vanishing bottle – MagicShow.Tips

Strange Vanishing Birdcage Proportions

I found a Vanishing Birdcage on eBay that I don’t have in my collection. I don’t know who made it.

This one is interesting because of its dimensions. Its 5 x 5 x 5 inches, so a square. For perspective, my Owen Vanishing Birdcage is 5 3/4 x 5 x 5, so a rectangle.

Riser / Summers baby lindy vanishing birdcage, owens challenge cage, and maker unknown vanishing birdcage — *Left to Right: Baby Lindy – Unknown Maker – Owens Challenge Cage*

What I find strange is the square dimensions make cage look smaller and not really give you any advantage as the cage collapsed is virtually the same size as the Owen cage.

The amount of bulk reduced in your sleeve after the vanish is negligible, and it’s only one bar shorter than an Owen Challenge Cage.

What is interesting is the weight of the cage. I compared it to my Baby Lindy and Owen cage and this cage is 20% lighter than the Riser/Summers Baby Lindy Vanishing Birdcage and about 2/3’s the weight of the Owens Challenge Cage.

The lighter weight is the only advantage for this cage, however I can’t imagine why they wouldn’t have made it a bit wider or shorten it’s depth to give it that rectangle shape to reduce bulk.

I’m glad to have it in my vanishing birdcage collection!
-Louie

Secret Cabaret….

When I was a kid someone let me borrow a VHS tape of a recording of Simon Drake’s Secret Cabaret. This was a TV series from the UK in the early 1990’s (I think) and it was soo far ahead of it’s time. It’s the show that got me into being a David Berglas fan before I knew anything about him.

Here’s one of his routines:

He had two main characters, one was dressed in a top had and tails and the other was dressed in a “mad max” style. Everything that he did on the show was done in a very unique way.

One trick he did was he had two tables and a box on each table. How I remember it was he put something into the box on one table and one the other table, a hand came out of the box holding the item. It was a really cool visual!

It’s something that’s been in my head for a long time. I like the idea of the “instant” transposition. I’ve been kicking around an idea of having two paperbags and thing that go into one, pop out of the second bag. I was thinking of somehow anchoring the second bag upside down, so when I put things into the first (right side up) they fall out of the second bag and onto the floor or table.

The final one would be a coke bottle, and when it goes into your bag you crush it up (latex bottle) and it comes out of the second one and clunks down on the table or shatters on the floor.

Logistically, there’s a lot that would need to be figured out for the trick to work. It’s a “back burner” project for me, but one that I would really like to eventually do!

Bottle Vanish…

Last night I was cleaning out my phone and found a video of an idea. It’s an interesting idea, however one that I’d probably never use, but might be good for an instagram video.

I’d have to play with it a little bit more to get the ditch cleaned up…but honestly it doesn’t really fascinate me enough to put the time in for a 20 second video.

Norm Nielsen…

Recently word started going around that Norm Nielsen had passed. I wonder how much about him younger magicians know, aside from wrongfully assuming he invented the latex bottle. Here’s him doing the act:

I remember Tina Lenert telling us about how much work it took to make the violin bow at the end of the act, then about a year later seeing the act in person. The little details make a huge difference. If the violin just came out, it’s good. When it comes out and bows, it’s great!

Over the years I got to chat with Norm a couple of times one the phone, but never really knew him. He was always generous with his time and I’m thankful of that. I think at that what makes people miss him when he’s gone is not that he was an amazing act, but a cool person. What are you doing to be a cool person?