Tag: brittish pathe

Historical Vanishing Birdcage Videos…

I was digging around on the British Pathe website and realized I’ve never searched it for the Vanishing Birdcage. I came up with a few videos of it. Here’s Howard De Courcy doing the cage:

And here’s Will Goldston doing it:

Both Will and Howard are using the older style rectangle cages. These are the ones that have the “spoon” sleeve guard. They both use the same vanish motions, and I wonder if the reason for that is because that’s how you had to do it to make the vanish look clean with that older style cage?

Here’s an unknown magician doing the cage:

That’s with an Abbott’s cage and you’ll notice the vanishing motion is different than the first two videos. I may have to hook up one of my older style cages and give it a try…
-Louie

Solve Problems…

Today I’m working to fix a couple of small things on props in my show. In my show I do shadowgraphy, which is commonly known as hand shadow puppets. This is where you use your hands to make shapes on a wall or a screen. If you’ve never seen it, here’s some historical footage of … Continue reading “Solve Problems…”

Today I’m working to fix a couple of small things on props in my show. In my show I do shadowgraphy, which is commonly known as hand shadow puppets. This is where you use your hands to make shapes on a wall or a screen. If you’ve never seen it, here’s some historical footage of it:

One of the issues that I’m having with my screen rig is that the bottom isn’t fixed to the stand. Sometimes if the air conditioning turns on and hits it just right, it will start to pivot a little bit on the stand. While not a huge problem technically from the performers standpoint, as I can easily adjust, it can make it hard for some people in the audience to watch.


My goal today is to make some sort of clip or clips that will hold it in place. Realistically what’s going to happen is I’ll probably create some sort of clamp with magnets, then 3D print a clip to hold it in place. It’s the little things that make big differences in the show and how the audience perceives the show!