object in impossible location

Always Tweaking…

In my show yesterday I did the Object in Ball of Yarn with the fishing pole using a different switch than I had previously used. The switch worked, however I wasn’t 100% happy with it. I felt like it was a little too dirty. Sure the audience didn’t know, but I think it could be … Continue reading “Always Tweaking…”

In my show yesterday I did the Object in Ball of Yarn with the fishing pole using a different switch than I had previously used. The switch worked, however I wasn’t 100% happy with it. I felt like it was a little too dirty. Sure the audience didn’t know, but I think it could be cleaner.

The audience knows when something is not quite right. They may not know what happened, or even really consciously know that something isn’t right, but they can sense it. Like when you go into your case to grab something , but you are also doing something else secret and that grab takes a second longer than it should. The audience feels that. If you have too many of those moments, they’ll start to add up.

I think recognizing that you have moments that aren’t quite right and fixing separates the good acts from the just okay acts. It’s that little bit of care that that helps move your magic to the next level.

Audience Getting Ahead of You…

Sometimes in comedy the audience gets to the punchline before the comedian says it. When the audience gets ahead of in magic, it can really build a finish for the trick because they have time to process the trick. This shortens or eliminates the lag that happens after the Ta-Dah and before the applause.

The Object in Ball of Yarn that I’m working on right now, when the revelation happens, I think the audience already knows what’s in the ball of yarn. From watching the audience and the person onstage, when the paper is revealed tied to the end, the know it’s the drawing from earlier. Frequently the person will say, “it’s my drawing” before it’s untied from the end of the yarn and I have to prod them to unfold it. At that point we’re just confirming what they already know.

With the audience so far ahead of the trick, it can do a switch of the paper at a time where there’d be too much heat in other tricks. This opens up the technical side of the trick to using bigger paper, which will make it much more visible!

Another Idea Becomes Reality…

There are magic tricks that I’ve always been fascinated by and wanted to do in my show. Over the years some of these tricks have been in a version of my show and having done them, I don’t need to do them again. There are other tricks that I keep revisiting, trying to find a … Continue reading “Another Idea Becomes Reality…”

There are magic tricks that I’ve always been fascinated by and wanted to do in my show. Over the years some of these tricks have been in a version of my show and having done them, I don’t need to do them again. There are other tricks that I keep revisiting, trying to find a way to make them work for me. One of those tricks is Coin in Ball of Yarn.

The basic effect is that a borrowed or marked item disappears and reappears inside of a ball of yarn. There are a lot of ways to do this effect, and a lot of ways to present it. Usually the method dictates whether the ball of yarn can be shown before the trick has started or not, which will affect how the trick is presented.

Years ago I was working on an Object in Ball of Yarn and wanted a fishing pole for the person to be able to reel in the yarn. Unfortunately commercially made fishing pole reels aren’t designed to handle yarn. A fly fishing reel almost works, but they are too small to hold a meaningful quantity of yarn. I hand built a contraption on a vintage hand drill that reeled in yarn, but was super heavy, hard to work (for someone in the audience) and ugly as heck.

About a month ago I started working on a new version of Object in Ball of Yarn and a friend of mine suggested that I use a fishing pole. I told him that they don’t work for yarn. He suggested I make one using old movie film reels. Then it hit me, I have a 3D Printer, why not just print it out and it will be exactly how I want it to be. Here’s what I printed out yesterday:

It finished printing out last night and I tried it out this morning and I’m happy to report it works great! The nice thing is that the fishing pole is made from a “travel fishing pole”, so it collapses and easily fits in my luggage. Another prop that I have for this trick is bowl to hold the yarn, and this bowl has a fitting on it to screw into a mic stand. Between the fishing pole that collapses and not having to travel with a stand for the bowl, this is becoming a pack medium, play big routine!

Drawing Duplication…

One trick I’ve always liked is the drawing duplication trick. Basically the trick is that someone draws a picture that you don’t see, then you draw a picture and they match. The main problem with a drawing duplication is that if the audience thinks you see the picture, then you’re done. The problem with the method is that you have to see the picture.

I was driving the other day and came up with an idea for doing a drawing duplication. This version would not require me to see the drawing. In fact the drawing would be a prediction, so whether or not I see the drawing doesn’t really matter. I think the trick is stronger if I never see the drawing.

Basically what I’m doing is using a method for the classic magic plot “object in impossible location” to load a prediction. I made quick version last night and showed it to another performer and they liked it. It’s still got a little ways to go, and I’ll write more about it once I do it a couple of times.