The article below was written in the early 2000’s and was published in the online magic magazine Online Visions which no longer exists. People have asked me about where they could find it. I finally dug it up and here it is:
Call Back
(My Take on the Nest of Boxes)
By Louie Foxx
One thing I’ve never liked is how most magicians perform the nest of boxes trick. They borrow an object, it disappears, and it’s in the box, all in a nice five-minute chunk that wraps itself up nicely. I think there are a couple of reasons most magicians do it that way which are:
1) That’s how everyone else does it
2) The box is expensive, and they want to get a whole routine (or as much time as they can) out of it.
The problem I have with most presentations is the flow. They borrow a watch, and it disappears. Any reasonably smart person in the audience will know it’s going to reappear somewhere. The magician keeps the person on stage and introduces the box. Once again, any reasonably smart person in the audience will know the watch will come out of the box. When the box is opened, and the watch is in the innermost box, this nice linear flow takes away most of the surprise factor of the trick, and it becomes a puzzle.
Before I start with my solution, let me tell you a little bit about my background. I’m a full-time performer, and I work in a variety of different markets from Comedy Clubs to Schools to Casinos to just about everything. I got my start working in the comedy clubs performing a hodgepodge of stand-up comedy and some magic. In comedy writing, there is a thing called a “Call Back”, it’s where you refer to something that you mentioned in an earlier joke…and that was my starting point for my presentation of the nest of boxes.
Also, for what it’s worth, this will apply to any “impossible location” that you can load with the object in full view. Things like a Mullica type wallet would work, or even a Bill To Lemon if you put the lemon in a paper bag.
Here’s the basics of my routine: At the beginning of the show, I introduce the box and mention that no one has ever guessed what’s inside it. Now I have people make guesses, and I give some humorous clues (which are actual clues, but funny). I put the box on the edge of the stage or with someone in the audience and say, “We’ll open this a bit later in the show, and if anyone guesses it correctly, you get to keep what’s inside.”
Around the middle of my show, I do a trick where a signed borrowed dollar disappears and ends up reappearing at the end of the trick. At the end of the trick, I trade the signed dollar for one that’s not written on. Here’s what has happened: the dollar trick has nicely wrapped itself up, and in the audience’s mind, the signed dollar is out of play…But I have it. Most of the audience will forget that I even have the signed dollar! The goal is to get the signed bill in your possession, not necessarily make them forget you have it (it’s a bonus if they forget).
Now the 2nd to last thing I do in the show is reintroduce the box, which has been sitting on the floor, or better yet, in the audience on a table or a chair next to someone. Bring it onstage and recall some of the more interesting guesses that people made. Open the box and reveal the signed dollar!
That’s the bare bones of the routine. Over the spring and summer, I ended up doing this routine about 175+ times, and for me, it’s proved to be a hard-hitting routine.
Having the Nest of Boxes as a call back instead of a tight routine really puts the surprise back into the Impossible Location effect. By doing a bit where I have people guess what’s inside, it allows me to get the boxes in play early on, so the audience is aware of it long before they are used, and I get about the same amount of time in the show out of the Nest of Boxes as if I had it in one straight little routine.
Recently, I have made one change to the routine. In the show, I also do a trick with a signed jumbo card. So, I’ve been loading both the signed jumbo card and the signed dollar into the Nest of Boxes at the end of the show. I’ve found it gets better reaction than just the dollar about half the time, the other half it gets about the same reaction as just the dollar. I’m fine with the little bit of extra work to get a better reaction half the time!
I’ve also used this idea close up with the Coin in Nest of Boxes (the round brass ones). You just need to have two sets. One set you introduce at the beginning, and you switch in the one with the signed coin later in the show…but still delay the revelation till the end. I switch out the boxes while moving things on the table to clear space to do the Endless Chain trick. When the trick’s flow isn’t linear, it will make it much harder for the audience to remember you ever touching the Coin in the Nest of Boxes to switch it out (and takes a ton of heat off the switch). In a close up, walkaround type situation this is a bit tricky to reset easily, so I save it for special groups.
Inspiration: I love the idea of bringing the signed object to a second location. I was first turned onto this in one of Gary Oullette’s Fulminations columns in Genii, where he talked about card to wallet, and the only reason you do it is after you pull it out the first time, you immediately reload it and reproduce it a second time.