milson worth – MagicShow.Tips

My Summer Library Show

Now that I’ve had a chance to do the summer library show a bunch, it’s gotten tweaked and changed. It’s now in its (mostly) final form, at least the trick list is. I’ll keep adding gags, etc to the show, but the set list is solid.

Here’s what the show looks like from the front.

I only use the table cover when they give me a giant table and don’t have something smaller for my prop box to sit on.

I use a rope for my front row, but move the rope a few minutes into the show. I’ve learned over time, that noting will keep the one or two kids that are going to cross the line from doing that. As I say, “scooters gonna scoot” and nothing short of a fence will stop that.

Here’s what the show looks like from the back:

Early on, I didn’t like the Milson Worth Silk Cabby in the show. It’s too much of a magicy prop for me. The prop’s use is justified in the show. The effect is a small scarf turns into a 20 foot streamer. There’s a lot of silliness/clowning that can be done with a silk cabby, and it’s a great prob (it just doesn’t fit my normal show aesthetic). What fixed the routine is that I added a hotdog production from the streamer at the end and that’s what made the routine click! It when from my least favorite routine to one of my favorites to do!

Here are the props that are on me during the show:

The PopSchticle by Whit Hayden is a prop of opportunity, and not something written into the show. I don’t use it often, but look for places where I can “organically” add it, like when I ask a kid a simple question and they tell me a long story that’s unrelated to the question. It’s a great prop for things like that!

So that’s what my library/summer camp show looks like.

-Louie

Unusual Vanishing Birdcage

A couple of weeks ago an unusual vanishing birdcage popped up on eBay. It’s a brass cage made in the Simms style (like the Milson Worth Silver Meteor vanishing Cage). Based on the pictures on the listed it looked mostly homemade, but there were a couple of things that didn’t look like an amateur made it, an this was interesting to me. It was listed at less than an hundred bucks, so I bought it.

When it arrived, the first thing that I notice was the solder blobs on the bar looked giant and sloppy in the pictures were much smaller and fairly well done. The cage needs some work, there’s a bunch of corrosion on one corner of it.

The solder on the tops and bottoms of the bars on the sides of the were really smooth and the side bars were soldered shut. The cage would stand up on its own, but also collapses really quickly. I wasn’t expecting this cage to be as good as it is.

Another interesting thing about this cage is the clip where the pull would attach.

It’s a hook, which implies that whoever used it was hooking up to it during their act/show. This hook feels like it was adding later by the user an not the maker. While the hook is thought out, the part that sticks out of the top of the bar is bent backwards to reduce snagging, it doesn’t feel quite like the same build as the rest of the cage.

If you know anything about this cage or who made it, please let me know!

-Louie

Milson Worth Silk Cabby

Over on TikTok I post a lot of videos of vintage magic trick and a recent one was of my Milson Worth Silk Cabby. There are two ways I do these videos. The first is EXACTLY how the instructions say, then if I don’t have the original instructions, I try to add a little bit to the the basic function of the trick.

Here’s what I came up with for the Silk Cabby:

@louiefoxx A look back at the 1980’s #magic #1980s #magictrick #scarf #silk #milsonworth #vintage #magician #how #what #theend #louiefoxx #illusion #magiciansoftiktok ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

So the trick has a little bit of a routine, besides the standing production. It’s got three vanishes and then the kicker ending. I was trying to maximize how much I could get out of the Silk Cabby beyond just a production of a lot of silks.

I think it came out well.

Also if you’re on TikTok, follow me at: https://www.tiktok.com/@louiefoxx

-Louie

Vanishing Bird Cages – Vintage!

Recently I had a magician reach out to me to let me know there were some vanishing bird cages in a magician’s estate. I didn’t have much information to on as to what one of the cages was.

Obviously one of them is a Milson Worth Silver Meteor vanishing bird cage. This one is cool, because I’ve owned dozens of Milson Worth cage, but never had the instructions, until now!

Now for the interesting cage, the one that’s not clear as to who made it. There wasn’t a lot of information that I could pull from the pictures, so I totally took a gamble when buying it.

