Rope Routine #1

I've been doing ropes when it was still uncool. That means before the common Richard Sanders. So I can say with certain pride: "He has nothing to do with this routine". However the guys that Richard Sanders stole his stuff from are all present here. George Sands and Francis Tabary.

I owe so much to those guys. There is the book "The Award Winning Rope Magic of Francis Tabary" which is also a video lecture, that is worth checking out. The main routine has no real cuts, so you can use the same rope over and over again. So this is great for street work and any charity work that pays little. For real paid gigs I would do real cuts. There is nothing more "real" that scissors going the fibers. Something about that picture says "real", so the following restoration is much stronger.

Here is my preparation so you can see how darn practical this routine is. At home I take a long piece of rope and tie knots in the ends, so they don't fray. Prior to the performance I cut off the knots and put them in my right pocket. That's it. The gimmick is created during the first part of the routine.

The first restoration (wrapping the longer piece of rope around the shorter piece) is something I have seen David Stone doing. I don't know if that is original with him, but I liked the aesthetics of the move.

The next bit is the travelling ends. After both ends have traveled you are in a pretty dirty position. And you might feel very guilty. That leads to horrible creations. Daryl and Richard Sanders both have a weird handling when it comes to regripping the rope, just to makes sure that the hand palming the gimmick looks natural. Just palm the damn thing and move on. Tabary does it right!

Now putting the middle back on the rope is my own creation. And I'm not humble to claim this as my own.

Placing the ends in the pocket and then have a switch between ends and middle has been in my repertoire for a while now, but it got 10x the reactions as soon as I added the real cut through the supposed middle. Try it. It will leave you in a position with a tiny little piece. So the gag of no using the scissors to cut the rope becomes a no brainer.

In the video I failed to put the imaginary scissors away right away, so going to my pocket becomes awkward. But it is a nice motivation to get the next item you need. The fake knot bit.... well Tarbell, what else. The jumping knot bit Daryl.

The second knot could be a spare in your pocket, so don't have to search for long, or it can be another effect.