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The Magic Cafe Forum Index » » Knots and loops » » Impossible Knot Printer Friendly Version
magicmiketurner

New user
Central Georgia
11 Posts
Posted: Sep 22, 2011 6:29pm    Reply with quote   View Profile of magicmiketurner  

Several years ago I found a rope trick in a old magic book that was called "The Impossible Knot" Basically the idea was that a knot could not be tied into a rope without letting go of one hand(which of course is exactly what you do so quickly that no one notices) the book showed how you loop the rope...slide it off one hand etc......As the law goes...if you don't use you lose...and I have. I know the basics of hou you loop it around one hand etc....but can't remember from there....I was wondering if anyone has ever heard of this trick and in what book I might find it.....very simple trick(in spite of the fact that I've forgotten it} but a good trick nonetheless.

Thanks,

magicmiketurner
Spellbinder

Inner circle
The Holy City of East Orange, NJ
6439 Posts
Posted: Sep 22, 2011 8:01pm    Reply with quote   View Profile of Spellbinder  

You'll find it on The Wiz Kid "Rope Magic" DVD in the section called "Complete Rope Routine.". They usually hand out four or five short lengths of rope to members of the audience and invite them to learn to tie the "Impossible Knot." You'll find the DVD listed on The Wiz Kid Site: http://www.wizkidzinc.com/DVDs/rope01/wizkidsROPE01.htm If you buy it, you'll see that The Magic Nook processes the payment for The Wiz Kids, but as a non-profit organization, they receive 100% of the proceeds.

Professor Spellbinder
Professor Emeritus at the Turkey Buzzard Academy of Magik, Witchcraft and Wizardry
http://www.magicnook.com
Publisher of The Wizards' Journals
magicmiketurner

New user
Central Georgia
11 Posts
Posted: Sep 22, 2011 8:56pm    Reply with quote   View Profile of magicmiketurner  

Thanks Professor.
Dr_J_Ayala

Inner circle
In search of Vlad Dracul and his
2062 Posts
Posted: Sep 22, 2011 9:15pm    Reply with quote   View Profile of Dr_J_Ayala  

I believe it can also be found in the Mysterio Encyclopedia of Magic & Conjuring. There is a name attached to that particular knot, but I cannot remember it and will have to look it up in that book.
Al Angello

Eternal Order
Collegeville, Pa. USA
10484 Posts
Posted: Sep 23, 2011 2:21pm    Reply with quote   View Profile of Al Angello  

I learned that one when I was a kid, and I still do it for kids. There is a whole variety of rope tricks that is taught at juggling conventions. Most jugglers play with rope magic because of it's simplicity.

Al Angello The Comic Juggler/Magician
http://www.juggleral.com
http://home.comcast.net/~juggleral/
"Footprints on your ceiling are almost gone"
Pop Haydn

Inner circle
Los Angeles
1035 Posts
Posted: Sep 23, 2011 2:34pm    Reply with quote   View Profile of Pop Haydn  

That is the Hunter Knot, and it can be found in most books on rope magic, including Karl Fulves "Self-Working Rope Magic."

You can also find descriptions of all the various moves online. There is a move where you tie the knot by holding the rope in your right hand, while the spectator holds the other end in his left hand, showing him "exactly" how to loop the rope.

There is a move where the spectator is all looped up, ready to "make the knot," and if you then take both ends away from him, without doing anything at all, the knot will form. You can have the spectator take the ropes away from you in the same manner and the knot will form, without any "movement."

--Pop Haydn
The Sphere of Destiny
Pop's Soapbox
Pop Haydn in the 21st Century
Los Angeles magician
Frank Yuen

Regular user

130 Posts
Posted: Sep 24, 2011 10:12am    Reply with quote   View Profile of Frank Yuen  

I learned this in George Anderson's "Magic Digest", there's a full routine which I think describes the bit that Whit is referring to where you take the rope from the spectator. Also another bit where you tie the rope to your thumbs to "prove" you don't let go.
Dr_J_Ayala

Inner circle
In search of Vlad Dracul and his
2062 Posts
Posted: Sep 24, 2011 11:49pm    Reply with quote   View Profile of Dr_J_Ayala  

Thanks for the reminder of the name Pop.
viler

Regular user
Norway
183 Posts
Posted: Sep 25, 2011 2:27am    Reply with quote   View Profile of viler  

Here's a YouTube video that teaches the trick.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pywSVBKktCU

Vidar
magicmiketurner

New user
Central Georgia
11 Posts
Posted: Sep 25, 2011 7:11pm    Reply with quote   View Profile of magicmiketurner  

Thanks Vidar....I remember all the moves except the final one ! Learned the trick years ago but hadn't done in awhile and I've been going nuts trying to remember the last move Thanks....I feel better !

