silk thru mic stand – MagicShow.Tips

Getting More Applause…

The last week I’ve been performing my version of cards across in my preshow. My version is different from most stage versions as it’s just me onstage, I don’t have people hold the cards. There are seven red cards and ten blue cards. The two piles switch place, so the seven red cards turn into ten blue cards and the ten blue cards turn into seven red cards.

The end of the trick always gets applause. The reason for that I think is that the audience gets to catch up with the trick. I have to count the two piles and that let’s the audience’s brains catch up. When the second pile of cards is being counted, the audience is up to speed as they know what to expect, and have fully processed the trick, and are ready to applaud!

This is the opposite of problem I’m having with the silk through coat hanger. The first time it goes through, it’s very fast and unexpected. It’s great to watch the audiences faces when I do it, they react, but are clearly momentarily stunned as they process what they’ve just seen. After the first penetration, I have to stand there and wait for what feels like an eternity onstage.

This maybe one of those tricks where initially it doesn’t get a reaction and I just have to deal with that.

Selling a Trick Onstage…

One of the tricks that I’m working on is the Silk and Coat Hanger. This is basically a silk and ring routine, if you dig around this blog you can find more about it. Basically the silk goes through the coat hanger in different ways. It’s a fun trick for me to do as a perform, and so far the audience seems to enjoy it as well.

Here’s the problem with it, I’m having trouble selling it on stage. Most people who do it, do it to music, not talking. I think I need some jokes upfront and then do the trick to music. Music is nice because it fills the gap while I wait for the audience’s brains to catch up with the effect. As a talking act, you stand there for what feels like an eternity while the audience processes the trick.

I really like the trick, and it’s semi unique to me. I’m going to keep plugging away with it and hopefully I’ll figure out how to make it work better on stage!

Silk Thru Coat Hanger…

After much experimentation, I’ve landed on using the Tango Ultimate Reel (T.U.R.) for the Silk Thru Coat Hanger trick. I’ve played with most of the major reels and ended up on this Tango reel. There are some things I don’t like about it, but so far it’s the most reliable. The T.U.R. has the smoothest … Continue reading “Silk Thru Coat Hanger…”

Tango ultimate reel magic — Image from www.StevensMagic.com

The T.U.R. has the smoothest pull and one thing that I noticed was that the spring is rolled in a different way than I’ve seen in any other “magic reel”, or commercially sold badge / key ring reel. I’m not positive that rolling the spring this way contributes to the smoothness, but that’s the big difference between this and other reels.

I’m glad I kept searching around for a reel, this one makes me feel more secure when doing the trick. Having a bit of piece of mind when doing something mechanical, that’s a bit knacky is bonus!

Reel Experiments…

The Silk Thru Coat Hanger that I’ve been doing is getting some interest from magicians on Facebook. It’s interesting how many don’t realize that going from the body to the hook isn’t a standard way of doing it. They’re going to try it, but I’m not sure they’ll “understand” the trick.

By understanding the trick, there’s a lot that can go wrong with this trick. I think that’s why more people don’t do Silk Thru Ring or even the Silk Thru Microphone type tricks. In the short amount of time I’ve been doing this, I’ve learned a lot about the trick and the props used in the trick.

The first thing you need is a good reel. Right now I’m using a P & L reel, but still experimenting with other ones. I just had a Kirkendall Reel show up yesterday and have a Tango Ulimate Reel showing up today. I’ve even played with using a badge reel.

The nice things about a badge reel is that they are cheap and have a lot more force than the other magic reels. The downside is that they make a lot more noise. When initially experimenting with a badge reel, I 3d printed a finger clip and glued it on one:

I think when I have time, I’m going to 3d print the entire reel housing and put the badge reel inside it. I think there are some things that I can do to quiet down the cheap badge reel and make it usable!

Audience Test…

When I have a new trick, I typically do my audience testing before shows. I do it as “preshow” warm up for people that get there super early. I’m also very clear that they are tricks I’m working on, and not part of the show. Yesterday I performed at a school assembly and had a … Continue reading “Audience Test…”

I was worried about people not understanding the trick when the silk went through the body of the hanger and ended up on the hook. My solution to this was to simply tell them why what they were about to see made it impossible.

The test run of the silk thru coat hanger seemed to go over well, and I think I’ll be working it in more this summer and hopefully have a solid routine in a few months!