Here’s the cage:

It looks a lot like my Owen Magic vanishing bird cage, so here they are side by side:

The dimensions are exactly the same. There are a couple of small differences. The cage I just got isn’t stamped “OWEN” where the cage on the left that’s 100% and Owen is stamped. The lack of a stamp doesn’t mean that it’s not an Owen, as there was a period decades ago were many weren’t stamped. The Owen cage that I already has was much more modern.

Another difference between the two cages are the corner pieces.

The modern Owen cage on the right appears to have the ends peened, where the mystery cage looks like they’re peened and a blob of solder is added. I was chatting with a friend of mine and he found an old Owen Magic Supreme catalog and the ends of the corner bars also have the solder blobs!

This catalog is from the 80’s and back then the Challenge Cage Mystery was $97.50!!!

After asking around a bit, I got this little bit of information:

The size of the rails match those dimensions.

Based on all of this, I’m now 99% confident to call this birdcage and Owen Challenge Cage Mystery!

One problem is that one of the corners needs a repair, it’s missing the solder blob.

I’m sending this out to my birdcage guy and he’s going to repair it and polish up the cage!

-Louie

PS: if you come across a vanishing bird cage, feel free to reach to me to see if I’m interested in buying it!

Chinese Flame Clock

The Chinese Flame Clock is an interesting magic trick. This was invented by Ed Massey and mine appears to have been made by Milson Worth. This style of illusion isn’t really a modern style, however I’m sure there’s someone out there killing with it!

@louiefoxx Chinese Flame Clock! Vintate Magic Trick! #vintagemagic #antiquemagic #vintage #magic #antique #collectiblemagic #louiefoxx #stagemagic ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

The trick is really solid, I think it’s pretty deceptive. It’s nothing that I would do, but it’s a great example of creating a method to make an effect happen!

-Louie

Vanishing Bird Cage Comparision

There really aren’t many vanishing bird cages that are currently being made. It’s really the vanishing bird cage from India or the Baby Lindy and Walter Blaney cage from Dan Summers. Those two makers couldn’t be further apart in pricing! The cage from India is about $50, and the Summers cages are $1,500-$2,000!

I recently has someone ask me about the two, and there’s really no comparing them. For starters they are completely different style of cages, so it’s not an apples to apples comparison.

What the magic market is lacking is a good, entry level cage, something in the $200-$400 range, however that doesn’t currently exist right now. I’m going to do a quick comparison of the India cage and the Milson Worth Silver Meteor which is the cage style that the Indian cage copied.

For me there are two main differences. The first is weight!

The Milson Worth cage is 115 grams and the Indian cage is 149. You really feel that extra 34 grams in weight when the cage lands in your sleeve!

The other difference is texture. The Milson Worth vanishing birdcage has all the soldered spots smoothed out, where the India cage is rough and that will create a lot of potential snags when the cage is going up your sleeve.

I know that the Milson Worth magic company isn’t around anymore, so you can’t buy the cage new, but there are a lot of them out there for sale on sites like eBay, etc. This cage is a decent beginners cage and one to use if you want to try out the cage before investing thousands of dollars in a cage!

Just a quick note, if you end up searching for a Milson Worth Silver Meteor cage, don’t pay more than $150-$200 for it. There’s a seller or two on ebay asking for way too much for the cage!

-Louie

Collectible Magic Tricks

The other day I picked up a collection of used magic. As always the collection was 90% junk, however there were a couple of collectible things in the lot. There was a Milson Worth Chinese Flame Clock and a Mikame Treasure Box.

I really think the Flame Clock looks cool and it has a pretty unique effect. Here’s some video of what it does (the version is the video appears to be a different maker):

I’ve got these and more used magic listed for sale on my Used Magic Page!

-Louie

About the Vanishing Birdcage

I recently got an email asking questions about the Vanishing Birdcage and I figured it might be helpful to more than just the person who emailed me, so here it is:

I see that you have a lot of knowledge about the vanishing bird cage. My dad used to do a little stage magic and this was my favorite! My son is now an aspiring young magician and I’d like to get him this trick. He’s been working on his technique for several years but is still only 11. I know this trick takes a lot of practice. I do not want to spend the thousands to get him a professional cage, but I also don’t want him to be discouraged (or cut!) by an inexpensive and poorly made cage while he learns. I’ve read through several threads on Magic Cafe and it seems most of the Indian cages can be dangerous, although there might be one or two that are ok. It also looks like I need to avoid any with loops?

