Has anyone ever seen a trick roping routine (you know, the kind where a cowboy jumps back and forth through a spinning lasso and such) with a little magic thrown in? Those ropes for trick roping are fairly stiff and long (like 15-20 feet), so I'm having trouble thinking of how one might do this (but then again, I'm not a rope guy). Any ideas?

A hammer are TOOL! There are MANY different types of hammers! E.g.: claw hammers, ball pein hammers, tack hammers, sledge hammers, etc. "ad infinitum"! Each type is/was designed for a particular job.

Rope is a TOOL. There are many different types of rope, made of many different materials. Magicians use rope for various tricks: knots, cutting & restoring, juggling, ETC. (ALMOST, AD INFINITUM!) For many, if not most, magical/juggling uses, a soft, flexible rope, made of braided cotton with an unbraided cotton core is preferred. This is commonly called "kern mantel" by folks who "know" rope.

For several centuries, circuses used a "laid" (twisted) rope made, usually of manila fiber, although in later years, nylon or other man made fibers were used, to guy out tents, etc. Sailing ships also used laid, manila rope for rigging sails.

Cowboys who needed to use rope with a running loop on one end to "handle" livestock, learned to use a braided horsehair rope. It had the necessary qualities to do their job. It was flexible, but, not too flexible, strong, light weight, and it made their job relatively easy.

Cowboys (like magicians!!!) learned to do "tricks" with one of their basic tools. The late comedian, Will Rogers, had been a cowboy. When he worked in Vaudeville, he did cowboy "rope tricks" with a cowboy tool (a lariat) to help entertain his audience! He may have done a few magical knot tricks (I never saw him work.) Some years ago, Rogers' life story was told, I think, as a theater production. The actor who played Rogers, did a few magic knot tricks (Chefalo, for example). A "real lariat" would be a bit stiff to do knot tricks, and, being usually hand made, would be rather expensive to "C&R"!!!

About the only "magic" trick with a lariat might be the bit in which the performer coils the rope (making a loose half hitch, with each loop. then by surreptitiously passing the working end through the "stack" of loops, cause a series of overhand knots to form along the length of the rope, as it was uncoiled.

If you want to add a few knot tricks to your routine, I would lay aside the lariat, and grab a suitable length of more flexible rope.

My "mosquito" or Norwegian "yo yo" can be seen in the late Dennis Loomis's dvd on rope knots. I consider the yo yo a juggling feat. I've shared it with a few professional magician friends over the past 60 years. I've traced its origins to Eskimo kids who used string to do string figures.

Thanks for the thoughtful reply, Dick. As you say, bringing in another rope (one more suitable for rope magic) is probably the way to go...

You're most welcome! I "started" with rope in 1946, when I read Ralph Hull's "Fifteen Minutes With A Piece Of Rope". (Hull did a lot to popularize "Rough & Smooth" decks (Pop Eyed Popper", "Brainwave", "Ultra Mental", etc.

My late friend, Dennis Loomis, put out a dvd on rope knot stuff about ten years ago. Another friend, Daryl Martinez has several dvds. Flip Hallema also had a VHS tape. George Sand's "Ropesational" has become a classic!, Pop Haydn's "Mongolian" is great!

Rope is a very versatile prop! It can be restored, transposed, transformed, produced, vanished, "juggled" ETC.!

The "In Their Hands Cut and Restored Rope" based on a method by Robert Harbin, as described in The Wizards' Journal #30, can be performed with a wide variety of ropes, including (of course) magician's rope, lariat rope, jump ropes, electrical cables, boat ropes, and so on. You just need a pair of scissors or tin snips that can cut through the rope. Besides the "Lotsa Knots" trick mentioned by Dick Oslund, using the stiffer lariat rope you ought to be able to perform the "Bow Knot" and the "Sliding Knot" as taught in the Wiz Kid Rope DVD, plus the two rope escapes as described by Wiz Kid Qua-Fiki in his "Escapes For Teens" e-Book. The 100 foot rope escape is a breeze with stiff rope!

The rope (cowboy) trick ropers use comes from a company called Tangle Cord. It is too stiff for most magic tricks.