magicmiketurner
casibb3

New user

42 Posts
Posted: Oct 2, 2011 11:13pm    Reply with quote   View Profile of casibb3  

Magic Mike: Locate a copy of a Silk King Studio's booklet on the Tying a knot without leaving go of the ends. Many variations and a good piece of magic. I have used it for years to good reaction.

casibb3
Pop Haydn

Inner circle
Los Angeles
1035 Posts
Posted: Oct 3, 2011 4:13am    Reply with quote   View Profile of Pop Haydn  

It is a great time-killer. When you are hired for three hours of walkaround and get to the show to find there are only twenty people there, this is a godsend. You cut up pieces of rope for five or six people, show them how to tie the knot, and then go help them as they attempt to keep up. "That's it! Let me check...(you take the rope ends off their hands and the knot is formed) Perfect! Keep practicing!" Turning to someone else, "Here, you hold this end in your left, I'll hold this end in my right. Now watch closely! I go around your wrist this way..."

You keep going around from one to another "assisting" and ocasionally declaring to someone, "You've got it! That's it! Give your rope to someone else!"

You can easily kill an hour with this. Especially when you have the ones who you have told "You've got it!" try to assist their fellows, and they learn they don't really remember how they did it, though they do remember doing it...it must be possible...

The opening story is "As unbelievable as it may sound to the well-informed, it is actually possible to tie a knot such as this one without letting go of either end. It is a special folding of the rope that allows this, a technique created thousands of years ago by the incredible horsemen of the Mongolian steppes...I will teach it to you if you would like. It has won me many a drink in a bar."

The real fun of it is to convince each person that they finally got it, congratulate them, and immediately take the rope and give it to someone else. When they get it back, they think they have forgotten it. Like the two cork trick. Keep it as much as though it were the two cork trick as possible. Since this one is a complete swindle, and one that convinces them the impossible is actually possible, I think it gets pretty close to charlatanry. It is huge fun.

Teaching the cork trick--where corks are held between the thumbs and fingers and interlace, yet still can pull apart--goes very well with this, as does Crazy Man's Handcuffs. These three "teaching" tricks will easily kill all the time you need and involve everyone in the group. Start by teaching the cork trick, and when several people "get it" move on to the ropes. It makes it seem quite believeable. Then finish with the Crazy Man's Handcuffs whose impossibility will now seem much more within the realm of believability.

"Fast and Loose" (Endless Chain) works great with any of these presentations as well.

--Pop Haydn
The Sphere of Destiny
Pop's Soapbox
Pop Haydn in the 21st Century
Los Angeles magician
John Long

Inner circle
New Jersey
1780 Posts
Posted: Nov 22, 2011 11:06pm    Reply with quote   View Profile of John Long  

Quote:

On 2011-09-22 18:29, magicmiketurner wrote:
Basically the idea was that a knot could not be tied into a rope without letting go of one hand

magicmiketurner



I'm ducking..
it is possible to tie a knot in a rope without ever letting go.

Yet, as those who know the method, it is generally done as a stunt, not magic. Fulve's Self Working Table Magic, routines this with two variations that are somewhat magical.

As pointed out above, the Magic Digest does present a series of gambits along the line that Whit mentioned.
milesart

New user

63 Posts
Posted: Nov 23, 2011 3:59pm    milesart is on-line  Reply with quote   View Profile of milesart  

After performing the rope through neck penetration (with two ropes) I do a one hand knot at the end in the offbeat, before I throw the ropes away

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Alan Munro

Inner circle
Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA
5429 Posts
Posted: Dec 2, 2011 5:52pm    Reply with quote   View Profile of Alan Munro  

I do a gag where I show the audience that the knot won't stay on the rope, if made slowly. I then make the knot slowly and then give the rope a sharp tug. The knot flies off of the rope! It gets quite a reaction.

http://www.sneakymagician.com/
MrHyde

Special user

745 Posts
Posted: Dec 3, 2011 5:27pm    Reply with quote   View Profile of MrHyde  

I collected a number of strategies, variations and bits of business
into the eBook - Hunter Knot Revisited.

Includes the first full description of- The One Handed Mid Air Knot
and a couple of bits of finesse that make the simple trick even more deceptive

http://www.magiccoach.com


MagicCoach - Your source of unique performance material and marketing advice Download TWO free eBooks here.
Andre Hagen

Inner circle

1260 Posts
Posted: Dec 3, 2011 7:40pm    Reply with quote   View Profile of Andre Hagen  

The knot (G.W. hunter's Puzzle Knot) is the very first thing taught in the Dover edition of "Abbott's Encyclopedia of Rope Magic".

