightmare is a beautiful routine, and a key part of it's beauty
is it doesn't use gimmicks. I core the rope for easier handling. Especially useful is a thing I got a few years ago from http://allmagic.com/ called the PN Setup, a method of creating the three ropes needed for the Professor's Nightmare while the audience watches.

PM me if you want it.

The PN is really the core of my rope routine. I embellish this with some flourishes to start (rope through neck, impossible knot, etc), then go into a C&R,
then the PN setup, the PN, and finally restore the rope (MILITARY SECRET).

A good source for flourishes, etc. is "Abbotts Encyopedia of Rope Tricks".

For adult shows, I use a "buck knife' (advantage = one hand opening, and A LOT
of misdirection and comedy opportunities - check with your local sheriff first, tho)

This routine is entertaining, cheap, and it works for me.

I'm a "rope burner" and just use common closeline, considering the rope expendable.

Dear Cheaptrick
OH OH OH I already have that book "Abbotts encylopedia of rope tricks". What flourishes are you refering to?
Al

Hi Al,

I just do a few lightweight, impromptu things that don't take any preparation, like
the thing where you snap the rope and a knot appears. My rope through the neck is basically a flourish (zero preparation, zero anything, some showmanship), as is the "impossible knot" (putting a knot in the rope without letting go of the ends), I do the version where you pull the knot off and toss it to the audience (don't think it's in Abbotts, but it's very simple to do). Some of this stuff takes practice, but these aren't really "tricks", ..... just showing off a bit.

:magicrabbit:

Hi Cheaptrick
Thanks a lot for responding "the impossible knot" I did not know what that one was called. It is a beautiful rope trick because you can do it all day long in plain site and drive people crazy. Now you have me thinking I can work it into a longer rope routine. So you live in Wilmington, De., look like Jerry Garcia and we never met, well I do a lot of work in Wilmington and I will keep my eye out for you amigo.
Thanks
Al