More Silk and Coat Hanger

The main reason I’m playing with the silk and coat hanger trick is that I had an idea for a move. I think this is an interesting move, but it’s also fairly subtle. Here’s just a quick video of me running some moves with the props: The first move where the silk goes from the … Continue reading “More Silk and Coat Hanger”

The first move where the silk goes from the body of the hanger to the hook is what interests me. However I think selling the idea of the penetration to an audience may be hard. The concept of going from a locked place to a place that’s not locked in will muddy the effect. I’m worried audience will thing the trick is that the silk go onto the open hook, and not that it got off of the closed body of the hanger.

It’s more about where it started, not where it ends for the first phase. That’s a very subtle difference in effect, but I think that will make a world of difference to the audience.

Hook for Coat Hanger

Right now I’m getting to the writing phase of the Silk thru Coat Hanger trick that I’m working on. The hardest part it to come up with a hook for it. by hook, I mean a presentation hook, not the literal hook. I need to figure out why I’m doing this.

So far I have a sequence of four moves to do with the silk and coat hanger, that gives me a starting point. One of the moves is similar to the linking ring gag where you show it’s an “optical illusion” with the rings linked, then turn your body 90 degrees and the rings are unlinked. With that used in the routine, I could use the optical illusion angle.

Personally I don’t like using optical illusions as a hook for the routine. Whenever I see someone do it, it feels like they didn’t try to come up with something better. This is probably the biggest challenge for the routine.

Researching the Silk Thru…

Playing with the Silk Thru Microphone Stand concept, and starting to do some research on it, I’m amazed a how little there is about it out there. I guess that part of it is that I’m searching for a specific trick, that really only has two methods. It’s also a quick trick, so there’s a … Continue reading “Researching the Silk Thru…”

Playing with the Silk Thru Microphone Stand concept, and starting to do some research on it, I’m amazed a how little there is about it out there. I guess that part of it is that I’m searching for a specific trick, that really only has two methods. It’s also a quick trick, so there’s a lot le

Then I realized I should be searching for a Ring and Silk routines, as that’s much closer to what I’m going to be doing. Once I searched that, I had a bit more success. Here’s a good example of something similar to what I want to do:

I’m not using a ring, but a coat hanger, however the moves are similar. The size and shape of the coat hanger lends itself to a couple of things that a ring doesn’t. This is what I find exciting. Also the routine I’m going to do, will probably be a talking routine, where I’ve only seen silent ones (not that that’s a huge differnce).

Play With Your Props

Playing with props instead of trying to learn a routine really makes a routine yours. You end up understanding the props much better than if you simply followed directions. Yes there is a place for following directions and learning from the people that came before you.

Personally one of the ways that I create material is to start with the prop that I want to use. I then learn the technical end of the prop and then start playing with it. The play helps me come up with ways to use it that are more based on my mannerisms and movements. Now that I understand the prop a bit, I’ll start to learn all I can about the prop or effect. How do other people do it, and why do I like or not like they way that they are doing it.

After playing with the “silk thru mic stand” a lot yesterday a routine has started to take shape. My routine uses something other than a mic stand, but essentially the same trick. I’ve got three phases for the routine, and that I think gives it a sense of build and each phase has a different texture. These phases came as a direct result of playing and then research, try it, you’ll be surprised at the results!

Silk Thru…

When I was a kid I remember reading in Tarbell Vol 4 called The Penetrative Silk. This was a handkerchief that you can pull thru and upright pole and used a very simple set up. I’m not positive if this trick predates the Silk Thru Mic Stand trick or not. They are essentially the same … Continue reading “Silk Thru…”

When I was a kid I remember reading in Tarbell Vol 4 called The Penetrative Silk. This was a handkerchief that you can pull thru and upright pole and used a very simple set up. I’m not positive if this trick predates the Silk Thru Mic Stand trick or not. They are essentially the same trick with different methods.

If you aren’t familiar with the trick, here’s what it looks like:

In my show I’m always looking for tricks that can be done solo, with just me on stage. I like the concept of pulling a silk through something. This is something that is visual, so would play big. I found a P & L fingertip reel at a decent price and started messing with it.

The hard part now is figure out a routine with it and what’s going to make the trick uniquely me. I’ve found a couple of interesting moves that I don’t think have been done before, or at least I haven’t seen before. Hopefully this ends up being something that gets used in my show!