Andre

"Arthur, I see that magic is really just a lot of bull****."
"Yes Pop, you've got it. It is, but you've got to know just how to shovel it."
-Arthur Brandon from his book Milo and Roger

"If they like you as a person, they'll like your act."
-Nate Leipzig

“Magic is the only honest profession. A magician promises to deceive you and he does.”
-Karl Germain
BryanDreyfus

Loyal user

293 Posts
Posted: Dec 3, 2011 10:35pm    Reply with quote   View Profile of BryanDreyfus  

Pop,

That is the way I ended my rope routine only I had rubber bands hold the ends in plain view. right before that I had them take the ends from my knotting moves.

I used to get people at the bar have a contest who could do it fastest. It was a hoot.

Bryan

Oh sure, I can spell "Antidisestablishmentarianism", but I can't type t-h-e.
Mr. Woolery

Elite user
Fairbanks, AK
451 Posts
Posted: Dec 13, 2011 11:45pm    Reply with quote   View Profile of Mr. Woolery  

This is why I love the Magic Café. I learned that knot out of Penn and Teller's Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends about 20 years ago. I remember doing it as a stupid stunt a couple of times and forgetting about it. Then this thread comes along and I grab a scrap of rope and bring it along to my daughter's karate class.

I spent half an hour trying not to bust up laughing at two of the blackbelts who kept trying to tie the knot. I'd show them slowly, insisting that the one part I can't teach is how to flip the rope off the wrists just right. It seems to come easy to me, I don't know what it is exactly that I'm doing differently, but there is a certain touch to it... So, most of the time my daughter was in her class I was laughing up my sleeve and having fun.

Took the same rope with me when I took the kids to school today. Now there are about a dozen sixth graders who want to play with my rope when I'm around.

I'm going to find a way to work this into an actual performance set. For now it is an amusing gag. I think this is capable of being so much more.

-Patrick
Mr. Mystoffelees

Inner circle
I haven't changed anyone's opinion in
3360 Posts
Posted: Dec 15, 2011 8:46am    Reply with quote   View Profile of Mr. Mystoffelees  

I would think not laughing at two blackbelts would be good decision-making...

As I felt the soft, cool mud squish between my toes, I thought "Man, these are not very good shoes" Jack Handey
Andre Hagen

Inner circle

1260 Posts
Posted: Dec 15, 2011 4:57pm    Reply with quote   View Profile of Andre Hagen  

Barrie Richardson combines the "holding the ends" knot beautifully with his "knot that unties itself". It is found in his book Act Two and Volume One of his DVD series, as "The Impossible Knot Routine".

Great combination!

Andre

"Arthur, I see that magic is really just a lot of bull****."
"Yes Pop, you've got it. It is, but you've got to know just how to shovel it."
-Arthur Brandon from his book Milo and Roger

"If they like you as a person, they'll like your act."
-Nate Leipzig

“Magic is the only honest profession. A magician promises to deceive you and he does.”
-Karl Germain
BryanDreyfus

Loyal user

293 Posts
Posted: Dec 17, 2011 2:46am    Reply with quote   View Profile of BryanDreyfus  

Pop, You know your stuff! Many a time I have found myself under those situations and ropes saved me each one of those times.

Just to note:

The let go and regrasp doesn't happen fast.....it is done smoothly with cover.

I used to do it at the bar when asked to come out from behind and I had enough people to be on chairs , lieing on the floor and every angle covered (so they thought) and they could not catch it.

Bryan

Oh sure, I can spell "Antidisestablishmentarianism", but I can't type t-h-e.
John Long

Inner circle
New Jersey
1780 Posts
Posted: Mar 30, 2012 12:36pm    Reply with quote   View Profile of John Long  

Quote:

On 2011-12-03 17:27, MrHyde wrote:
I collected a number of strategies, variations and bits of business
into the eBook - Hunter Knot Revisited.

Includes the first full description of- The One Handed Mid Air Knot
and a couple of bits of finesse that make the simple trick even more deceptive

http://www.magiccoach.com



This actually sounds interesting to me for use at street fairs (the use as a crowd building, I already have many sources for the knot itself, and learned a version of the one-handed knot as a kid)

The associated video says you offer money back if you don't like it; although I don't buy things with the intention of returning them, that would be a nice feature if it turns out to not fit my personality.

Knots Off;
John
MrHyde

Special user

745 Posts
Posted: Apr 3, 2012 6:00am    Reply with quote   View Profile of MrHyde  

John

The Hunter Knot eBook
is my bestselling product

I've never had anyone ask for a refund

I'm sure you'll learn at least one thing

TH


MagicCoach - Your source of unique performance material and marketing advice Download TWO free eBooks here.
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