The Ugly Prop

When thinking about how to present magic you inevitably run into the "when I walked into the magic store" story. Magic stores are a great cheese fest. So much ugly stuff. So much glitter. So this is my take on it. I was interested in the "tube changes". So I worked my ass off to come up with a logical sequence of the balls changing when passed through the tube. If I succeeded is more than debatable. But I always liked the routine, as it embodies my disdain for prop magic. So not producing the feather flower would have been futile. The routine has evolved of course. And the way it is now is not comparable. No I use a wand, a coin and a ball. No more tube or table. It's constant changes of the three objects into one another. In the end the coin changes into a silk. You see, completely different. But the above routine was the starting point.

Ball and Cookie

This is a the combination of a great Harry Riser routine leading into the classic "Repeated Balls from the Mouth" production aka the human chicken (as this used to be done with eggs) What Harry Riser has done is to make the Multiplying Balls angle proof. That way it can be done close up. You can find the fine points of his handling the "The Feints and Temps of Harry Riser", published by Ed Brown. It's a fine routine and strong magic. So I needed a break in order to continue with the human chicken bit. The cookie proved to be perfect. Well, almost perfect. When eating the cookie it left something in you mouth and that something could stick to the ball, creating a horrible situation. So I changed it. Now I use a big marsh mellow. Quicker to eat, doesn't break in your pocket, no mess. Here is a live version.

The Egg Routine

So here we have what's clearly taken from Thomas Hierlings "Vorsicht zerbrechlich" routine that he published in New Wave Close up. The original version didn't have a repeat and the big fried egg was not part of it. But it plays well with the audiences. I don't do that routine anymore, because the big fried egg's material hardened and then broke. So I substituted the big fried egg with a realistic looking fake pizza. Naturally the second part of the routine is done with a slice of salami. The appearance of the pizza led to a production of a bottle of beer. This routine you see above was the starting point. And here is a live version.

Let's go retro!

My camera is still broken. So I decided to give you a bunch of retro videos, that I made for the Magic Video Depot many years ago. The beard was much shorter back then.

Lack of updates!

You may have notices the lack of updates... I got a good reason: my camera is broken... I will work on that. Meanwhile. A crowd...