I am writing to ask if you can recommend any websites, manufacturers, things to look for, things to avoid- any advice at all?

Let’s start with the safety of cages. Yes, they can cut you, but I honestly don’t think that’s really a huge concern. Anything that can cut you can also snag in your sleeve, so you should be inspecting your cage and finding those spots and eliminating them. I check my cages how Billy McComb did, by running a silk over them to find any thing that would snag in my sleeve. Tommy wonder did something similar with a piece of string. I have a couple of the Indian vanishing cages from various eras in my collection and I never really noticed any of them having any wires sticking out (that doesn’t mean that they don’t have any). The bigger concern with the newer Indian cages is that they are super heavy, and this makes the vanish more difficult. If getting cut is a concern go for an Abbott’s style cage with the red ribbon on it. I don’t think Abbotts is making them right now, but they frequently pop up used and should run about $100ish. There’s one on ebay right now for $275, and I DO NOT recommend paying that much for it. https://www.ebay.com/itm/394381494169

There are some totally usable vanishing cages with the loops on the bars. The Milson Worth Vanishing Birdcages with the brass bars work fine and that’s the cage that the Indian Vanishing Birdcages are modelled after. A Milson Worth cage will run about $100-$150. There’s one on ebay right now for $95 and looks decent: https://www.ebay.com/itm/314214210186

The bigger issue is size. I’m 5’8, so average height, but to pull full size cage like the Owen Vanishing Cage or even a full size Abbott cage up your sleeve may be the biggest challenge for an 11 year old. I’d recommend trying to find a small Abbotts cage or the Milson Worth cage as they’re smaller than the “standard” cages. Personally I used a National Magic and Owen Cage and were a bit too big for me, and about a year ago I switched to a Riser/Summers Baby Lindy Cage which is smaller and it works a lot better for me! However the price tag on the baby lindy cage is a lot, and it’s not really what I would recommend for a first cage.

With all of that information, I would lean towards the $95 one that’s on ebay if it was a purchase that you wanted to make now. If you are willing to wait an hunt around a bit, then a small Abbotts vanishing cage.

Hope that helps

-Louie

Four Cages…

When I was at the Abbott’s Magic Get Together a couple of months ago, on the way home in Minneapolis, I added four new vanishing birdcages to the collection. Two were the older rigid styles and two were the more modern semi rigid style cages.

We’ll start with talking about the most modern cage of the bunch. It’s one of the semi rigid cages made in the style of the Milson Worth Silver Meteor vanishing cage.

I think the Indian design is slightly better than the original as the bars don’t stick out as far as on the Milson Worth cage. The problem with the Indian cage is that whatever metal it’s made from is very heavy when compared to the original Milson Worth cage. When you vanish it, it drops like a ton of bricks!

Now let’s look at the two rigid cages:

Both of these cages are made is similar styles and both have the “spoon” broken off of the front right corner. The spoon tries to eliminate some snags on the sleeve as the cage goes up your sleeve.

The cage on the left is polished metal and the has a little bit more care taken in putting in the bars. It also weighs a ton!

The cage on the right isn’t polished and is slightly bigger, but was made of lighter metal.

Honestly, I can’t imagine using this style of cage compare to the modern semi rigid lindhurst style vanishing cages. They are very heavy, and don’t collapse well.

Now let’s chat about the final cage, which is the linhurst style cage.

This is the same style of cage that I’ve been using for a while. The only difference is that this cage has all of it’s bars! It also has some loops added to hang the bird on. I think these loops were added by whoever bought the cage, and not the manufacturer (but I could be wrong)

This cage is virtually the same dimensions as an Owen’s Challenge Cage and it has a great collapsing action. This cage is going to be my main working cage from here on! I totally lucked out on finding it and the price it was sold to me for.